Finland (Cherry, Plum, and Chrysanthemum)

Finland (Finnish: Suomi; Swedish: Finland), officially the Republic of Finland (Finnish: Suomen tasavalta; Swedish: Republiken Finland), is a Nordic country situated in the Northern Europe. It is bordered by Scandinavia to the west and north and Soviet Union to the east, while Estonia lies to the south across the Gulf of Finland. Politically, it is a semi-presidential republic with a central government based in the capital of Helsinki, local governments in 336 municipalities and an autonomous region, the Åland Islands.

History
Swedish kings established their rule in the Northern Crusades from the 12th century until 1249. The area of present-day Finland became a fully consolidated part of the Swedish kingdom. Swedish-speaking settlers arrived at the coastal regions during the medieval time.

During the Protestant Reformation, the Finns gradually converted to Lutheranism. Finland suffered a severe famine in 1696–97, during which about one-third of the Finnish population died and a devastating plague a few years later. In the 18th century, wars between Sweden and Russia led to the occupation of Finland twice by Russian forces, wars known to the Finns as the Greater Wrath (1714–21) and the Lesser Wrath (1742–43).

On 29 March 1809, having been taken over by the armies of Alexander I of Russia in the Finnish War, Finland became an autonomous Grand Duchy in the Russian Empire until the end of 1917. In 1811 Alexander I incorporated Russian Vyborg province into the Grand Duchy of Finland.

During the Russian era, the Finnish language began to gain recognition. At that time, Finnish was chiefly a language for the peasantry, clergy and local courts in predominantly Finnish-speaking areas, while Swedish was the dominant language of the nobility, administration and education. From the 1860s onwards, a strong Finnish nationalist movement known as the Fennoman movement grew. Its milestones included the publication of Finland's national epic, the Kalevala, in 1835, and the Finnish language's achieving equal legal status with Swedish in 1892.

In 1906, universal suffrage was adopted in the Grand Duchy of Finland. However, the relationship between the Grand Duchy and the Russian Empire soured when the Russian government made moves to restrict Finnish autonomy. For example, the universal suffrage was, in practice, virtually meaningless, since the tsar did not have to approve any of the laws adopted by the Finnish Parliament. Desire for independence gained ground, first among radical liberals and socialists.

During the wake of February Revolution, the position of Tsar as the Finnish head of state was highly questionable, especially the Social Democrats who had a majority in the Senate. Finland considered the personal union with Russia to be over after the dethroning of the Tsar, although the provisional government had been recognized as the Tsar's successor by accepting its authority to appoint a new Governor General and Senate. Tsar's authority was expected to be transferred to Finland's Parliament, which the provisional government of Russia refused, suggesting instead that the question should be settled by the Russian Constituent Assembly.

The Social Democrats proposed to restrict Russia's influence on domestic Finnish matters, while retained the Russian government's power on matters of defence and foreign affairs, famously known as the "Power Act". The Russian Provisional government considered the Act being too radical, led to the dissolve of Parliament of Finland. The non-Socialists was supporting the provisional government's step, in the fear of growing influence of the Social Democrats.

New elections were conducted, in which the non-Socialists won a slim majority. The Finnish Senate now was purely under the control of non-Socialist forces where some Social Democrats refused to accept the result and still claimed that the dissolution of the parliament (and thus the ensuing elections) were illegal. The suppression of the Power Act, and the cooperation between Finnish non-Socialist forces and oppressive Russia provoked great bitterness among the Socialists, which later triggered the conflict between these two political forces.

The October Revolution of 1917 turned Finnish politics completely opposite from before. As in Ukraine, the new Finnish non-Socialist majority of the Parliament desired total independence, and the Socialists came gradually to view the Soviet Russia as an example to follow. On November 15, 1917, the Bolsheviks declared a general right of self-determination, including the right of complete secession. On the same day, the Finnish Parliament issued a declaration by which it temporarily took power in Finland.

Worried by the political development in Russia, the non-Socialist Senate proposed that Parliament to declare Finland's independence, which was agreed on in the Parliament on December 6, 1917. On December 18, 1917 (December 31 N. S. ), the Soviet Russian government issued a decree that recognizing Finland's independence, and on December 22, 1917 (January 4, 1918 N. S. ) it was approved by Soviet's All-Russian Central Executive Committee. The German Empire and Scandinavia followed immediately.

As the tension between the Finnish Left and the Finnish Right worsened, the brief, but bitter, Finnish Civil War was sparked between January and May 1918. The conservatives, mostly Swedish-speaking middle and upper classes and the farmers and peasantry who dominated the northern two-thirds of the land was following the government's line and known as the Whites. On the other side, the socialist-communists, mostly the Finnish-speaking urban workers and the landless rural cottagers was proclaiming the Finnish Socialist Workers' Republic and known as the Reds.

World War I was still underway and Imperial Germany declared its support to the Finnish White forces, while Scandinavia chosen to remain neutral during the conflict and Russia withdrew its forces. The Reds was finally defeated by the White forces under the command of Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim.

After the civil war, the Parliament, who now controlled by the Whites, voted to establish a constitutional monarchy to be called the Kingdom of Finland, with a German prince, Frederick Charles of Hesse, as the King. However, Germany's defeat in November 1918 made the plan impossible. Instead, King Christian X of Scandinavia, was elected to the Finnish Crown with the support from the conservatives, especially from its Swedish-speaking elements.