The slogan 'Swedes we are not; Russians we do not want to become; let us, then, be Finns' was coined in the 19th century and still reflects the Finns' pride in their national identity and separateness from their megalomaniac neighbours.

They are a gutsy, honest, hard-working, reliable, socially responsible, down-to-earth kind of people who respect others' privacy to such an extent they avoid looking you in the eye.