Brit Reacts to Why Don't Sweden and Finland Touch the Arctic Ocean? 

Finland used to have a slither of land up to the Arctic Ocean where Norway now meets Russia, but lost it to Soviet Union in WW2.

I am Sámi myself but also consider myself as a Finn. Our culture is still alive and well but it hasn't been the case always. My older relatives are still afraid to use their native tongue because of trauma caused by how they were treated in school. I speak one of the smaller Sámi languages called Inari Sámi and it is spoken by about 400 people. There are 9 languages still alive and there are attempts in Norway, Sweden and Finland to help them grow and survive. Sámi languages spoken in Russia are close to extinction and will most likely be lost in near future because they are spoken only by elderly.

There are some wrongs in this video. First The city of Gothenburg is situated by the sea of Kattegatt and not by the Baltic sea. Second - from approximately Stockholm and all the way up north is called The sea of Bothnia or the bay of Bothnia not Bohemia ( the narrator call it Bohemia three times. Bohemia is a region in Germany and not a sea ).

Petsamo area is quite empty of people today because it is a restricted military region of Russia. All the citizens of Finland were evacuated in 1944 when the Soviet Union took it. It was given to Finland in Treaty of Tartu in 1920 in exchange of Repola and Porajärvi municipalities several hundred kilometers south. The treaty said that Petsamo belongs to Finland forever, and that "forever" lasted 24 years.

As a Finn, I would say that St. Petersburg is really great and historically beautiful city. I hope that Russia will get proper administration and relations will return to good.

If you visit the Nordic countries I would suggest that you visit Finland first then Sweden and then Norway. The reason for that is that Norway is so extremely beautiful that when you have visited Norway nothing feels great anymore. I am a Finn and I love my country and it is also beautiful but Norway is competing in another class. I wish you welcome to Finland. ❤

The original video was actually quite painful to watch with so many inaccuracies and mispronunciations.

Sweden never controlled the entire area that is today known as FInland, only about the sothern third of it! We fought the Soviets just to defend that tiny little sliver of coastline? Yeah that's so not correct.... The Soviets demanded several pieces of land from us, even in the south, and when we said no they invaded us, so that is false!

knowing how Stalin was, Petsamo Finn's who stayed were going in to gulag and soviet from south were brought to replace them. does that sound familiar, is it happening right now few thousand kilometers south?

there are parts of finland where finns speak swedish but because we only had like a huandred years of affect from russia and maybe a thousand years of influence from the swedes, the finnis language is just as affected by swedish as english is of the latin languages like french. we don´t even have our own word for "beach". it´s just from swedish "strand" ... ranta. ... but you use "strand" too .... that´s the vikings for you.

Norwegians settled all along the coast even into Russian territories. Before the Communist revolution in 1917 there were fishing villages with Norwegian settlers at the Kola Peninsula. But we also have the Finnish people what we call the Kven that came from Finland and northern Sweden and settled in north Norway, mainly in Finnmark.

way is it on a map Åland is not there or not part off Finland ??

Actually, the whole Finland is NOT a part of Scandinavian peninsula. Only parts of north-western Finland are a part of the peninsula. But, the whole Finland IS a part of Fennoscandia that also includes the Scandinavian and Kola peninsulas and Karelia (Norway, Sweden, Finland and parts of Russia near the Finland border). The video also didn't show the correct map of Finland between 1917 and WW2 (in addition to Petsamo, we lost a big part of Karelia and one of our biggest cities (then), Vyborg or Viipuri, that is almost like a ghost town these days). Also, why in h**l that video is showing the Crimean peninsula as a part of Russia? It's officially still a part of Ukraine.

