Finland

The Finland ( Suomi in Finnish, Finland in Swedish) is a country of the Northern Europe, member of the European Union and zone Euro. It divides borders common with the Russia to the east, the Sweden in the North-West and the Norway in north.

Languages

The official languages are the Finnois and the Swedish (see Swedish in Finland ).

Finnish is a agglutinant Langue pertaining to the family of the Finno-ugric Langues, which also includes/understands the Estonian , the same (Lappish) and the Hungarian. These languages are distinguished from the other spoken languages in Europe because, just as the Basque, they are not Indo-European.

The bases of written Finnish were codified by Mikael Agricola, which wrote alphabetical in 1543.

Finnish” and “Finnish” words the “can be employed indifferently in the current language to indicate the language. The use more running in French is to make the distinction between the two terms:

  • the “Finnish” term is employed to indicate historico-ethnological realities and can be used to speak about the people and language: one can speak thus about “the Finnish Langue”, one can speak about “old Finnish” (which occupied gradually from -500 the territory of current Finland), one can “speak Finnish”, etc On the other hand, one cannot say today that Finland is populated of Finnish, because this term returns to a reality other than demographic.
  • the terms “Finland” and “Finnish” refer to a State, born as such in 1917, and with the nationality of the population.

There is in Finland a large majority of finnophones (approximately 91,5  % of the population, cf Demography of Finland) and there is also a minority suédophone (approximately: 300000 people), and a minority of expression samy (Lapps). One currently estimates the number of speakers of language samy at 1500 on the territory of Finland. To that is added a minority relatively important Rom (close to: 10000 people). There are thus in Finland of the Finns of Finnish origin finnophones and suédophones (all the suédophones are not Swede descendants), others of Swedish origin suédophones or finnophones (of the former Swedes having changed language), of Samis of Finnish expression (which lost the knowledge of the sami as the Breton ones of Breton origin can not include/understand the Breton one more, etc).

Finnish belongs to the Finno-ugric family of the languages. It has distant bonds with the Hungarian and more close relations with the Estonian .

The name of many cities of the littoral band is expressed in the 2 languages; thus of Helsinki (Helsingfors), Turku (Åbo) or Tampere (Tammerfors), for example. The bilingual road signs is also present in many municipalities.

History

See also: History of Finland

Finland was during the Moyen-âge and until the beginning of the 19th century part of the kingdom of Sweden. It passed under the sovereignty of Russia of 1809 to 1917 as a autonomous Grand-Duché. Several wars between these two countries were held in Finland, in particular where the Swedish fortress of Suomenlinna (Swedish Sveaborg) is, with the entry of Helsinki.

In also “the Book testifies to Gold of the Baltic”, natural harbor consisted rock small islands in the vicinity immediate of Hanko (Hangö), where many sailors, left guerroyer against the Russians, left a trace of their passage, engraved in the rock.

In 1917, during the Russian revolutionary events, Finland obtains its independence, following the example its Baltic neighbors (December 6th, 1917).

November 30th 1939, Finland is attacked by the Soviet Union (Guerre of Winter) following territorial dissensions concerning of the islands of the gulf of Finland and must sign peace in 1940, at the price of important territorial losses. The attack of the USSR by the Germany in 1941 (Operation Barbarossa) made of Finland allied a de facto of Germany (Finland and Germany were not strictly speaking allies, but both fought against the USSR, for different reasons). The Finns pass to the offensive (Guerre of Continuation), but the successive defeats of Germany lead them to sign a separated peace with the USSR in 1944. The German army in retirement will make pay this abandonment expensive and Finland will leave ruined and devastated this war. Forced after the war to pay heavy repairs by the peace treaty signed in Paris in 1947, Finland, contrary to its Baltic neighbors, saves his independence however. It will put forward indeed that its combat was justified by the will to recover the territories lost in 1940 and that it had not helped the German army to encircle definitively Leningrad during the winter 1941. It adopts then a policy of strict neutrality during the Cold war. In Occident, this position will be called “the Finlandisation”.

In 1995, Finland adheres to the European Union; it adopts the Euro like currency in 1999.

