- Linus Torvalds
Linus Benedict Torvalds ; born December 28, 1969 in Helsinki, Finland, is a Finnish software engineer best known for initiating the development of the Linux kernel. He now acts as the project's coordinator. Linus was inspired by Minix (an operating system developed by Andrew S. Tanenbaum) to develop a capable Unix-like operating system that could be run on a PC. Linux now also runs on many other architectures.
- Tove Jansson
Tove Marika Jansson was a Finnish novelist, painter, illustrator and comic strip author. She is the author of, among other works, the Moomin books.
- Johan Ludvig Runeberg
Johan Ludvig Runeberg written between 1848 and 1860. It is considered the greatest Finnish epic poem outside the native Kalevala tradition and contains tales of the Finnish War of 1808-09 with Russia. In the war, Sweden ignominiously lost Finland, which became a Grand Duchy in the Russian empire. The poem, which is composed episodically, emphasizes the common humanity of all sides in the conflict, while principally lauding the heroism of the Finns.
- Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim
Baron Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim (June 4, 1867 - January 28, 1951) was the Commander-in-Chief of Finland's Defence Forces, Marshal of Finland, an astute politician and a successful military commander. He was the sixth President of Finland (1944-1946). Mannerheim was born in the Grand Duchy of Finland to a notable Finnish noble family that had migrated during the 17th century to Sweden-Finland from the Netherlands.
- Björn Kurtén
Björn Olof Lennartson Kurtén was a distinguished vertebrate paleontologist. He belonged to the Finland-Swedish minority in Finland. He was also the author of an acclaimed series of books about modern man's encounter with Neanderthals, such as "Dance of the Tiger" (1978, 1980). When asked what genre these works belonged in, Kurtén coined the term "paleofiction" to describe his oeuvre.
- Georg Henrik von Wright
Georg Henrik von Wright (June 14, 1916 - June 16, 2003) was a Finnish philosopher, who succeeded Ludwig Wittgenstein as professor at the University of Cambridge. He published in English, Finnish, German, and in his mother tongue Swedish. Von Wright's writings come under two headings. The first is analytic philosophy and philosophical logic in the Anglo-American vein. His 1951 books, "An Essay in Modal Logic" and "Deontic Logic", …
- Pehr Evind Svinhufvud
Pehr Evind Svinhufvud af Qvalstad (December 15, 1861 - February 29, 1944) was the President of Finland from 1931 to 1937. Serving as a lawyer, judge, and politician in the Russian Grand Duchy of Finland, he played a major role in the movement for Finnish independence. Svinhufvud was the first pre-presidential Head of State of independent Finland, first as Chairman of the Senate, and then subsequently as "Protector of State" or Regent.
- Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld
Baron (Nils) Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld ], also known as A. E. Nordenskioeld (November 18, 1832, Helsinki, Finland) - August 12, 1901, Dalby, Skåne, Sweden) was a geologist, mineralogist and arctic explorer and a member of the prominent Finland-Swedish "Nordenskiöld" family of scientists. Born in the Grand Duchy of Finland at the time it was a part of the Russian Empire, …
- Stefan Wallin
Stefan Erik Wallin in Vaasa is a Finland-Swedish politician. He is currently Finland's Minister for Culture and Sports in Matti Vanhanen's second cabinet. Wallin studied at the Åbo Akademi University in Turku, where he graduated with a Master's Degree in Social Sciences. He worked as a reporter for the newspaper "Vasabladet" 1989-1993, before acting as a research assistant for the Swedish People's Party.
- Elisabeth Rehn
Märta Elisabeth Rehn is a former MP of the Swedish People's Party and the first woman as the Minister of Defence in Finland. In the 1994 presidential elections she was narrowly defeated by Martti Ahtisaari. Elisabeth Rehn spent her childhood in Mäntsälä where her father worked as a Community Medical Doctor. Rehn went to a local school in Mäntsälä before entering to a boarding school in Grankulla (fi. Kauniainen).
