Finland; key historical events
Page last modified 1/2/2020
2002, Finland adopted the Euro.
16/4/1994, In a referendum in Finland, voters decided to join
the European
Union (joined 1995).
1989, The Soviet Union
recognised Finnish neutrality.
4/11/1955, Matti
Vanhanen, Prime Minister of Finland 2003-2010, was born in
Jyvaskyla.
9/3/1954, Gains for the Centre and Right in Finnish elections.
18/9/1952,
3/4/1952, Miina
Sillanpaa, Finnish politician, died.
27/1/1951, Carl Mannerheim, Finnish soldier and
politician, who as President secured his country’s independence from
1948, Finland signed a Treaty of
Friendship with the USSR, promising to resist any attack on te USSR made
through Finland by Germany or its allies.
10/2/1947. The
9/1945, The Aaland Island Assembly
unsucesfully tried to join Sweden.
26/2/1944, The Finnish capital, Helsinki, was devastated in a
12-hour air raid by 600 Soviet bombers.
24/2/1944, Finnish Prime Minister, Risto Ryti, made peace
approaches to the USSR.
12/3/1940. Finland signed a peace treaty with the USSR,
surrendering large areas of territory on the Karelia Peninsula. See
30/11/1939. The Finns had lost over 20%
of their fighting force in 3 months.
Finland surrendered over 10,000 square miles of territory to the USSR.
The border was returned to roughly where it had been drawn by Peter the Great
in 1720. In the hope of recovering these
lands, Finland sided with Germany when Hitler attacked the USSR on 22/6/1941.
3/3/1940, Soviet General Timoshenko sent a battalion across the
frozen Gulf of Finland to attack and occupy the Finnish town of Vilajoki. This opened the road to Helsinki itself for
the Soviet Army.
23/2/1940, The USSR presented terms of surrender to Finland.
Finland was to cede considerable territory in the Karelia and Lake Ladoga
regions, and Finland must protect the Russian border in the NW.
16/2/1940. Soviet troops pierced the Mannerheim Line of the
Finnish defences at Summa.
1/2/1940. The Soviet army launched an attack in
28/1/1940, Finnish troops gained ground against the Russians
at Kuhmo.
15/1/1940, In order to reverse earlier Soviet losses in the
war against Finland, Stalin appointed General Semyon Timoshenko as
commander, and brought in heavy siege artillery to demolish the Mannerheim
Line. Finnish troops got no rest, day or night, as their gunposts were
destroyed, and gave in due to exhaustion.
2/1/1940, A further Soviet offensive in Karelia against
Finland ended in failure.
For main
European events of World War Two see France-Germany
See also Russia for more
events of Finland-Russia conflict 1939-40
29/12/1939, The Soviet 163rd Division was surrounded at
Suomissalmi. It broke up and fled, leaving 11 tanks, 25 guns, and 150 lorries
to the victorious Finns. After the Finns recaptured Suossalmi, they crossed
into Soviet Karelia, inflicting some 27,000 casualties on the Russian forces.
22/12/1939, The Russian attack on the Mannerheim Line, SE
Finland, from the Gulf of Finland to the River Vukosi, petered out on the face
of impregnable Finnish resistance. The Soviets totally lacked ski troops,
whereas the Finnish Army was well trained in their use. Soviet troops found themselves cut off from
supplies, and in some cases their units were surrounded and annihilated.
9/12/1939, Amphibious assaults and air raids in Helsinki
ceased as winter set in, giving the Finnish defenders a tactical advantage over
the Russians. However in NE Finland, Russians captured the town of Suossalmi,
where Finnish troops were more thinly spread.
5/12/1939, Russian troops invading Finland reached the
Mannerheim Line, and were held there.
4/12/1939, The USSR rejected League of Nations intervention
over its invasion of Finland, claiming it was merely ‘supporting the new
Finnish People’s Government’, as led by Otto Kuusinen.
1/12/1939, Russia established a pro-Soviet Finnish Government
at Terijoki led by Otto Kuusinen.
