1.
Katajanokka
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Katajanokka is a neighbourhood of Helsinki, Finland, with around 4000 inhabitants in 2005. Originally, it was a headland of the Helsinki peninsula but is now technically an island, Katajanokka is one of the most distinguished neighbourhoods in Helsinki. Katajanokkas residents include former Finnish President Mauno Koivisto and composer Einojuhani Rautavaara, the south side of Katajanokka is dominated by a passenger harbour which is frequented by large cruiseferries traveling between Helsinki, Stockholm, Mariehamn, Tallinn and Rostock. The rest of the district comprises co-operative apartment buildings and several small parks, the eastern part was for a long time a closed military area containing a naval base and shipyard, later a commercial shipyard. It was redeveloped in the 1970s and 1980s into a residential zone. The new residential area is considered an example of modern town planning. A major part of the project was the conversion and extension of the old Russian naval barracks to house the Finnish foreign ministry, the northern shore of Katajanokka still serves as a base for the Finnish coast guard, Helsinki maritime police as well as the Finnish icebreaker fleet. Landmarks of Katajanokka include the Russian Orthodox Cathedral, also known as Uspenski Cathedral, the Merikasarmi complex of the Foreign Ministry, another famous building in Katajanokka is the former district prison of Southern Finland. The old prison dates back to 1837, and functioned as a prison until 2002, the prison underwent an extensive interior renovation to convert the cells of the prison into hotel rooms, with sets of two or three cells combined to make up the current hotel rooms. The Best Western Premier Hotel Katajanokka opened in May 2007 with 106 guest rooms, renovations cost a reported 15 million euro. As a historic building, strict limits were imposed on the redevelopment due to the regime of protection for historically significant buildings that is in effect in Finland. Thus, as a hotel, the exterior of the building has preserved, as has the central corridor of the old prison. A restaurant at the lowest level of the hotel has attempted to keep much of the character of the old prison alive, and is called the Jailbird Restaurant. However, a former prisoner told a Finnish newspaper that the supposed prison cutlery is very different from what the prison actually used, for example. Recently, there was controversy over the demolition of the cadet school of the Russian navy. Vacated by the Finnish military in the 1980s, the building survived, with various uses, in the late 1990s, the city of Helsinki announced that it was going to demolish the building to build a new apartment building in its place. This caused huge protests, and the demolition was put off for almost a decade, mainly because of opposition from inhabitants. The navy school building was demolished in autumn 2006
2.
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
3.
Timo Soini
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Timo Juhani Soini is a Finnish politician who is the co-founder and leader of the Finns Party. He has served as Deputy Prime Minister of Finland, as well as Minister of Foreign Affairs and he was elected as a member of the Espoo city council in 2000 and the Parliament of Finland in 2003. In the 2009 European Parliament election he won a seat in the European Parliament with Finlands highest personal vote share and he was a member of the European Parliament from 2009 until 2011, when he returned to the Finnish Parliament. In the 2011 parliamentary election, his party won 19. 1% of the votes, Soini himself won the most votes of all candidates, leaving behind the Finnish Foreign Minister Alexander Stubb and the Minister of Finance Jyrki Katainen in their Uusimaa electoral district. Helsingin Sanomat concluded that Timo Soini rewrote the history books. Soini has become one of the internationally best-known critics of European Union bailouts, following the 2015 parliamentary election, his party joined a coalition government and Soini became Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs in May 2015. In March 2017 Soini announced that he would step down as Chair of the Finns Party in June 2017. Timo Soini worked for the food company Linkosuo Oy for two summers in 1981 and 1982 and was Secretary General and Chairman of the Kehittyvän Suomen Nuorten Liitto from 1983 to 1992. He graduated as Master of Political Science from the University of Helsinki in 1988 and he is a devout Roman Catholic, which he became as a result of his experiences on his many trips to Ireland. He was also influenced by the popes anti-communism and anti-atheism, Soini has also publicly announced that he is a cordial friend of the state of Israel. According to the BBC, Soini is a supporter of English football club Millwall FC. Soini currently lives in the Kaitaa district of Espoo, in the Greater Helsinki area and he is married and has two children. Soini was a member of the Finnish Rural Party, and was its Secretary General from 1992 and it was, instead, founded as the True Finns Party and two years later Soini succeeded Raimo Vistbacka as Chairman, a position he has held ever since. He ran for a seat in parliament in the spring 1999 elections and he was first elected to the parliament in 2003. Soini was his partys candidate in the 2006 Presidential election, finishing out of the eight candidates in the first round. In March 2008, Soini wrote a book called Maisterisjätkä. In 2011 he visited the party conference of UKIP, the British political party with which he has had a long friendship. He was also invited to speak at the UK Conservative Party Conference in 2011, the Finns Party obtained 39 seats in the 2011 election, making them the third largest party
4.