- Zacharias Topelius
"'Zacharias, who was distinguished as the earliest collector of Finnish folk-songs. As a child he heard his mother, Katarina Sofia Calamnius, sing the songs of the Finland-Swedish poet Franzén. At the age of eleven, he was sent to school in Uleåborg and boarded with relatives in the possession of a lending library, where he nurtured his fantasy with the reading of novels.
- Anders Chydenius
Anders Chydenius was the leading classical liberal of Nordic history. Born in Sotkamo (modern day Finland) and having studied under Pehr Kalm at the Royal Academy of Turku (Åbo), Finland (part of Sweden until 1809) Chydenius became a priest, Enlightenment philosopher and member of the Swedish Riksdag of the Estates. In 1765 he published a pamphlet called "The National Gain", in which he proposes ideas of free trade and industry, …
- Edith Södergran
Edith Irene Södergran was a Finland-Swedish poet. Södergran was born in St Petersburg on April 4, 1892, the daughter of Matts and Helena Södergran. When Edith was a few months old, the family bought a summer home in the village Raivola on the Karelian Isthmus, where Edith was to spend most summers. At the age of 10, she started school at "Die deutsche Hauptschule zu S:t Petriin" in St Petersburg, where she stayed until 1909.
- Astrid Thors
Astrid Thors (born 6 November, 1957, Helsinki) is a Finland-Swedish politician belonging to the Swedish People's Party. Thors is a Candidate of Law and had several white-collar high-position jobs before being elected into the European Parliament. She served there between 1996 and 2004. She was elected into the Parliament of Finland in 2003. After the 2007 elections she was chosen to be the new Minister for EU and immigration (Finland) in Matti Vanhanen's second cabinet.
- Karl-August Fagerholm
Karl-August Fagerholm was Speaker of Parliament and three times Prime Minister of Finland (1948-50, 1956-57, and 1958-58). Fagerholm became chairman of the Social Democrats after the armistice in the Continuation War. As a Scandinavia-oriented Swedish-speaking Finn, he was believed to be more to the taste of the Soviet Union's leadership than his predecessor Väinö Tanner.
- Mikael Forssell
Mikael Kaj Forssell (born March 15 1981 in Steinfurt, Germany) is a Finnish footballer who currently plays for Birmingham City who are in England's FA Premier League. Considered one of the most talented Finnish footballers of all time, Forssell made his Veikkausliiga debut for HJK at the age of just 16. His goal-scoring form for Finland's youth teams made him a target for a host of Europe's top clubs, …
- Gustaf Mauritz Armfelt
Count Gustaf Mauritz Armfelt (March 31, 1757 - August 19, 1814) was a Swedish courtier and diplomat. In Finland, he is considered one of the great Finnish statesmen. Born in Tarvasjoki, Finland, he was the great grandson of Charles XII of Sweden's general, Carl Gustaf Armfelt. His advice to Russia's Tsar Alexander I was of utmost importance for the establishment of the Grand Duchy of Finland prepared to become increasingly autonomous.
- Carl O. Nordling
Carl O. Nordling is a Finnish born architect, urban planner and amateur historian, now living in Sweden. He graduated as an architect from the Helsinki University of Technology in 1939 and immigrated to Sweden after the end of the Continuation War in 1944. As statistician, he has applied statistical methods to a number of scientific problems and published a large number of articles, mainly in his native Swedish.
- Fredrik Norrena
Fredrik Norrena (born November 29, 1973 in Jakobstad, Finland) is a Finland-Swedish professional ice hockey goaltender.
- Fred Karlsson
Fred Karlsson (born 1946) is a professor of general linguistics at the University of Helsinki. In computational linguistics Karlsson has designed a language-independent formalism called Constraint Grammar. It makes possible the automatic morphological disambiguation and syntactic analysis of ordinary running text that has been supplied with all theoretically possible morphological and syntactic interpretations.