Policy

See also: Political of Finland

Finland is a parliamentary democracy. The president of the Republic has considerable capacities, but currently plays a role less marked in the political life than twenty years ago. The government ( valtioneuvosto in Finnish or statsrådet in Swedish) is directed by the Prime Minister who is chosen by the Parliament. The government is consisted of the Prime Minister, of the various ministers for the central government and a member of office, the Chancellor of justice.

The Parliament ( Eduskunta in Finnish or Riksdag in Swedish) Unicaméral consists of 200  deputies, and constitutionally has the supreme legislative authorities in Finland. It can modify the Constitution, revoke the government, and counter the presidential vetoes. Its acts cannot be judicially disputed. The laws can be proposed by the government or one of the members of Eduskunta, who are elected by the vote proportional for one 4 years duration.

The legal system includes/understands the Courts of Bankruptcy which consider civil cases and penal, courses of call and a Supreme court. The administrative dispute is spring of the administrative courts, administrative courts of call and supreme Administrative court. Certain particular administrative jurisdictions are charged to treat litigations, for example in the field of water.

The Parliament, since the vote for all (women including) was founded in 1906, was dominated by the agrarian parties (centrist party Maalaisliitto , currently Suomen Keskusta ), social democrats ( SDP ) and Communists (left alliance Vasemmistoliitto ). One can note that the political spectrum was marked more by the influence of the currents anti-Socialists (with the Soviet direction) that in other similar countries having had less contacts with the the USSR.

The constitution and its place in the legal system are single, in the direction where there is no Constitutional court and where the Supreme court cannot intervene on a law with the only pretext that it is anticonstitutional. The constitutional value of a law depends on a simple parliamentary vote. Only the other European countries not to be had constitutional supreme body are the Netherlands, the Suisse and the the United Kingdom (this last not having besides at all a constitution).

Administrative cutting

See also: Provinces of Finland, Areas of Finland

Finland is subdivided in six provinces ( läänit in Finnois, län in Swedish), according to a recutting of 1997 replacing the old provinces.

The provinces are cut out in areas (or districts). The country counts 20 areas. This administrative level results from the reform of 1997.

Finally the areas are divided into communes (municipalities); there are 431, of which 114 have the statute of cities.

Geography

See also: Geography of Finland

Capital: Helsinki (Helsingfors) (: 559330 inhabitants)
Other important cities: Espoo (Esbo), Tampere (Tammerfors), Turku (Åbo), Vantaa (Vanda), Oulu (Uleåborg), Kuopio, Jyväskylä, Rovaniemi.
Population: : 5255580 inhabitants (at the end of 2005)
Surface: : 338145 km ²
Density: 15 hab. /km ²

Borders: the maritime frontages of Finland open on the the Baltic, with in the west the Gulf of Bothnia and in the south the Golfe of Finland.
Land borders: : 2628 km (Russia: 1313 km; Norway 729 km; Sweden 586 km)
Littoral: : 1126 km

Relief: the Finnish landscape is flat in the south-western part and in the vast coastal plains of Ostrobothnie, undulating of hills in the center and is. Lapland sometimes mountainous, but is generally made of vast rather plane extents.
Culminating point: the highest point (: 1328 m), the mount Halti, are in the north-western point of the Lapland, close to the Norwegian border.
Ends of altitude: 0 m > +: 1328 m

Landscapes: Finland is a country to the thousands of lakes (whose majority communicate between them) and of islands (: 187888 lakes and: 179584 islands). One of these lakes, the Saimaa, is the larger fifth of Europe. Beside the many lakes, the landscape is dominated by the forests boreal S (approximately 68% of the country) and relatively little arable lands. The majority of the islands are in south-west, the Archipel of Åland, and along the southernmost coast of the Golfe of Finland.

Climate: the climate of southernmost Finland is Scandinavian. In Finland of north, particularly in Lapland, the Climat subarctic dominates, characterized by winters sometimes very cold (being able to go down up to -40°C). In the south and south-west, the winters can be hard, according to the years. Snowing up, in any case, is more irregular than in Finnish north. The summer sees the thermometer going up until 29°C. Finland is, in any case, a poor country of pluviometry: 400 mm of rain in Lapland and in the east carélien, 550 to 700 mm in south-west.

See also: Towns of Finland .

