147-531: The president of the Republic of Finland ( Finnish : Suomen tasavallan presidentti ; Swedish : republiken Finlands president ) is the head of state of Finland . The incumbent president is Alexander Stubb , since 1 March 2024. He was elected president for the first time in 2024 . The president is directly elected by universal suffrage for a term of six years. Since 1994, no president may be elected for more than two consecutive terms. The president must be
294-547: A National Progressive member of Parliament in 1919, at the age of thirty the second youngest member. In the same year, the party candidate, an admirer of Ryti, Kaarlo Juho Ståhlberg , was elected the first president of Finland. Ryti served as a member of Parliament from 1919 to 1924 and from 1927 to 1929. During his first few years in Parliament, Ryti served as chairman of the Judiciary Committee, and later
441-650: A natural-born Finnish citizen . The presidential office was established in the Constitution Act of 1919 . Under the Constitution of Finland , executive power is vested in the Finnish Government and the president, with the latter possessing only residual powers. Only formally, the president ranks first in the protocol , before the speaker of the parliament and the prime minister of Finland . Finland has, for most of its independence , had
588-574: A semi-presidential system in which the president had much authority and power over both foreign and domestic policy, but constitutional amendments adopted in 1991, 2000 and 2012 reduced the president's powers and moved the country towards a more parliamentary system . The president still leads the nation's foreign politics in conjunction with the Government, and is the commander-in-chief of the Finnish Defence Forces . Officially,
735-819: A "j", e.g. vesj [vesʲ] "water", cf. standard vesi [vesi] . The first known written account in Helsinki slang is from the 1890 short story Hellaassa by young Santeri Ivalo (words that do not exist in, or deviate from, the standard spoken Finnish of its time are in bold): Kun minä eilen illalla palasin labbiksesta , tapasin Aasiksen kohdalla Supiksen , ja niin me laskeusimme tänne Espikselle , jossa oli mahoton hyvä piikis . Mutta me mentiin Studikselle suoraan Hudista tapaamaan, ja jäimme sinne pariksi tunniksi, kunnes ajoimme Kaisikseen . There are two main registers of Finnish used throughout
882-732: A Finnish tailor took Kordelin's party hostage, with the intent to rob them. Ryti, Kordelin's lawyer, refused to legally authorize the robbery despite being threatened at gunpoint. Armed White Guard soldiers were however present and the situation deteriorated into a gunfight. 20 people including Kordelin were killed. Ryti was saved by a malfunction in the enemy's firearm. During the Finnish Civil War Ryti played no active part, remaining in hiding with his family in Red-dominated Helsinki . Afterwards, however, he would become deeply involved in politics, being elected
1029-816: A Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order (KCVO) due to his great merits in Anglo-Finnish relations. He had excellent relations with the leaders of the Bank of England , due to his similar economic policies, such as the belief in the gold standard until the Great Depression , and due to his excellent command of English. In fact, Ryti could regularly telephone the Bank of England's leaders when he wanted to discuss economic or financial policies with them (see Martti Turtola, "Risto Ryti: A Life for
1176-473: A considerable influence upon the spoken word, because illiteracy is nonexistent and many Finns are avid readers. In fact, it is still not entirely uncommon to meet people who "talk book-ish" ( puhuvat kirjakieltä ); it may have connotations of pedantry, exaggeration, moderation, weaseling or sarcasm (somewhat like heavy use of Latinate words in English, or more old-fashioned or "pedantic" constructions: compare
1323-421: A constitutional amendment was enacted by the parliament to enable the electors of 1937 to elect a successor to Kallio. Ryti was chosen with 288 votes out of 300. On the day of his retirement, 19 December 1940, Kallio suffered a fatal heart attack during a farewell gathering; on the same day, Ryti became the holder of the presidency. Finland's changed policy from a Scandinavian orientation up to, and during,
1470-611: A culmination point for that mode of politics which the Soviet Union has ever since the Moscow peace settlement utilized towards Finland, and the purpose of which has been the destruction of our independence and enslavement of our people. Having been left wanting for military assistance during the 1939-40 winter war, we had no choice except for during the dark moments of night on the March 13th conclude peace with Soviet Union, which after
1617-608: A false name. With regard to this matter, the staff numbers at USSR representative office have increased more than substantially. At the Helsinki mission, there are 31 diplomatic corps staff and 120 assisting staff. At the Consulate in Petsamo , 3 consular staff and 21 assistance staff, at Mariehamn 8 consular staff and 30 other staff. In total there have been some 42 diplomatic and consular staff and 171 assistant staff employed at
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#17327937080571764-487: A few of these. On Midsummer’s eve last year Soviet Union surprisingly opened the matter of Åland , which was not included in the peace agreement documents. When this was pointed out as a way of warding off the demand, Commissioner for Foreign Affairs Molotov cynically announced that the Soviet cabinet had not bought the matter of the Åland Islands forward in connection of peacemaking because this may have disturbingly affected
1911-526: A fringe party, because he was considered an expert especially in economic policy and, very importantly, an impartial servant of the fatherland who refused to play partisan politics (see Martti Turtola, Risto Ryti: A Life for the Fatherland ). In 1921, the thirty-two-year-old Ryti was appointed finance minister in the government of Juho Vennola . He served in that position twice until 1924. In 1923 President Kaarlo Juho Ståhlberg appointed him governor of
2058-460: A language of administration, journalism, literature, and science in Finland, along with Swedish. In 1853 Daniel Europaeus published the first Swedish-Finnish dictionary, and between 1866 and 1880 Elias Lönnrot compiled the first Finnish-Swedish dictionary. In the same period, Antero Warelius conducted ethnographic research and, among other topics, he documented the geographic distribution of
2205-623: A lawyer in Rauma . During this period he became acquainted with Alfred Kordelin , one of Finland's richest men. Ryti became Kordelin's lawyer, and eventually the two men became close friends. During this period Ryti also undertook further studies, becoming a Master of Laws in 1912. In the spring of 1914 he moved to Oxford to study maritime law , but the outbreak of World War I forced him to return to Finland. In 1916 he married Gerda Paula Serlachius (1886–1984). They had three children, Henrik (1916–2002), Niilo (1919–1997), and Eva (1922–2009). In
2352-552: A life sentence power was transferred to the Helsinki Court of Appeals, and the peculiar arrangement, where the president exercises judicial power, ended. The presidential power of giving pardon is, however, retained. Its use has diminished under president Sauli Niinistö, who exercised the power particularly sparingly. The president of the republic is the commander-in-chief of the Finnish Defence Forces , but may delegate this position to another Finnish citizen . Delegation of
2499-473: A matter-of-fact way being led and incited from Moscow, Soviet Union endeavored to instill similar developments in Finland, which it has achieved in the Baltic countries . The Soviet Union has even undertaken attempts to interfere in internal staff matters and apply pressure in these matters. The propaganda and spying by Soviet Union within Finland become ever more unscrupulous and active. Every Finnish citizen who
2646-431: A measure of stability, given that it is all but impossible for one party to win an outright majority in Parliament. Upon the proposal of the prime minister, the president may, having consulted the parliamentary groups and while Parliament is in session, order the holding of premature parliamentary election. The new parliament is chosen for a normal four-year term. Parliament itself may decide when to end its session before
