1.
Lahti L-39
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The Lahti L-39 is a Finnish 20 mm anti-tank rifle used during the Second World War. It had excellent accuracy, penetration and range, but its size made transportation difficult, aimo Lahti had doubts about the original idea of a 13 mm anti-tank machine gun and started working on a 20 mm design. As a result, Lahti designed two competing anti-tank weapons, a 13.2 mm machine gun and a 20 mm rifle, after test firing both weapons in 1939, they found that the 20 mm rifle displayed better penetration. The rifle is a semi-automatic, gas operated weapon with the piston located beneath the barrel, to reduce recoil, the rifle is equipped with a five hole muzzle brake and a padded leather recoil pad. The barrel had a jacket as to allow transportation after firing. During the Winter War Finland lacked anti-tank weaponry, because of this, Finland finally settled on the 20 mm design and started production. The gun was widely used in the Cold Charlie counter-sniper technique. Soviet snipers would fire upon the mannequin, and the Finns would then return fire at the Soviet snipers with the Lahti L-39, the Continuation War was the second of two wars fought between Finland and the Soviet Union during World War II. A fully automatic version of the L39 was made in numbers that served as an anti-aircraft gun. Other good targets were snipers, and several weak spots on tanks, such as open top hatches and it was even able to damage tank turrets and pin them to stop traversal of the cannon. Approximately in December 1940, a Lahti L-39 replaced the original 13.2 mm L-35/36 machine gun on the single Finnish L-182 armored car and this conversion was employed by the armored unit of 1. Several of the rifles remained in service after World War II serving as a weapon, while many others were sold to collectors. Today the rifles, especially those in working condition, are quite rare, some deactivated weapons have been reactivated due to their value. Often they are rechambered to.50 BMG to lower the cost of use, in the United States of America, civilian ownership remains possible, depending on state and federal laws. Because the weapon fires rounds larger than.50 calibre, it is considered a destructive device and is subject to the 1934 National Firearms Act, civilian ownership is dependent on compliance with this law and whether ones state law prohibits civilian ownership of destructive devices. Users found the L-39 to be heavy and difficult to move in the battlefield, even its magazine weighed almost two kilograms. The magazines had a covered viewing slit on the side to indicate the number of rounds left in the magazine. The whole weapon weighed some 50 kilograms and it was towed by horses
2.
Finland
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Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a sovereign state in Northern Europe. A peninsula with the Gulf of Finland to the south and the Gulf of Bothnia to the west, the country has borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north. Estonia is south of the country across the Gulf of Finland, Finland is a Nordic country situated in the geographical region of Fennoscandia, which also includes Scandinavia. Finlands population is 5.5 million, and the majority of the population is concentrated in the southern region,88. 7% of the population is Finnish people who speak Finnish, a Uralic language unrelated to the Scandinavian languages, the second major group are the Finland-Swedes. In terms of area, it is the eighth largest country in Europe, Finland is a parliamentary republic with a central government based in the capital Helsinki, local governments in 311 municipalities, and an autonomous region, the Åland Islands. Over 1.4 million people live in the Greater Helsinki metropolitan area, from the late 12th century, Finland was an integral part of Sweden, a legacy reflected in the prevalence of the Swedish language and its official status. In the spirit of the notion of Adolf Ivar Arwidsson, we are not Swedes, we do not want to become Russians, let us therefore be Finns, nevertheless, in 1809, Finland was incorporated into the Russian Empire as the autonomous Grand Duchy of Finland. In 1906, Finland became the nation in the world to give the right to vote to all adult citizens. Following the 1917 Russian Revolution, Finland declared itself independent, in 1918, the fledgling state was divided by civil war, with the Bolshevik-leaning Reds supported by the equally new Soviet Russia, fighting the Whites, supported by the German Empire. After a brief attempt to establish a kingdom, the became a republic. During World War II, the Soviet Union sought repeatedly to occupy Finland, with Finland losing parts of Karelia, Salla and Kuusamo, Petsamo and some islands, Finland joined the United Nations in 1955 and established an official policy of neutrality. The Finno-Soviet Treaty of 1948 gave the Soviet Union some leverage in Finnish domestic politics during the Cold War era, Finland was a relative latecomer to industrialization, remaining a largely agrarian country until the 1950s. It rapidly developed an advanced economy while building an extensive Nordic-style welfare state, resulting in widespread prosperity, however, Finnish GDP growth has been negative in 2012–2014, with a preceding nadir of −8% in 2009. Finland is a top performer in numerous metrics of national performance, including education, economic competitiveness, civil liberties, quality of life, a large majority of Finns are members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, though freedom of religion is guaranteed under the Finnish Constitution. The first known appearance of the name Finland is thought to be on three rune-stones. Two were found in the Swedish province of Uppland and have the inscription finlonti, the third was found in Gotland, in the Baltic Sea. It has the inscription finlandi and dates from the 13th century, the name can be assumed to be related to the tribe name Finns, which is mentioned first known time AD98. The name Suomi has uncertain origins, but a candidate for a source is the Proto-Baltic word *źemē, in addition to the close relatives of Finnish, this name is also used in the Baltic languages Latvian and Lithuanian
3.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
4.
Regions of Finland
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Finland comprises 19 regions called maakunta in Finnish and landskap in Swedish. The regions are governed by councils, which serve as forums of cooperation for the municipalities of a region. The main tasks of the regions are planning and development of enterprise. In addition, the health services are usually organized on the basis of regions. Currently, the region where a popular election is held for the council is Kainuu. Other regional councils are elected by municipal councils, each municipality sending representatives in proportion to its population and they are each responsible for one or more of regions of Finland, and include offices of the Ministries of Employment and the Economy, Transport and Communications and Environment. The Finnish Defence Forces regional offices are responsible for the defence preparations. Regions represent dialectal, cultural and economic variations better than the former provinces, historically, regions are divisions of historical provinces of Finland, areas which represent dialects and culture more accurately
5.
Charter
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A charter is the grant of authority or rights, stating that the granter formally recognizes the prerogative of the recipient to exercise the rights specified. The word entered the English language from the Old French charte and it has come to be synonymous with the document that lays out the granting of rights or privileges. The term is used for a case to an institutional charter. A charter school, for example, is one that has different rules, regulations, charter is sometimes used as a synonym for tool or lease, as in the charter of a bus or boat or plane by an organization, intended for a similar group destination. A charter member of an organization is a member, that is. Anglo-Saxon Charters are documents from the medieval period in Britain which typically make a grant of land or record a privilege. They are usually written on parchment, in Latin but often with sections in the vernacular, describing the bounds of estates, the British Empire used three main types of colonies as it sought to expand its territory to distant parts of the earth. These three types were royal colonies, proprietary colonies, and corporate colonies, a charter colony by definition is a colony…chartered to an individual, trading company, etc. by the British crown. Although charter colonies were not the most prevalent of the three types of colonies in the British Empire, they were by no means insignificant, a congressional charter is a law passed by the United States Congress that states the mission, authority and activities of a group. Congress issued federal charters from 1791 until 1992 under Title 36 of the United States Code, a municipal corporation is the legal term for a local governing body, including cities, counties, towns, townships, charter townships, villages, and boroughs. Municipal incorporation occurs when such municipalities become self-governing entities under the laws of the state or province in which they are located, often, this event is marked by the award or declaration of a municipal charter. Charters for chivalric orders and other orders, such as the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, in project management, a project charter or project definition is a statement of the scope, objectives and participants in a project. It provides a preliminary delineation of roles and responsibilities, outlines the objectives, identifies the main stakeholders. It serves as a reference of authority for the future of the project, in medieval Europe, royal charters were used to create cities. The date that such a charter was granted is considered to be when a city was founded, at one time a royal charter was the only way in which an incorporated body could be formed, but other means are generally now used instead
6.
City manager
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A city manager is an official appointed as the administrative manager of a city, in a council–manager form of city government. Local officials serving in this position are sometimes referred to as the executive officer or chief administrative officer in some municipalities. Other small or middle sized American cities, especially in the West, in Europe, smaller cities in the Netherlands were specially attracted by the plan. Most sources trace the first city manager to Staunton, Virginia in 1908, some of the other cities that were among the first to employ a manager were Sumter, South Carolina and Dayton, Ohio, Dayton was featured in the national media, and became a national standard. The first City Managers Association meeting of eight city managers was in December 1914, by 1930200 American cities used a city manager form of government. In addition, many states, such as the states of New Hampshire, the City Manager position focuses on efficiency and providing a certain level of service for the lowest possible cost. The competence of a city manager can be assessed using composite indicators, Manager members of the ICMA are bound by a rather rigid and strongly enforced code of ethics that was originally established in 1924. Since that time the code had been up-dated/revised on seven occasions, in the early years of the profession, most managers came from the ranks of the engineering professions. As of 2005 more than 60% of those in the profession had a MPA, MBA, the average tenure of a manager is now 7–8 years and has risen gradually over the years. Tenures tend to be less in smaller communities and higher in larger ones, educational Level of Local Government Managers, Local government Local government in the United States council-manager government Clerk Kemp, Roger L. Managing Americas Cities, A Handbook for Local Government Productivity, McFarland, jefferson, NC, USA, and London, Eng. UK1998. _______, Model Government Charters, A City, County, Regional, State, jefferson, NC, USA, and London, Eng. UK,2003 _______, Forms of Local Government, A Handbook on City, County and Regional Options, McFarland, jefferson, NC, USA, and London, Eng. The rise of the city manager, A public professional in local government, organized business and the city commission and manager movements. In JSTOR White, Leonard D. Staunton, Virginia, Birthplace Of City Manager Form Of Government, a history on the city manager system of government
7.
