Finland used the turmoil and internal upheaval of the Bolshevik Revolution to assert its independence from Russia in December of 1917. Prior to that, the country had been a grand duchy of the Russian Empire from the middle of the 19th century. Prior to that, it had been a duchy of the Swedish kingdom for several centuries. But Finnish national identity remained strong and an indpendence movement was always a major political and social force in Finnish society and government. After the Bolshevik Revolution settled down and the Soviet Union became the new Russian reality, the Finns were forced to defend their sovereignty against several Soviet attempts to bring Finland back into the Russian political sphere. Finland succeeded in remaining independent, but at the cost of significant territorial losses.
During independence, Finland adopted the design of the ensign of the Helsinki Yacht Club as the flag of the new republic. This club had used the design since its foundation in 1861. It was based, in turn, on the colors of the ensign of the Russian Navy. Whereas the Russian Navy's ensign consisted of a blue saltire on a white field, the Helsinki Yacht Club adapted the saltire into a Nordic Cross of blue on a white field and added the state arms of the Province of Uusimaa, the traditional province in which Helsinki was located (now incorporated into the modern province of Southern Finland). When the new Finnish government took the Helsinki Yacht Club's banner for its own, the arms of Uusimaa was eliminated. Later, during the design of the State and War flags, the Finnish national arms were added to the cross' center, taking care to encase the arms in a thin band of blue to prevent the heraldric faux pas violating the rule of tincture. (The rule of tincture does not allow primary colors - in this case red and blue - to touch, nor does it allow the metallic colors - gold and silver (or white and yellow on a flag) - to touch.)
The standard of the President of Finland consists of the Finnish flag with the Cross of Liberty in the upper left canton. This cross is the emblem of the Order of the Cross of Liberty, one of three national patriotic societies (akin to the Sons and Daughters of the American Revolution in the United States). The Finnish President serves as the Grand Master of all three. The Liberty Cross is used on the Presidential Standard because the Order of the Cross of Liberty is the oldest of the three orders. |