2793-655: A military support base in Petsamo. Descriptive of the Soviet Union’s two-faced actions was that the nature of their demands in the matter of the Petsamo nickel mines were presented to us and to a certain interested superpower in totally different ways. To one party they stated as being only financially interested in relation to Petsamo nickel, to the other stating the matter as a totally politically act directed at Petsamo area. Third doubtful demand related to transport of military equipment by railway via land area of Finland to
2940-475: A more systematic writing system. Along the way, Finnish lost several fricative consonants in a process of sound change . The sounds [ð] and [θ(ː)] disappeared from the language, surviving only in a small rural region in Western Finland. In the standard language, however, the effect of the lost sounds is thus: Modern Finnish punctuation, along with that of Swedish, uses the colon (:) to separate
3087-401: A new route of attack being available to USSR. Threat of this demand for railway encompasses the entire Northern Scandinavia, but is in the first instance a dagger aimed at Finland’s back. During the peace negotiations Soviet Union notified as final and absolute point of view that the reached agreement fully meets the demands of USSR. Representatives of the Soviet Union considered it to guarantee
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#17327937080573234-445: A north–south split as well as an east–west split. The northern dialects of Proto-Finnic, from which Finnish developed, lacked the mid vowel [ ɤ ] . This vowel was found only in the southern dialects, which developed into Estonian , Livonian , and Votian . The northern variants used third person singular pronoun hän instead of southern tämä (Est. tema ). While the eastern dialects of Proto-Finnic (which developed in
3381-442: A number of important public speeches and statements each year. The most notable of these are the annual New Year's Speech on 1 January, and the speech at the opening of each annual session of parliament. From 2012 to 2013, the president received an annual salary of 160,000 euros. The salary and other benefits are exempt from all taxes. In 2013, the salary was cut to 126,000 euros on the initiative of Sauli Niinistö. As of 1 March 2024,
3528-617: A personal letter to Nazi German Führer Adolf Hitler whereby Ryti agreed not to reach a separate peace in the Continuation War against the Soviet Union without approval from Nazi Germany , in order to secure German military aid for Finland to stop the Soviet Vyborg–Petrozavodsk Offensive against Finland. His resignation soon afterwards allowed his successor, Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim , to bypass
3675-704: A politician in the field of economics and as a political background figure during the interwar period . He made a wide range of international contacts in the world of banking and within the framework of the League of Nations . Ryti served as prime minister during the Winter War and the Interim Peace , and as president during the Continuation War . Ryti penned the 1944 Ryti–Ribbentrop Agreement – named after himself and Joachim von Ribbentrop –
3822-546: A presidential decree. Decisions on war and peace are taken by the president with the assent of parliament. The president must sign and approve all bills adopted by Parliament before they become law. The president must decide on ratification within three months of receiving the bill and may request an opinion from the Supreme Court or the Supreme Administrative Court before giving assent. Should
3969-628: A range of diphthongs , although vowel harmony limits which diphthongs are possible. Finnish belongs to the Finnic branch of the Uralic language family ; as such, it is one of the few European languages that is not Indo-European . The Finnic branch also includes Estonian and a few minority languages spoken around the Baltic Sea and in Russia's Republic of Karelia . The closest relative of Finnish
4116-662: A realistic analysis of the situation, instead of pessimism or over-optimism. He and foreign minister Tanner agreed that the war must be brought to an end as quickly as possible. They both spoke fluent English and had close contact with the Western powers. At the beginning of the war, the Soviet Union formed a puppet government and cut connections with the Ryti–Tanner government. The Finnish Army fought defensively in battles during December 1939 through February 1940. This gained time and freedom for diplomatic manoeuvering. The Soviet Union
4263-638: A solemn affirmation in both Finnish and Swedish at a ceremony in Parliament House . The affirmation is specified in Section 56 of the Constitution, and in English reads "I, [N. N.], elected by the people of Finland as the President of the Republic, hereby affirm that in my presidential duties I shall sincerely and conscientiously observe the Constitution and the laws of the Republic, and to
4410-583: A state of defence by decree for a maximum of three months initially. If necessary, it can be extended for a maximum of one year at a time. A state of defence may also be declared in a region of the country. The decree must be submitted to parliament for approval. The president, as grand master, awards decorations and medals belonging to the Order of the White Rose of Finland , the Order of the Lion of Finland and
4557-499: A time, an elected king, although the latter renounced the throne: Both Svinhufvud and Mannerheim later served as president of Finland. Finnish language Finnish ( endonym : suomi [ˈsuo̯mi] or suomen kieli [ˈsuo̯meŋ ˈkie̯li] ) is a Finnic language of the Uralic language family, spoken by the majority of the population in Finland and by ethnic Finns outside of Finland. Finnish
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4704-440: A total amount of Finnish-speakers roughly between 7,200 and 15,600. In the latest census , around 1000 people in Russia claimed to speak Finnish natively; however, a larger amount of 14,000 claimed to be able to speak Finnish in total. There are also forms of Finnish spoken by diasporas outside Europe, such as American Finnish , spoken by Finnish Americans , and Siberian Finnish , spoken by Siberian Finns . Today, Finnish
4851-444: A year ago, Soviet Union stated their demands for nickel mines of Petsamo. It was not satisfied with demanding a share of the mines production, but its demands had a directly political stamp. For example, the Soviet Union demanded that it be handed management of the mines and right to put in place a fifth of the employees. Locating this number of men in the Petsamo area, would have meant that the Soviet Union would in practice also have had
4998-508: Is abbreviation of word-final vowels, and in many respects they resemble Estonian. The Tavastian dialects ( hämäläismurteet ) are spoken in Tavastia . They are closest to the standard language, but feature some slight vowel changes, such as the opening of diphthong-final vowels ( tie → tiä , miekka → miakka , kuolisi → kualis ), the change of d to l (mostly obsolete) or trilled r (widespread, nowadays disappearance of d
5145-514: Is either Ingrian , or depending on the definition, Karelian . Finnic languages form a dialect continuum, where for instance Finnish and Estonian are not separated by any single isogloss that would separate dialects considered "Finnish" from those considered "Estonian", despite the two standard languages being not mutually intelligible. Finnish demonstrates an affiliation with other Uralic languages (such as Hungarian and Sami languages ) in several respects including: Several theories exist as to
5292-533: Is entirely dependent on it, as well as is how it arranges its fiscal policy. The Soviet Union has no interest in these matters. Even though us Finnish have had painful experiences regarding how little both the man’s word as well as the agreements given by the USSR means, we would have expected that their words would have been at least binding at basic points, and at the very least for a short while. However, once again we have directly come to realize that no word given by
