The Short Turbulent History of Helsinki

Finnish capital

It is surprising that when you study the history of Helsinki that the city only became a dynamic Finnish  capital starting 1809 when the Russians changed the Finnish capital to Helsinki from the city of Turku. As  Helsinki became a more important force in Finland, the population of the city started to grow as well.  From just 4,070 residents in 1810, the Helsinki population had increased to 559,718 by 2001.

Finnish language

The Finnish language is important in the history of Helsinki because 92% of the current Finnish population speak the standard Finnish language. Finns of ethnic descent who reside outside Finland do speak the  Finnish language as well. The official Finnish language is ordinarily called Finnish and is considered an  official minority language of Sweden. There is another Finnish dialect dubbed Meankieli which is used  regularly in Sweden. Other countries like the USA, and Canada have minority populations who speak Finnish too.