30/11/1939. The USSR attacked Finland. Finland had earlier
refused Soviet demands to use bases on its territory against Germany. Helsinki
was heavily bombed. See 12/3/1940.
28/11/1939. Stalin
renounced the Finno-Soviet non-aggression pact. On 30/11/1939 the
3/3/1932, In Finland the suppression of the Mantasala
Rising, a pro-Facsist Lapua Movement who had gathered at Mantsala, was
completed.
11/11/1930, Finland
enacted repressive legislation against Communists.
14/10/1930, An
attempted Fascist coup in Finland.
1929, The Lapua Movement began in Finland. It was a quasi-Fascist
organisation, named after the town of Lapua where it began. It succeeded,
through pressure and acts of violence, in having the Communist Party’s front
organisations banned in Finland in 1930, but was irself banned in 1932 after an
attempted failed armed coup against the Finnish Government.
1921, Finland
gained possession of the Aaland Islands.
14/10/1920. Russia recognised the independence of
1919, The Finnish Communist
Party was formed. It was illegal in Finland.
6/6/1919. Finland declared war on
14/4/1918, In
6/4/1918. In
See Russia for
events of 1917 Revolution
6/12/1917. Finland became independent from
29/7/1917, Taking advantage of Revolutionary chaos, the Finns
declared their independence from Russia.
1906, Finland introduced
universal suffrage.
22/9/1902. Czar Nicholas II abolished the nominal
independence of
1901, The Finnish Army ceased to
exist as a separate entity, its units being absorbed into the Russian Army.
1900, Russian began to replace
Finnish as the official language.
1899, Czar Nicholas II began a process
of Russification of Finland.
1879, Finland passed a
conscription law, so starting to create a Finnish Army.
4/6/1867, Carl Mannerheim, Finnish soldier and
politician, President, was born in Vilnas.
1863, Finnish became an official
language, alongside Swedish.
30/3/1856. The Treaty of Paris ended the Crimean War. Russia
agreed to demilitarise the Black Sea, demolishing its naval bases at Sevastopol
and three other locations. It also renounced its claim to protect the Holy
Places in Palestine. Russia ceded a part
of Bessarabia, forcing it back from the Danube River. The Treaty also stipulated that the Aland Islands should not be
fortified, by the army or navy. This allayed British fears over threats to its
trade in the Baltic, see Russia-1854.
11/1827, Much of Abo burned down in
a great fire. The University and its
large library were destroyed.
19/8/1814, Gustaf Mauritz Armfelt, Governor General of
the Grand Duchy of Finland, died in Tsarskoe Selo (born 31/3/1757 in Finland).
17/9/1809, In February 1808 Tsar Alexander invaded Finland,
then part of Sweden, without a declaration of war. On this day the Treaty of Fredrikshamn ended the war; Sweden ceded Finland and the
Aland Islands to Russia. Sweden was unable to secure an undertaking by Russia
not to fortify the Aland Islands, which were close to Stockholm, but see
30/3/1856.
Abo (Turku) was nominated the capital of Finland,
but was replaced by Helsingfors (Helsinki) as capital in 1819.
21/2/1808. Russia occupied Finland, which was
formerly under Swedish domination.
21/6/1788,
King Gustavus III of Sweden invaded Russian Finland, without declaring war first.
31/3/1757, Gustaf Mauritz Armfelt, Governor General of
the Grand Duchy of Finland, was born in Finland (died 19/8/1814 in Tsarskoe
Selo).
1581, Finland became a Grand
Duchy, under the Swedish Crown.
1556, John III of Sweden became ruler
of Finland.
1550, Helsingfors (Helsinki), Finland,
was founded by Gustavus
I of Sweden.
1323, Finland became part of the Kingdom
of Sweden, under the Treaty of
Pahkinasaari.
1258, Abo Cathedral was constructed; it
was rebuilt after the great fire of 1827.
1157, King Eric IX of Sweden conquered
Finland, and forced the Finns to be
baptised as Christians.