ABSTRACT
Although the republic of Finland is quite large geographically, 338,145 sq-km, its population is only about 4.9 million. It has a free-market economy, a high national income and standard of living, and lively social and cultural exchanges with Western countries. Finland also has active trade, travel, and information exchanges with the Soviet Union, though these are formally restricted. Finland's economic and cultural relations with both the Western Alliance and the Soviet Union, plus its geographical position on the east side of the Baltic and close to the Arctic make its position unique in Western Europe. Language also contributes to Finland's isolation. Finnish belongs to the Feno-Ugric language group, which is not related to the Indo-European languages. It differs both in structure and vocabulary so that English is more like Russian than Finnish is like either language. Finland's neighbors, that is Sweden, Norway, and the Soviet Union, all have Indo-European languages.
