Officially named The Republic of Finland, Finnish Suomi, or Suomen Tasavalta, Swedish Finland, or Republiken Finland, European country. It is one of the world’s most northern and geographically remote countries and is subject to a severe climate. Witers can drop to as low as -40.It is bordered on the north by Norway, on the northwest by Sweden, on the southwest by the Gulf of Botnia, on the south by the Gulf of Finland, and on the east by Russia. Its area is 130,559 square miles (338,145 square kilometres), of which the Åland Islands, an archipelago at the entrance to the Gulf of Botnia, constitute 590 square miles. About one-third of the territory of Finland—most of the lääni (province) of Lappi—lies north of the Arctic Circle. The capital is Helsinki.
Finland like Poland
Finland was part of Sweden from the 12th century until 1809. It then was a Russian grand duchy until, following the Russian Revolution, the Finns declared independence on Dec. 6, 1917. Finland’s area decreased by about one-tenth during the 1940s, when it ceded the Petsamo (Pechenga) area, which had been a corridor to the ice-free Arctic coast, and a large part of southeastern Karelia to the Soviet Union (ceded portions now in Russia).Today there are many Finnish people still trying to get the land back from Russia:They call it Karelia Back.Though many also believe there is no point as the land once belonging to Finland is now so heavily poluted
Throughout the Cold War era, Finland maintained a carefully neutral political position, although a 1948 treaty with the Soviet Union (terminated 1991) required Finland to repel any attack on the Soviet Union carried out through Finnish territory by Germany or any of its allies. Since World War II, Finland has steadily increased its trading and cultural relations with other countries. Under a U.S.-Soviet agreement, Finland was admitted to the United Nations in 1955. Since 1955, Finland has sent representatives to the Nordic Council, which makes suggestions to member countries on the coordination of policies.
Finland’s international activities became more widely known when the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe
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The land
Relief
Finland is heavily forested and contains some 55,000 lakes, numerous rivers, and extensive areas of marshland; viewed from the air, Finland looks like an intricate blue and green jigsaw puzzle,this beautiful sight can often be seen when flying out or into Finland. Except in the northwest, relief features do not vary greatly, and travelers on the ground or on the water can rarely see beyond the trees in their immediate vicinity. The landscape nevertheless possesses a striking—if sometimes bleak—beauty.
Finland’s underlying structure is a huge worn-down shield composed of ancient rock, mainly granite, dating from Precambrian time (3,800,000,000 to 540,000,000 years ago). The land is low-lying in the southern part of the country and higher in the centre and the northeast, while the few mountainous regions are in the extreme northwest, adjacent to Finland’s borders with Sweden and Norway. In this area there are several high peaks, including Mount Haltia, which, at 4,357 feet (1,328 metres), is Finland’s highest mountain.
The coastline of Finland, some 2,760 miles (4,600 kilometres) in length, is extremely indented and dotted with thousands of islands. The greatest number of these are to be found in the southwest, in the Turun (Turku) archipelago, which merges with the Åland Islands in the west. The southern islands in the Gulf of Finland are mainly of low elevation, while those lying along the southwest coastline may rise to heights of more than 400 feet.
Finlands relief is greatly affected by The Ice Age. The retreating continental glacier left the bedrock littered with morainic deposits in formations of eskers, remarkable winding ridges of stratified gravel and sand, running northwest to southeast. One of the biggest formations is theSalpausselkä ridges, three parallel ridges running across southern Finland in an arc pattern. The weight of the glaciers, sometimes miles thick, depressed the Earth’s crust by many hundreds of feet. As a consequence, areas that have been released from the weight of the ice sheets have risen and continue to rise, and Finland is still emerging from the sea. Land rise of some 0.4 inch (9 millimetres) annually in the narrow part of the Gulf of Botnia is gradually turning the old sea bottom into dry land.
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