From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Finland Portal

The flag of Finland
Location of Finland

Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, opposite Estonia. Finland covers an area of 338,145 square kilometres (130,559 sq mi) and has a population of 5.6 million. Helsinki is the capital and largest city. The vast majority of the population are ethnic Finns. Finnish and Swedish are the official languages, with Swedish being the native language of 5.2% of the population. Finland's climate varies from humid continental in the south to boreal in the north. The land cover is predominantly boreal forest biome, with more than 180,000 recorded lakes.

Finland was first settled around 9000 BC after the last Ice Age. During the Stone Age, various cultures emerged, distinguished by different styles of ceramics. The Bronze Age and Iron Ages were marked by contacts with other cultures in Fennoscandia and the Baltic region. From the late 13th century, Finland became part of the Swedish Empire as a result of the Northern Crusades. In 1809, as a result of the Finnish War, Finland was captured from Sweden and became a Grand Duchy of Finland, an autonomous state ruled by the Russian Empire. During this period, Finnish art flourished and the idea of full independence began to take hold. In 1906, Finland became the first European state to grant universal suffrage, and the first in the world to give all adult citizens the right to run for public office. Following the Russian Revolution of 1917, Finland declared its full independence. In 1918 the young nation was divided by the Finnish Civil War. During World War II, Finland fought against the Soviet Union in the Winter War and the Continuation War, and later against Nazi Germany in the Lapland War. As a result, it lost parts of its territory but retained its independence. ( Full article...)

Refresh with new selections below (purge)
Torvalds in 2018

Linus Benedict Torvalds ( /ˈlnəs ˈtɔːrvɔːldz/ LEE-nəs TOR-vawldz, Finland Swedish: [ˈliːnʉs ˈtuːrvɑlds] ; born 28 December 1969) is a Finnish-American software engineer who is the creator and lead developer of the Linux kernel. He also created the distributed version control system Git.

He was honored, along with Shinya Yamanaka, with the 2012 Millennium Technology Prize by the Technology Academy Finland "in recognition of his creation of a new open source operating system for computers leading to the widely used Linux kernel." He is also the recipient of the 2014 IEEE Computer Society Computer Pioneer Award and the 2018 IEEE Masaru Ibuka Consumer Electronics Award. ( Full article...)
List of selected articles

Selected image - show another


Photo credit: Johannes Jansson/norden.org
Prime Minister of Finland Matti Vanhanen

Did you know (auto-generated)

WikiProjects

WikiProjects

You are invited to participate in Finland WikiProject, a WikiProject dedicated to developing and improving articles about Finland.

More did you know - show different entries

Good article - show another

This is a Good article, an article that meets a core set of high editorial standards.

Lighthouse on Lågskär island

Lågskär ( Swedish for "low skerry") is a small island within the Åland archipelago of Finland. It belongs to the municipality of Lemland. It is situated about 24 kilometres (15 mi) south of Mariehamn in the Baltic's Sea of Åland. The main island of Lågskär measures 61 hectares (150 acres) in area. Rock stacks, sea cliffs and rocky shores are found along the coastline of the island.

As a breeding ground for waterfowl, Lågskär has the status of an Important Bird Area (IBA) and is frequented by ornithologists who use the Lågskär Lighthouse buildings during their stay. In the past, several vessels have sunk off the coast. ( Full article...)
List of Good articles

General images

The following are images from various Finland-related articles on Wikipedia.

In the news

2 April 2024 – Viertola school shooting
A student is killed and two others are injured in a shooting at a school in Vantaa, Uusimaa, Finland. A 12-year-old student is detained. (AP) (Yle)
1 March 2024 – 2024 Finnish presidential election
Alexander Stubb is sworn in as the 13th President of Finland. (Reuters)
11 February 2024 – 2024 Finnish presidential election
Alexander Stubb is elected President of Finland with 51.6% of the vote. (Yle)
27 January 2024 – Israel–Hamas war
The United Kingdom, United States, Australia, Italy, Canada, Finland, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and Germany suspend humanitarian aid to UNRWA over allegations that some UNRWA staff members were involved in the Hamas-led attack on Israel. (BBC News) (CBS News)
14 December 2023 – Finland–United States relations
Finland announces the creation of a defense cooperation agreement with the United States. The agreement will grant Finland access to American military resources for use in defensive operations, while the US will gain military access to Finland in the event of conflict. (Reuters)
29 November 2023 – Finland–Poland relations, Finland–Russia relations
National Security Bureau chief Jacek Siewiera announces that Poland will send "a team of military advisors" to the Finland–Russia border in response to an official request for allied support. Finland says it was unaware of the Polish offer. Russia warns against the move, viewing the concentration of troops on the border as a threat. (Reuters)

Related portals


Northern Europe


Other countries

Selected panorama - show another

View of Helsinki
View of Helsinki
Photo credit: commons:User:Zyance
Panoramic photo shot of Helsinki, Finland

Topics

Categories

Category puzzle
Category puzzle
Select [►] to view subcategories

Recognized content

Extended content

Featured articles

Featured lists

Good articles

Did you know? articles

Featured pictures

In the News articles

Main page featured articles

Main page featured lists

Picture of the day pictures


Things you can do

Associated Wikimedia

The following Wikimedia Foundation sister projects provide more on this subject:

Discover Wikipedia using portals