Languages of Finland
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The two main official languages of Finland are Finnish and Swedish. There are also several minority languages, three variants of Sami, Romani, Finnish Sign Language and Karelian. Finnish is the language of the majority, 91% of the population and it is a Finnic language closely related to Estonian and less closely to the Sami languages. The Finnic languages belong to the Uralic language family, so Finnish is distantly related to languages as diverse as Hungarian, Swedish is the main language of 5. 4% of the population, down from 14% at the beginning of the 20th century. In 2012, 44% of Finnish citizens with another registered primary language than Swedish could hold a conversation in this language, Swedish is a North Germanic language, closely related to Norwegian and Danish. As a subbranch of Indo-European, it is closely related to other Germanic languages such as German. Swedish was the language of the administration until the late 19th century, today it is one of the two main official languages, with a position equal to Finnish in most legislation, though the working language in most governmental bodies is Finnish. Both Finnish and Swedish are compulsory subjects in school with an exception for children with a language as their native language. A successfully completed language test is a prerequisite for governmental offices where a university degree is required, the four largest Swedish-speaking communities in Finland, in absolute numbers, are those of Helsinki, Espoo, Porvoo and Vaasa, where they constitute significant minorities. Helsinki, the capital, had a Swedish-speaking majority until late in the 19th century, currently 6. 1% of the population of Helsinki are Swedish-speaking and 9. 6% speaks languages other than Finnish and Swedish. The Swedish dialects spoken in Finland mainland are known as Finland-Swedish, there is a rich Finland-Swedish literature, including authors such as Tove Jansson, Johan Ludvig Runeberg, Edith Södergran and Zacharias Topelius. Runeberg is considered Finlands national poet and wrote the anthem, Vårt land. The Sami languages are a group of related languages spoken across Lapland and they are distantly related to Finnish. The three Sami languages spoken in Finland, Northern Sami, Inari Sami and Skolt Sami, have a native speaker population of roughly 1,800. Up to World War II, Karelian was spoken in the historical Border-Karelian region on the shore of Lake Ladoga. After the war immigrant Karelians were settled all over Finland, in 2001 the Karelian Language Society estimated that the language is understood by 11, 000–12,000 people in Finland, most of whom are elderly. A more recent estimate is that the size of the community is 30,000. Karelian was recognized in a regulation by the President in November 2009, in fact, Finland places among the top four countries in the world when it comes to the fluency of English
8.
Finland Swedish
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Most Swedish-speaking Finns emphasize that Finland Swedish is not a language separate from the Swedish of Sweden. The Swedish dialects in Finland are considered varieties of Swedish, Swedish as spoken in Finland is regulated by the Swedish Department of the Institute for the Languages of Finland. An often repeated fact is that the municipality with the highest proportion of Swedish speakers in the world, korsnäs has also held this title and is often cited as such. However, as there are no statistics on the mother tongue of inhabitants of Sweden. In addition bilingualism is common for immigrants in Sweden, so the term Swedish-speaking may be diffuse in that sense. In the spoken vernacular, especially young people in Finnish-dominated areas. There are also words in Finland Swedish that would be considered slightly archaic in Sweden. Some government and public service terms that have created in recent centuries also differ. The same is true of other new words, notably loanwords from English. e. in normal, in 1809, when Finland was conquered by the Russian Empire and became an autonomous Grand Duchy, Swedish remained the only official language. Finland has since then been a country with a Swedish-speaking minority living mostly in the coastal areas of southern, south-western. During the 20th century, the following the Industrial Revolution has led to large majorities of Finnish speakers in all major cities. The capital Helsinki became predominantly Finnish-speaking as recently as around 1900, a large and important part of the Swedish-speaking population nevertheless lives in the capital. The autonomous island province of Åland is an exception, being monolingually Swedish-speaking according to international treaties and it is a matter of definition whether the Swedish dialects spoken on Åland are to be considered a kind of Finland Swedish or not. Most Swedish-speaking Finns and linguists consider them to be closer to some of the dialects spoken in parts of Sweden. Swedish is one of the two languages of the republic of Finland, the other being Finnish. These two languages have equal status in nearly all legislation. The other minority languages are regulated separately, Finland Swedish is regulated by the Institute for the Languages of Finland. Official Swedish is not supposed to be different from Swedish as found in Sweden
9.
Demography
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Demography is the statistical study of populations, especially human beings. As a very general science, it can analyse any kind of dynamic living population, Demography encompasses the study of the size, structure, and distribution of these populations, and spatial or temporal changes in them in response to birth, migration, ageing, and death. Based on the research of the earth, earths population up to the year 2050 and 2100 can be estimated by demographers. Demographics are quantifiable characteristics of a given population, demographic analysis can cover whole societies or groups defined by criteria such as education, nationality, religion, and ethnicity. Educational institutions usually treat demography as a field of sociology, though there are a number of independent demography departments, demographic thoughts can be traced back to antiquity, and were present in many civilizations and cultures, like Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome, India and China. In ancient Greece, this can be found in the writings of Herodotus, Thucidides, Hippocrates, Epicurus, Protagoras, Polus, Plato and Aristotle. In Rome, writers and philosophers like Cicero, Seneca, Pliny the elder, Marcus Aurelius, Epictetus, Cato, in the Middle ages, Christian thinkers devoted much time in refuting the Classical ideas on demography. Important contributors to the field were William of Conches, Bartholomew of Lucca, William of Auvergne, William of Pagula, and Ibn Khaldun. One of the earliest demographic studies in the period was Natural and Political Observations Made upon the Bills of Mortality by John Graunt. Among the studys findings were that one third of the children in London died before their sixteenth birthday, mathematicians, such as Edmond Halley, developed the life table as the basis for life insurance mathematics. Richard Price was credited with the first textbook on life contingencies published in 1771, followed later by Augustus de Morgan, at the end of the 18th century, Thomas Robert Malthus concluded that, if unchecked, populations would be subject to exponential growth. He feared that population growth would tend to outstrip growth in production, leading to ever-increasing famine. He is seen as the father of ideas of overpopulation. Later, more sophisticated and realistic models were presented by Benjamin Gompertz, the period 1860-1910 can be characterized as a period of transition wherein demography emerged from statistics as a separate field of interest. There are two types of data collection—direct and indirect—with several different methods of each type, direct data comes from vital statistics registries that track all births and deaths as well as certain changes in legal status such as marriage, divorce, and migration. In developed countries with good registration systems, registry statistics are the best method for estimating the number of births and deaths, a census is the other common direct method of collecting demographic data. A census is conducted by a national government and attempts to enumerate every person in a country. Analyses are conducted after a census to estimate how much over or undercounting took place and these compare the sex ratios from the census data to those estimated from natural values and mortality data
10.
