By Eli Mrozek
Today we think of Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Iceland, and
Finland as Nordic Europe, the northernmost regions of Europe. Out of these
nations one stands apart as a completely unique and separate culture with a
completely different heritage, being influenced by their own unique folk
culture and their Russian neighbors who have ruled Finland in the past and
wield considerable influence over the Finnish people and state. These
differences lead us to the questions, is Finland a Nordic nation, and what does
it mean to be a Nordic nation?
To the first question I would say the answer lies in Finnish
culture and history. In its earliest days, Finland has been constantly fought
over by Sweden and Russia, both greatly influencing the native Finnish culture.
At first it was conquered by the Swedes, who brought Catholicism to the
country, with Russian cultures also spreading orthodoxy farther West towards
Finland, which eventually clashed. As Sweden incorporated Finland into its
empire, Swedes began to move to Finland, who is now Finland’s largest minority.
The Finnish people resented them as they saw the Swedes as aristocratic
oppressors. This Swedish rule however brought Lutheranism to Finland and
brought about the translation of the bible in Finnish, spreading literacy. This
rule also made Finland a very poor country. Later in after the Great Northern
War, Russia conquered Finland and made it an autonomous duchy, this being the
first form of an independent Finland. This rule brought Russification, in other
words the spread of Russian culture, ordered by the Grand Duke, Tsar Alexander
I of Russia. This brought the Russian language to Finland, becoming the
official language of the country. The orthodoxy grew and became official, and
continues to receive special treatment and preference from the Finnish
government along with Lutheranism. This Russian dominance further solidified
Finnish identity and helped define what the Finnish nation was, gaining
independence in 1917 as a result.
Flashing forward to today, we still see this Finnish
separation from the rest of Nordic Europe in politics and in the populous
culture. Finland is separated from the rest of Nordic Europe largely by
language, whereas all other Nordic languages are Germanic and closely related. The
Finnish language is part of the Finno-Ugric language family, originating in the
Ural Mountains of Russia. To further show its distance linguistically from
Nordic Europe, I’d like to note that the closest related languages to Finnish
are Estonian and Hungarian. They all share similar sentence structure and all
lack gender in speech. For example:
Finnish: Elävä
kala ui veden alla.
Estonian: Elav kala ujub vee all.
Hungarian: Eleven hal úszkál a víz alatt.
All
of these sentences mean “the living fish swims underwater”
We can also see the separation of Finland in politics and
society. Finland tends to be more socially conservative than the rest of Nordic
Europe, with baby boxes (an alternative option to abortion in which a baby is
left anonymously in a safe place to be cared for, with the mother being able to
take it back in an 8 week period before adoption) being the norm instead of
abortion, which is difficult to receive, and much more conservative in terms of
sexuality as well. Finland has also recently become very Eurosceptic (distrust
in the Eurozone and the European Union), with the True Finns party, a socially
conservative party, making huge gains in recent months. Finland’s prime
minister has also stated that Finland is prepared to leave the Eurozone due to
damage upon the Finnish economy. Finland now mainly trades with Russia and in
recent years has built stronger economic ties in business with Russians, this
larger exchange being successful due also to the large number of Finns who speak
Russian, on par with Eastern bloc countries.
Finland overall looks ready to take its own path, sharing
links with both Nordic Europe and Russia, while being completely its own in
culture and language. With many influences creating the modern Finnish state, I
would not call Finland a Nordic nation, rather one in close association, like
Estonia or Northern Germany. I find that Finland is impossible to group, like
Romania of Hungary, because of its distance from its lingual relatives and its
isolated culture that is highly individual. Due to these discrepancies between
Finland and the rest of Nordic Europe, I see Nordic Europe as a natural region
with cultures that affected each other greatly, not being a cultural link
between all these nations, and following this rule, the region of Karelia in
Russia is also Nordic, and many others for that matter. Due to this I would say
a true definition of Nordic Europe is a loose one and I would generally say it
always involves Scandinavia and occasionally the nations it has influenced
greatly. So to all who read this, I want you to decide for yourselves, what
does it mean to be Nordic?