5439-458: Is like a pistol aimed directly at heart of Finland. Neither the demand for construction of Salla railway nor North-east Finland area secession demands were included in the advance notification of terms of peace which were bough to notice of Finnish cabinet. The railway of Salla, by which it is intended to join the railway network of Finland to the Murmansk railway, in all probability would leave
5586-631: Is one of the two official languages of Finland, alongside Swedish . In Sweden , both Finnish and Meänkieli (which has significant mutual intelligibility with Finnish ) are official minority languages . Kven , which like Meänkieli is mutually intelligible with Finnish, is spoken in the Norwegian counties of Troms and Finnmark by a minority of Finnish descent. Finnish is typologically agglutinative and uses almost exclusively suffixal affixation . Nouns , adjectives , pronouns , numerals and verbs are inflected depending on their role in
5733-664: Is one of two official languages of Finland (the other being Swedish), and has been an official language of the European Union since 1995. However, the Finnish language did not have an official status in the country during the period of Swedish rule , which ended in 1809. After the establishment of the Grand Duchy of Finland , and against the backdrop of the Fennoman movement , the language obtained its official status in
5880-746: Is popular) and the personal pronouns ( me: meitin ('we: our'), te: teitin ('you: your') and he: heitin ('they: their')). The South Ostrobothnian dialects ( eteläpohjalaismurteet ) are spoken in Southern Ostrobothnia . Their most notable feature is the pronunciation of "d" as a tapped or even fully trilled /r/ . The Central and North Ostrobothnian dialects ( keski- ja pohjoispohjalaismurteet ) are spoken in Central and Northern Ostrobothnia . The Lapland dialects ( lappilaismurteet ) are spoken in Lapland . The dialects spoken in
6027-478: Is the recent proposal originating from Soviet Union’s official sources, that a certain person convicted in connection of the largest instance of spying in Finland and currently serving the sentence, would be freed and permitted do depart for Soviet Union. Soviet Union’s political and fiscal demands over and above those stated in the peace terms extended to many different matters and become from Finland’s security point of view ever increasingly precarious. I will mention
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6174-467: The Bank of Finland , a post he remained in until he became prime minister in 1939. Ryti only began to exercise his duties as chairman of the Bank of Finland after he resigned as finance minister in January 1924. During his early years in parliament, Ryti succeeded in bringing order to the government budget . Although he was a Ståhlbergian, Ryti did not approve of pardoning Red prisoners. In his opinion,
6321-668: The Finnish Diet of 1863. Finnish also enjoys the status of an official minority language in Sweden . Under the Nordic Language Convention , citizens of the Nordic countries speaking Finnish have the opportunity to use their native language when interacting with official bodies in other Nordic countries without being liable to any interpretation or translation costs. However, concerns have been expressed about
6468-400: The Finnish Government , echoing the royal curia regis . The session is customarily arranged once a week. There is quorum of five ministers and the chancellor of justice is present as well. In the session, the respective ministers present the topic and a proposal for decision. Based on the proposal, the president makes his decision. The president may depart from the proposal and may return
6615-630: The Government . From the declaration of Finland's independence on 6 December 1917 until the end of the Finnish Civil War in May 1918, Pehr Evind Svinhufvud was the head of state of White Finland in his capacity as chairman of the Senate . Between May 1918 and July 1919, Finland had two regents ( Finnish : valtionhoitaja , Swedish : stathållare , lit. Care-taker of State ) and, for
6762-528: The Lapua movement . Ryti was an admirer of British civilisation and culture and of American free enterprise . Ryti had built up relations of trust with leading Social Democratic Party politician Väinö Tanner and President Kyösti Kallio . In late autumn 1939, Ryti was offered the post of prime minister, but he tried to turn down the offer. However, when the Winter War broke out on 30 November, Ryti agreed. He took his post on 1 December. Ryti concentrated on
6909-466: The Order of the Cross of Liberty to Finnish and foreign citizens. Likewise, titles of honor are awarded by the president; these include, for example, "professor" and different "counsellor" titles. These titles are symbolic, carry no responsibilities and have a similar role as knighting in monarchies. The highest titles are valtioneuvos (statesman) and vuorineuvos (industrial). The president makes
7056-533: The University of Helsinki in 1906 to study law . Ryti was the only one among his brothers to pass the university entrance examination ; however his three sisters also matriculated . Ryti graduated in autumn 1909 as Finland was moving into the second period of Russification . Escaping an oppressive political atmosphere in the capital, Ryti returned to his roots in Satakunta, where he established himself as
7203-499: The sentence . Sentences are normally formed with subject–verb–object word order, although the extensive use of inflection allows them to be ordered differently. Word order variations are often reserved for differences in information structure . Finnish orthography uses a Latin-script alphabet derived from the Swedish alphabet, and is phonemic to a great extent. Vowel length and consonant length are distinguished, and there are
7350-513: The stem of a word and its grammatical ending in some cases, for example after acronyms , as in EU:ssa 'in the EU'. (This contrasts with some other alphabetic writing systems, which would use other symbols, such as e.g. apostrophe, hyphen.) Since suffixes play a prominent role in the language, this use of the colon is quite common. In the 19th century Johan Vilhelm Snellman and others began to stress
7497-463: The Fatherland"). Ryti participated in the activities of the League of Nations as a member of many committees dealing with economic questions and monetary policy . In the politics of the 1930s, Ryti was an important background figure. His social policy was two-minded. Ryti opposed work programmes for the unemployed and spending on assistance for poor. On the other hand, he thought that the benefits of
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#17327937080577644-559: The Finance Committee. He also served as a member of Helsinki City Council from 1924 to 1927. According to the Finnish historian Martti Turtola, Ryti succeeded in politics in the first few years after the Finnish Civil War because his liberal, democratic, and republican ideals were popular then. Moreover, Ryti's personal political success continued even after his liberal-oriented National Progressive Party shrank to
7791-458: The Finnish dialects. The most important contributions to improving the status of Finnish were made by Elias Lönnrot . His impact on the development of modern vocabulary in Finnish was particularly significant. In addition to compiling the Kalevala , he acted as an arbiter in disputes about the development of standard Finnish between the proponents of western and eastern dialects, ensuring that
7938-409: The Government are appointed and discharged by the president of the republic. After parliamentary elections or in any other situation where the government has resigned, the president, taking into account the result of consultations between the parliamentary groups and having heard the view of the speaker , submits a nominee for prime minister to Parliament. If confirmed by Parliament with a majority of
8085-483: The Presidential Palace on 6 December is one of the key annual events in the presidential calendar. It originated as a celebration of Finland's national independence and pride, and although nowadays it is seen by some as a glorified social party, the reception is broadcast every year on Finnish television and has very high viewer ratings. The number of guests invited has varied from about 1,600 to 2,000. With
