1898-1914 1917-1920






1914-1917



The Finns firmly opposed Russia's rule, and when World War I broke out, where indifferent to Russia's fortune. Early in the War, Russia was successful, occupying most of Galicia (Austrian Poland) and Armenia (Ottoman). But soon the tide turned, Russia suffered tremendous losses, and the population at home suffered hardship. In March 1917, in the FEBRUARY REVOLUTION the Duma deposed the Czar and took over government. LENIN returned from exile in Switzerland, crossing Finland on his way to Petrograd (former St. Petersburg). In November (the OCTOBER REVOLUTION) Lenin's Bolsheviks took over, establishing the Soviet Union. Finland's parliament declared the country's INDEPENDENCE (Dec. 6th 1917). As Russian troops were still in the country, the new Finnish Republic called the Finns into military service; the Russian troops were disarmed (January). In 1914, Finland had 3,951 km of railroad track, in 1917 4,257 km (IHS p.657).
In 1914 Finland produced 69,000 hectolitres of wheat, in 1915 92,000, in 1917 80,000; potato production was 6.6 million hectolitres in 1914, 7.2 million in 1915, 6.7 million in 1917 (IHS p.266). If the consumer price level of 1929 is set at 100, that of 1914 was 9, that of 1917 was 22 (IHS p.848).

The Finnish National Museum in Helsinki opened in 1916.







EXTERNAL
FILES 		Article National Museum of Finland, from Wikipedia
Library of Congress, Country Studies : Finland
DOCUMENTS List of Finnish Presidents, Prime Ministers etc., from Finland, by Ben Cahoon
Historical Population Statistics : Finland, from Population Statistics (Jan Lahmeyer)
Finnish banknotes, from Was Nensberg's Collection of Russian Banknotes also from Ron Wise's World Paper Money
REFERENCE IHS : B.R. Mitchell, International Historical Statistics. Europe 1750-1988, NY : Stockton Press 1992 [G]
Article : Finland, in : New International Year Book 1914 pp.246-247, 1916 p.222, 1918 pp.207-209 [G]


This page is part of World History at KMLA
First posted in 2000, last revised on July 16th 2007

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