Buildings across the Nordic country were draped in the blue-and-white of the national flag, and the government sent a text message to all Finns wishing them ‘Onnea Suomi’ — or ‘Happy Birthday Finland’.
“Congratulations Finland, the best country in the world,” Prime Minister Juha Sipila wrote on Twitter, while President Sauli Niinisto urged his fellow citizens to brave the cold to celebrate the event in the streets.
On Tuesday evening, hundreds of people gathered under snowy skies at Helsinki’s Market Square near the presidential palace for the first festivities.
The Finnish flag was raised on official buildings in the capital to mark the nation’s unilateral declaration of independence on December 6, 1917, in the wake of the Bolshevik revolution.
After belonging to Sweden for six centuries — until 1809 — Finland only gained its independence after the fall of the Tsarist Russian empire.
Yet the Nordic country still had to defend its territory against the Red Army during the winter of 1939-1940 and then again from June 1941 to September 1944.
The human and territorial losses of those conflicts remains very present in the collective memory of today’s 5.5mn Finns and their leaders, who exercised caution toward their powerful neighbour during the Cold War.
The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 changed everything.
Remaining militarily non-aligned, Finland rapidly joined the European Union in 1995, and swapped its currency, the markka, for the euro in 2002.
It has continued to forge closer ties with Nato, without joining the alliance, in a bid to secure its tacit protection from Russian threats.
Illustrating the recurring tensions between Moscow and Baltic Sea states, Finland’s defence ministry on Tuesday claimed that “a Russian state owned Tupolev TU-154” aircraft had violated Finnish airspace the previous day.
The foreign ministry immediately summoned the Russian ambassador.
“Russian ambassador summoned to MFA (ministry of foreign affairs) and informed of alleged violation of airspace. Russia requested to provide explanation,” Foreign Minister Timo Soini wrote on Twitter on Tuesday.
Almost 30 countries celebrated the centenary by draping some of their monuments in Finland’s colours — including St Petersburg’s Museum of Ethnography and the National Theatre in Petrozavodsk in eastern Karelia, a province occupied by Finnish troops during World War II.
The Students’ Independence Day Parade passes by the Presidential Palace in Helsinki, Finland yesterday as Finland celebrated the centenary of independence.
