Crimea in Finland

Her Majesty’s Ambassador to Finland, Matthew Kirk, describes the impact of the Crimean War on that country and how it is being commemorated.

Matthew Kirk | Published in History Today Volume 54 Issue 8 August 2004

A couple of years ago, before we came to live in Finland, a friend said ‘of course you’ll be there for all the Crimean War anniversaries’. A little surprised, I gently pointed out that Finland was well over a thousand miles north of the Crimea. ‘I know’ he said, witheringly, ‘but it was in what is now Finland that the Crimean War was won’.

In fact, in the nineteenth century, it was not called the Crimean War. It was called the Russian War. It was fought on two main fronts – the one we all remember in the Crimea, and the one we don’t in the Baltic. And yet, the campaign in the Baltic was notable both for the way it was fought and for its impact on the war with Russia.