Finland can fairly lay claim to have been one of the big success stories of the modern age. The transformation of what less than a century ago was a poor agrarian land on the northern periphery of Europe into one of the most prosperous states of the European Union today is a remarkable story, but is by no means an uneventful one. The gaining of independence from Russia in 1918 was accompanied by a bitter civil war which left its scars upon the body politic of Finland for decades. Finland fought three wars between 1939 and 1945, twice against the Soviet Union and once against Germany, and suffered grievous loss of life in addition to almost a tenth of its territory. The political history of the independent republic was for much of the twentieth century conflict-ridden and far removed from the image of consensual stability and good European membership that is projected today. The reinvention of Finland over the past two decades as a confident and assertive Eurostate, no longer in the shadow of the Soviet Union, has also been paralleled by a re-evaluation of the nation's history and identity. In particular, Finland's recent past has come under severe scrutiny, as part of what may be seen as a purging process not dissimilar to the examination in eastern European countries of ‘blank spots’ in the recent past.