8232-600: The Prime Minister as host, because the Presidential Palace was being renovated. In 1974 it was cancelled on account of the death of President Kekkonen's wife only a few days prior to the reception. In 1981 it was held at Finlandia Hall after the Independence Day concert, with Deputy Prime Minister Eino Uusitalo as host, because President Kekkonen had resigned in October and Acting President Mauno Koivisto
8379-556: The Reds were criminals. Ryti refused to see the social background of the Finnish Civil War. In 1925 Ryti was also nominated as a presidential candidate at the age of 36. In the second round of voting, he received the most support. However, in the third round the Swedish People's Party , which held the balance, moved their votes to Lauri Kristian Relander , and Ryti lost to Relander by 109 votes to 172. Ryti's support increased over
8526-584: The Soviet Union began in June 1941, Finland remained formally neutral until Soviet air raids gave an expected reason to fulfill the invasion plans some days later. Ryti made his famous radio speech after the outbreak of the Continuation War where he announced that Germany would win the war against the Soviet Union: Citizens! Our peace loving people, which for more than a year have strained to utmost to once again rebuild their country to flourish in
8673-529: The Soviet Union must have this key area of the Gulf of Finland in order to secure the safety of their large seaside city of Leningrad . The Hanko based troops do not, however, indicate seaborne battle capacity, in as much as attack capacity, and in particular, land-based attack. A sea battle does not require large armored tank troops or enormous railway-based artillery. The Hanko based troops principally were of those assembled for rapid attack occurring on land. Hanko
8820-493: The Soviets have managed to get hold of, prisoners of war included, has been either tried to be enlisted or forced to undertake spying against Finland. Soviet Union’s propaganda has inspired feelings of hate towards cabinet of Finland and members of government. It has tried to spread Bolshevism and Bolshevik style thinking in Finland. The latest example of Soviet Union’s continuously in ever differing situations shown disrespect
8967-499: The USSR can be relied upon. Regardless of what had been promised regarding intervention in Finland’s foreign policy, the Soviet Union bought forward demands regarding direction of Finland’s foreign policy. After the concluded severe battles, considerable losses and wanting for assistance of field equipment; our country was totally defenseless against possible further attacks by Soviet Union. In order of safeguarding to at least some measure
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#17327937080579114-413: The USSR mission. With the aid of their mission, as well as by utilizing the assistance of those citizens of Finland who have been agreeable to exchange their country for the silver coins of Judas , the USSR has unscrupulously attempted to interfere with Finland’s internal affairs. By supporting and financing Finland – Soviet Union Friendship Association’s subversive and revolutionary actions, which were in
9261-694: The United States. The majority of the population of Finland (90.37% as of 2010 ) speak Finnish as their first language . The remainder speak Swedish (5.42%), one of the Sámi languages (for example Northern , Inari , or Skolt ), or another language as their first language. Finnish is spoken as a second language in Estonia by about 167,000 people. The Finnic varities found in Norway's Finnmark (namely Kven ) and in northern Sweden (namely Meänkieli ) have
9408-541: The Winter War, to a German orientation after the Winter War, was not in the least pursued by the confirmed Anglophile Risto Ryti. He had no illusions about the true nature of Germany. Traditionally Finland had been associated with Britain by stronger commercial ties, but as the Baltic Sea was dominated by the Germans and Soviets, lost markets had to be found elsewhere, and the Germans were willing to trade. In August 1940 Ryti also agreed to secret military cooperation with Germany. Over time it became increasingly likely that
9555-443: The acting president. The parliament can override these rules by means of an emergency constitutional amendment passed by a majority of at least 5/6, and has done so on multiple occasions. If the chancellor of justice, the parliamentary ombudsman or the Government deem that the president is guilty of treason or high treason, or crimes against humanity , the matter shall be communicated to Parliament. If Parliament, by three-fourths of
9702-416: The aftermath of the previous war, has once again been made the target of vicious attack. Once again has the same enemy, during which in excess of half a millennium has over short intervals in total for some 100 years by ravaging, shattering, and murdering waged wars against our small nation, violated our territory, with their air arms slaying peaceful citizens, mainly the aged, women and children, and destroying
9849-485: The agreement and make peace with the Soviet Union once the offensive had been stopped. After the war, Ryti was the main defendant in the Finnish war-responsibility trials (1945–1946), which resulted in his conviction for crimes against peace . He was sentenced to ten years' imprisonment but was pardoned by decision of President Juho Kusti Paasikivi in 1949. His reputation was largely unscathed, but his health had suffered and he never returned to public life. Risto Ryti
9996-409: The appointment of the Government and the officers of the civil service . The Constitution was changed in 2000, to redistribute some of this power to Parliament and the Government. The Constitution specifies how the principles of parliamentarism are to be followed. Most significantly, the president can no longer nominate the prime minister or individual ministers independently. For example, this power
10143-478: The appointment. Nevertheless, presidents have used these powers publicly, even against the internal recommendation of the agency. In addition, the president appoints or gives commission to: The president conducts Finland's foreign policy in co-operation with the Finnish Government. The provisions of treaties and other international obligations that affect domestic legislation are implemented by acts of parliament. Otherwise, international obligations are implemented by
10290-399: The best of my ability promote the wellbeing of the people of Finland." The term of the president-elect begins at the moment the affirmation has been made (around 12:20 on the day of the inauguration). After the inauguration, the new president, accompanied by their predecessor, inspects the guard of honour outside Parliament House. The president exercises governmental powers "in council" with
10437-474: The border created between Sweden and Finland in 1809 when Russia annexed Finland. This caused the speakers of Meänkieli to be isolated from the developments of standard Finnish and instead be influenced by the Swedish language. However, it is still mutually integible with Finnish, and is thus sometimes considered a dialect of the Finnish language. The Kven language is spoken in Finnmark and Troms , in Norway. Its speakers are descendants of Finnish emigrants to
10584-451: The colloquial language) ei kö teillä ole e(i) ks teil(lä) oo "don't you (pl.) have (it)?" (compare eiks to standard Estonian confirmatory interrogative eks ) Risto Ryti Risto Heikki Ryti ( Finnish pronunciation: [ˈristo ˈhei̯kːi ˈryti] ; 3 February 1889 – 25 October 1956) was a Finnish politician who served as the fifth president of Finland from 1940 to 1944. Ryti started his career as
10731-484: The cooperation begun in late 1940 ultimately developed in 1941 into preparations for re-annexation of the territories lost after the Winter War, in case Nazi Germany were to realize the rumoured plans for an assault on the Soviet Union. The Continuation War, when it commenced, would also come to include occupation of East Karelia , which nationalist circles had championed since the 1910s. When Germany's assault on
