Georg Malmstén Finnish singer Georg Malmstén was born in Helsinki in June 1902. He would go on to become a popular entertainer in Finland and arguably one of the most important influences on Finnish popular music in the 1930’s and 1940’s. As well as singing, he composed music for film, … Continue reading
Arto Sotavalta Arto Sotavalta (his full name was Arto Arvo Juhani Sotavalta, 7 January 1950, Helsinki, Finland – March 6, 1990) was a Finnish pop singer who had a number of hits and was popular in the 1960’s and 1970’s. Arto Sotavalta formed his first band, “The Rattle Sound Five”, in 1964 when he was 14. He was … Continue reading
Helsinki Island Restaurants With 100 kms of coastline and an archipelago of some 330 islands within the city boundaries, Helsinki is a maritime city that takes full advantage of its location on the Gulf of Finland. A unique component of Helsinki’s restaurant culture are the Helsinki island restaurants that can … Continue reading
Suomenniemi Museums The Municipality of Suomenniemi is near the town of Mikkeli and is part of the South Savo region within South Karelia. Suomenniemi museums are two in number, the Lyytikkälä Museum Farm (open over the Summer months) and the Nikkinen Cottage (note that the Nikkinen Cottage is only open on … Continue reading
The architectural heritage of South Karelia South Karelian landscapes The present-day region of South Karelia consists of ten municipalities (Imatra, Lappeenranta, Lemi, Luumäki, Parikkala, Rautjärvi, Ruokolahti, Savitaipale, Suomenniemi and Taipalsaari) which, geographically speaking, form part of the southeastern fringe of Lakeland Finland. This is a varied landscape, with great variations … Continue reading
A brief history of South Karelia The Finnish Karelia of today consists of the separate and distinct regions of South and North Karelia. Karelia was divided in this way as early as the Middle Ages when the first boundary between Swedish domains, on the one hand, and the principality of … Continue reading
The prehistory of South Karelia Twelve thousand years ago, Finland (the area between Norway/Sweden and the White Sea / Lake Onega) was almost totally buried under a continental ice sheet, just as Greenland is today. Gradually, the ice sheet melted, and its southern margin retreated farther and farther north and … Continue reading
Finnish Weather: Finland is a land of climatic extremes. Winter and Summer in Finland are poles apart. In 2010, for example, the highest temperature was 37.2ºC (99ºF), and the lowest temperature was -41.3ºC (-42ºF). Despite these extremes in Finnish Weather, summer temperatures are usually even, often reaching the mid thirties in … Continue reading
The first museums in Finland were established in the last half of the 19th century, at the same time as growing sense of nationalism emerged within Finland (Finland was then part of Tsarist Russia). With this growing sense of a Finnish identity came a concurrent pride in Finnish language and … Continue reading
Between 1900 and 1908, the Russians built 25 Sokol (“Falcon”) class torpedo boats for the Russian Baltic Fleet. These boats served in various roles in the Tsarist Russian Baltic Fleet in WW1. The war went badly for the Russians and in 1917 the Russian Navy mutinied. The mutiny turned into a revolution and … Continue reading
