Military Museum

The Finnish Military Museum in Helsinki is the country's central military-history institution, founded in 1929 as the collection of the young defence forces just over a decade after Finland's independence from Russia. The main exhibition in the Manege building in Kruununhaka traces national defence from the eighteenth century into the NATO present, with strong focus on the Winter War and Continuation War against the Soviet Union from 1939 to 1944. Displays include Finnish ski-troop uniforms, captured Soviet tanks, Mannerheim's desk and the Molotov cocktails that got their name in Finland. The museum is sober in tone and openly asks about alliances, losses and the identity of a small country wedged between great powers. A branch sits on the fortress island of Suomenlinna.