The linquistic similarities he's talking about is that swedish is also an officiall language in Finland, I've lived my entire life in the soutwestern part of Finland, and the region I live in is nearly 100% swedish speaking (I believe the number is something like 97%)

If you start from the UK I would go by ship to Southern Norway, Drive along the coast north into Finland, then drive south in the middle or east side not missing the most visible "sand ridge" area left by the ice age(so aim for Joensuu/Lappeenranta, Lappeenranta being the main goal), Drive from there to Åland(yes you can drive to Åland but remember to book the small ferry's in time, you really dont wanna miss the Archipelago in early summer before the algae bloom when the water turns into green mush), From Åland you take the big ferry to Stockholma and then Drive towards Denmark and from Denmark you should find you way back home.... Or do the lap the other way around because Summer comes earlier in Denmark and Southern Sweden. Yes this way you do skip northern Sweden but its about the same as Mixing Norway with Finland but better to miss that than the Archipelago, if you skip Åland you can drive the Archipelgao "half circle" and drive up towards Vaasa(pretty nice archipelago there too) then Oulu and over to Sweden and you will see Northern Sweden instead. My point is that drive and motorcycle is probably the best option if you like to drive one only like 7000-8000km so maybe you need a driver too :D

Petsamo was evacuated twice during WW2, people moved to Finland, Norway and Sweden and never moved back, except some to the area which was, and still is, part of Norway. Under soviet and later Russian order Petsamo was for mining - only workers and soldiers lived there. Russia has destroyed the landscape with mining operations - there is black dust everywhere.

Welcome To Finland ❤️

You should check out some videos about Saint Petersburg!!! I am FInnish and i want to visit Saint Petersburg someday. It is such a beautiful city what i have seen in videos. There is a Train that goes from Helsinki to Saint Petersburg but not anymore because of the war. I hope Russia and the west can be at peace someday.

A few minutes in and the video claims Finland is on the Scandinavian peninsula. Then calls the Gulf of Bothnia "The Gulf of Bohenia". Oh boy. Edit: Apparently Finland is linguistically similar to Sweden...

wait you think people were awere that ice was melting when the borders between the nordic nations were established? also i DO HOPE you know the water doesn´t freeze up over there even in the winter?

just so that you know sweden diden't have those barders in the early 1200's we got them in like the midle of the 1600's insted

A huge part of northern Sweden is really Finland and the area up there is called Finnmark as in Finn = Fin Land = Mark, there is a theory that Suomi comes from the Saami but the entire area of northern Scandinavia(almost 2/3rds) is on old maps marked as Finno Ugric Tribes. According to some the mixing of people had started already back then but we do have Saami people still there in the north and they do belong to the same group as the finns. As the Russian Slavs the Scandinavian people stole land from us also, havent seen the payment for it yet but we wont move and Norway did try to give back at least a mountain top once but was against their laws. Finland is the nice and friendly neighbor everyone just takes from without paying, Kola and Karelia belongs to the Finno Ugric people and most of the area between the Baltic sea and the Pacific was ones the land of the Uralic people with some Altaic but 0 Indo Europeans. I assume one day that we will become even closer because we do have very similar systems compared to the rest of Europe just to get a stronger region with a stronger voice because our populations are small. Like our people in the Nordic countries can already move as we please just that you inform your address but as a Nordic Citizen you have the same rights as the others in every country so I think its one step more integrated than EU area so there ain't the need to demand this or that land when you can just move there.

Bohemia? Are you crazy? Bothnia is not Bohemia!

I'm from Finland and my granny from dads side is half sami and my mothers side ancestor were sami, so I do have some relations to Sami. But due to Finland's past history, my bloodlines sami culture kinda died in the 1900's.

Even today Saami living in Finnmark and high north Sweden and Finland dont recgonize borders.

Hi! In Sweden we say Ukraina we pronounce every letter in the word.

You are correct about the lingvistics, finnish and swedish have not much in common as langueages. However slang in Helsinki has a lot of swedish sounding words as they have originated from swedish words (obviously there are a lot more of slang words that originate from english words nowadays).

If you go to Norway, be sure to bring a lot of money!

Comments from 3:13. The video you are watching is not very good when it says Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmö are on the "Bay of Bothnia" and pronounces it like "bohenia" ("bohemia"?). 1) What the video shows is the _Guif of Bothnia_. 2) The Bay of Bothnia, more commonly known in English as _Bothnian Bay_ is the northernmost part of the Gulf of Bothnia. 3) The more southern part of the Gulf of Bothnia is the _Bothnian Sea_. 4) Stockholm is not by the Gulf of Bothnia; the area is called perhaps the _Baltic Proper_. 5) Gothenburg is by _Kattegat_. Look it up. 6) Malmö is by _Öresund_/_Øresund_. Look it up. 6) Helsinki really is by the Baltic Sea, and so is Stockholm, but the video does not say that the gulf by which Helsinki is is the _Gulf of Finland_.

Go by train! Best way to see the scenery

It's been 500 years, but I still shudder when you are talking about, and especially praising(!), King Kristian the Dane

Finland used to have a harbor in Arctic Ocean. Here is a map where you can see that this is true: fi.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiedosto:Finland_adm_map_1935.svg

Im part Same. They look swedish. Some may have Asian eyes.

NOT "bohemia" but "bothnia" still thinking this is just some ai bullshit

WRONG @4:00: Swedish words with an i at the end. :) Many people probably feel that Finnish words often look like Swedish words with an added -i. This is, of course, a gross exaggeration, but it fits quite well for words like apelsin, sirap, vin, hummer, munk, polis, sill and typ, which in Finnish have become appelsiini, siirappi, viini, hummeri, munkki, poliisi, silli, and tyyppi. Sometimes, of course, you need to keep an extra eye on the meaning: huusi is not just any house, but rather an outhouse.

In Sweden, only Sami are allowed to own reindeers

Finland (and Iceland) is NOT part of Scandinavia. It is only Sweden, Norway and Denmark. The name comes from the name of a mountain range between Norway and Sweden called the Skanderna. Why Denmark is included is unclear.

This video is full of mistakes, even so much that I'd call it BS.

Start in Denmark.. then go to Norway.. either by ferry or by train through Sweden. After Norway, go to Finland and end in Estonia.

13:30 I've been thinking that it's only Russia between Finland and North Korea. Could be fun and extreme to take a train trough Russia and another to North Korea as a tourist. But the border is closed and trains to Moscow haven't been running for few years.

The border Norway -Sweden is made so that Norwegian rivers goes to the Atlantic and the Swedish to the Baltic Sea. So simple.

Sweden was in war with Russia first time 1555, about disputed boarders. In 1617 peace treaty Sweden secured Kexholm, Nöteborg, and Ingermanland. That push Russia beyond lake Ladoga and off the coast of Finnish bay. Still this treaty was a disappointment for the Swede that once again failed to get access to the Arctic sea.

The maps on the video are wrong, but anyway. The idea of Finland and Sweden not having a connection to the Arctic Ocean is some mount redundant, because you can get there from both countries, if you like. Keeping in mind, that those northern parts are sparsely populated due the harsh conditions. The roads E.g. in Norway can be tricky to build and drive, same as in any mountainous regions. Nor is the Arctic Ocean particularly ideal for shipping. Also, the Antarctic Treaty forbids owning or creating permanent settlements below 60 south. It's estimated that Finnish language has over 4000 loanwords from Swedish, so there are some linguistic similarities. Also, Finnic languages are spoken in the northern parts of Sweden and Norway. How many Sámi people there are, depends on the definition of who are Sámi people. Estimations vary between 50000 and 100000. Occasionally the Northern Lights can be also seen E.g. in the southern part of Finland. Countries do have relationships and interaction, also hostilities, even though they don't share borders. Regarding Petsamo, Finland was also in war with Great Britain. Great Britain declared war on Finland on Finland's Independence Day, 6 December 1941. The Allies were aiding Soviet Union through the Lend-Lease Act and shipped that aid via Arctic sea routes to Murmansk: "FAA Raid Petsamo". A future EU Baltic route: "European Railway Project of the Century: Rail Baltica".

Petsamo = nickel mines / what about Karelia? Before and after WWII...

Yep the only similarity is that it was a FinSwe that wrote down the Fin language so I assume he filled in the gaps with FinSwe stuff. Like we do use the same alphabet but Fin U and O is more similar to German U and O, yes we have the same Å(Swe) O(Fin) sound... but yes nope. This will be a hard one but at least you get a lot of comments if there are others like me 😅

Wow, that video you were watching was so bad quality information wise - avoid all the videos of the same source

When you wonder how something or some word is said in Finnish: put it in the Google translator in English and then listen to the pronouncing at the "Finnish side" of it. 😉😃❤️

This was a tough one so sorry for the spam :D

add denmarks 5+ million and 500k or 1M on Island, sure still not alot, but close to 30 million living there

Why? Cuz that coastline is Norway.

This video is mostly BS, like Malmö is not in "The coast of bohemia" and Finland is only partly part of the Scandinavian peninsula.

There used to be fast train from Helsinki to beautiful St Petersburg and passport control happened in train. Only 3h. Now Finland and Russia border is totally closed, cause of the war. I think, never will be traveling there again.

Finland was part of Sweden 1150 to 1809

Isn’t Sami’s the only ingenious people still exist in Europe?

Some facts about the difference between Scandinavia and The North ( Norden) Sorry it’s in Swedish. “Skandinavien har flera olika definitioner. Som geopolitiskt område omfattar Skandinavien Sverige, Norge och Danmark. Ibland räknas även Finland dit. Som geografiskt område omfattar Skandinavien bara den skandinaviska halvön, det vill säga Norge, Sverige och den nordvästligaste delen av Finland. Norden är ett geopolitiskt område som omfattar Danmark inklusive de självstyrande områdena Färöarna och Grönland, Finland inklusive det självstyrande området Åland, samt Island, Norge och Sverige.”

No no no this video is highly inaccurate. Norse does not mean Norwegian, all of the Swedes,Danes, Icelandic and Norwegians are Norse people. And Gulf of bohemia? Bohemia is a region in Germany and have no Gulf. There are so many factual errors in this video that one would need several pages to write all down.

Of course, the Sami still exist today. They even have their own parliament (with fairly limited power, it must be said), but yes, they mostly live in northern Sweden, Norway, Finland and Russia, their country is called Sapmi. Many people today live like anyone else, but abot 10% of them are still reindeer herders. The Sami are the only ones who are allowed to have reindeer on free range, at least that's how it is in Norway, Sweden and Finland, I don't know how it is in Russia. Unfortunately, the Sami have been treated quite badly at least since the 1600s until the latter part of the 20th century. There are still various conflicts of interest, but racism and the imperialist view are no longer there in the same way as it was befor. Yes, it's true that they have a bit of Asian in them. You should make a reaction video on the Sami, here are some suggestions: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-_6sQPJvGaO0.html&ab_channel=Cogito ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-9mxXHe6MdTs.html&ab_channel=Sebastianioan One more thing is why do you need to send an army if no one lives in a place; ) So the northernmost parts were certainly inhabited by the Sami, but also perhaps by other peoples. No one would be happier than us Scandinavians if Russia became a functioning democratic country.

Why fight your friends! This is not middle east. Even tho it start moving in that direction.

Norway and North Korea share a common neighbor... Russia.

I have cousins in Norway

Start in Oslo then to Gothenburg then to Helsinki

We were all Norse men 😅🤦

Allso norway goes far more north that doesnt show on that map

Finland had and "arm" in the north to the artic ocean and and bit more in the south and middle. We lost 30% to soviet Russia but most of the native finns moved inside of o our borders. But yeaj soviet russia

He has watched fiction I see... Like look at the map, the only way to get there easily back in the day was by boat and that's why Norway took it instead of Sweden, I think you still today have to use ferry's to move along the coast or do they have bridges everywhere now when they got rich from selling the black planet killer. Like drive along their coast once in your life and you will understand, then just imagine the middle ages when the clothing was what it was, like they would probably not even have gone there if it wasn't for the Gulf Stream that keeps the waters open and makes the fishing very good. Still the easiest way there back in the day was probably along the coast with many natural harbors and not over the mountains with your perfectly made skin clothes.

Well Sweden used to own Norway and Finland and other countries.

FFS sorry cant continue.... Bay of Bothina is part of the fcking Baltic sea... and those Cities are within the Baltic Sea depending if you include or exclude the Danish straits.... Grrr... AAAA... I will try to watch the rest.

Norway.?

With all do respect, Dwayne. You should disregard this whole source video, since it's full of wrong info. Names, maps and dates are all over the place and incorrect. With this video as your learning source you would fail history and geography classes for sure.

Oh I hate when foreigners make videos about us. That map is more Fenno Scandia than the Scandinavian Peninsula, like he probably has no clue.... like this is like calling the Great Britain part as England when its really is closer to the British isles. I assume this will be a video with lots and lots of errors...

Norway most expensive so there first and finnish in Finland

Well, some neighbours😅… It is not in your best interest to cooperate with them. Sorry, Ruzzia, but you are the neighbours nobody wants. Congrats to you who have nice neighbours!

as a Norwegian I am angry at the orginal video cause they get the borders wrong so stay out sweden lol You're not the one with border to Russia ffs ( the caption / video logo reaction ) lol my bad for not just watch video first lol

Finland == Finno Ugric == Finns and Saami. I would argue this by saying we both are Uralic but not Finno Ugric by looking at the Samoeydic people that are not Finno Ugric but they are Uralic, I am no expert so its only my opinion. Like if you mix Native Americans with Finno Ugric its kinda Samoeydic and that would explain why when I hear American Native song it reminds me or Saami and the other way around(there is a theory that our people shared land but we are not the same group). Russians have destroyed so much and the church so I don't really know if they can ever say. Like we do share genes with people in Asia the Saami more than us Finns but when Russia has erased everything in between its probably hard for them to figure it out. There was a short time of clarity and information sharing after that the Soviet fell but it was a very short time so not very much was figured out and since that the Kremlin have removed mass graves and other old traces. What is done is done but it makes me angry that they still keep doing it just to protect their make believe reality safe from the truth... Then the Kremlin has mixed the people there so much that I don't think even they know from what area the people were moved, have been a strategy over there for a long long time to prevent a majority from rising up to maybe demand freedom, like hard to protest when your people are treated bad if your ethnic group are less than 5% in the area also it removes you from your roots so that you forget easier who you are and can become a servant of the Tzar. Like it can't be undone but its just sad that they still do it... I assume the Church in Europe ain't innocent either but would they still do it? No religion is probably innocent or former empire but still its sad it continues just so that they can live their lie... So much history gone because of a few peoples insanity.

Hwell, back in them olden days there was no need for coastline behind mountains for either Sweden (had coastline with year round ice free ports in the south) or Finland (larger geopolitical problems than having an ice free port year round to tackle first). When Arctic sea became the stomping ground for future conflict there were these things that were called alliances like NATO and Warsaw Pact. NATO had these three countries among the founders called at various times, The British Empire, Kingdom of Norway and this small country called at one time The Thirteen Colonies for some reason. As a Brit You might not know of them last guys, but they seem to propagate this idea they are the world police so if anyone would have declared war on Norway to get some coastline from them... Chances are the coastline would have stayed the same. As for negotiations, the borders between Norway, Sweden and Finland had been set back in the 1800s so there was little wiggle room to incorporate drastic changes especially with the stipulations after th Second Great War of the last century that populations stay put regardless of border changes after the Germans are kicked out of the lands they are not welcome in.

will NATO change anything?