- Nils Torvalds
Nils Torvalds is a Finnish broadcast journalist. He works with Swedish language radio and TV in Finland. He was based in Moscow, Russia 1995–1999. Since 2001 he has reported from Washington, DC, USA. Known to most as Nicke Torvalds, he is the son of the poet Ole Torvalds, and the father of the computer programmer Linus Torvalds of Linux kernel fame. Torvalds was active in the Communist Party of Finland since he was a college student in the 1960s.
- Lars Ahlfors
Lars Valerian Ahlfors was a Finnish mathematician, remembered for his work in the field of Riemann surfaces and his text on complex analysis. He was born in Helsinki, the son of a Professor of Engineering. He studied at Helsinki University from 1924, graduating in 1928 having studied under Ernst Lindelöf and Rolf Nevanlinna. He assisted Nevanlinna in 1929 with his work on Denjoy's conjecture on the number of asymptotic values of an entire function.
- Janina Fry
Janina Päivänsäde Fry (born November 12, 1973 in Helsinki) is Finnish pop singer, model, and a sex symbol. She hosts "Bella" show on Finnish television channel Nelonen. Her breakthrough was victory in the "Maiden of Finland" beauty pageant in 1993 and getting to semi-finals in Miss World same year. Frostell has appeared in the Finnish movie "Underbara kvinnor vid vatten"/"Ihanat naiset rannalla" ("Beautiful Women on Beach") (1998).
- Stina Ekblad
Stine Ekblad is a Finland-Swedish actress. She received a Guldbagge Award for Best Actress in 1987 for her performances in "Amorosa" and "Ormens väg på hälleberget" and was nominated again in 1996 for her performance in "Pensionat Oskar". She was born in the village of Sulva (Solf in Swedish), close to the city of Vaasa, in Osthrobotnia, Finland.
- Otto Donner
Otto Donner was a Finnish linguist and politician. He was professor of Sanskrit and Comparative Indo-European linguistics at the University of Helsinki, but also studied the Finno-Ugric languages. He was a member of the Finnish parliament 1877–1905, and minister of education 1905–1908. He was also influential in the founding of the Finno-Ugrian Society in 1883. Finland-Swedish by mother tongue, he was a fennoman by conviction.
- Kjell Westö
Kjell Westö is a Finnish author and journalist. He is part of the Swedish-speaking minority in Finland, and writes primarily in Swedish. In 2006, Westö won the prestigious Finlandia Prize for his novel "Där vi en gång gått". He has been long-listed for the 2007 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award.
- Marcus Grönholm
Marcus "Bosse" Grönholm is a rally driver from Finland. He won the World Rally Championship in 2000 and 2002. He also won the 2002 Race of Champions, taking home the "Henri Toivonen Memorial Trophy" and earning the title "Champion of Champions".
- Jan-Erik Enestam
Jan-Erik Enestam is a Finland-Swedish politician. Some previous posts he has held are: *Government of Åland, Head of Office, 1974-1978 *Municipality of Västanfjärd, Municipal Manager, 1978-1983 *Nordic Council of Ministers, Project Manager for Archipelago Cooperation, 1983-1991 *Municipal Council of Västänfjärd, Chairperson, 1989-1996 *Special Adviser to the Minister of Defence, 1990-1991 *Member of Parliament, 1991 onwards *Minister of Defence, …
- Axel Lille
Axel Johan Lille was a Finnish journalist and politician of Finland-Swedish extraction and the main founder of the Swedish People's Party ("Svenska folkpartiet", SFP) and its leader 1907–1917. Lille was the first who publicly proposed Finnish independence in his speech in April 9 1902. Lille was member of the Diet of Finland for the Estate of Burghers 1885–1900 and member of Parliament of Finland in 1917.
- Anders Johan Lexell
Anders Johan Lexell (December 24 1740 - December 11 1784 (Julian calendar: November 30)) was a Finland-Swedish-born Russian astronomer and mathematician. In Russian he is known as Andrei Ivanovich Leksel (Андрей Иванович Лексель). His name is also given as Anders Johann Lexell or even Johann Anders Lexell. He emigrated to Russia in 1768. He studied the motions of comets.
