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The Republic of Finland (Finnish: Suomen tasavalta Swedish: Republiken Finland) is a Nordic country in northeastern Europe, bordered by the Baltic Sea to the southwest, the Gulf of Finland to the south and the Gulf of Bothnia to the west. Finland has land frontiers with Sweden, Norway and Russia. The Åland Islands, off the southwestern coast, are under Finnish sovereignty while enjoying extensive autonomy. The Finnish name for Finland is Suomi; in Swedish it is Finland.

Finland gained independence from Soviet Union on 6 December 1917. Prior to that, it had been part of the Kingdom of Sweden and Imperial Russia. After fighting two wars with the Soviet Union in the mid-20th century, it has grown quickly from a largely agrarian society to one of the world's most developed countries. Finland has a high standard of living, one of the best educational systems in the world, and is home to many technological phenomena such as Nokia, Linux and IRC.

Finland has been a member of the European Union since 1995.

Selected article

The first page of Abckiria (1543), the first book written in the Finnish language.

Finnish ( suomi (help·info), or suomen kieli) is the language spoken by the majority of the population in Finland (92% as of 2006^[update]) and by ethnic Finns outside of Finland. It is one of the two official languages of Finland and an official minority language in Sweden. In Sweden, both standard Finnish and Meänkieli, a Finnish dialect, are spoken. The Kven language, which is closely related to Finnish, is an official minority language in Norway.

Finnish is a member of the Finno-Ugric language family and is typologically between fusional and agglutinative languages. It modifies and inflects the forms of nouns, adjectives, pronouns, numerals and verbs, depending on their roles in the sentence.

Selected picture

Did you know...

• ...that the Finnish company YIT was responsible for the construction of the Finnish National Opera house, the Helsinki Fair Centre and Cirrus, the tallest high-rise building in Finland?
• ...that the paintings in the Espoo Cathedral were painted over in the 18th century, as they were thought to be "crude and superstitious'?
• ...that there are three unilingually Swedish municipalities in one province of mainland Finland?
• ...that Maria, the Finnish form of Mary, is the most popular Finnish name used during the modern era?
• ...that Finnish film director Valentin Vaala was reportedly so disappointed with his first film that he dumped the original camera negatives into the sea?

Selected biography

Martti Oiva Kalevi Ahtisaari (born 23 June 1937) is a former President of Finland (1994–2000), 2008 Nobel Peace Prize laureate and United Nations diplomat and mediator, noted for his international peace work.

Ahtisaari was a UN Special Envoy at the Kosovo status process negotiations, aimed at resolving a long-running dispute in Kosovo, which declared its independence from Serbia in 2008. In October 2008 he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize "for his important efforts, on several continents and over more than three decades, to resolve international conflicts". The Nobel statement said that Ahtisaari has played a prominent role in resolving many conflicts in Namibia, Indonesia, Kosovo and Iraq, among other areas.

Finland News

• October 30: Nokia files lawsuit against Apple
• August 15: Cargo ship Arctic Sea may be found
• July 22: UEFA Champions League 2007/08: Rangers, Copenhagen, Tampere and Dinamo Zagreb advance to 3rd Qualifying Round
• July 22: Poland defeats Finland 1-0 in friendly football match
• July 22: Greece defeats Finland 2-1 in friendly football match
• June 8: Europeans go to the polls to elect Members of the European Parliament
• May 29: Interview with Anna Mikkola, Finnish Left Alliance candidate for European Parliament
• May 18: As the Eurovision entrants return home, the home crowds weigh in
• February 1: Tarja Turunen reveals working title for new album
• November 14: Nokia scales back prediction for global mobile phone sales

Things you can do

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• Rate the Unassessed Finland articles in the Finland WikiProject.
• Stubs: Fix a Finland stub by expanding it into a full article.
• Help with the Finland articles needing attention.
• Look at Wikipedia:WikiProject Finland/New article announcements.

Wikiprojects

• WikiProject Finland
• WikiProject Åland Islands

Selected panorama

Panoramic photo shot of Helsinki, Finland.

Categories

Featured and Good content

Featured articles: Finnish Civil War  · Gyromitra esculenta  · Henry (Bishop of Finland)  · Swedish language

Featured lists: List of Swedish-speaking and bilingual municipalities of Finland

Good articles: Finland Plot  · Henri Toivonen  · Kauhajoki school shooting  · Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne  · Personent hodie  · Response to Kauhajoki school shooting  · Thomas (Bishop of Finland)

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