10878-404: The country. One is the "standard language" ( yleiskieli ), and the other is the " spoken language " ( puhekieli ). The standard language is used in formal situations like political speeches and newscasts. Its written form, the "book language" ( kirjakieli ), is used in nearly all written texts, not always excluding even the dialogue of common people in popular prose. The spoken language, on
11025-473: The current head of state of Finland is known as the president of the Republic of Finland ( Finnish : Suomen tasavallan presidentti ; Swedish : republiken Finlands president ) or, more often, the president of the Republic ( tasavallan presidentti , republikens president ). This is in contrast to former presidents, who retain the title "President". Presidential candidates can be nominated by registered parties which have received at least one seat in
11172-478: The difference between saying "There's no children I'll leave it to" and "There are no children to whom I shall leave it"). More common is the intrusion of typically literary constructions into a colloquial discourse, as a kind of quote from written Finnish. It is quite common to hear book-like and polished speech on radio or TV, and the constant exposure to such language tends to lead to the adoption of such constructions even in everyday language. A prominent example of
11319-445: The effect of the standard language is the development of the consonant gradation form /ts : ts/ as in metsä : metsän , as this pattern was originally (1940) found natively only in the dialects of the southern Karelian isthmus and Ingria . It has been reinforced by the spelling "ts" for the dental fricative [θː] , used earlier in some western dialects. The spelling and the pronunciation this encourages however approximate
11466-437: The election day. From 1919 to 1991 the president's power to order a premature election was unqualified and he could do so whenever considered necessary. Presidents have ordered premature parliamentary elections on seven occasions. The president declares each annual session of parliament open and closes the last Annual Session. This is done in a speech at each opening and closing ceremony. The prime minister and other members of
11613-593: The exception of ambassadors to Finland, only Finnish citizens are invited. The history of the Independence Day reception stretches back to 1919, when the first afternoon reception was held at the Presidential Palace . In 1922, President Ståhlberg hosted the first evening reception at the palace, with the reception beginning at nine o' clock. Guests included the Government, diplomats, Members of Parliament, high-ranking officers, senior civil servants, artists and other prominent people. Music and dancing were on
11760-469: The existence of our country, the cabinet of Finland commenced talks designed to achieve formation of a Northern League of Defence. These discussions were made public on the same day as the peace agreement had been concluded in Moscow. While the articles of the peace agreement were being dealt with by Finnish parliament on March 21st the USSR in Moscow made known their strict opposition to this plan, totally without foundation claiming it to be in disagreement with
11907-460: The fact Ryti had signed the peace treaty, Ryti became an acceptable figure for the post of president in December 1940 when Kallio resigned. The exceptional circumstances, such as the lack of a permanent place of residence for many Karelian refugees (see Turtola, "Risto Ryti: A Life for the Fatherland" and Virkkunen, "The Finnish Presidents II"), prevented the election of presidential electors, so
12054-415: The first day of the month following the election (either 1 February or 1 March depending on whether there were one or two rounds). There have been several exceptional presidential elections. The first president, Kaarlo Juho Ståhlberg , was chosen by the Finnish parliament due to the transition rule of the constitution and also due to the martial law . In 1940 and 1943, the 1937 electoral college chose
12201-551: The formal. However, in signalling the former in writing, syncope and sandhi – especially internal – may occasionally amongst other characteristics be transcribed, e.g. menenpä → me(n)empä . This never occurs in the standard variety. he mene vät ne mene e "they go" loss of a number contrast on verbs in the 3rd person ( menee is 3rd person singular in the formal language) ( minä) o le n mä o o n "I am" or "I will be" and no pro-drop (i.e., personal pronouns are usually mandatory in
12348-446: The future status of Finnish in Sweden, for example, where reports produced for the Swedish government during 2017 show that minority language policies are not being respected, particularly for the 7% of Finns settled in the country. The Uralic family of languages, of which Finnish is a member, are hypothesized to derive from a single ancestor language termed Proto-Uralic , spoken sometime between 8,000 and 2,000 BCE (estimates vary) in
12495-703: The geographic origin of Finnish and the other Uralic languages. The most widely held view is that they originated as a Proto-Uralic language somewhere in the boreal forest belt around the Ural Mountains region and/or the bend of the middle Volga . The strong case for Proto-Uralic is supported by common vocabulary with regularities in sound correspondences, as well as by the fact that the Uralic languages have many similarities in structure and grammar. Despite having overlapping geographical distributions, Finnic languages and Sami languages are not closely related, and
12642-403: The gold markka. However, after the Great Depression in 1929, Finland was forced to abandon the gold standard following the example of Great Britain. In the 1920s, Ryti established international contacts with the banking world of Scandinavia , and with Great Britain and the United States. The Wall Street Journal recognized his success. In 1934 he was awarded a British honour, being created
12789-461: The grammatical and phonological changes also include the most common pronouns and suffixes, which amount to frequent but modest differences. Some sound changes have been left out of the formal language. For example, irregular verbs have developed in the spoken language as a result of the elision of sonorants in some verbs of the Type III class (with subsequent vowel assimilation ), but only when
12936-664: The guests individually in the State Hall at the beginning of the evening. Later on there is dancing, music provided by the Guards Band, and a traditional buffet. After Finland's independence and the Civil War in Finland the matter of whether Finland should be a republic or a constitutional monarchy was much debated (see Frederick Charles of Hesse ), and the outcome was a compromise: a rather monarchy-like, strong presidency with great powers over Finland's foreign affairs ,
13083-520: The hypothesis of a separate taxonomic " Finno-Samic " node is controversial. The Defense Language Institute in Monterey, California , United States, classifies Finnish as a level III language (of four levels) in terms of learning difficulty for native English speakers. Finnish is spoken by about five million people, most of whom reside in Finland. There are also notable Finnish-speaking minorities in Sweden, Norway, Russia, Estonia, Brazil, Canada, and
13230-470: The language, which he based on Swedish, German, and Latin. The Finnish standard language still relies on his innovations with regard to spelling, though Agricola used less systematic spelling than is used today. Though Agricola's intention was that each phoneme (and allophone under qualitative consonant gradation ) should correspond to one letter, he failed to achieve this goal in various respects. For example, k , c , and q were all used for
13377-472: The latter having resigned. Then Prime Minister Juho Kusti Paasikivi was elected president by the Parliament. In 1973, special legislation extended President Urho Kekkonen 's term by four years until 1978, when he was re-elected regularly. The president-elect, accompanied by the Speaker of the Parliament and the outgoing president, assumes office on the first day of the month following the election by making
