Welcome to Uralic Family Home Page about Finnish and related people. The Uralic Family of languages is comprised of two branches: 1)Finno-Ugric, and 2) Samoyedic. The Baltic Finnish/Karelian and Estonian (Finnic), Hungarian (Ugric) and Lapp people belong to this distinct group of linguistically and culturally related people. There are also more related groups in the former Soviet Union, most of which are quickly being assimilated into the dominant Russian language and culture. The eastern Finnish languages cannot be understood by Finns today as contacts to the east have been more or less cut for eight hundred years of Russian history.

Place-names which stretch all the way to the Ural mountains are ancient Finnish related in origin which can be seen in the map section. Many place names have similar prefixes although they might be several thousand kilometers apart. Finno-Ugric place names based on the root "sum" and "sam"

Some Finnish people, and especially Estonians, have a keen interest in their relatives to the east with whom many still feel some kinship ties. The eastern Finnish cultures have developed with many Turkic and Slavic cultural, religious and linguistic influences.

Finnish culture, which is the main focus at this site, is very Scandinavian in style, but Finno-Ugric origins make the people distinct in many ways.

Who are the Uralic people? Where did they come from? Where do they live? What is their language and culture like? This web page explores these and many other questions relating to Uralic people: their past, present and future.

One cannot understand Finnish language, history and culture without some knowledge of related people. Finnish history and culture that are presented in these pages is set against a background of the other Finno-Ugric people. Finnish written history is only from the second millennium, but fortunately the Finns have a strong oral tradition going back to the ice ages. Finns, and Karelian tribes in particular, had a strong oral tradition of rune singing their history, ancient shamanistic beliefs, myth, magic, love and war. These traditions survived in Karelia probably because of the relative isolation from the early Finnish church. These stories were collected in the 19th Century and compiled into one story, composed of a masterful collection of epic poems that reveal the daily life of the people over millennia. Karelia has a long history going back over eight thousand years. A link is provided to in the menu for early Finnish history. You can also read about the period in which the slavs began intercepting Karelian trade with the Norwegians and Volga traders. The Slavs came and actually took over the key trading posts to the East, forcing the inhabitants to move west.  Perm / Karelian Power and decline in 13th Century

Today, Finns love their Kalevala which is read and enjoyed not as a religion, but as a rich historical and mythological legacy of their ancestors. Kalevala

Roots of Tolkien The Kalevala is the inspiration behind Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, and Longfellow's Hiawatha. See also a linguistic analysis of Quenya language. Are High Elves Finno-Ugric? Quenya or Kwen, is a northern Finnish tribe whose descendants still live on the coast of northern Norway.

As for the reliability of the information contained here, of course there may be some outdated material as some sources are very old. In researching sources such as the Encyclopaedia Britannica be aware that it may contain Soviet era disinformation regarding areas they "liberated." Also personal views may sometimes blur the facts as the writer adds his own interpretations though great effort has been expended in minimizing such artifacts. For these reasons links are provided to other history sites, to give different perspectives and to clarify areas which are not covered here.

You will also find famous Finnish products, music CD's, books and other links provided for your convenience and enjoyment at the Uralic City Center. Check out Pirkko Kiansten's Internet radio show Saturday mornings 9:30 - 11:00 AM Pacific time. If you are interested in war history, may I recommend Antti's exclusive WW2 Continuation War Photo Gallery. There are dozens of photos Antti took in 1941-42 on Lake Laatokka (Ladoga), scanned from our family album. I hope you enjoy your stay and that you will come back often to see what's new. Please bookmark it now for future reference. Welcome to the Uralic Family.