13 ATLASES
History of Finland in maps
Finland as it appears in 13 interactive history atlases, from 1789 to 2015: Finland. Each era below lists who ruled the land and when control changed, linked to the dated map that shows it.
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What was Finland before it was Finland? The sections below follow this land through every era covered by the Maps of History atlases: who ruled it, what it was called, and when control changed. Each line links to the dated map. Modern borders serve as an approximation, as each atlas says on the map itself.
Finland · Norse and Aztecs
| Other peoples and states — the opening position |
NORSE AND AZTECS: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Finland (Novgorod–Swedish march) · Mongol Empire
| Beyond the conquests — the opening position |
MONGOL EMPIRE: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Finland (Swedish, then a Russian grand duchy) · Industrial Revolution
INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Finland · Age of Revolutions
| Neutral / uncommitted — the opening position | |
| The conservative monarchies |
AGE OF REVOLUTIONS: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Finland · Meiji Japan and post-Soviet Russia
A 1948 treaty with Moscow left Finland neutral. Its name gave rise to “Finlandisation”, the policy by which a small democracy preserved its freedom while avoiding actions that might anger a powerful neighbor. When Soviet trade collapsed in 1991, Finland entered a deep recession. It joined the European Union in 1995.
| Non-aligned or stateless — the opening position |
MEIJI JAPAN AND POST-SOVIET RUSSIA: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Finland (Grand Duchy) · Russian Revolution
Finland won independence from collapsing Russia in December 1917. The following year brought a savage civil war between Red workers and a German-backed White army; the victors ran camps in which thousands of Reds died. Finland remained free, but wary of its eastern neighbour. The Winter War of 1939 would justify that wariness.
| The Tsarist empire — the opening position | |
| Provisional Government, then the Whites | |
| Breakaway national states |
RUSSIAN REVOLUTION: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Finland (Russian Empire) · WWI
Finland used the collapse of the Russian Empire to leave it, declaring independence in December 1917. A savage civil war lasted three months: Mannerheim’s Whites, assisted by a German division landed at Hanko, fought the Red Guards. Some 36,000 people died in a nation of three million, most away from battle. Both sides carried out terror shootings, and over 12,000 died of hunger and disease in White prison camps in summer 1918. Finland was briefly headed for a German king, but Germany’s collapse made it a republic instead. Sovereignty came with scars and a lasting watchfulness toward the eastern border.
| The Entente & Allies — the opening position | |
| The Entente & Allies | |
| Russia in revolution | |
| Neutral or unaligned | |
| Neutral or unaligned |
Finland · Stalin’s Soviet Union
Finland had belonged to the Russian Empire until 1917. Stalin sought to move its border farther from Leningrad, but the Finns refused. The Red Army attacked in November 1939 and took heavy losses in the Winter War before Finland ceded Karelia in March 1940. Finland fought alongside Germany in 1941–44 and lost Petsamo. It nevertheless kept its democracy and independence after the war, while accepting Soviet influence over its foreign policy.
| Nazi Germany & its allies — the opening position | |
| Nazi Germany & its allies | |
| Other states |
STALIN’S SOVIET UNION: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Finland · Road to WW2
Finland had four million people when it fought the Soviet Union to a standstill in the winter of 1939–40. It lost Karelia but kept its state, the only Pact-protocol target to survive as an independent country. Berlin drew a fatal underestimate of the Red Army from Finland's performance. Finnish resentment, meanwhile, carried the country into Barbarossa as a “co-belligerent” fighting its own strictly limited war.
| Neutral & unaligned — the opening position | |
| Aggressor clients & partners |
ROAD TO WW2: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Finland · WW2
In six years Finland fought three wars. The USSR attacked it in the Winter War of 1939–40; Finland then fought alongside Germany in 1941–44 to recover its lost land, before turning against German forces in 1944–45 to expel them. Finland remained independent, uniquely among Hitler’s allies, but stayed wary of its eastern neighbor.
| Axis allies & puppets — the opening position | |
| Axis allies & puppets | |
| Neutral |
Finland · Cold War
COLD WAR: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Finland · Feminism and the Tunisian Revolution
| Right won in law — the opening position | |
| Partial or unequal; treaty signed only; transition | |
| No reform yet / outside this story | |
| Partial or unequal; treaty signed only; transition |
FEMINISM AND THE TUNISIAN REVOLUTION: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Finland · Refugee crises
Finland fought the Soviet Union twice and lost Karelia in both 1940 and 1944. About 410,000 Karelians, roughly one Finn in nine, chose to leave rather than live under Soviet rule. The Land Acquisition Act of 1945 provided farms from state, church and private land. Within a few years a poor democracy had integrated a very large displaced population.
REFUGEE CRISES: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
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