Economy

See also: Economy of Finland, List of Finnish companies

Finland is the fatherland of Nokia, world leader in mobile telephony, as well as many other large companies, such as for example: Kone, Marimekko, Amer Sports, Genelec, VR-Yhtymä OY, Fiskars, UPM-Kymmene, Stora Enso, F-Secure. Active population: 2,66 million (2004)
Distribution active population: public service 32  %, industry 22  %, trade 14  %, finance and services 10  %, agriculture and forest 8  %, transport and communication 8  %, construction 6  %
Unemployment: 8,9  % (2004)

Finland is one of the 11 countries to have adopted the Euro on January 1st, 1999.

UNO, through the calculation of IDH (synthetic measurement of the level of development of the countries) place Finland in 11th world position in 2004.

Demography and population

See also: Demography of Finland

Population: : 5255580 inhabitants (at the end of 2005)
Distribution by age groups: 0-14  ans : 18  %; 15-64  ans : 66,97  %; +  65  years: 15,03  %

Life expectancy of the men: 74  years (en  2001)
Life expectancy of the women: 81  years (en  2001)
Growth rate of the population: 0,16  % (en  2001)
Birth rate: 10,69  ‰ (en  2001)
Death rate: 9,75  ‰ (en  2001)
infantile Death rate: 3,79  ‰ (en  2001)
Fertility rate: 1,7  child/woman (en  2001)
Rate of migration: 0,61  ‰ (en  2001)

Education system

See also: Education system Finnish

Education is regarded as one of the basic rights of all the Finnish citizens. It is about the right to receive a secondary formation free (college included). The law guarantees this right for all the residents and not only for the Finnish citizens.

The children in Finland who enter to the school at 7 years “passed their childhood to be played crib”, they can learn the alphabet one year before entering to the school, but nothing is required. Fundamental teaching is a teaching of general culture exempted with the whole of the age groups. It is intended for the child of its seventh at his sixteenth year. The fundamental school thus lasts nine years and corresponds to the achievement of the compulsory schooling. In fundamental teaching, the groups are formed by age groups. During the first six years, there are in general a principal teacher who teaches the majority of the matters, or all. During the three last years, teaching is usually done by matters so that the teachers are specialized according to those. In fundamental teaching are also integrated the teaching orientation of the pupil and, where necessary, a specific teaching of support.

The programs resemble the French programs, in reduced version. It includes at least the following matters: native tongue and literature, second national language (Swedish or Finnish, according to the case), foreign languages, knowledge of the environment, civics, religion or morals, history, social sciences, mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, geography, physical education and sporting, music, drawing, work manual and domestic. The definition of the general objectives at the national level and the time distribution of the various matters or matter combinations in the teaching and the teaching orientation of the pupil are spring of the government. The national management of teaching defines the particular objectives and the principal contents of teaching by stopping the bases of the school programs. On these bases, each establishment determines concretely, at the local level, its program of teaching. There is no examination at the end of the compulsory schooling (at 16 years). The redoublings and the abandonments are extremely rare.

Moreover, the school is free, like the school transport and the lunch. The schedules are soft: the day starts at 8 a.m. and finishes around 1 p.m. The afternoon is devoted to the sports, the artistic activities, discovered nature and there are practically no duties at the house. After the elementary school, the young Finns can choose between the Lycée and the Vocational school which last approximately three years.

Finland has been for several years world champion for the effectiveness of the school system. According to the investigation RAMMED on the assets of the young people of 15  years (2000 and 2003), Finland arrives indeed at the head in mathematics (France : 13e  position), in control of the reading (France : 14e  position), in Sciences (France : 10e  position) and in capacity to solve a problem (Finland: 2e  position, France : 10e  position). However this powerful country devotes only 6,2  % of its GDP whereas France devotes 6,9  of it; %. If one believes of them the surveys carried out into this success, the relations with the professors are very good, the climate is less with repression than with the self-discipline. If a pupil loses foot, not question of redoubling, from the specialized professors (2 or 3 by establishment) come to lend strong hand to their colleague in the class or give private lessons, as much as it is necessary. The teachers are located from a point of view of accompaniment. Contrary to what occurs to France, the texts, the hierarchy, the Masters there are very respected and their recognized authority.

