BACKGROUND: Finland’s history is believed to date back to the 9TH century when Finno-Ugric nomads from the central Ural region of Russia started to migrate to the region that is now know as Finland. Eventually the Finn’s were conquered by Sweden and were suppressed under Swedish rule until the Napoleonic wars of the early 1800's. In 1808 in the Third Coalition War against the French and her allies, Russia invade Finland and expelled the Swedes. Surprisingly the Russian permitted Finland to adopt a constitution although it was under Russian control as a Grand Duchy with the Czar as its figurehead. With the outbreak of the Bolshevik Revolution on November 7TH 1917 and the ensuing discord in Russia Finland saw her chance to gain total independence and declared herself an independent state on December 16TH 1917. As a result of Finland’s declaration of independence the Russian’s attacked and in the ensuing Finnish War of Independence the Finn’s requested military aid from Germany which helped the Finn’s to drive the Russian out and Finland finally gained her total independence on May 7TH 1918. Finland was able to retain her independence undisturbed until a border dispute with Russia developed into the Winter War on 30TH November 1939. Although the Finn’s were able to avoid being occupied by the Russians, large areas of territory were ceded to them and roughly ten percent of the Finnish population had to be relocated at the end of the War on March 12TH 1940. With the German invasion of Russia on June 22ND 1941 the pro-German Finn's allied themselves with Germany and as a result were able to retake all territory lost to the Russians in the Winter War and restore their previous border. The Finnish Order of the Cross of Liberty was originally established as the Cross of Liberty in March 1918, and was Finland’s highest military award. In December 1939 the award was re-instituted, renamed and enlarged to include six varying grades. The cross was awarded to military personnel, including foreigners, with swords, for exceptional achievement in the field or to civilians, without swords, for a significant contribution to the war effort. The Military version of these awards were issued with swords and a white striped red ribbon whereas the civilian awards were issued without swords and a yellow ribbon.

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: Two piece, die struck alloy award with a nickel/silver plated and black enamel finish. The award is in the form of a black enameled Maltese style cross with an embossed nickel/silver plated, reversed, short armed swastika, and separate, White Rose of Finland mounted to the center. The reverse of the award features the embossed date, "1939". The award has an integral suspension ring to the top arm of with a separate die struck alloy, nickel/silver plated, horizontally oval laurel leaf wreath. The "swords" are integral to the wreath and consist of a mailed arm clutching a sword to left of wreath and an mailed arm clutching a scimitar to right of wreath indicating the conflict between East and West. The reverse of the wreath has a raised horizontal bar to attach the ribbon. The two piece, red ribbed rayon ribbon has two, narrow, vertical, central white stripes. The pin is missing to the reverse.