Finlandia

Christianised by Sweden from the twelfth century, Finland owes its writing to the Reformation: Mikael Agricola translated the New Testament in 1548 and effectively created literary Finnish. The Kalevala, compiled in 1835, gave the country a national epic on the Homeric model.

A Swedish province for six centuries, Finland passed to Russia in 1809 as an autonomous grand duchy. That singular status let it develop its institutions and identity even before independence.

Proclaimed on 6 December 1917 in the wake of the Russian revolution, independence was followed by a short and violent civil war. The Winter War of 1939-1940 and then the Continuation War cost Finland a tenth of its territory but preserved its sovereignty.

During the Cold War the country practised active neutrality and hosted in 1975 the Helsinki conference, whose Final Act introduced human rights into détente. A member of the Union since 1995 and of the euro area from the outset, Finland joined NATO on 4 April 2023.