On the 6th December 1917, an
autonomous region in the far north of Europe finally broke free from the chains
that had shackled it to the Russian empire since 1809.
As Russia was imploding in the throes of revolution,
the Finns seized the opportunity to declare their independence.
The proclamation
was read out with a characteristic ‘pig-headed’ determination by Pehr Evind Svinhufvud, the Chairman of the
Senate of Finland. (Translated from Swedish, the name Svinhufvud literally
means Pig Head).
The Grand Duchy of Finland became an independent nation,
personified as a beautiful Finnish maiden.
Celebrations were short lived however. Barely one
month later, the infant nation was embroiled in a bitter 5-month custody
battle, a civil war pitting the bourgeois whites against the revolutionary
reds. This was a war where idealism split regions and families.
The whites eventually won the day and it seemed as if
the Finnish maiden would now be able to grow up in a stable culture free from
tyranny. There were big hopes and dreams for her. Coincidentally, it was during
her formative years, between the age of three and fourteen, that prohibition was introduced
to the country. The young maiden's childhood was not sullied by the evils of liquor.
On her 15th birthday in 1932, however, prohibition was abolished,
and her subjects were allowed to legally toast her health with Champagne once again.
Soon, the Finnish maiden was entering young adulthood, which brought along new
problems. In 1939, at the age of 21, the neighbourhood boys in the east started
to call around uninvited. The next five years were very difficult times indeed,
spent almost continually fending them off. And in 1945 she even had to deal
with her former German suitors in Lapland.
By the 1950's, the bruised and battered Finnish maiden
(now in her 30's) had to contemplate how to survive the decades ahead. She knew
that she would have to get smart and fit if she was to survive the future. So,
she dusted herself off and - with a quality known in Finnish as sisu (guts and
determination) - set about educating herself and rebuilding the broken country.
One of her great achievements of that decade was hosting the 1952 Olympics, the
first games after the war. The nation won 22 medals, ranking 8th overall. Finland
was back in business.
When she turned 78 in 1995, one would have thought
that retirement would be on the cards. The Finnish maiden, however, had other
plans. She decided that the time in life
was right to form an alliance with the west. This was not a marriage; after all, she was far
too self-governing for that. Her relationship with the EU would be a civil
partnership. This was a bold move to make for a staunchly independent lady and
it did raise a few eyebrows at the time. But it was a good move and the country
has prospered ever since.
And as she drew near to her 100th birthday,
there seemed no sign of a slowdown as can be seen in her achievements in the
last 20 years: a 5th Nobel prize winner (there have been four others),
internationally famous sportsmen, angry birds, musicians (masked and unmasked)
and a brand of rubber boot that was once synonymous with mobile communication.
I am sure that the coming years will be exciting times
in this modern free-thinking democracy. Happy birthday Finland!
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