Eastern European Time
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Eastern European Time is one of the names of UTC+02,00 time zone,2 hours ahead of Coordinated Universal Time. The zone uses daylight saving time, so that it uses UTC+03,00 during the summer, a number of African countries use UTC+02,00 all year long, where it is called Central Africa Time, although Egypt and Libya also use the term Eastern European Time. The following countries, parts of countries, and territories use Eastern European Time all year round, Egypt, since 21 April 2015, used EEST from 1988–2010, Kaliningrad Oblast, since 26 October 2014, also used EET in years 1945 and 1991–2011. Libya, since 27 October 2013, switched from Central European Time, used year-round EET from 1980–1981, 1990–1996 and 1998–2012. Belarus, in years 1922–30 and 1990–2011 In Poland this time was used in years 1918–22, in time of World War II, Germany implemented MET in east occupied territories. Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol used EET as part of Ukraine in years 1991-94 and 1996-2014 Turkey, used EET in years 1910-1978, now uses year round DST timezone called Further-eastern European Time or Turkey Time. The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus also uses FET, sometimes, due to its use on Microsoft Windows, FLE Standard Time or GTB Standard Time are used to refer to Eastern European Time. Since political, in addition to geographical, criteria are used in the drawing of time zones. The EET time zone, were it drawn by purely geographical terms, the easternmost part of the Republic of Macedonia, including the city of Strumica. The absolutely easternmost part of Serbia, in the Pirot District, the easternmost town in Norway, Vardø, lies at 30°51 E, which is located east of even of the central meridian of UTC+2, i. e. east of Istanbul and Alexandria. The Norwegian-Russian border is the place where CET borders Moscow time. There is a point at the Norway-Finland-Russia tripoint, near the town of Rayakoski. Belarus is located between 23°11′E and 32°47′E and is fully located with the physical UTC+2 area, but it uses UTC+3 year around. This also includes the city of Anapa, at the westernmost tip of the Krasnodar Krai near the entrance to the Sea of Azov, the Norway–Russia–Finland tri-zone point at Muotkavaara is surrounded by three different times in winter, two in summer. It had three time zones year-around before 2014, two of the four tripoints of Belarus and the tripoint of the Kaliningrad Region are surrounded by three different times in winter
11.
Daylight saving time
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Daylight saving time is the practice of advancing clocks during summer months by one hour so that evening daylight lasts an hour longer, while sacrificing normal sunrise times. Typically, regions that use Daylight Savings Time adjust clocks forward one hour close to the start of spring, American inventor and politician Benjamin Franklin proposed a form of daylight time in 1784. New Zealander George Hudson proposed the idea of saving in 1895. The German Empire and Austria-Hungary organized the first nationwide implementation, starting on April 30,1916, many countries have used it at various times since then, particularly since the energy crisis of the 1970s. The practice has both advocates and critics, DST clock shifts sometimes complicate timekeeping and can disrupt travel, billing, record keeping, medical devices, heavy equipment, and sleep patterns. Computer software often adjusts clocks automatically, but policy changes by various jurisdictions of DST dates, industrialized societies generally follow a clock-based schedule for daily activities that do not change throughout the course of the year. The time of day that individuals begin and end work or school, North and south of the tropics daylight lasts longer in summer and shorter in winter, with the effect becoming greater as one moves away from the tropics. However, they will have one hour of daylight at the start of each day. Supporters have also argued that DST decreases energy consumption by reducing the need for lighting and heating, DST is also of little use for locations near the equator, because these regions see only a small variation in daylight in the course of the year. After ancient times, equal-length civil hours eventually supplanted unequal, so civil time no longer varies by season, unequal hours are still used in a few traditional settings, such as some monasteries of Mount Athos and all Jewish ceremonies. This 1784 satire proposed taxing window shutters, rationing candles, and waking the public by ringing church bells, despite common misconception, Franklin did not actually propose DST, 18th-century Europe did not even keep precise schedules. However, this changed as rail transport and communication networks came to require a standardization of time unknown in Franklins day. Modern DST was first proposed by the New Zealand entomologist George Hudson, whose shift work job gave him time to collect insects. An avid golfer, he also disliked cutting short his round at dusk and his solution was to advance the clock during the summer months, a proposal he published two years later. The proposal was taken up by the Liberal Member of Parliament Robert Pearce, a select committee was set up to examine the issue, but Pearces bill did not become law, and several other bills failed in the following years. Willett lobbied for the proposal in the UK until his death in 1915, william Sword Frost, mayor of Orillia, Ontario, introduced daylight saving time in the municipality during his tenure from 1911 to 1912. Starting on April 30,1916, the German Empire and its World War I ally Austria-Hungary were the first to use DST as a way to conserve coal during wartime, Britain, most of its allies, and many European neutrals soon followed suit. Russia and a few other countries waited until the year
12.
Eastern European Summer Time
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Eastern European Summer Time is one of the names of UTC+3 time zone,3 hours ahead of Coordinated Universal Time. It is used as a daylight saving time in some European and Middle Eastern countries. During the winter periods, Eastern European Time is used, since 1996 European Summer Time has been observed from the last Sunday in March to the last Sunday in October, previously the rules were not uniform across the European Union. Syria, since 1983 Ukraine, Moscow Summer Time in years 1981–89, regular EEST from 1992 In one year 1991 EEST was used also in Moscow, egypt has previously used EEST from 1957–2010 and 2014–2015. Turkey, has previously used EEST from 1970-1978 EEST, Moscow Summer Time from 1979–1983, and EEST from 1985-2016
13.
Swedish language
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Swedish is a North Germanic language, spoken natively by more than 9 million people predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland, where it has equal legal standing with Finnish. It is largely mutually intelligible with Norwegian and Danish, along with the other North Germanic languages, Swedish is a descendant of Old Norse, the common language of the Germanic peoples living in Scandinavia during the Viking Era. It is currently the largest of the North Germanic languages by number of speakers, Standard Swedish, spoken by most Swedes, is the national language that evolved from the Central Swedish dialects in the 19th century and was well established by the beginning of the 20th century. While distinct regional varieties descended from the rural dialects still exist. The standard word order is, as in most Germanic languages, V2, Swedish morphology is similar to English, that is, words have comparatively few inflections. There are two genders, no cases, and a distinction between plural and singular. Older analyses posit the cases nominative and genitive and there are remains of distinct accusative and dative forms as well. Adjectives are compared as in English, and are inflected according to gender, number. The definiteness of nouns is marked primarily through suffixes, complemented with separate definite and indefinite articles, the prosody features both stress and in most dialects tonal qualities. The language has a large vowel inventory. Swedish is also notable for the voiceless velar fricative, a highly variable consonant phoneme. Swedish is an Indo-European language belonging to the North Germanic branch of the Germanic languages, by many general criteria of mutual intelligibility, the Continental Scandinavian languages could very well be considered dialects of a common Scandinavian language. In the 8th century, the common Germanic language of Scandinavia, Proto-Norse, had some changes. This language began to undergo new changes that did not spread to all of Scandinavia, the dialects of Old East Norse that were spoken in Sweden are called Runic Swedish while the dialects of Denmark are referred to as Runic Danish. The dialects are described as runic because the body of text appears in the runic alphabet. Unlike Proto-Norse, which was written with the Elder Futhark alphabet, Old Norse was written with the Younger Futhark alphabet, from 1200 onwards, the dialects in Denmark began to diverge from those of Sweden. An early change that separated Runic Danish from the dialects of Old East Norse was the change of the diphthong æi to the monophthong é. This is reflected in runic inscriptions where the older read stain, there was also a change of au as in dauðr into a long open ø as in døðr dead
14.
Municipalities of Finland
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The municipalities represent the local level of administration in Finland and act as the fundamental, self-governing administrative units of the country. The entire country is incorporated into municipalities and legally, all municipalities are equal, municipalities have the right to levy a flat percentual income tax, which is between 16 and 22 percent, and they provide two thirds of public services. Municipalities control many community services, such as schools, health care and the water supply and they do not maintain highways, set laws or keep police forces — these tasks are the responsibility of the central government. Municipalities have council-manager government, i. e. they are governed by an elected council, the size of the council is proportional to the population, the extremes being 9 in Sottunga and 85 in Helsinki. A subsection of the council, the executive board, controls the municipal government. Its decisions must be approved by the council, unlike national cabinets, its composition is derived from the composition of the council, not along government-opposition lines. Furthermore, individual decisions are prepared in specialized municipal boards for a meeting, these include e. g. zoning, social assistance. Council, executive board and board membership is responsible position, not a full-time job, municipal managers are civil servants named by the council. The city manager of Helsinki is called ylipormestari/överborgmästare Lord Mayor for historical reasons, there were previously no mayors in Finland, but after a change in law, Tampere was first city to elect a mayor in 2007. The mayor is not, however, currently elected directly, the mayor acts as municipal manager and as a speaker of municipal council. Although municipalities do not have police or legislative powers, local ordinances concerning traffic can be set, municipalities are legal persons and can appear in an administrative court. Likewise, the state of Finland is a legal person. Excluding judicial review of compliance to administrative law, municipalities are independent. Municipalities cooperate in regions of Finland, the municipal tax is a flat income tax that is levied on lower income levels than state taxes, which in contrast are progressive taxes. The lowest tax of 16% is found in Kauniainen, while a 20% tax is the other extreme, municipalities also receive funding directly from the state. Municipalities levy a property tax on property, which is comparatively low and it is higher for summer cottages or other property intended for leisure. Municipalities receive part of the corporate tax yhteisövero income collected from companies having a place of business within their jurisdiction, some functions are funded both by the municipality and the state, e. g. AMK schools. The municipal tax, although in principle a flat tax, is affected by deductions, municipal taxes are collected by the state and paid to the municipalities
15.
