![]() After a few decades of Finnish independence and just before World War II, Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union made a non-aggression pact which included a secret protocol that assigned Finland as well as Estonia and Latvia to the Soviet "sphere of influence". In the chaos resulting from the Russian Revolution in 1917, Finland declared its independence on Dec. Sweden lost Finland to Russia in a war in 1809, turning Finland into an autonomous part of the Russian empire, the Grand Duchy of Finland. It marked the end of Sweden as a major power in Northern Europe. ![]() King Charles XII of Sweden invaded and conquered parts of Russia in the early 18th century but lost a battle in Poltava, in today's Ukraine, to tsar Peter the Great. ![]() Sweden's and Finland's difficult past with Russia goes back to 17th and 18th centuries when tsars of the Russian Empire repeatedly tried to conquer Finland, then a hinterland of the Swedish kingdom. HELSINKI/STOCKHOLM, May 12 (Reuters) - Finland and Sweden, who are expected to decide this week to apply to join NATO, have long had strained ties with their giant neighbour Russia.
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