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
5.
Politics of Finland
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Politics of Finland takes place in a framework of a parliamentary representative democratic republic and of a multi-party system. The President of Finland is the head of state, leads the foreign policy, the Prime Minister of Finland is the head of government, executive power is exercised by the government. Legislative power is vested in the Parliament of Finland, and the government has limited rights to amend or extend legislation, the president has the power of veto over parliamentary decisions although it can be overrun by the parliament. The judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature, the Judiciary consists of two systems, regular courts and administrative courts, headed by the Supreme Court and the Supreme Administrative Court, respectively. Administrative courts process cases where decisions are contested. There is no Constitutional Court - the constitutionality of a law can be contested only as applied to a court case. Though Finland has a parliamentary system, the president has some notable powers. The foreign policy is led by the president, in co-operation with the cabinet, the main executive power lies in the cabinet headed by the prime minister. Before the constitutional rewrite, which was completed in 2000, the president enjoyed more power, finns enjoy individual and political freedoms, and suffrage is universal at 18, Finnish women became the first in the world to have unrestricted rights both to vote and to stand for parliament. The countrys population is homogeneous with no sizable immigrant population. Few tensions exist between the Finnish-speaking majority and the Swedish-speaking minority, although in certain circles there is a debate about the status of the Swedish language. The labor agreements also pose significant political questions, bargaining is highly centralized and often the government participates to coordinate fiscal policy. Finland has universal validity of collective agreements and often, but not always, the trade unions, employers. Significant trade unions are SAK, STTK, AKAVA and EK, the current Constitution was rewritten on 1 March 2000, the first was adopted on 17 July 1919. The original comprised four constitutional laws and several amendments, which the latter replaces, the Supreme Court may request legislation that interprets or modifies existing laws. Judges are appointed by the President, in principle, the constitutionality of laws in Finland is verified by a simple vote in the parliament. However, the Constitutional Law Committee of the parliament reviews any doubtful bills and recommends changes, in practice, the Constitutional Law Committee fulfills the duties of a constitutional court. A Finnish peculiarity is the possibility of making exceptions to the constitution in ordinary laws that are enacted in the procedure as constitutional amendments
6.
Finnish Declaration of Independence
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The Finnish Declaration of Independence was adopted by the Parliament of Finland on 6 December 1917. Declaring the independence was only part of the process leading to independence of Finland. There were negotiations between the Russian Provisional Government and Finnish authorities, at the time of the vote it was believed that the Provisional Government would be quickly defeated by the rebellion in Saint Petersburg. The Provisional Government survived, however, disapproved of the Power Act, the regency council was however never elected because of the strong opposition of Finnish socialists and their general strike which demanded for more radical action. On 2 November 1917, the Bolsheviks declared a right of self-determination, including the right of complete secession. On the same day the Finnish Parliament issued a declaration by which it assumed, pro tempore, the old Instrument of Government was however no longer deemed suitable. Leading circles had long held monarchism and hereditary nobility to be antiquated, the Senate of Finland, the government the Parliament had appointed in November, drafted a Declaration of Independence and a proposal for a new republican Instrument of Government. Chairman of the Senate Pehr Evind Svinhufvud read the Declaration to the Parliament on 4 December, the Declaration of Independence was technically given the form of a preamble of the proposition, and was intended to be agreed by the Parliament. Parliament adopted the Declaration on 6 December, the people of Finland feel deeply that they cannot fulfil their national and international duty without complete sovereignty. The century-old desire for freedom awaits fulfilment now, Finlands people step forward as a nation among the other nations in the world. Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania declared their independence from Russia during the same period, see Estonian War of Independence, Latvian Independence and Lithuanian Wars of Independence. These three countries were occupied by, and annexed into, the Soviet Union, see Occupation of the Baltic states. The people of Finland have by this step taken their fate in their own hands, the people of Finland feel deeply that they cannot fulfil their national duty and their universal human obligations without a complete sovereignty. The century-old desire for freedom awaits fulfilment now, The People of Finland has to step forward as an independent nation among the nations in the world. Achieving this goal requires mainly some measures by the Parliament, the same goal also calls for measures from the part of the Government. The Government will approach foreign powers to seek an international recognition of our country’s independence as a state. And widely over all the horrors of the war is heard a voice, that one of the goals of the present war is to be, that no nation shall be forced against its will to be dependent on another. The Finnish people believe that the free Russian people and its constitutive National Assembly don’t want to prevent Finland’s aspiration to enter the multitude of the free and independent nations
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