Well, I agree that neighboring countries should be at least civil to each other, but you have to understand that for as long as Russia has existed - it has been a bad neighbor. The kind of bad neighbor that sh*ts on your lawn and occasionally breaks your windows for fun, from time to time. Russia is often mentioned in Swedish history as our "arvfiende" (hereditary enemy), basically the arch enemy. Denmark used to have this description as well, but we got over it (mostly, now its just banter). I can't speak for the Finns, but I would guess they have are of a similar opinion. Russia....we have never really had friendly relations with them. Civil? Sure, at times. The Soviet Union used to be up in our grills constantly, poking and prodding with their subs and jets. Sweden didn't do anything to provoke them, yet they kept doing this. They STILL do this stuff. They are just unpredictable and are never to be trusted, about anything. Just what history taught us. I hope it changes in the future, but I have my doubts. Imagine IF that giant neighbor was actually a cool dude...

What a load of crap! The answer is geography. people in the past went by boat along the coasts. Norwegians naturally settled their coast and swedes and finns their coasts. Northern sweden is a fkn barren desert. In the past.... hundreds of km with no roads. You settled where you could settle. How would sweden even benefit from a harbor in the arctic? A moose-caravan through nothingness? And some factual corrections. 1. None of the cities mentioned lies by the bay of "bohenia" or correctly bothnia. He even shows that. 2. He speaks of the vikingage but shows a map of sweden in the 1600s. 3. So only norwegian "norsemen" knew how to row a boat? 4. Swedish and finnish belong to different language families and have nothing in common. 5. Who are the same-is? the sami people? 6. Finland is not part of the scandinavian peninsula. This is what happens when anyone can call themselves historians on the internet. The dude is lost in both time and space. Sorry Dwayne. Love your channel by the way!

Yeah no swedish and finnish is not similar, however norwegian and swedish is very similar

They believe that the Sami and North American Indians have the same roots from the beginning.

Why we havent fought them for part of that ocena access up there? Last war Sweden fought was the Swedish-Norwegian War in 1814 where we force all of norway into a union under us until 1905.

Why even make such a video? OK, Finland had a connection to the Barents Sea, but borders have been constantly shifting. Huge parts of Sweden used to belong to Norway. What is certain is that land along the coast was populated first. Sweden's center was south, and up along the Gulf of Bothnia, presumably the same for Finland. Further north it was largely wasteland, populated by nomadic Sami. Norway, on the other hand, was populated from the south along the coast. It's that simple. If there was a country up north it would be Sápmi.

I would also LOVE to wisit old Soviet /Russian cities/areas, once everything settlled down! But to be realistic that will take some Time!🥹

Україна (Ukrayina)

Great Britain has been inhabited by modern humans for around 30,000 years. In 2011, it had a population of about 61 million, making it the world's third-most-populous island after Java in Indonesia and Honshu in Japan,[10][11] and the most populated island outside of Asia.

The guy doesnt know how to pronounse names

THE ANSWER IS NOT NORWAY

At least, Sweden has no borders with Russia. Norway's and Finland are in bigger risk then we are. But now that we are all in Nato it does not really matter anymore. Thou, I am sad to see Sweden lose its neutrality.

i would recommend starting in finland because there are zero mountains here. then you can concentrate on the culture and food and lakes and nature. then norway for the scenery. and finish off in sweden for ... umm .... h m. i don´t remember why you go to sweden. well. there´s beatiful people. ... hm umm .... ok if i was sober i could think of a reason to go to sweden. (i´m not kidding)

Samer is Europes only native group of people and they are everywhere is sweden and they have alot of political power because of it

"Why don't Sweden and Finland fight Norway for coastline?" This is what people outside of the Nordic countries don't understand. We simply got no reason and will to claim others territories and resources when we instead can cooperate together.

Finish strong. Visit Finland, Sweden then Norway

the only way we can remedy this is that you keep on calling sweden "sweedland"

dude. did you just unironically say that ...... ok i´m just going to stop here. like the most northern parts WERE INHABITED

Who cares🇸🇪