Advertisement
Published: July 10th 2023
Edit Blog Post
Helsinki was established as a trading town by King Gustav I of Sweden in 12 June 1550, as the town of Helsingfors, which he intended to be a rival to the Hanseatic city of Reval on the southern shores of the Gulf of Finland (today known as Tallinn).
After the Russians conquered Helsinki in May 1713 during the Great Northern War the city had grown to 3,000. It was not until Russia defeated Sweden in the Finnish War and annexed Finland as the autonomous Grand Duchy of Finland in 1809 that the town began to develop into a substantial city. Emperor Alexander I of Russia moved the Finnish capital from Turku to Helsinki in 1812 to reduce Swedish influence in Finland, and to bring the capital closer to Saint Petersburg.
The population of Helsinki was already over 100,000 in the 1910s. The 1918 Finnish Civil War fought for leadership of the country during the transition from a grand duchy of the Russian Empire to an independent state. This was the birth of the country of Finland as we know it.
Many complicated things happened in and around Finland during World War II. In August 1939, the Soviet Union
20230618_173025
Lots of parks dotted all around the city. and Germany signed a pact in which both parties agreed to divide the independent countries of Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, and Romania into spheres of interest, with Finland falling within the Soviet sphere. One week later, Germany invaded Poland, leading to the United Kingdom and France declaring war on Germany. The Soviet Union invaded eastern Poland on September 17. Moscow then turned its attention to the Baltic states, demanding that they allow Soviet military bases to be established and troops stationed on their soil. The Baltic governments acquiesced to these demands and signed agreements in September and October.
In October 1939, the Soviet Union attempted to negotiate with Finland to cede Finnish territory and to establish a Soviet military base near the Finnish capital of Helsinki. The Finnish government refused, and so began the Winter War when the Red Army invaded on November 30, 1939. This ended three and a half months later with the Moscow Peace Treaty in which Finland ceded approximately 9% of their territory. Despite superior military strength, especially in tanks and aircraft, the Soviet Union suffered severe losses. The poor performance of the Red Army encouraged Hitler to believe that an attack on the
20230618_174144
A very odd sculpture. Soviet Union would be successful. In June 1941 Germany invaded the Soviet Union, breaking their previous pact. The Finnish leadership stated they would fight against the Soviets to the extent needed to redress the balance of the 1940 treaty. During the war, the Finnish leadership generally referred to the Germans as "brothers-in-arms" but also denied that they were allies of Germany – instead claiming to be "co-belligerents". After several years the Germans eventually failed in their bid to take over wester Russia, and although Finland briefly occupied the lands they'd lost during the Winter War, from 1944 onwards the Soviets regained control.
Helsinki is now a city of approximately 1.3 Million. So, about the same as Ottawa-Gatineau. An absolutely beautiful city with a lot of waterfront and an unbelievable transit network. We each got a 4-day pass for only 22 Euros (and on the first day alone traveled via metro, tram and bus). The trams are ubiquitous, and super-clean, and on schedule (sometimes even a bit early as we learned today ... a bit different than Greece
)
Finland, in general, is quite a bit more expensive than Greece.
20230618_181031
Temppeliaukion Church Food and accommodation is double or triple the price. I expected this to some degree but it's quite a jolt. Overall, fantastic place to visit, probably a pretty awesome place to live.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.099s; Tpl: 0.01s; cc: 12; qc: 55; dbt: 0.0526s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb