VLADIMIR PUTIN
ARCHIVE OF THE OFFICIAL SITE
OF THE 2008-2012 PRIME MINISTER
OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION
VLADIMIR PUTIN
ARCHIVE OF THE OFFICIAL SITE
OF THE 2008-2012 PRIME MINISTER
OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION
VLADIMIR PUTIN
Helsinki, then Helsingfors, was founded by King Gustav I of Sweden in 1550 to compete with Reval (present-day Tallinn), one of the principal Hanseatic trade seaports. The new port lost commercial importance after Sweden seized Reval in 1561. Devastating fires destroyed the city during the Russo-Swedish wars of 1570-71, 1713, 1742 and 1808.
When Russia annexed Finland according to the Peace Treaty of Fredrikshamn in 1809, Helsinki received a new lease of life. Its revival gained pace after 1812, when Tsar Alexander I made it the capital of the autonomous Grand Duchy of Finland, depriving Turku of its metropolitan status. A railway built in the 1860s connected the coastal city with the heartland to make it the main commercial and industrial centre of Finland. Rapid progress of Russian-Finnish trade and the construction of another railway, from St Petersburg, added to Helsinki's prosperity.
The city was built from scratch with Russian assistance after the conflagration of 1808. Architect Carl Ludvig Engel was invited from St Petersburg to plan the new city centre and design its principal buildings. In the 1820s-30s, he built Senate Square, Helsinki's principal monumental ensemble, in a style resembling St Petersburg, and another majestic ensemble - the embankment, dominated by the Presidential Palace and the City Hall.
Helsinki is an inimitable place, one of the most original in the world, with the cityscape merging into the seascape as it spreads over many islets and peninsulas. Indicatively, the local people call it Fair Daughter of the Baltic. Materialising the symbolic land-sea unity is the Mermaid statue adorning an impressive fountain opposite the City Hall. It was made by Ville Valgren, one of the foremost Finnish sculptors, in 1908.
Another landmark of the city centre is the sprawling central railway station, built in the beginning of the 20th century - architect Eliel Saarinen's masterpiece. It blends National Romanticism with mediaeval Scandinavian architecture. The massive neoclassical Parliament House was designed by Johan Sigrid Siren in the late 1920s. Statues of Finnish presidents line a public garden in front of it. The monument to Field-Marshal Mannerheim, whose name the central avenue bears, is close to the Parliament House. The National Museum of Finland, whose premises imitate a mediaeval castle, is next to it. A bit farther on stretches the Olympic Stadium, built shortly before World War II. Its tower is 73 metres high to commemorate the most sensational of Matti Jarvinen's world records in the javelin throw. The stadium hosted the 1952 Olympics - the first in which the Soviet Union took part.
World-renowned Alvar Aalto's endeavours stand out among the later buildings - the House of Culture, whose construction was funded by public subscription, and the snow-white Finlandia Hall, where the Final Act of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe was signed in 1975.
The dominant light colour scheme has earned Helsinki the name of the White City of the North. Contemporary architects make it a point to blend their buildings into the landscape and preserve it as much as possible.
Helsinki has eight theatres, the foremost of which are the Finnish National Theatre, the City Drama Theatre, and the Svenska Teatern (Swedish Theatre).
The city has more than 50 museums. Of the greatest interest among them are the Ateneum Art Museum (classical Finnish art), the Sinebrychoff Art Museum (classical European art), the National Museum of Finland (history) and the Helsinki City Museum (local history). The Kiasma Museum of contemporary art is housed in an impressive building in the city's heart, opened in spring 1998.
Helsinki has eight universities. The principal of them, the University of Helsinki, has its antecedents in the University of Turku, which was established in 1640 and transferred to the new capital in 1828. It has 4,000 students.
The inner city population is more than 560,000. The Greater Helsinki contains 12 municipalities and three cities - Vantaa, Espoo and Kauniainen, with the total population exceeding a million.