13524-415: The main cultural and political centres. The standard language, however, has always been a consciously constructed medium for literature. It preserves grammatical patterns that have mostly vanished from the colloquial varieties and, as its main application is writing, it features complex syntactic patterns that are not easy to handle when used in speech. The colloquial language develops significantly faster, and
13671-562: The minister of defence. Under the Preparedness Act, in exceptional circumstances the president may issue a decree authorising the government to exercise emergency powers for up to one year at a time. The decree must be submitted to Parliament for its approval. Should the powers available under the Preparedness Act prove inadequate in an emergency, additional powers can be assumed under the State of Defence Act. The president may declare
13818-411: The modern-day eastern Finnish dialects, Veps, Karelian, and Ingrian) formed genitive plural nouns via plural stems (e.g., eastern Finnish kalojen < * kaloi -ten ), the western dialects of Proto-Finnic (today's Estonian, Livonian and western Finnish varieties) used the non-plural stems (e.g., Est. kalade < * kala -ten ). Another defining characteristic of the east–west split
13965-573: The most part, the dialects operate on the same phonology and grammar. There are only marginal examples of sounds or grammatical constructions specific to some dialect and not found in standard Finnish. Two examples are the voiced dental fricative found in the Rauma dialect , and the Eastern exessive case . The Southwest Finnish dialects ( lounaissuomalaismurteet ) are spoken in Southwest Finland and Satakunta . Their typical feature
14112-419: The need to improve the status of Finnish. Ever since the days of Mikael Agricola, written Finnish had been used almost exclusively in religious contexts, but now Snellman's Hegelian nationalistic ideas of Finnish as a fully-fledged national language gained considerable support. Concerted efforts were made to improve the status of the language and to modernize it, and by the end of the century Finnish had become
14259-409: The orders of their government regular, wide-scale military operations in all regions of our country, and in keeping with their habits, primarily targeted these operations towards sparsely populated areas and peaceful civilian population. In this manner has commenced our second battle for defence only some 19 months since occurrence of the previous attack. This new attack towards Finland is as if it were
14406-453: The original pronunciation, still reflected in e.g. Karelian /čč : č/ ( meččä : mečän ). In the spoken language, a fusion of Western /tt : tt/ ( mettä : mettän ) and Eastern /ht : t/ ( mehtä : metän ) has resulted in /tt : t/ ( mettä : metän ). Neither of these forms are identifiable as, or originate from, a specific dialect. The orthography of informal language follows that of
14553-616: The other hand, is the main variety of Finnish used in popular TV and radio shows and at workplaces, and may be preferred to a dialect in personal communication. Standard Finnish is prescribed by the Language Office of the Research Institute for the Languages of Finland and is the language used in official communication. The Dictionary of Contemporary Finnish ( Nykysuomen sanakirja 1951–61), with 201,000 entries,
14700-712: The peace agreement. In respect of the same foreign policy matter the Soviet Union further three times with threatening note intervened in our right of self determination: on the 27th of September 1940, on our independence day of the same year, and two weeks following that, on the December 18. This occurred regardless of the above mentioned idea of League of Defence not by any means being aimed against anybody, merely to safeguard these sister nations. In contravention of international covenants and practices, Soviet Union’s diplomatic and consular representation in Finland has undertaken intervention with regard to Finland’s domestic situation as well as spying, even appearing for this purpose with
14847-519: The peace between Germany and the Soviet Union would end, and the experts' opinion - even among the enemies of Germany - was that in case of invasion the Soviets could not stop the German war machine. Ryti apparently turned, step by step, to being in favour of seizing the opportunity to secure Finnish claims to areas he saw to be in the country's interests, in case the great realignment of ownership of East European territory by force were to materialize. Thus
14994-430: The peace negotiations. The Soviet Union now demanded that the Åland Islands had to be demilitarized, defense equipment located there destroyed, and Soviet Union itself had to be permitted to control all works of destruction. With these demands the Soviet Union clearly wanted to reserve itself the opportunity to effortlessly occupy the Åland Islands, whenever a suitable moment occurred. During same timeframe, approximately
15141-498: The peace, the USSR obtained a starting point that from the military point of view was advantageous in case of renewed warlike attacks. That, however, is not all. In order to totally deprive Finland of any defensive capacity against attack by their immense military forces, the Soviet Union demands both the naval base of Hanko as well as building of the Salla railway. The argument for renting of Hanko base has been stated as being that,
15288-459: The period after the outbreak of World War I, before Finland achieved its independence, Ryti's business relationship with Kordelin grew even closer, and it appeared likely that Kordelin would ask Ryti to become general manager of his numerous business enterprises. However, in November 1917 Ryti and his wife witnessed the murder of Kordelin at the hands of a Russian Bolshevik . Russian seamen led by
15435-447: The phoneme / k / . Likewise, he alternated between dh and d to represent the allophonic [ ð ] (like th in English this ), between dh and z to represent / θː / (like th in thin , but longer in duration), and between gh and g to represent the allophonic [ ɣ ] . Agricola did not consistently represent vowel length in his orthography. Others revised Agricola's work later, striving for
15582-585: The position of commander-in-chief is an exception to the principle that the president cannot delegate functions to others. The last time this has occurred was in the Second World War (to Field Marshal Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim ). The president commissions officers and decides on the mobilisation of the Defence Forces. If Parliament is not in session when a decision to mobilise is taken, it must be immediately convened. As commander-in-chief,
15729-406: The power of pardon from any imprisonment, fine, or forfeiture. General pardon requires an act of parliament. The power of pardon has effectively become the instrument to limit life imprisonment to 12 years or more, since successive presidents have eventually given pardon to all felons. The president, however, retains the power to deny pardon. In autumn 2006, the regular paroling of convicts serving
15876-436: The president also discharges functions assigned to the president in other laws. Under the Constitution of Finland, executive power is vested in the president and the Government , which must enjoy the confidence of parliament. This principle is reflected in other provisions of the constitution concerning the president's functions and powers dealing with legislation, decrees, and appointment of public officials. Custom dictates that
16023-425: The president has the power to issue military orders concerning general guidelines for military defence, significant changes in military preparedness and the principles according to which military defence is implemented. Decisions concerning military orders are made by the president in conjunction with the prime minister , and the minister of defence . The president decides on military appointments in conjunction with
16170-400: The president refuse assent or fail to decide on the matter in time, Parliament reconsiders the bill and can readopt it with a majority of votes cast. The bill will then enter into force without ratification. If Parliament fails to readopt the bill, it is deemed to have lapsed. Presidential vetoes are generally successful in preventing a bill from becoming law. In single cases, the president has
