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 a total area of 338,145 square kilometres (130,559 sq mi), including a land area of 303,815 square kilometres (117,304 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. The official languages are Finnish and Swedish; 84.9 percent of the population speak the first as their mother tongue and 5.1 percent the latter. 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.
Helsinki is the capital and most populous city in Finland. It is on the shore of the Gulf of Finland and is the seat of southern Finland's Uusimaa region. About 675,000 people live in the municipality, with 1.25 million in the capital region and 1.58 million in the metropolitan area. As the most populous urban area in Finland, it is the country's most significant centre for politics, education, finance, culture, and research. Helsinki is 80 kilometres (50 mi) north of Tallinn, Estonia, 360 kilometres (220 mi) north of Riga, Latvia, 400 kilometres (250 mi) east of Stockholm, Sweden, and 300 kilometres (190 mi) west of Saint Petersburg, Russia. Helsinki has significant historical connections with these four cities.
Kaarlo Juho Ståhlberg was a Finnish jurist and academic who was one of the most important pioneers of republicanism in the country. He was the first president of Finland (1919–1925) and a liberal nationalist.
The Centre Party, officially the Centre Party of Finland, is an agrarian-centrist political party in Finland. Ideologically, the Centre Party is positioned in the centre of the political spectrum. It has been described as liberal, social-liberal, liberal-conservative, and conservative-liberal. The party’s leader is Antti Kaikkonen, who was elected in June 2024 to succeed former minister Annika Saarikko. As of June 2023, the party has been part of the parliamentary opposition.
Uusimaa is a region of Finland. It borders the regions of Southwest Finland, Tavastia Proper (Kanta-Häme), Päijänne Tavastia (Päijät-Häme), and Kymenlaakso. Finland's capital and largest city, Helsinki, along with the surrounding metropolitan area, are both contained in the region, and Uusimaa is Finland's most populous region. The population of Uusimaa is 1,734,000.
Helsingin Jalkapalloklubi, commonly known as HJK Helsinki, or simply as HJK, is a Finnish football club based in Helsinki. The club competes in Veikkausliiga, the top division of the Finnish football league system. Founded in 1907, the club has spent most of its history in the top tier of Finnish football. The club's home ground is the 10,770-seat Bolt Arena, where they have played their home games since 2000.
Raimo Ilaskivi is a Finnish politician. He holds a doctorate degree in political science from the University of Helsinki and has also studied in the United States and in the United Kingdom. He was born as Raimo Hämäläinen but changed his surname to Ilaskivi in 1947.
Leopold Henrik Stanislaus Mechelin, known as Leo Mechelin, was a Finnish politician, professor, liberal reformer and businessman. A leading defender of the autonomy of the Grand Duchy of Finland, and of the rights of women and minorities, Mechelin's 1905–1908 government ("Mechelin's Senate") made Finland the first nation in the world with the universal right to vote and to be elected. During his period in office the freedom of expression, the press, and of assembly were introduced. Mechelin was born and died in Helsinki, Finland.
The European Amateur Boxing Championships is the highest competition for boxing amateurs in Europe, organised by the continent's governing body EUBC, which stands for the European Boxing Confederation. The first edition of the tournament took place in 1924, although the first 'competitive' championships were hosted by the city of Stockholm (Sweden) in 1925.
Kjell Westö is a Finnish author and journalist. Westö writes in Swedish. Best known for his epic novels set in Helsinki, he has also written short stories, poetry, essays and newspaper columns.
Somalis in Finland are residents and citizens of Finland of Somali ancestry. As of 2023, 25,654 Finns had a Somali-background, making it the fourth most common foreign country of origin and the largest from Africa.
Kalle Kustaa Topias Könkkölä was a Finnish politician and human rights activist. He was one of the two first Green members of the Finnish Parliament, from 1983 to 1987, even before the Green League became a political party. He was the first chairperson of the Green League and the first Finnish MP with a disability.
Lars Evert Huldén was a Swedish-speaking Finn writer, scholar and translator. Born in Jakobstad, Finland, he was professor at Helsinki university 1964–1989. In 1986 Huldén received an honorary doctorate from the Faculty of Humanities at Uppsala University, Sweden. He was a member of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters from 1993.
Kalervo Kurkiala was a Finnish soldier who later became a pastor. During World War I, he served as a volunteer in the German light infantry, his first engagement being on the Misa River in Latvia on the eastern front in 1916. He was a battalion commander in the White Army during the Finnish Civil War, which broke out in 1918. After being ordained in 1919, for a while he was an army chaplain before assuming civilian duties as a pastor and teacher. For several years, he served with the Seamen's mission in Australia. During World War II, in 1941, Kurkiala volunteered as chaplain to the Finnish volunteer brigade in the Waffen-SS. After the war, for many years, he was a pastor in Sweden.
The following is a timeline of the history of the city of Helsinki, Finland.
Annie Fredrika Furuhjelm was a Finnish journalist, feminist activist, and writer. She was a member of the Parliament of Finland from 1913 to 1924 and again from 1927 to 1929, representing the Swedish People's Party of Finland (SFP). She was the first enfranchised woman in Europe to serve as a delegate to the International Women Suffrage Alliance and the first elected female legislator to speak before the British Parliament.
Kaarina Elisabeth Suonio is a Finnish retired politician and psychologist. She represented Helsinki in the Parliament of Finland from 1975 to 1986 as a member of the Social Democratic Party. From 1982 to 1986, she was Finland's minister of education, and from 1994 to 1997, she was the last governor of Häme Province prior to its merger with other provinces.
Kristian Gestrin (1929–1990) was a Finnish judge and politician who served in several cabinet posts in the 1970s. He was a long-term member of the Finnish Parliament. He also headed the Swedish People's Party of Finland in the period 1973–1974.
Yngvar Sigurd Heikel was a Finland-Swedish ethnologist.
Skrifter utgivna av Svenska litteratursällskapet i Finland is a book series in Swedish, published in Finland since 1886 by the Society of Swedish Literature in Finland (SLS). The main series reached number 734 in the year 2010. The series has several sub-series with own themes and numbering. Several of the publications have been digitised and made freely available by the National Library of Finland.