Helsinki
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Helsinki is the capital and largest city of Finland. It is in the region of Uusimaa, in southern Finland, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland. Helsinki has a population of 629,512, a population of 1,231,595. Helsinki is located some 80 kilometres north of Tallinn, Estonia,400 km east of Stockholm, Sweden, Helsinki has close historical connections with these three cities. The Helsinki metropolitan area includes the core of Helsinki, Espoo, Vantaa, Kauniainen. It is the worlds northernmost metro area of one million people. The Helsinki metropolitan area is the fourth largest metropolitan area in the Nordic countries, Helsinki is Finlands major political, educational, financial, cultural, and research center as well as one of northern Europes major cities. Approximately 75% of foreign companies operating in Finland have settled in the Helsinki region, the nearby municipality of Vantaa is the location of Helsinki Airport, with frequent service to various destinations in Europe and Asia. In 2009, Helsinki was chosen to be the World Design Capital for 2012 by the International Council of Societies of Industrial Design, the city was the venue for the 1952 Summer Olympics and the 52nd Eurovision Song Contest 2007. In 2011, the Monocle magazine ranked Helsinki the most liveable city in the world in its Liveable Cities Index 2011, in the Economist Intelligence Units August 2015 Liveability survey, assessing the best and worst cities to live in globally, Helsinki placed among the worlds top ten cities. Helsinki is used to refer to the city in most languages, the Swedish name Helsingfors is the original official name of the city. The Finnish name probably comes from Helsinga and similar names used for the river that is known as the Vantaa River. Helsingfors comes from the name of the parish, Helsinge and the rapids, which flowed through the original village. As part of the Grand Duchy of Finland in the Russian Empire, one suggestion for the origin of the name Helsinge is that it originated with medieval Swedish settlers who came from Hälsingland in Sweden. Others have proposed that the name derives from the Swedish word helsing, other Scandinavian cities located at similar geographic locations were given similar names at the time, for example Helsingør and Helsingborg. The name Helsinki has been used in Finnish official documents and in Finnish language newspapers since 1819, the decrees issued in Helsinki were dated with Helsinki as the place of issue. This is how the form Helsinki came to be used in written Finnish, in Helsinki slang the city is called Stadi. Hesa, is not used by natives to the city, helsset is the Northern Sami name of Helsinki
16.
Coat of arms
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A coat of arms is an heraldic visual design on an escutcheon, surcoat, or tabard. The coat of arms on an escutcheon forms the central element of the heraldic achievement which in its whole consists of shield, supporters, crest. A coat of arms is traditionally unique to a person, family, state. The ancient Romans used similar insignia on their shields, but these identified military units rather than individuals, the first evidence of medieval coats of arms has been attributed to the 11th century Bayeux Tapestry in which some of the combatants carry shields painted with crosses. However, that heraldic interpretation remains controversial, coats of arms came into general use by feudal lords and knights in battle in the 12th century. By the 13th century, arms had spread beyond their initial battlefield use to become a flag or emblem for families in the social classes of Europe. Exactly who had a right to use arms, by law or social convention, in the German-speaking regions both the aristocracy and burghers used arms, while in most of the rest of Europe they were limited to the aristocracy. The use of spread to the clergy, to towns as civic identifiers. Flags developed from coats of arms, and the arts of vexillology, the coats of arms granted to commercial companies are a major source of the modern logo. Despite no widespread regulation, heraldry has remained consistent across Europe, some nations, like England and Scotland, still maintain the same heraldic authorities which have traditionally granted and regulated arms for centuries and continue to do so in the present day. In England, for example, the granting of arms is and has controlled by the College of Arms. Unlike seals and other emblems, heraldic achievements have a formal description called a blazon. Many societies exist that also aid in the design and registration of personal arms, in the heraldic traditions of England and Scotland, an individual, rather than a family, had a coat of arms. In those traditions coats of arms are legal property transmitted from father to son, wives, undifferenced arms are used only by one person at any given time. Other descendants of the bearer could bear the ancestral arms only with some difference. One such charge is the label, which in British usage is now always the mark of an apparent or an heir presumptive. Because of their importance in identification, particularly in seals on legal documents and this has been carried out by heralds and the study of coats of arms is therefore called heraldry. In time, the use of arms spread from military entities to educational institutes, the author Helen Stuart argues that some coats of arms were a form of corporate logo
17.
Parish
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A parish is a church territorial unit constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the care and clerical jurisdiction of a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or more curates. Historically, a parish often covered the same area as a manor. By extension the term refers not only to the territorial unit. In England this church property was technically in ownership of the parish priest ex-officio, the eighth Archbishop of Canterbury Theodore of Tarsus appended the parish structure to the Anglo-Saxon township unit, where it existed, and where minsters catered to the surrounding district. In the wider picture of ecclesiastical polity, a parish comprises a division of a diocese or see, parishes within a diocese may be grouped into a deanery or vicariate forane, overseen by a dean or vicar forane, or in some cases by an archpriest. Some churches of the Anglican Communion have deaneries as units of an archdeaconry, in the Roman Catholic Church, each parish normally has its own parish priest, who has responsibility and canonical authority over the parish. These are called assistant priests, parochial vicars, curates, or, in the United States, associate pastors, each diocese is divided into parishes, each with their own central church called the parish church, where religious services take place. An example is that of personal parishes established in accordance with the 7 July 2007 motu proprio Summorum Pontificum for those attached to the form of the Roman Rite. Most Catholic parishes are part of Latin Rite dioceses, which cover the whole territory of a country. There can also be overlapping parishes of eparchies of Eastern Catholic Churches, the Church of England geographical structure uses the local parish church as its basic unit. The parish system survived the Reformation with the Anglican Churchs secession from Rome remaining largely untouched, Church of England parishes nowadays all lie within one of 44 dioceses divided between the provinces of Canterbury,30 and York,14. A chapelry was a subdivision of a parish in England. It had a status to a township but was so named as it had a chapel which acted as a subsidiary place of worship to the main parish church. In England civil parishes and their parish councils evolved in the 19th century as ecclesiastical parishes began to be relieved of what became considered to be civic responsibilities. Thus their boundaries began to diverge, the word parish acquired a secular usage. Since 1895, a council elected by public vote or a parish meeting administers a civil parish and is formally recognised as the level of local government below a district council. The parish is also the level of church administration in the Church of Scotland
18.
Hollola
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Hollola is a municipality of Finland. It is located in the province of Southern Finland and is part of the Päijänne Tavastia region, the municipality has a population of 23,913 and covers an area of 650.97 square kilometres of which 68.66 km2 is water. The population density is 51.63 inhabitants per square kilometre, Hollola has the tallest structure in Finland, the Tiirismaa TV-Tower. A popular resort in Hollola is Messilä, there you can do cross-country-skiing, downhill skiing, tramping and play golf. There is a hotel and a site in Messilä. Hollola is twinned with, Arboga, Sweden Nordkapp, Norway Ebeltoft, media related to Hollola at Wikimedia Commons Municipality of Hollola – Official website
19.
Vyborg
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The area where Vyborg is located used to be a trading center on the Vuoksi Rivers western branch, which has dried up. The region was inhabited by the Karelians, a Balto-Finnic tribe which came under the domination of Novgorod. Settlement in the area of Vyborg is generally regarded to date from 13th century onwards when Hanseatic traders started to travel to Novgorod, the Viborg Castle was founded during the so-called Third Swedish Crusade in 1293 by marsk Torkel Knutsson on the site of older Karelian fort which was burned. The castle was fought over for decades between Sweden and the Novgorod Republic, by the Treaty of Nöteborg in 1323 between the Republic of Novgorod and Sweden, Vyborg was finally recognized as a part of Sweden. The towns trade privileges were chartered by the Pan-Scandinavian King Eric of Pomerania in 1403 and it withstood a prolonged siege by Daniil Shchenya during the Russo–Swedish War of 1496–1497. Under Swedish rule, Vyborg was closely associated with the family of Bååt. The late-medieval commanders and fief holders of Vyborg were descended from or married to the Bååt family, Vyborg remained in Swedish hands until its capture in 1710 after the Siege of Vyborg by Tsar Peter the Great in the Great Northern War. In the course of Peters second administrative reform, Vyborg became the seat of Vyborg Province of St. Petersburg Governorate, the 1721 Treaty of Nystad, which concluded the war with Sweden, finalized the transfer of the town and a part of Old Finland to Russia. In 1744, Vyborg became the seat of Vyborg Governorate, in 1783, the governorate was transformed into Vyborg Viceroyalty, then in 1801 back into Vyborg Governorate. In 1802, Vyborg Governorate was renamed Finland Governorate, One of the largest naval battles in history, the Battle of Vyborg Bay, was fought off the shore of the Vyborg Bay on July 4,1790. After the rest of Finland was ceded to Russia in 1809, Emperor Alexander I incorporated the town, in the course of the 19th century, the town developed as the center of administration and trade for the eastern part of Finland. The inauguration of the Saimaa Canal in 1856 benefited the economy as it opened the vast waterways of Eastern Finland to the sea. Following the Russian Revolution of 1917 and the fall of the Russian Empire, during the Finnish Civil War, Vyborg was in the hands of the Finnish Red Guards until it was captured by the White Guard on the Battle of Vyborg, April 29,1918. In April–May 1918, 360–420 civilians, mainly Russian men are murdered by White Guards during the Vyborg massacre, in the inter-war decades, the town, Viipuri, was the second biggest town in Finland and the seat of Viipuri Province. In 1939, Vyborg had some 80,000 inhabitants, including sizable minorities of Swedes, Germans, Russians, Gypsies, Tatars, during this time, Alvar Aalto built the Vyborg Library—a masterpiece of modern architecture. During the Winter War between the Soviet Union and Finland in 1939–1940, over seventy people were evacuated from Vyborg to western Finland. As the town was held by the Finns, the remaining Finnish population. Thus, practically the whole population of Finnish Vyborg was resettled elsewhere in Finland, the town became the administrative center of Vyborgsky District
20.
