Finland is celebrating its 87th Independence Day (Itsenäisyys Päivä) today, December 6th. Though I’m a proud Canadian, I’m also proud of my birth country.

Finland was part of the Swedish realm for some 600 years up to 1809 and then attached to the Russian empire for just over a century. The Grand Duchy of Finland, as part of the Russian Empire enjoyed extensive autonomy. Gradually Finnish nationalism grew and in 1906 “Finland acquires its own national parliament, elected by equal and universal suffrage, a development that makes Finnish women the first in the world to be granted full national political rights, that is to say suffrage and eligibility to stand for election to their national Parliament.” Shortly after the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia in 1917, Finland declared Independence.

If you’d like to learn more about Finland, Virtual Finland* is the excellent main portal with very good history pages. Wikipedia is good too.

Later: On a side note, this just came in on BBC: Finland is rated the best in education in math and reading. Canada is third.

* The Virtual Finland site no longer exists so link has been removed.