Finland

Description

Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country located in Northern Europe. Finland shares land borders with Sweden to the west, The Russian SFSR and the greater Soviet Union as a whole to the east, and Norway to the north and is defined by the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south that are part of the Baltic Sea. The main language is Finnish, a Finnic language of the Uralic language family. Finland is a parliamentary republic consisting of 19 regions and 310 municipalities.

History

Finland was initially inhabited around 9000 BC after the Last Glacial Period. In modern times, after the 1917 Russian Revolution, Finland declared itself independent from the empire. In 1918, the fledgling state was divided by the Finnish Civil War. During World War II, Finland fought the Soviet Union in the Winter War and the Continuation War, and Nazi Germany in the Lapland War. After the wars, Finland lost part of its territory, but maintained its independence.