16317-490: The president renounces any party affiliation while serving, to remain above day-to-day politics. The president was originally vested with fairly broad executive power, particularly in the realm of foreign policy. Constitutional amendments enacted in 1999 reduced the president's powers somewhat, and the president now shares executive authority with the Prime Minister . Nevertheless, presidents are still seen as providing
16464-400: The president's incapacity ceases. If the president dies in office or if the Government declares that the president is permanently unable to carry out the duties of office, a new election is triggered to determine a successor. If the president, the prime minister, and the deputy prime minister are all temporarily unavailable, the most senior minister of the government, in years of service, becomes
16611-420: The president, as it was felt that a popular election could not be arranged due to the martial law (1940) and the Continuation War (1943). In 1944 special legislation directly stipulated that Marshal Mannerheim be elected president for six years after Risto Ryti had resigned mid-term. In 1946, special legislation empowered the Parliament to choose a successor for the remainder of Mannerheim's term (until 1950),
16758-407: The previous parliamentary elections. A candidate may also be nominated by 20,000 enfranchised citizens. Between 1919 and 1988, the president was elected indirectly by an electoral college made up of electors chosen by voters in the presidential election. In the 1988 presidential election, a direct and an indirect election were conducted in parallel: if no candidate could gain a majority, the president
16905-425: The programme and the reception lasted until late night. Similar receptions have been held ever since, though less regularly in the beginning. Since 1946 the Independence Day reception has taken place at the Presidential Palace every year with six exceptions. In 1952 it was cancelled on account of President Paasikivi's illness. In 1972 it was held at Finlandia Hall in connection with the Independence Day concert, with
17052-415: The property of peaceful citizens. From the instant of commencement of hostilities between Germany and Soviet Union, numerous instances of border violations have been committed by the Soviet Union, for which we have expressed our most vigorous protests, all to no avail. As of yesterday the military forces of Soviet Union have without regard to agreements and without any cause being supplied by us, committed on
17199-511: The proposal to the Government for reconsideration. There is no voting and normally there are no speeches aside from the aforementioned proposals. Except for approvals of new laws and appointments, the Government may present the issue to the Parliament , which will make the final decision on the matter on the Government's proposal. The president's functions and powers are directly defined in the Constitution. In addition to those specified there,
17346-746: The region in the 18th and 19th centuries. Kven is an official minority language in Norway. The Eastern dialects consist of the widespread Savonian dialects ( savolaismurteet ) spoken in Savo and nearby areas, and the South-Eastern dialects now spoken only in Finnish South Karelia . The South Karelian dialects ( eteläkarjalaismurteet ) were previously also spoken on the Karelian Isthmus and in Ingria . The Karelian Isthmus
17493-464: The rented Hanko area. These points were not in the peace agreement. The inherent danger of these transports from point of view of the security of our country and the right to self determination is considerable. In this manner the Soviet Union attempted by various means weaken the political and military position of Finland. Simultaneously with this, the Soviet Union attempted by all possible means by economical means to weaken our capacity to resist. Without
17640-500: The safety of Leningrad, enabling the security of which was notified as being the reason for commencement of hostilities. Likewise, the Russian negotiators assured the peace agreement guarantees safety of the railway running North-west of Lake Ladoga , which the USSR considered to be important for their network. Additionally, the negotiators assured that how Finland arranges and decides their internal as well as external political matters
17787-437: The salary was restored to its previous amount of 160,000 euros. In addition to the salary the president is entitled to an apartment as well as necessary staff. Any president who serves for six years or longer is entitled to a full pension at "sixty percent of the currently valid remuneration of the president of the republic" as well as living arrangements. The president's salary and housing benefits are tax-free. The president has
17934-401: The second syllable of the word is short. The result is that some forms in the spoken language are shortened, e.g. tule-n → tuu-n ('I come'), while others remain identical to the standard language hän tulee "he comes", never * hän tuu ). However, the longer forms such as tule can be used in spoken language in other forms as well. The literary language certainly still exerts
18081-446: The slightest foundation in the peace agreement, it demanded we surrender to them substantial amounts of railway equipments. Likewise, it demanded compensation for equipments removed or destroyed from the surrendered areas, extending these compensation demands likewise to property transferred from Hanko rental area, to which the Soviet Union could not possibly have had any right. Descriptive in respect of these demands were that, compensation
18228-636: The status of official minority languages, and thus can be considered distinct languages from Finnish. However, since these languages are mutually intelligible , one may alternatively view them as dialects of the same language . No language census exists for Norway, neither for Kven, standard Finnish, or combined. As of 2023, 7,454 first- or second-generation immigrants from Finland were registered as having Norwegian residency, while as of 2021, 235 Finns were registered as foreigners studying at Norwegian higher education. Great Norwegian Encyclopedia estimates Kven speakers at 2,000-8,000. Altogether, this results in
18375-643: The strong economics should be distributed evenly over the whole population, not just a few. Ryti played an important part in creating the social welfare of the late 1930s. In general, Ryti was opposed to state intervention in business and industry. He opposed Socialist economics and especially its Soviet forms. Furthermore, Ryti had experienced the Russification period and the Civil War, making him anti-Soviet . Ryti approved of neither German national socialism nor right-wing extremism, and he also opposed
18522-415: The successful defensive battles conducted with substantial casualties felt paralyzing to us. From the terms of peace we were able to perceive the ultimate intentions of USSR in dictating these terms. The new boundary was ordered to be such, as to destroy the possibility of Finland defending itself. The border was to run across natural lines of defence and in such manner that road network was disabled. In making
18669-465: The travel journal, the words are those of a Finnish bishop whose name is unknown. The erroneous use of gelen (Modern Finnish kielen ) in the accusative case, rather than kieltä in the partitive, and the lack of the conjunction mutta are typical of foreign speakers of Finnish even today. At the time, most priests in Finland spoke Swedish . During the Middle Ages, when Finland
18816-499: The use of Finnish through parish clerk schools, the use of Swedish in church, and by having Swedish-speaking servants and maids move to Finnish-speaking areas. The first comprehensive writing system for Finnish was created by Mikael Agricola , a Finnish bishop, in the 16th century. He based his writing system on the western dialects . Agricola's ultimate plan was to translate the Bible , but first he had to develop an orthography for
18963-470: The use of three properties for residential and hospitality purposes: the Presidential Palace and Mäntyniemi , both in Helsinki , and Kultaranta in Naantali on the west coast near Turku . The president of Finland does not have a vice president . If the president is temporarily prevented from performing his or her duties, the prime minister or the deputy prime minister serves as acting president until