Boulevard
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A boulevard, often abbreviated Blvd, is a type of large road, usually running through a city. It is a misconception that every boulevard has a median. Phnom Penh has numerous boulevards scattered throughout the city, norodom Boulevard, Sisowath Boulevard, Monivong Boulevard, and Sothearos Boulevard are the most famous. Indira Gandhi Sarani, formerly Red Road, is a road in Kolkata that runs from Raj Bhavan to Fort William, the road, a wide boulevard, was built in 1820 which bisects the historic Kolkata Maidan. The British authorities during colonial era intended for the road to be able to host large parades, the name Red Road was given due to its surfacing. During the Second World War, the road, in the heart of Kolkata, the annual Kolkata Marathon starts from outside the Rangers Club on Red Road. The name Indira Gandhi Sarani was adopted in 1985, mumbais Marine Drive is a 4.3 km long C shaped coastal road located in South Mumbai along the Arabian Sea. It is also called the Queens Necklace because if the stretch is viewed from an elevated point, a promenade lies parallel to the road. It is one of the major tourist attractions in Mumbai, the Gateway of India is located just 1.7 km away from Marine Drive. Though rarely used, Marine Drives official name is Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose Marg, local residents use it for morning exercises as well. It is also popular among youths who come here to enjoy the splash of water during high tide, New Delhis premier boulevard is the Rajpath, which is also a thoroughfare. New Delhi being the capital, many such thoroughfares were built widely to sustain the exploding traffic growth that New Delhi. Rajpath, a tree lined road with ponds and fountains, was designed, along with Janpath, various national events such as Independence Day parades and Republic Day parades among many others take place over here annually. Hyderabads Necklace Road is a boulevard adjoining the Hussain Sagar lake, in Chennai, the major road is the Mount Road. Another boulevard is Radakrishnan Salai, also called Cathedral Road, which is in Chennai in Tamil Nadu State in Southern India along the Bay of Bengal. In Iran, Boulevard is generally defined as a road surrounded by trees in sides and divided by a green space line including grass. There are many boulevards in Iran, one of the most famous one is Keshavarz Boulevard in Tehran which is usually referred to as The Boulevard. Isfahan has also a historical boulevard which is called Chaharbagh Boulevard, Tel Aviv, was originally designed along the guidelines set out by architect Sir Patrick Geddes
21.
Russian Empire
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The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until it was overthrown by the short-lived February Revolution in 1917. One of the largest empires in history, stretching over three continents, the Russian Empire was surpassed in landmass only by the British and Mongol empires. The rise of the Russian Empire happened in association with the decline of neighboring powers, the Swedish Empire, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, Persia. It played a role in 1812–14 in defeating Napoleons ambitions to control Europe. The House of Romanov ruled the Russian Empire from 1721 until 1762, and its German-descended cadet branch, with 125.6 million subjects registered by the 1897 census, it had the third-largest population in the world at the time, after Qing China and India. Like all empires, it included a large disparity in terms of economics, ethnicity, there were numerous dissident elements, who launched numerous rebellions and assassination attempts, they were closely watched by the secret police, with thousands exiled to Siberia. Economically, the empire had an agricultural base, with low productivity on large estates worked by serfs. The economy slowly industrialized with the help of foreign investments in railways, the land was ruled by a nobility from the 10th through the 17th centuries, and subsequently by an emperor. Tsar Ivan III laid the groundwork for the empire that later emerged and he tripled the territory of his state, ended the dominance of the Golden Horde, renovated the Moscow Kremlin, and laid the foundations of the Russian state. Tsar Peter the Great fought numerous wars and expanded an already huge empire into a major European power, Catherine the Great presided over a golden age. She expanded the state by conquest, colonization and diplomacy, continuing Peter the Greats policy of modernisation along West European lines, Tsar Alexander II promoted numerous reforms, most dramatically the emancipation of all 23 million serfs in 1861. His policy in Eastern Europe involved protecting the Orthodox Christians under the rule of the Ottoman Empire and that connection by 1914 led to Russias entry into the First World War on the side of France, Britain, and Serbia, against the German, Austrian and Ottoman empires. The Russian Empire functioned as a monarchy until the Revolution of 1905. The empire collapsed during the February Revolution of 1917, largely as a result of failures in its participation in the First World War. Perhaps the latter was done to make Europe recognize Russia as more of a European country, Poland was divided in the 1790-1815 era, with much of the land and population going to Russia. Most of the 19th century growth came from adding territory in Asia, Peter I the Great introduced autocracy in Russia and played a major role in introducing his country to the European state system. However, this vast land had a population of 14 million, grain yields trailed behind those of agriculture in the West, compelling nearly the entire population to farm. Only a small percentage lived in towns, the class of kholops, close to the one of slavery, remained a major institution in Russia until 1723, when Peter I converted household kholops into house serfs, thus including them in poll taxation
22.
Turkey
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Turkey, officially the Republic of Turkey, is a transcontinental country in Eurasia, mainly in Anatolia in Western Asia, with a smaller portion on the Balkan peninsula in Southeast Europe. Turkey is a democratic, secular, unitary, parliamentary republic with a cultural heritage. The country is encircled by seas on three sides, the Aegean Sea is to the west, the Black Sea to the north, and the Mediterranean Sea to the south. The Bosphorus, the Sea of Marmara, and the Dardanelles, Ankara is the capital while Istanbul is the countrys largest city and main cultural and commercial centre. Approximately 70-80% of the countrys citizens identify themselves as ethnic Turks, other ethnic groups include legally recognised and unrecognised minorities. Kurds are the largest ethnic minority group, making up approximately 20% of the population, the area of Turkey has been inhabited since the Paleolithic by various ancient Anatolian civilisations, as well as Assyrians, Greeks, Thracians, Phrygians, Urartians and Armenians. After Alexander the Greats conquest, the area was Hellenized, a process continued under the Roman Empire. The Seljuk Sultanate of Rûm ruled Anatolia until the Mongol invasion in 1243, the empire reached the peak of its power in the 16th century, especially during the reign of Suleiman the Magnificent. During the war, the Ottoman government committed genocides against its Armenian, Assyrian, following the war, the conglomeration of territories and peoples that formerly comprised the Ottoman Empire was partitioned into several new states. Turkey is a member of the UN, an early member of NATO. Turkeys growing economy and diplomatic initiatives have led to its recognition as a regional power while her location has given it geopolitical, the name of Turkey is based on the ethnonym Türk. The first recorded use of the term Türk or Türük as an autonym is contained in the Old Turkic inscriptions of the Göktürks of Central Asia, the English name Turkey first appeared in the late 14th century and is derived from Medieval Latin Turchia. Similarly, the medieval Khazar Empire, a Turkic state on the shores of the Black. The medieval Arabs referred to the Mamluk Sultanate as al-Dawla al-Turkiyya, the Ottoman Empire was sometimes referred to as Turkey or the Turkish Empire among its European contemporaries. The Anatolian peninsula, comprising most of modern Turkey, is one of the oldest permanently settled regions in the world, various ancient Anatolian populations have lived in Anatolia, from at least the Neolithic period until the Hellenistic period. Many of these peoples spoke the Anatolian languages, a branch of the larger Indo-European language family, in fact, given the antiquity of the Indo-European Hittite and Luwian languages, some scholars have proposed Anatolia as the hypothetical centre from which the Indo-European languages radiated. The European part of Turkey, called Eastern Thrace, has also been inhabited since at least forty years ago. It is the largest and best-preserved Neolithic site found to date, the settlement of Troy started in the Neolithic Age and continued into the Iron Age
23.
