Main outlines

Introduction

•             Finland’s geography
•             The main eras of ”Finland’s” History and life in Sweden’s “Eastern part”

 

1. The long dawn of Swedish power, 1700-1808

• The decision to build Saint-Petersburg in 1703
• Russia in the 18^th century
• The Great Northern War (1700-1721)‏
• The loss of Viipuri and the peace of Uusikaupunki (1721)‏
• Occupation and war in “Finland” (1700-1743)‏
• Finnish “proto-nationalism”?
• A change of political status for “Finland”?
• The 1788 ”Gustav’s war”
• The confederation of Anjala
• The last straw: Finland as an issue in the Napoleonic wars
• The meeting of Tilsit, 1807

2. Russian conquest and the creation of “Finland”

• February 1808: the Russians attacked along the coast and towards Turku
• Reactions in “Finland”: decision to comply, Alexander’s benevolence
• Porvoo, March 1809
• Debates about Porvoo
• Geographically, administratively, the birth of modern Finland
• Essential consequences of 1808-1809
• Creating an administration
• The emergence of a “Finnish nation”
• The question of language
• The “invention of tradition”

3. The Grand-Duchy of Finland from 1870 to 1917

• After years of consolidation, the Crimean war (1853-1856)
• A test of Finnish loyalty and Russian patience
• Russian response: the 1856 reform plan
• 1863: “public opinion”, the debates of the four-Estates Diet, a growing number of newspapers and associations
• A new actor: the Finnish Labor movement
• Economic developments
• ”Years of oppression”, 1896-1905, 1908-1914
• Passive and active resistance
• The 1899 February Manifest as the main symbol of oppression
• 1905 in Russia and Finland
• Finland in the context of World War I
• Consequences for Finland of the 1917 February revolution
• October/November 1917: the Bolshevik revolution and Finland
• Independence or not?

4. Independence and stabilization, 1917-1922

• A declaration of independence adopted on December 6th 1917
• Obtaining recognition…
• Rising tensions in the new country and the constitution of armed groups on both sides of a political, social, ideological divide
• January 27th-28th, 1918: combats started simultaneously in Ostrobothnia, Helsinki, and Karelia, near Viipuri
• Finland’s Civil War, January-May 1918
• Tampere, March 1918
• Aftermath of the Civil War
• Defeat of the “kingmakers”: a republican constitution in July 1919
• Peace in Tartu with the Bolsheviks, October 1920
• Difficult first years: 1920-1922
• Internal quarrels: the language question, social problems, political problems, etc
• A country with a sulfurous international reputation
• Stabilization in the 1920s
• Old and new in independent Finland

5. Independent Finland in peace and war, 1930-1944

• Internal developments in the 1930s
• Democracy at the test: the Lapua movement, 1929-1932
• Finland’s international position in the 1930s: stuck in-between Hitler’s Germany and Stalin’s Soviet Union
• The catastrophe of the German-Soviet pact, August 24, 1939
• The Winter War, November 1939-March 1940
• The “interim peace”, 1940-1941
• Help from Germany to regain the “lost territories”?
• The “Continuation War”, 1941-1944
• August 1942-February 1943: siege and battle of Stalingrad: consequences for Finland
• The Finns negotiated a peace with the USSR in September 1944
• The war in Lapland, 1944
• Finland an ally of Germany?
• Finland and the destruction of European Jews
• The “ugly war”

6. Negotiating another post-war period, 1944-1961

• Finland in 1944-1948
• The Allied control commission
• The “YYA” treaty, April 1948
• The Paasikivi line, 1947-1956
• Finlandization?
• Finland’s ”hidden agenda” during the Cold War
• The KGB channel
• Difficult post-war economic and social conditions
• Stabilization in the 1950s
• 1956, U.K. Kekkonen president
• Kakkonen’s rule stabilized through a succession of crises with internal and international backgrounds
• 1958, the “Night frosts” crisis
• 1961, the crisis of the note

7. From Kekkonen to the EU, 1961-1995

• The Kekkonen system in the 1960s-1970s
• Another crisis: Kekkonen’s 1973 re-election
• The ideal of international cooperation between West and East
• The OSCE as Kekkonen’s pet project, 1972-1975
• New political forces?
• Societal and economic evolutions
• 1981: Kekkonen steps out
• Mauno Koivisto (1982-1994):
• Again, external changes: the end of the Cold War
• Mauno Koivisto and the Baltic test, 1990-1991
• 1991-1992: economic crisis and turn to the West?
• EU Finland

Conclusion

• What made Finland?
• Finnish History and national identity

 

Themes for essays/blogposts

A few possible themes for your essays:

1. The Kalevala as a cultural object
2. The Swedish crusades, 1155-1323
3. The Turku castle (Turun Linna)
4. The Turku Cathedral (Turun Tuomiokirkko)
5. Turku in the Middle Ages
6. “Finland’s war” 1808-1809
7. Porvoo 1809 and the interpretations of this event
8. Helsinki as the capital of Finland
9. Finnish nationalism in the 19th century
10. The February Manifest and passive resistance, 1899-1914
11. 1917-1918: declaring independence
12. The Åland Islands question, 1809-1922
13. The Civil War, 1918
14. Old Russian hands in Finnish History: CGE Mannerheim and JK Paasikivi
15. The Lapua Movement and Finnish political life in the 1930s
16. The Finno-Soviet war of 1939-1940 (“Winter War”)
17. Finland at war, 1941-1944
18. The Finnish debate on Finland’s participation to World War II
19. The “years of danger”, 1944-1948
20. Urho Kaleva Kekkonen
21. The end of the Cold War from Finland’s point of view, 1989-1995
22. Finnish music under the shadow of Jean Sibelius
23. Mika Waltari and other Finnish novelists
24. The “Golden Age” of Finnish arts
25. Nokia
26. The Finnish welfare state system
27. The place of women in Finland’s political developments

Those are only a few possibilities, with a mix of politics, culture, and society. Get in touch with the teacher if you have other proposals, and to discuss bibliography and sources.