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Visiting Finland has been likened to stepping into a refreshing shower on a hot day. Even in the cultured capital, Helsinki, the air is clean, and the countryside has a cool beauty. The western coast is fringed with countless islands, while the southern Saimaa district is drenched by myriad sapphire lakes. Here you can sail, fish, or take a relaxing sauna – followed, of course, by a dip in the lake. In Kuusamo, there are ancient forests where bears and wolves roam, and where lichens glisten on the trees lining the waymarked walking trails.
And in Lapland, far to the north, the indigenous Sami people still tend their reindeer herds – when they’re not surfing the Internet: Finland is one of the most technologically switched-on countries in the world.
It is also renowned for its design and architecture, in particular those of Alvar Aalto, whose humanist approach to modernism extended into fields such as glassware, furniture
and major buildings.
Indeed, besides such innovation, Finland’s rich and sometimes turbulent history is also revealed in its buildings: onion-domed
Orthodox churches speak of the days when it was part of Russia, while fortresses like Suomenlinna Castle recall centuries of Swedish rule. During the first millennium BC, various peoples settled in Finland,
including the nomadic Saami, who inhabited the north of the country, and the Tavastians from central Europe. Competition for influence in the area was
fierce, with a tug-of-war between Sweden and Russia continuing for hundreds of years.
In 1917, Finland was an autonomous region within the Russian Empire but, in the aftermath of the Bolshevik Revolution, Finland
declared independence, which the new Soviet government accepted after brief efforts to re-assert control. Further fighting between the two took
place on the fringes of WWII, between 1939 and 1941. Under a formal peace treaty signed in 1947, the Finns agreed to cede
territory to the Soviet Union and pay reparation.
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Overview 