Indiana township trustee
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A township trustee is an elected official in the local government of the U. S. state of Indiana. A township trustee administers a township, which in Indiana is the primary subdivision of a county. State law requires the trustee to perform the following duties. Keeping township records open for public inspection, attending all meetings of the township legislative body. Receiving and paying out township funds, examining and settling all accounts and demands chargeable against the township. Administering township assistance under IC 12-20 and IC 12-30-4, performing the duties of Fence Viewer under IC 32-26. Providing and maintaining cemeteries under IC 23-14, providing fire protection under IC 36-8, except in a township that is located in a county having a consolidated city that has consolidated the townships fire department under IC 36-3-1-6.1. Filing an annual personnel report under IC 5-11-13, providing and maintain township parks and community centers under IC 36-10. Destroying detrimental plants, noxious weeds, and rank vegetation under IC 15-16-8, providing insulin to the poor under IC 12-20-16. Performing other duties prescribed by statute, the trustee is assisted by a three-member Township Board whose members are also elected to four year terms. Duties of the board include adopting the annual budget, serving as a board of finance, in January of each year, the trustee presents to the board an annual report showing the receipts, expenditures, investments and debts of the township. The approved report is published in local papers for public inspection. United Township Association of Indiana Indiana Township Association
24.
Governing Senate
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It was chaired by the Procurator General, who served as the link between the sovereign and the Senate, he acted, in the emperors own words, as the sovereigns eye. Originally established only for the time of Peters absence, it became a permanent body after his return, the number of senators was first set at nine and, in 1712, increased to ten. Any disagreements between the Chief Procurator and the Senate were to be settled by the monarch, certain other officials and a chancellery were also attached to the Senate. While it underwent many subsequent changes, it one of the most important institutions of imperial Russia, especially for administration. The State Council, created by Alexander I, was supposed to inherit the executive power of the Senate, an envisioned parliament was to inherit legislative power, but that never happened. In the 19th century, the Senate evolved into the highest judicial body in Russia, as such, it exercised control over all legal institutions and officials throughout the country. The Senate was composed of departments, two of which were Courts of Cassation. It also included a Department of Heraldry, which managed matters relating to the rights of the nobles and honorary citizens
25.
Nicholas II of Russia
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Nicholas II was the last Emperor of Russia, ruling from 1 November 1894 until his forced abdication on 15 March 1917. His reign saw the fall of the Russian Empire from being one of the foremost great powers of the world to economic, Soviet historiography portrayed Nicholas as a weak and incompetent leader, whose decisions led to military defeats and the deaths of millions of his subjects. The Anglo-Russian Entente, designed to counter German attempts to influence in the Middle East. Nicholas approved the Russian mobilisation on 30 July 1914, which led to Germany declaring war on Russia on 1 August 1914 and it is estimated that around 3,300,000 Russians were killed in World War I. Following the February Revolution of 1917, Nicholas abdicated on behalf of himself and his son, Nicholas, the recovered remains of the Imperial Family were finally re-interred in St. Petersburg, eighty years to the day on 17 July 1998. In 1981, Nicholas, his wife and their children were canonized as martyrs by the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia, located in New York City. On 15 August 2000 Nicholas and his family were canonized as passion bearers, Nicholas was born in the Alexander Palace in Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire, the eldest son of Emperor Alexander III and Empress Maria Feodorovna of Russia. He had five siblings, Alexander, George, Xenia, Michael. Nicholas often referred to his father nostalgically in letters after Alexanders death in 1894 and he was also very close to his mother, as revealed in their published letters to each other. His paternal grandparents were Emperor Alexander II and Empress Maria Alexandrovna of Russia and his maternal grandparents were King Christian IX and Queen Louise of Denmark. Nicholas was of primarily German and Danish descent, his last ethnically Russian ancestor being Grand Duchess Anna Petrovna, Nicholas was related to several monarchs in Europe. His mothers siblings included Kings Frederik VIII of Denmark and George I of Greece, Nicholas, his wife Alexandra, and Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany were all first cousins of King George V of the United Kingdom. Nicholas was also a first cousin of both King Haakon VII and Queen Maud of Norway, as well as King Constantine I of Greece, Tsar Nicholas II was the first cousin-once-removed of Grand Duke Nicholas Nikolaevich. To distinguish between them the Grand Duke was often known within the Imperial family as Nikolasha and Nicholas the Tall, while the Tsar was Nicholas the Short. In his childhood, Nicholas, his parents and siblings made annual visits to the Danish royal palaces of Fredensborg and Bernstorff to visit his grandparents, the king and queen. The visits also served as family reunions, as his mothers siblings would come from the United Kingdom, Germany. It was there in 1883, that he had a flirtation with one of his English first cousins, in 1873, Nicholas also accompanied his parents and younger brother, two-year-old George, on a two-month, semi-official visit to England. In London, Nicholas and his family stayed at Marlborough House, as guests of his Uncle Bertie and Aunt Alix, the Prince and Princess of Wales, where he was spoiled by his uncle
26.
Finnish Civil War
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The Finnish Civil War concerned leadership and control of Finland during the transition from a Grand Duchy of the Russian Empire to an independent state. The conflict formed a part of the national, political, the war was fought between the Reds, led by the Social Democratic Party and the Whites, conducted by the non-socialist, conservative-led senate. The paramilitary Red Guards, composed of industrial and agrarian workers, controlled the cities, the paramilitary White Guards, composed of peasants and middle-class and upper-class factions, controlled rural central and northern Finland. Finnish society had experienced population growth, industrialization, pre-urbanization. World War I led to the collapse of the Russian Empire, the Reds carried out an unsuccessful general offensive in February 1918, supplied with weapons by Soviet Russia. A counteroffensive by the Whites began in March, reinforced by an Imperial German Army squad in April, both the Reds and Whites engaged in political terror. A high number of Red POWs died due to malnutrition and disease, altogether, around 39,000 people -36,000 Finns - perished in the conflict. In the aftermath, the Finns passed from Russian government to the German power sphere with a plan to establish German-led Finnish monarchy, the outline was aborted by the defeat of Germany in World War I. Finland emerged as an independent, democratic republic, the main factor behind the Finnish Civil War was World War I, the Russian Empire collapsed under the pressures of the war, leading to the February and October Revolutions in 1917. The breakdown caused a power vacuum and subsequent power struggle in Eastern Europe. The Grand Duchy of Finland, a part of the Russian Empire since 1809, geopolitically less important than the continental Moscow-Warsaw gateway, the northerly Finnish ground, isolated by the Baltic sea was a peaceful sidefront until early 1918. The war between the German Empire and Russia had indirect effects on the Finns, the German Empire saw Eastern Europe - primarily Russia - as a major source of vital products and raw materials, both during World War I and in the future. Between 30 and 40 million marks were spent on this endeavor, controlling the Finnish area would allow the Imperial German Army to penetrate Petrograd and the Kola Peninsula, an area rich in raw materials for the mining industry. Finland possessed large ore reserves and a well-developed forest industry, russias defeat in the Crimean War in the 1850s led to attempts to speed up the modernization of the country. This caused more than 50 years of economic, industrial, cultural and educational progress in the Grand Duchy of Finland, in 1899, the Russian Empire initiated a policy of integration through the Russification of Finland. In the power struggle, the most radical political group opposing Russia, the Activist movement, included terrorist factions from the working class and the Swedish-speaking intelligentsia. The major reasons for rising tensions among the Finns were the autocratic rule of the Russian Czar. The system originated in the Swedish Empire regime, preceding the Russian power, Finlands population grew rapidly in the 19th century, and a class of industrial and agrarian workers and property-less peasants emerged
27.
