FINNISH
HISTORY AND HISTORY LINKS
Very little is known about Finns before 1100 when the Finns (probably
Lapps) were living in Finland. We know of some places for instance Hämeenlinna
where the Vikings travelled in 900 to 1000. Actually the name "Russian" means Viking
and Russia got its name from them. There is a description in Denmark from 1100 where
monks travel from Denmark via the south coast of Finland to Tallin (Estonia)
that was a Danish fortress. The Orthodox Church had had activities in eastern
Finland (Carelia) before 1100, but little information can be found.
To stop the pressure from east the Swedes came to Finland about 1150.
This happened mostly at the south coast. The Swedes founded the fortress
of Viipuri at the bay of Viipuri to fight the Russians in the 12th century. This
meant that a seaway was opened along the south coast of Finland with new Swedish settlers.
In the 14th century the Swedes started to give loans on land holdings and the
first written ownership papers appeared.
War with Russia was going on all the time and the first peace treaty was
written 1323 in Nöteborg near Viipuri. It is unclear where the actual border
went, especially in northern Finland. The first wave of plague came to Finland
in the 14th century.
First information about Finns starts in the 15th century. There is a
travel book written by Olav Magnus who travelled in Finland in 16th century. The
first Finnish book and Bible was written by Mikael Agricola at the end of
1500 century. Later 1571 an
extra tax was taken and there is a very minute tax list on all houses and
persons. The church started to make notes in the 17th century.
There were several wars with Russians even called "Muscovites"
who for instance attacked along the whole coast of Finland and even went to
Sweden’s east coast in the 16th century. The tactics of the Russians were to
burn down every house and village.
As mentioned Finns were living along the south coast and fishing and huntng were their occupation. From about 1300 to 1520 a convent in Estonia "Padais" owned most of sothern Finland. Unfortunately neary all information is gone. During this time Swedwn-Finland was Chatolic and the King Gustav Wasa destroyed the church and all it's papers in the 16th century..
The 17th and 18th century were the time when Sweden was a great nation.
Its area was most of Scandinavia and the Baltic countries and Swedes and finns (king was Gustav II Adolf)
were fighting in Germany. There was a saying "Sweden is fighting to the
last Finn". Finnish soldiers fought for the Swedish
army.
All the time wars with Russia were going on and in 1809 Sweden lost Finland and
it was annexed to
Russia as part of Russia. Then came a time 1809 to 1917 when Finland was under
Russian rule.
Finland declared itself independent 6.12.1917 but before that we had our
independence war (some people talk about brother war). During this time you were
"white" fighting for independence or "Red" a communist. Many
personal problems aroused at this time brothers were on both sides etc.
The big problem in Finland was WW2. The Russians attacked
30.11.1939 Finland without warnings but Finland could resist a 10-fold enemy and a peace treaty was made in March 1940. (This was called the
Winter war).
Stalin and Ribbentrof had made a secret pact that Finland will become a part of Russia so Russia attacked Finland in 1941. No one helped so Finland had to ask help from Germany. A second time Finland managed to resist Russia but had to give east Carelia to Russia. Finland was never occupied but had to give areas with about 400 000 Finns to Russia. Every-one moved to Finland even the small Russian minority.
Mac Ramsay