You are being very delicate in not mentioning that
Finland was once part of the Swedish empire, along with
a large chunk of the Baltic; up until the Grand Duchy
gained the dubious privilege of being grabbed by Russia

Finland did not become a Grand duchy until after 1809.

(1809 IIRC, but I'm too lazy to check) in the time of
Napoleon. The Finns had to wait until the Russian
Revolution before being able to slip their moorings and
begin their voyage as an independent state; unfortunately
not without a vicious civil war. It is my impression that
the Norwegians bear the brunt of the Swedes' "Irish" (for
want of a better word) jokes: nonetheless, the Swedish
claim on the Aaland Islands was an instance of a somewhat
less than benevolent attitude; happily the League Of
Nations found a workable compromise in that territorial
dispute, one of its few successes.

The people of Åland wanted to become part of Sweden, they considered
themselves Swedish and still speak Swedish.


Many Europeans sympathised with the Finns in the Winter
War to the point of wishing to offer concrete aid; if one
wants to be cruel, perhaps the failure of the Narvik
expedition was a blessing in disguise in this respect.

The Narvik expedition started long after the Winter war was over.

All in all Finland has an impressive record as an
independent state: you doubtless recall the bilateral
trade agreements with the Soviet Union, and the
potentially disastrous impact upon the Finnish economy
when that empire collapsed. Yet the Finns managed to pull
themselves round.