Suur Suomi

This came to us via our resident West Virginian Estonia enthusiast Jerry, who in turn found it over at Strange Maps - a very cool blog. I have been reading a book recently called Scandinavia by Tony Griffiths which has been my first real introduction to the nationalist Fennoman movement in Finland, which has, perhaps, ideological descendents in the philosophy of current parties in Finland and Estonia like the True Finns and the Isamaa half of the Isamaa-ResPublica Union.

And, so once upon a time in Finland, there were Suur Suomi advocates - nationalists who imagined a super Finnish state, perhaps both inspired by pan-Slavicism and pan-Scandinavianism. In the Suur Suomi ideal, Finnic speaking bog dwellers would rule an area from Norway's Finnmark to the Kola penninsula and then all through Karelia, Ingria, and finally Estonia.

Of course that never happened. Although one could argue these days that economically, Suur Suomi is very much a reality.