Finland Russia

Finland Russia is a vital term that one comes across, while studying about the history of Finland. Russia and Finland had close connections in the past, which changed with changing times. Finland was an autonomous state but was under the Swedish Kingdom. Russia and Sweden were in a war-like situation during the 18th century, in which their matter of concern was the conquest of the buffer zone, i.e. Finland. Baltic region was the area where the Russians wanted to establish their domain and which was strictly under the Swedish realm. During the period of the Northern War, which spanned from 1700-1721, Finland was under Russian control.

Finally in the year 1809, the treaty of Hamina made Sweden hand over Finland to Russia. Finland became Grand Duchy of Finland under the Russian control. The Finland Russia collaboration in almost all administrative matters was carried out all throughout the 19th century. But the tension began to emerge between the two countries from the 20th century, when the Russian government tried to involve Finnish armed forces into the Russian army. This angered the Finnish nationals and they broke out into a revolt.

With the beginning of the First World War, the situation deteriorated tremendously. Finland turned to Germany for help and Russia became one of its biggest enemies. The Russian Revolution of 1917, created a new element in the form of rightist and leftist parties. Finland gained complete independence from the Russian rule on 6th December, 1917.