![Umeå (Swedish pronunciation: [ʉːmе.оː] ( listen); Finnish: Uumaja, Northern Sami: Ubmi) is a university town in Västerbotten, Sweden. Umeå is the biggest city in Norrland, the capital of Västerbotten County and the seat of Umeå Municipality. The city proper has 75,645 inhabitants (2005) out of a municipal total of 114,075 (2009).[2] Umeå is a center of education, technical and medical research in Sweden, with two universities and over 30,000 students. The city was elected European Capital of Cul](http://web.archive.org./web/20110820212442im_/http://cdn0.wn.com/pd/59/80/6fe92f24454fcafc25da05770b6b_grande.jpg "Umeå (Swedish pronunciation: [ʉːmе.оː] ( listen); Finnish: Uumaja, Northern Sami: Ubmi) is a university town in Västerbotten, Sweden. Umeå is the biggest city in Norrland, the capital of Västerbotten County and the seat of Umeå Municipality. The city proper has 75,645 inhabitants (2005) out of a municipal total of 114,075 (2009).[2] Umeå is a center of education, technical and medical research in Sweden, with two universities and over 30,000 students. The city was elected European Capital of Cul")
| Unit name | Finnish ArmySuomen maavoimat Finlands armé |
|---|---|
| Caption | Finnish Army emblem |
| Dates | 1918–present |
| Country | Finland |
| Role | Ground defence|size= |
| Battles | Winter WarContinuation WarLapland War |
| Commander1 | Lieutenant General Ilkka Aspara |
| Commander1 label | Commander |
The Finnish Army (Finnish: Maavoimat, Swedish: Armén) is the land forces branch of the Finnish Defence Forces. Today's Army is divided into six branches: the infantry (which includes armoured units), field artillery, anti-aircraft artillery, engineers, signals, and materiel troops.
Between 1809 and 1917 Finland was an autonomous part of the Russian Empire as the Grand Duchy of Finland. Between 1881 and 1901 the Grand Duchy had its own army. Before that several other military units had also been formed while Finland belonged to Sweden.
The Grand Duchy inherited its allotment system (ruotujakolaitos) from the Swedish military organization. However, for several decades, Russian rulers did not require military service from Finland - operations and defence were mostly taken care by Russian troops based in the Grand Duchy. As a result, officer benefits of the allotment system became practically pensions, as payment was based on passive availability, not on actual service.
During Napoleonic Wars three 1200 men regiments were formed in Finland and Topographic corps in Hamina. In 1821 the Topographic corps was transformed into cadet officers school. In 1829 one of the training battalions was transformed into Young Guard Battalion, the Finnish Guard.
During the Crimean War, 1854, Finland set up nine sharpshooter battalions based on rote system. Conscription was issued in Finland in 1878. The Finnish Guard fought in Poland in 1830 and participated in the Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878), after which it gained the status of Old Guard of the Russian Emperor.
The Finnish army was gradually broken up during the "oppression years" just after the turn of the century. As Finnish conscripts refused to serve in Russian Army, conscription ended in Finland and it was replaced with a tax paid from the Finnish Senate to the Imperial treasury.
At the turn of the 20th century, the Russian empire was weakening, and this was reflected in a reduced capacity of the Russian troops to keep public order. Voluntary defence organizations disguised as fire brigades were formed by the Finnish people, especially during the strikes during and after the Russo-Japanese War.
There were socialist Red Guards and conservative, anti-socialist Protection Guards (or White Guards). Also, during the First World War activists secretly travelled to Germany to receive military training and to be trained as Jaeger troops (jääkärit).
After independence and beginning of the Finnish Civil War the White government declared the White Guards as government troops, and the war was fought between the Reds, assisted by Communist Russians, and White Guards added with the Jaegers and assisted by the German Empire. After the war in 1919, the Protection Guards became a separate organization. Therefore, strictly speaking, there is no continuity between the White Guards, which became a voluntary organization, and the Finnish army, which was a cadre army based on conscription. However, Jaegers gained important positions in the army, and German tactics and military principles were adopted.
In order to organize replacements for the units a Field Replacement Brigade (Kenttätäydennysprikaati, KT-Pr) of nine battalions was formed. But due to the severity of the Soviet attack the battalions had to be used as combat troops. Also three Replacement Divisions or Home Replacement Divisions (1.Koti.TD - 3.Koti.TD) were formed from the available reservists. As the situation became more alarming the 1st and 3rd Replacement Divisions were reformed into the 21st and 23rd Divisions and sent to the front on December 19. The 2nd Replacement Division was deployed as individual regiments to Northern Finland.
Immediately by the border on the isthmus were stationed four delaying groups named after their location.
The relatively inactive period of stationary war ended abruptly in June 1944, as the Soviet Union started her Fourth Strategic Offensive. As a result, the Finnish Army lost large areas of Karelian Isthmus, most importantly Viipuri, a major city and was forced to retreat from Eastern Karelia. However, in the decisive Battle of Tali-Ihantala, the Soviet advance was halted. The Soviet Union concentrated its forces for the battles in Central Europe, and Finland made a separate peace in September 1944.
The Lapland War (Finnish: Lapin sota) were the hostilities between Finland and Nazi Germany between September 1944 and April 1945, fought in Finland's northernmost Lapland Province. While the Finns saw this as a separate conflict much like the Continuation War, German forces considered their actions to be part of the Second World War. A peculiarity of the war was that the Finnish army was forced to demobilise their forces while at the same time fighting to force the German army to leave Finland. The German forces retreated to Norway, and Finland managed to uphold its promise to the Soviet Union.
The Army is organised into four Military Provinces: southern, western, eastern and northern. The military provinces are responsible for defence and planning in their areas.
The four military provinces are further divided into 22 regional offices or regional military provinces which are responsible for conscription, organizing the local defence and aiding the voluntary defence organizations.
The Army is commanded by Lieutenant General Ilkka Aspara, who succeeded Olli-Matti Multamäki on January 1 2007. Logistics is centrally planned by the Army Materiel Command, which has one Logistics Regiment in each Military Province.
Major weapon systems used by the army
This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
![Umeå (Swedish pronunciation: [ʉːmе.оː] ( listen); Finnish: Uumaja, Northern Sami: Ubmi) is a university town in Västerbotten, Sweden. Umeå is the biggest city in Norrland, the capital of Västerbotten County and the seat of Umeå Municipality. The city proper has 75,645 inhabitants (2005) out of a municipal total of 114,075 (2009).[2] Umeå is a center of education, technical and medical research in Sweden, with two universities and over 30,000 students. The city was elected European Capital of Cul](http://web.archive.org./web/20110820212442im_/http://cdn9.wn.com/pd/59/80/6fe92f24454fcafc25da05770b6b_thumb.jpg "Umeå (Swedish pronunciation: [ʉːmе.оː] ( listen); Finnish: Uumaja, Northern Sami: Ubmi) is a university town in Västerbotten, Sweden. Umeå is the biggest city in Norrland, the capital of Västerbotten County and the seat of Umeå Municipality. The city proper has 75,645 inhabitants (2005) out of a municipal total of 114,075 (2009).[2] Umeå is a center of education, technical and medical research in Sweden, with two universities and over 30,000 students. The city was elected European Capital of Cul")