Red Guards (Finland)
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The Red Guards were a paramilitary units of the Finnish labour movement in the early 1900s. The first Red Guards were established during the 1905 general strike, after the Russian 1917 February revolution the Red Guards were re-established and in the 1918 Finnish Civil War they formed the army of Red Finland. The combined strength of the Red Guard was about 30,000 at the beginning of the Civil War, peaking at 90, the number included more than 2,000 members of the Womens Guards. In May 1918, up to 80,000 Reds were captured by the victorious Whites,12, 000–14,000 of them died in the camps of executions, disease. Majority of the Reds were finally pardoned in late 1918, approximately 10, 000–13,000 Reds managed to flee to the Soviet Russia. Some of them fought in the Russian Civil War until 1920 against the Finnish Whites invading the East Karelia. The Murmansk Legion was a British organized military unit composed of the Red Guard members from Northern Finland who had fled to Russia in the stages of the Finnish Civil War. The Red Guards were born during the strike in November 1905. It started as a joint effort of the Social Democratic labour movement, the strike lasted only a week, but in the final days the different views created a deep gap between the two parties. Some minor incidents followed, especially in the capital Helsinki, although the general strike was over, both guards remained active. In 1906, the number of Red Guard members was estimated 25,000, violence between the two sides finally burst out in 2 August 1906 during the Sveaborg rebellion, a revolt of the Russian Bolshevik sailors in the Sveaborg Fortress in Helsinki. As the mutiny started, the Helsinki Red Guard, led by Johan Kock, the strike was joined by thousands of Helsinki workers. The bourgeois opposed the strike as well and sent the Protection Corps to the Hakaniemi working-class district in order to keep the citys tram traffic rolling, at the Hakaniemi Square, the Protection Corps was surrounded by an angry mob of local people throwing stones. The incident escalated into a gunfight between the Protection Corps and the Red Guards supported by a squad of Russian sailors, the riot was finally disrupted by the Russian cosacks, ending with 2 killed Reds and 7 killed Protection Corps members. 200 people were arrested, but only one Red Guard platoon leader was convicted as there was not enough evidence against the others, the funeral of the killed Reds became a mass demonstration against the violence of the bourgeois. The Protection Corps, in turn, arranged a funeral as a protest against the Red violence. As the Sveaborg rebellion was suppressed,900 Russian mutinees and about 100 Red Guard members were arrested, as a result of the Hakaniemi riot, the Senate of Finland banned both guards. The Social Democratic Party had already decided to disband the Red Guards in the party held in Oulu in late August
28.
Winter War
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The Winter War was a military conflict between the Soviet Union and Finland in 1939–1940. It began with the Soviet invasion of Finland on 30 November 1939, the League of Nations deemed the attack illegal and expelled the Soviet Union from the League on 14 December 1939. Finland refused and the USSR invaded the country, the Soviets possessed more than three times as many soldiers as the Finns, thirty times as many aircraft, and a hundred times as many tanks. The Red Army, however, had been crippled by Soviet leader Joseph Stalins Great Purge of 1937. With more than 30,000 of its officers executed or imprisoned, including most of those of the highest ranks, because of these factors, and high morale in the Finnish forces, Finland repelled Soviet attacks for several months, much longer than the Soviets expected. However, after reorganization and adoption of different tactics, the renewed Soviet offensive overcame Finnish defenses at the borders, hostilities ceased in March 1940 with the signing of the Moscow Peace Treaty. Finland ceded territory representing 11% of its area and 13% of its economy to the Soviet Union. Soviet losses were heavy, and the international reputation suffered. While the Soviet Union did not conquer all Finland, Soviet gains exceeded their pre-war demands and they gained substantial territory along Lake Ladoga, providing a buffer for Leningrad, and territory in northern Finland. Finland retained its sovereignty and enhanced its international reputation, the end of the war cancelled the Franco-British plan to send troops to Finland through northern Scandinavia. One of the goals of the projected Franco-British operation had been to take control of northern Swedens iron ore. For this reason it was also a factor in the launching of Operation Weserübung, Nazi Germanys invasion of Denmark. The poor performance of the Red Army encouraged Hitler to think that an attack on the Soviet Union would be successful, until the beginning of the 19th century, Finland constituted the eastern part of the Kingdom of Sweden. In 1809, to protect their capital, Saint Petersburg. While abortive because of Russias internal strife, these attempts ruined Russias relations with the Finns, the new Bolshevik Russian government was weak, and with the threat of civil war looming Soviet Russia recognized the new Finnish government just three weeks after the declaration of independence. Sovereignty was fully achieved in May 1918 after a civil war. Finland joined the League of Nations in 1920, from which it sought security guarantees, nevertheless, the government of Sweden carefully avoided committing itself to Finnish foreign policy. Another Finnish military policy was the top secret military cooperation between Finland and Estonia, the 1920s and early 1930s were a politically unstable time in Finland
29.
Karelia
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Karelia, the land of the Karelian peoples, is an area in Northern Europe of historical significance for Finland, Russia, and Sweden. It is currently divided between the Russian Republic of Karelia, the Russian Leningrad Oblast, and Finland, various subdivisions may be called Karelia. Finnish Karelia was a province of Finland, and is now divided between Finland and Russia, often called just Karjala in Finnish. The eastern part of this chiefly Lutheran area was ceded to Russia after the Winter War of 1939–40 and this area is the Karelia of the Karelian question in Finnish politics. The Republic of Karelia is a Russian federal subject, including the so-called East Karelia with a chiefly Russian Orthodox population, Karelia stretches from the White Sea coast to the Gulf of Finland. It contains the two largest lakes in Europe, Lake Ladoga and Lake Onega, the Karelian Isthmus is located between the Gulf of Finland and Lake Ladoga. In the North there were the nomadic Samis, but no natural border except for huge woods, in historical texts Karelia is sometimes divided into East Karelia and West Karelia, which are also called Russian Karelia and Finnish Karelia respectively. The area to the north of Lake Ladoga which belonged to Finland before World War II is called Ladoga Karelia, White Sea Karelia is the northern part of East Karelia and Olonets Karelia is the southern part. Tver Karelia denotes the villages in the Tver Oblast that are inhabited by Tver Karelians, the Treaty of Nöteborg in 1323 divided Karelia between the two. Viborg became the capital of the new Swedish province, in the Treaty of Stolbovo in 1617 large parts of Russian Karelia were ceded to Sweden. Conflicts between the new Swedish rulers and the population of these areas led to an exodus, thousands of Karelians, including the ancestors of the Tver Karelians. The Treaty of Nystad in 1721 between Imperial Russia and Sweden ceded most of Karelia to Russia, after Finland had been occupied by Russia in the Finnish War, parts of the ceded provinces were incorporated into the Grand Duchy of Finland. In 1917, Finland became independent and the border was confirmed by the Treaty of Tartu in 1920, Finnish partisans were involved in attempts to overthrow the Bolshevists in Russian Karelia in 1918–20, such as in the failed Aunus expedition. They also wanted to incorporate the rest of Karelia into Finland and these mainly private expeditions ended after the peace treaty of Tartu. After the end of the Russian Civil War and the establishment of the Soviet Union in 1922, in 1939, the Soviet Union attacked Finland, thus starting the Winter War. The Moscow Peace Treaty of 1940 handed most of Finnish Karelia to the Soviet Union, about 400,000 people, virtually the whole population, had to be relocated within Finland. In 1941, Karelia was liberated for three years during the Continuation War of 1941 to 1944 when East Karelia was occupied by the Finns. As a consequence of the treaty, the Karelian ASSR was incorporated with the Karelo-Finnish SSR 1941–1956
30.
Soviet Union
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The Soviet Union, officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a socialist state in Eurasia that existed from 1922 to 1991. It was nominally a union of national republics, but its government. The Soviet Union had its roots in the October Revolution of 1917 and this established the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic and started the Russian Civil War between the revolutionary Reds and the counter-revolutionary Whites. In 1922, the communists were victorious, forming the Soviet Union with the unification of the Russian, Transcaucasian, Ukrainian, following Lenins death in 1924, a collective leadership and a brief power struggle, Joseph Stalin came to power in the mid-1920s. Stalin suppressed all opposition to his rule, committed the state ideology to Marxism–Leninism. As a result, the country underwent a period of rapid industrialization and collectivization which laid the foundation for its victory in World War II and postwar dominance of Eastern Europe. Shortly before World War II, Stalin signed the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact agreeing to non-aggression with Nazi Germany, in June 1941, the Germans invaded the Soviet Union, opening the largest and bloodiest theater of war in history. Soviet war casualties accounted for the highest proportion of the conflict in the effort of acquiring the upper hand over Axis forces at battles such as Stalingrad. Soviet forces eventually captured Berlin in 1945, the territory overtaken by the Red Army became satellite states of the Eastern Bloc. The Cold War emerged by 1947 as the Soviet bloc confronted the Western states that united in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in 1949. Following Stalins death in 1953, a period of political and economic liberalization, known as de-Stalinization and Khrushchevs Thaw, the country developed rapidly, as millions of peasants were moved into industrialized cities. The USSR took a lead in the Space Race with Sputnik 1, the first ever satellite, and Vostok 1. In the 1970s, there was a brief détente of relations with the United States, the war drained economic resources and was matched by an escalation of American military aid to Mujahideen fighters. In the mid-1980s, the last Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, sought to reform and liberalize the economy through his policies of glasnost. The goal was to preserve the Communist Party while reversing the economic stagnation, the Cold War ended during his tenure, and in 1989 Soviet satellite countries in Eastern Europe overthrew their respective communist regimes. This led to the rise of strong nationalist and separatist movements inside the USSR as well, in August 1991, a coup détat was attempted by Communist Party hardliners. It failed, with Russian President Boris Yeltsin playing a role in facing down the coup. On 25 December 1991, Gorbachev resigned and the twelve constituent republics emerged from the dissolution of the Soviet Union as independent post-Soviet states
31.