- Ole Torvalds
Ole Torvalds was a Finland-Swedish journalist and poet from Finland. He was the father of Nils Torvalds and grandfather of Linus Torvalds. His full name was Ole Torvald Elis Saxberg, but he was also named Karanko after his step father, Toivo T. Karanko. In 1935 when he had moved to Helsinki for studies he changed his name to Torvalds. In 1944 he was awarded a literature prize from "Svenska Dagbladet" (shared with Harry Martinson, …
- Lars Sund
Lars Sund, is a Finland-Swedish author. He studied English, Swedish and comparative literature at the Åbo Akademi and is currently residing in Uppsala, Sweden. Claes Olsson is currently filming the movie "Colorado Avenue", which is based on the books "Colorado Avenue" and "Lanthandlerskans son". It is scheduled to be released in the fall of 2007.
- Mikaela Ingberg
Mikaela Ingberg (born July 29, 1974 in Vaasa) is a is a Finland-Swedish javelin thrower. Her achievements include bronze medals at the 1995 World Championships, 1998 and 2002 European Championships. She has been coached by Tapio Korjus. Her personal best throw is 64.03 metres, achieved in September 2000 in Berlin.
- Alexander Stubb
Alexander Stubb (born on 1 April 1968 in Helsinki) is a Finnish politician and Member of the European Parliament with the National Coalition Party, part of the European People's Party and sits on the European Parliament's Committee on Budgetary Control and its Committee on Constitutional Affairs. He received the second highest number of votes of any parliamentarian in the 2004 EU election (115,224 votes).
- Edvard Westermarck
Edvard Alexander Westermarck (November 20, 1862 - September 3, 1939) was a Finnish philosopher and sociologist. Among other subjects, he studied exogamy and the incest taboo. He is known for first noting the Westermarck effect in which infants raised together are unable to form sexual feelings for one another as adults, regardless of their genetic relationship. Whilst professoring at the London School of Economics he help found academic sociology in the United Kingdom.
- Bjarne Kallis
Johan Bjarne Kallis (born March 21 1945 in Kokkola) is the former chairman of the Christian Democratic Party (KD), previously known as the Finnish Christian Coalition (SKL), and a member of the Parliament of Finland. Kallis works as the principal of the Kokkola academy of commerce and has a Master's degree in state sciences.
- Helene Schjerfbeck
Helene Schjerfbeck was a Finnish artist who has made her place in art history with her painting talent. Schjerfbeck’s art paved the way for many other female artists. Throughout her eighty-three years of life her work changed dramatically. <blockquote>"Her work starts with a dazzlingly skilled, somewhat melancholic version of late-19th-century academic realism…it ends with distilled, …
- Erik Heinrichs
Axel Erik Heinrichs was a Finnish military general. Heinrichs was one of the Finnish Jaeger troops trained in the volunteer Royal Prussian 27th Jäger Battalion between 1915 and 1918. During the Finnish Civil War he served as a battalion commander in the battles of Tampere and Viipuri. He commanded the Finnish III Army Corps in the Winter War and from February 19, 1940 the Army of the Karelian Isthmus.
- Jonatan Johansson
Jonatan Lillebror Johansson is a Finnish footballer who currently plays for Malmö FF in Sweden's national football league Allsvenskan. He plays in the position of a striker and is a regular in the Finnish national team
- Albert Edelfelt
Albert Gustaf Aristides Edelfelt was a Finnish painter. Albert Edelfelt was born in Porvoo, Finland. His father Carl Albert was an architect. Edelfelt admired the poet laureate Johan Ludvig Runeberg who was a friend to the family. The company of Runeberg had a lasting impact on Edelfelt, who from time to time turned to scenes from Finnish history in his paintings. Edelfelt went on to illustrate Runeberg's epic poem "The Tales of Ensign Stål".