19110-492: The vicinity of the Ural Mountains . Over time, Proto-Uralic split into various daughter languages , which themselves continued to change and diverge, yielding yet more descendants. One of these descendants is the reconstructed Proto-Finnic , from which the Finnic languages developed. Current models assume that three or more Proto-Finnic dialects evolved during the first millennium BCE. These dialects were defined geographically, and were distinguished from one another along
19257-684: The votes cast, decides that charges are to be brought, the Prosecutor-General prosecutes the president in the High Court of Impeachment and the president abstains from office for the duration of the proceedings. There is, however, no mechanism laid out in the Constitution or other laws for removing a president from office. The traditional Independence Day Reception (in Finnish: Linnanjuhlat , "the Castle Ball ") at
19404-416: The votes cast, that candidate is elected president. If no candidate wins a majority in the first stage, the top two candidates rerun in the second stage two weeks later. The candidate who then receives more votes is elected. In the event of a tie, the election is resolved by lot. The Government confirms the outcome of the election and, if necessary, conducts the drawing of lots. The president assumes office on
19551-422: The votes cast, the president then proceeds to appoint the prime minister and other ministers. The president is constitutionally required to dismiss a government or any minister as soon as that government has lost the confidence of Parliament. The president appoints: Most of the appointment process is conducted at the respective ministry: The Office of the President does not process preparations or presentations of
19698-626: The western dialects preferred by Agricola retained their preeminent role, while many originally dialect words from Eastern Finland were introduced to the standard language, thus enriching it considerably. The first novel written in Finnish (and by a Finnish speaker) was Seven Brothers ( Seitsemän veljestä ), published by Aleksis Kivi in 1870. The dialects of Finnish are divided into two distinct groups, Western and Eastern. The dialects are largely mutually intelligible and are distinguished from each other by changes in vowels, diphthongs and rhythm, as well as in preferred grammatical constructions. For
19845-403: The western parts of Lapland are recognizable by retention of old "h" sounds in positions where they have disappeared from other dialects. One form of speech related to Northern dialects, Meänkieli , which is spoken on the Swedish side of the border is recognized in Sweden as its own distinct language, having its own standardized language separate from Finnish. This form of speech developed from
19992-414: The years but was never enough in elections. During the 1930s he withdrew from daily politics, but influenced economic policies. Ryti was an orthodox supporter of classical liberal economics. He made his goal to tie the value of Finnish markka to the gold standard . Unlike many other European countries, Finland did not choose deflationary solutions under his leadership; and in 1926 the country shifted to
20139-496: Was a prescriptive dictionary that defined official language. An additional volume for words of foreign origin ( Nykysuomen sivistyssanakirja , 30,000 entries) was published in 1991. An updated dictionary, The New Dictionary of Modern Finnish ( Kielitoimiston sanakirja ) was published in an electronic form in 2004 and in print in 2006. A descriptive grammar (the Large grammar of Finnish , Iso suomen kielioppi , 1,600 pages)
20286-485: Was born in Huittinen , Satakunta , one of seven sons, among 10 siblings. His parents were Kaarle Evert Ryti, a farmer, and Ida Vivika Junttila. Although he came from a peasant farming background, during his childhood Ryti hardly participated in work on the family's large farm, being a bookish and academically inclined boy. He was educated briefly at Pori Grammar School , and was then tutored at home, before enrolling in
20433-480: Was campaigning for the presidency. In 2013, the reception was held at the Tampere Hall in central Tampere , because the Presidential Palace in Helsinki was undergoing repairs at the time. This was the first time during the era of independence that the reception was held outside Helsinki. In 2020, the reception was cancelled because of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic . The president and president's spouse greet
20580-416: Was elected by an electoral college formed in the same elections. Since 1994, the president has been elected by a direct popular vote. If only one candidate is nominated, that candidate becomes president without an election. Otherwise, the first round of balloting takes place on the fourth Sunday of January in the election year. The elections are two-staged . If one of the candidates receives more than half of
20727-464: Was evacuated during World War II and refugees were resettled all over Finland. Most Ingrian Finns were deported to various interior areas of the Soviet Union. Palatalization , a common feature of Uralic languages, had been lost in the Finnic branch, but it has been reacquired by most of these languages, including Eastern Finnish, but not Western Finnish. In Finnish orthography, this is denoted with
20874-551: Was forced to drop the Terijoki Government and accept negotiations via Stockholm . The Western allies' planned intervention influenced the Soviet government to seek an agreement. Ryti persuaded the rest of the cabinet to settle for peace and signed the Moscow Peace Treaty on 13 March 1940. The peace agreement, in which Finland lost large land areas and faced the burden of resettling 400,000 refugees,
21021-469: Was generally considered crushing. Ryti had proved to be a strong prime minister, in contrast to his predecessor Aimo Cajander . President Kallio suffered a stroke in August, and also he had no great experience in foreign policy, so the heavy responsibilities of state leadership were shared by Ryti, Field Marshal C.G.E. Mannerheim , industrialist and general Rudolf Walden , and Tanner. Considering this and
21168-419: Was previously used to form governments where the party in plurality was excluded. Regarding the right to dissolve Parliament, consultation with the prime minister and heads of parliamentary groups was made mandatory before Parliament could be dissolved and new elections ordered. Furthermore, some appointing powers, such as appointment of provincial governors and department heads at ministries, were transferred to
21315-545: Was published in 2004. There is also an etymological dictionary, Suomen sanojen alkuperä , published in 1992–2000, and a handbook of contemporary language ( Nykysuomen käsikirja ). Standard Finnish is used in official texts and is the form of language taught in schools. Its spoken form is used in political speech, newscasts, in courts, and in other formal situations. Nearly all publishing and printed works are in standard Finnish. The colloquial language has mostly developed naturally from earlier forms of Finnish, and spread from
21462-543: Was the use of the reflexive suffix -(t)te , used only in the eastern dialects. The birch bark letter 292 from the early 13th century is the first known document in any Finnic language . The first known written example of Finnish itself is found in a German travel journal dating back to c. 1450 : Mÿnna tachton gernast spuho sommen gelen Emÿna daÿda (Modern Finnish: " Minä tahdon kernaasti puhua suomen kielen, [mutta] en minä taida; " English: "I want to speak Finnish, [but] I am not able to"). According to
21609-562: Was under Swedish rule , Finnish was only spoken . At the time, the language of international commerce was Middle Low German , the language of administration Swedish , and religious ceremonies were held in Latin . This meant that Finnish speakers could use their mother tongue only in everyday life. Finnish was considered inferior to Swedish, and Finnish speakers were second-class members of society because they could not use their language in any official situations. There were even efforts to reduce
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