Military Museum of Finland
| Military Museum of Finland | |
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| Sotamuseo (Finnish) Krigsmuseet (Swedish) |
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| General information | |
| Type | Museum |
| Location | Helsinki, Finland |
| Coordinates | 60°10′30″N 024°57′36″E / 60.17500°N 24.96000°ECoordinates: 60°10′30″N 024°57′36″E / 60.17500°N 24.96000°E |
| Completed | 1881 |
| Inaugurated | 1929 |
| Design and construction | |
| Architect | Evert Lagerspetz |
The Military Museum of Finland (Finnish: Sotamuseo) is the central museum of the Finnish Defence Forces and the national special museum of military history. It is located in Helsinki and it is part of the Finnish National Defence University. Military Museums exhibitions in Kruununhaka and Suomenlinna had around 55,000 visitors in 2012. The most popular exhibition space is submarine Vesikko, visited by around 27,000 people annually.
The Military Museum's task is to collect, preserve, research and display artifacts and other heritage related to the Defence Forces of Finland, to military history and to the history of weaponry.
Military Museum was founded November 25, 1929. The opening ceremony followed October 18, 1930 at Liisankatu, Kruununhaka. Before the foundation Finnish military history was shown to public first in 1908 at Valtion historiallinen museo (The History Museum of the State) and in 1918–1919 at the National Museum. The former exhibition’s theme was The War of 1808–1809 and latter’s Finnish Civil War.
In January 1930 The Ministry of Defence ordered Military Museum to continue in Suomenlinna Sea Fortress, where bastion Carpelan was reserved to museum’s use. Lieutenant Reijo Wilhelm Palmroth was elected as museum’s manager. The opening ceremony occurred June 11, 1933 and after that museum was seen by around 9254 visitors annually. The exhibition consisted of different arms sections which included jaegers, engineers, arms and navy. There were also civil war collections to be seen.
Military Museum was closed however in autumn 1939, just before the break out of Winter War against Soviet Union. The items and collections were removed from bastion Carpelan during the war and stored around Finland. The museum office had to also relocate from Helsinki because of the Soviet air bombings in 1944.
During the Winter War and Continuation War Military Museum organized a series of exhibitions at the Exhibition Hall. The first was Sotasaalisnäyttely (War Looting Exhibition) in February 1940 which was shortly followed by Sotamuistonäyttely (War Memories Exhibition) I and II in 1941. Military Museum organized also touring exhibitions around Finland between 1941 and 1943 and even had exhibitions in Sweden in 1942–43. There were several purposes for these kinds of war exhibitions. It was, for example, a means to gather funds for war invalids and their families, to show how it was to fight on Finnish side at the front and to lift up morale among citizens.
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Wikipedia