ABSTRACT
Seen from continental Europe, Finland is an island in the far end of the Baltic Sea. In the north, it has an open border with Sweden and Norway, and in the east is Russia. In the Soviet era, the 1,300-kilometre eastern border really was equivalent to an open sea, and still the crossing requires a visa both ways. There is also an ancient cultural divide inasmuch as, in the 12th century, what is now Finland was incorporated into the Roman Catholic sphere, with some Russian Orthodox influences in the east. In the16th century, Finland, as part of the Kingdom of Sweden, became Protestant (Lutheran), along with Denmark and Norway. So Finland belongs to the ‘Western’ cultural sphere, preserving and emphasizing those qualities even as a Grand Duchy (1809–1917) under Russia.