Nastola
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Nastola is a former municipality of Finland. It was merged to the city of Lahti on 1 January 2016 and it is located in the province of Southern Finland and is part of the Päijät-Häme region. The municipality had a population of 14,905 and covered an area of 382.86 km2 of which 38.67 km2 was water, nastola is located between two major cities, Lahti and Kouvola. Arrajoki, Immilä, Koiskala, Lankila, Pyhäntaka, Ruuhijärvi, Uusikylä, Vanaja, Villähde, Kirkonkylä, Rakokivi, Seesta- Luhtaanmaa, Järvinen, Tapiola
32.
Precipitation
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In meteorology, precipitation is any product of the condensation of atmospheric water vapor that falls under gravity. The main forms of precipitation include drizzle, rain, sleet, snow, graupel, Precipitation occurs when a portion of the atmosphere becomes saturated with water vapor, so that the water condenses and precipitates. Thus, fog and mist are not precipitation but suspensions, because the vapor does not condense sufficiently to precipitate. Two processes, possibly acting together, can lead to air becoming saturated, Precipitation forms as smaller droplets coalesce via collision with other rain drops or ice crystals within a cloud. Short, intense periods of rain in scattered locations are called showers, moisture that is lifted or otherwise forced to rise over a layer of sub-freezing air at the surface may be condensed into clouds and rain. This process is active when freezing rain is occurring. A stationary front is often present near the area of freezing rain, provided necessary and sufficient atmospheric moisture content, the moisture within the rising air will condense into clouds, namely stratus and cumulonimbus. Eventually, the droplets will grow large enough to form raindrops. Lake-effect snowfall can be locally heavy, thundersnow is possible within a cyclones comma head and within lake effect precipitation bands. In mountainous areas, heavy precipitation is possible where upslope flow is maximized within windward sides of the terrain at elevation, on the leeward side of mountains, desert climates can exist due to the dry air caused by compressional heating. The movement of the trough, or intertropical convergence zone. Precipitation is a component of the water cycle, and is responsible for depositing the fresh water on the planet. Approximately 505,000 cubic kilometres of water falls as precipitation each year,398,000 cubic kilometres of it over the oceans and 107,000 cubic kilometres over land. Given the Earths surface area, that means the globally averaged annual precipitation is 990 millimetres, Climate classification systems such as the Köppen climate classification system use average annual rainfall to help differentiate between differing climate regimes. Precipitation may occur on celestial bodies, e. g. when it gets cold, Mars has precipitation which most likely takes the form of frost. Precipitation is a component of the water cycle, and is responsible for depositing most of the fresh water on the planet. Approximately 505,000 km3 of water falls as precipitation each year,398,000 km3 of it over the oceans, given the Earths surface area, that means the globally averaged annual precipitation is 990 millimetres. Mechanisms of producing precipitation include convective, stratiform, and orographic rainfall, Precipitation can be divided into three categories, based on whether it falls as liquid water, liquid water that freezes on contact with the surface, or ice
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Sibelius Hall
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The Sibelius Hall is a concert hall in Lahti, Finland, named after the composer Jean Sibelius. The concert hall was completed in 2000, architects Kimmo Lintula and Hannu Tikka designed the hall, which is made out of glulam. The acoustics were engineered by Artec Consultants, New York and its acoustics are one of its strongest points, while the architecture follows the Scandinavian tradition of sophisticated design. The concert hall has a capacity of 1,250 seats, the Sibelius Hall is home to the Lahti Symphony Orchestra. BIS Liner notes Media related to Sibelius hall at Wikimedia Commons LSO Sibelius Hall page Sibelius Hall at Lahti Guide
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Lahti Symphony Orchestra
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The Lahti Symphony Orchestra is a Finnish orchestra, based in the city of Lahti. It was founded in 1910 and placed under the control of the Lahti municipality in 1949, in Finland the orchestra performs in the Sibelius Hall, while it also performs abroad in concert halls and festivals. Kalevi Aho was appointed composer-in-residence for the orchestra in 1992, past chief conductors of the orchestra have included Ulf Söderblom. Osmo Vänskä became principal guest conductor of the orchestra in 1985, during his tenure, he and the orchestra have achieved wide acclaim, particularly with performances and recordings of Sibelius. Other recordings by Vänskä and the orchestra include music of Robert Kajanus, Vänskä concluded his tenure as Chief Conductor in 2008 and became Conductor Laureate of the orchestra. Jukka-Pekka Saraste served as advisor to the orchestra from August 2008 to July 2011. In April 2009, the announced the appointment of Okko Kamu as its next chief conductor, as of the autumn of 2011. Kamus initial contract was through the spring of 2014, in November 2012, the orchestra announced the extension of Kamus contract through the end of July 2016, at which time Kamu concluded his tenure as principal conductor. In August 2015, the announced the appointment of Dima Slobodeniouk as its next principal conductor, effective in the autumn of 2016. Martti Similä Urpo Pesonen Jouko Saari Ulf Söderblom Osmo Vänskä Jukka-Pekka Saraste Okko Kamu Dima Slobodeniouk Antero Manninen BIS liner notes
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Jean Sibelius
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Jean Sibelius, born Johan Julius Christian Sibelius, was a Finnish composer and violinist of the late Romantic and early-modern periods. The core of his oeuvre is his set of seven symphonies which, like his major works, continue to be performed and recorded in his home country. His other best-known compositions are Finlandia, the Karelia Suite, Valse triste, the Violin Concerto, the choral symphony Kullervo, throughout his career, the composer found inspiration in nature and Nordic mythology, especially the heroic legends of the national epic, the Kalevala. Although he is reputed to have stopped composing, he attempted to continue writing, including abortive efforts on an eighth symphony, in later life, he wrote Masonic music and re-edited some earlier works while retaining an active but not always favourable interest in new developments in music. The Finnish 100 mark note featured his image until 2002, when the euro was adopted, since 2011, Finland has celebrated a Flag Day on 8 December, the composers birthday, also known as the Day of Finnish Music. In 2015, the 150th anniversary of the birth, a number of special concerts and events were held. Sibelius was born on 8 December 1865 in Hämeenlinna in the Grand Duchy of Finland and he was the son of the Swedish-speaking medical doctor Christian Gustaf Sibelius and Maria Charlotta Sibelius née Borg. The family name stems from the Sibbe estate in Eastern Uusimaa which was owned by his paternal great-grandfather, Sibeliuss father died of typhoid in July 1868, leaving substantial debts. As a result, his mother—who was again pregnant—had to sell their property and move the family into the home of Katarina Borg, her widowed mother, who also lived in Hämeenlinna. Sibelius was therefore brought up in a decidedly female environment, the only male influence coming from his uncle, Pehr Ferdinand Sibelius and it was he who gave the boy a violin when he was ten years old and later encouraged him to maintain his interest in composition. For Sibelius, Uncle Pehr not only took the place of a father, from an early age, Sibelius showed a strong interest in nature, frequently walking around the countryside when the family moved to Loviisa on the coast for the summer months. In his own words, For me, Loviisa represented sun, Hämeenlinna was where I went to school, Loviisa was freedom. It was in Hämeenlinna, when he was seven, that his aunt Julia was brought in to give him piano lessons on the familys upright instrument and he progressed by improvising on his own, but still learned to read music. He later turned to the violin, which he preferred and he participated in trios with his elder sister Linda on piano, and his younger brother Christian on the cello. Furthermore, Sibelius often played in quartets with neighboring families, adding to his experience in chamber music, fragments survive of his early compositions of the period, a trio, a piano quartet and a Suite in D Minor for violin and piano. Around 1881, he recorded on paper his short pizzicato piece Vattendroppar for violin, in 1881, he started to take violin lessons from the local bandmaster, Gustaf Levander, immediately developing a particularly strong interest in the instrument. Despite such success as an instrumentalist, he chose to become a composer. Although his mother tongue was Swedish, in 1874 Sibelius attended Lucina Hagmans Finnish-speaking preparatory school, despite having to repeat a year, he succeeded in passing the schools final examination in 1885 which allowed him to enter a university
Finland
Västerås, Sweden (since 1940)
Akureyri, Iceland (since 1947)
Randers, Denmark (since 1947)
Ålesund, Norway (since 1947)
Zaporizhzhya, Ukraine (since 1953)[7]
Pécs, Hungary (since 1956)
Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany (since 1987)
Kaluga, Russia (since 1994)
Narva, Estonia (since 1994, partnership agreement)
Deyang, Sichuan, China (since 2000)
Most, Czech Republic
Lahti travel guide from Wikivoyage