The system is entirely decentralized. The director and his team have a great room for maneuver in the organization of the establishment. The school takes care itself of the recruiting of the professors. It there not of inspectors, but of the ministerial evaluations of internal use. The professors are evaluated between them. The municipalities finance the establishments with height of 50  % of the budget, the remainder being financed by the state.

Higher education includes/understands two types of institutions: the Universities and the professionnalized academic institutes. To enter there it is necessary to pass from the contests. The system of higher education is very decentralized with about fifty establishments.

Culture

See also: Finnish Culture

The Finnish culture is clean in Finland, and is distinguished notably from those of the adjoining countries. In one century spite of within Russia, and of a border of more than thousand kilometers with this country, the Russian cultural influences are much less strong than the influences Swedish and German. The feeling of Finnish cultural identity was born at the 19th century, when Finland belonged to Russia, and that the latter let be born, even encouraged, the feeling of national identity.

Music

See also: Finnish Music

A large side of the Finnish music is influenced by the melodies and the words of the traditional Musique Carélienne, such as it is expressed by the Kalevala. the culture carélienne is regarded as the purest expression of the Mythe S and Croyance S of the Finnish culture, and the least influenced by the Germanic culture . The Finnish traditional music saw a revival since some decades, and became a branch of the popular Musique. The people of the north of Finland, the Saami, have their clean musical tradition.

The large national type-setter is Jean Sibelius whose major work Finlandia symbolizes best the birth of the Finnish national identity.

The Finnish popular modern music includes a famous scene of metal, musical phenomenon divided with the others Scandinavian Pays, as well as a certain number of groups of Rock, musicians of Jazz and representatives of the Hip-hop. The Finnish music is also represented by a great number of artists of classical music.

Cinema

See also: Finnish Cinema

The Finnish realizers most famous are Aki Kaurismäki, Mika Kaurismäki and Timo Koivusalo. The realizer and Hollywood producer Renny Harlin was born in Finland.

Cook

See also: Finnish Kitchen

The Finnish traditional kitchen was strongly influenced by the kitchens Swedish, German and Russian. There are however differences and singularities. For example, the Finnish dishes tend to be less sweetened than the Swedish dishes, and the Finns use less cream smetana than the Russian neighbors. In more moved back times, the Finnish kitchen varied from one area to another, and differed notably between the West and Is of Finland.

The Breakfast traditional, very consistent, is a true meal. The To lunch, which is a rather light meal, fast and not very formal, is in general consumed around 11  h  30, “where one is”, is for those which work: on the work place or in a canteen. The Dîner is taken between 17 and 18  hours, at the house.

Bank holidays and festivals

See also: Bank holidays in Finland

Sports

See also: Finnish Sport

The sport is a national pastime in Finland, and many Finns go regularly to the sporting events. The national sport is the Pesäpallo, near to the Baseball, but the most popular sports in term of audience and press coverage are the Hockey and the Formule 1. The Football is also very popular in Finland, although the national team is never qualified for the World cup or the Championnat of Europe of football.

Finland is the cradle of Keke Rosberg, Mika Häkkinen and Kimi Räikkönen, three champions of Formula 1. Kimi Räikkönen currently runs to Ferrari, Heikki Kovalainen, at Renault F1 TEAM. Finland also gave rise to great champions of rally, such as Ari Vatanen, Hannu Mikkola, Juha Kankkunen, Tommi Mäkinen and Marcus Grönholm. The hockey player Saku Koivu is the captain of the team of the Canadian of Montreal of the LNH. One can also add Teemu Selänne which gained the Coupe Stanley with the Ducks d' Anaheim in 2007.

Among the most famous Finnish athletes of times spent, there is Hannes Kolehmainen (1890 - 1966), Paavo Nurmi (1897 - 1973) and Ville Ritola (1896 - 1982), which, with them three, gained 25 Olympic medals of basic race. They are regarded as being the first of a generation of large Finnish long-distance runners, called the “Finnish wheels”. Another long-distance runner, Wearies Virén (born in 1949), gained 4 gold medals during the Olympic Games of 1972 and 1976.

Various cultural concepts

  • the Finnish Mythologie was compiled and put in form written by Elias Lönnrot under the title the Kalevala .

  • arts and spectacles in Finland: Kiasma, Palate Finlandia,…

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