Finland (1983: Doomsday)

The Republic of Finland (Finnish: Suomen Tasavalta) is a Nordic country in north-eastern Scandinavia. Finland is geographically bordered by the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south. Finland shares borders with Sweden to the west, Norway to the north, Estonia to the south, and Socialist Siberia and Karelia to the east.

It is a founding member of the Nordic Union, along with the nations of Sweden, Norway, Iceland, and Denmark.

History
The history of Finland is relatively unique in the Scandinavian region because the isolation of Finland from Germanic influences led to a unique, distinctly Finnish culture. Unlike Sweden, Denmark, and Norway, Finland uses a vastly different language.

Prehistory-1917
Finland was originally settled by Uralic and Baltic peoples, who were used to the cold climate, around 8500 BC. During the attempts of a Christian Sweden to convert pagans in Finland, Finland became a part of the Kingdom of Sweden. At this time, Swedish and Germanic influences began to pervade Finnish culture to the point where it is today. Finland, under the Swedish monarchy, grew to become predominantly Lutheran, a religious trait that most Finns still carry.

During the Finnish War or 1808-1809, Finland was lost by Sweden and ceded to Russia as a Grand Duchy of the Russian Empire. Finnish independence movements began around the same time as the Bolshevik and Soviet movements began to gain traction in Russia.

1917-1945
As World War I engulfed Europe, Russia broke into the Russian Revolution, which led to the Finnish Civil War. Germans, Swedes, and Estonians backed a "White Finland," while Communist "Red Finns" fought throughout the nation, including battles at Tampere and Helsinki.

Finland became a Presidential Republic in 1919, which led to an increase in positive relations between Western Europe and Finland. With the rise of Nazis in Germany, Finland began to distance itself from the USSR and move closer to Germany in particular.

The Finns fought in three wars during World War II. First, they defended against the Soviets in the Winter War (1939-1940), then they fought the Soviets as part of Operation Barbarossa in the Continuation War (1940-1941). Finally, after the Nazis were losing, the Finns switched sides and kicked a much larger Nazi army out of Finland in the Lapland War (1944-1945).

1945-1983
After World War II, Finland began to experience a period of relative economic success. This was the result of their neutrality, and therefore, ability to receive funds from both sides of the Cold War. Eventually, however, the Soviet Union ended up funding the Finns more than the Americans, leading to closer alliances with the Soviets.

The economic gains of Finland led to urbanization and a Baby Boom. During the 1960s-1970s many baby-boomers relocated to Sweden to find work. During the late 1970s, the Finnish government built a successful welfare state, leading to what is called the "Nordic Model."

Doomsday
Due to the Finnish neutrality in the Cold War, all of the Finnish cities and military installations were spared from a nuclear attack. This was the same fate of their neutral neighbor Sweden.

President Mauno Koivsto was awakened at 3:15 in the morning, Helsinki time, and informed that the nuclear annihilation of the world had begun. Koivsto immediately sought contact with Soviet Chairman Yuri Andropov and American President Ronald Reagan.

Since both two leaders were extremely busy, as was to be expected, Koivsto made contact with Olof Palme, the Prime Minister of Sweden. Both nations were spared in the nuclear holocaust, but both were also irradiated. While the Finnish cities were spared from nuclear devastation, some tracts of Finnish land became irradiated. This was especially common in the southern part of the nation, where nuclear blasts on Tallinn and Leningrad were really close to the Finnish border.

Following the atomic strikes, almost all technology was briefly experienced a period of shutdown The government owned radio never went down. This was mostly corrected within three days, however.

During the period directly after Doomsday, Finland entered "The Great Finnish Recession." During this period, unemployment was as high as 10%, and the national GDP fell by 5%. News of the attacks spread quite quickly through the publicly owned television provider Yleisradio (Yle).



1983-1990
Through skillfull use of the media, Finnish President Mauno Koivsto managed to retain power, and grew the SDP, the main political party of Finland at the time.

On March 23, 1983, Finnish Prime Minister Sorsa marched with a large company of the Finnish army into the Presidential Palace at Helsinki. Koivsto's Presidential Guard surrendered without a fight.

This event, called the Marssi Vallankaappaus, or March Coup, led to the Constitutional Convention of 1984. The new constitution, the Vallankaappaus Konstituutio (Coup Constitution). A stringent form of socialism was instituted, with Sorsa at the head serving as Chancellor.

Contact was made with other nations early on, and Sweden, Norway, and Finland never lost connection with each other. Reluctant to enter formerly Soviet lands, the Finns didn't discover Karelia until 1996.



1990-Modern
As part of the Nordic Union, Finland grew.

Culture
The Finnish culture is extremely unique since it was formed by Uralo-Baltic peoples as opposed to the Germanic peoples that make up the most of Scandinavia. Because of its history and geographic location Finland has been influenced by the adjacent areas' various Finnic and Baltic peoples as well as the former dominant powers Sweden and Russia.

Sports
The most popular sports of Finland are ice hockey, ice skating, cross country skiing, and ski jumping.

The primary league sport in Finland is the ice hockey league, the SM-liiga. Popular Finnish teams compete against other Nordic Teams, and also compete in the IIHF.