''Suuret suomalaiset'' (''Great Finns'') was a 2004 television show broadcast in

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bo ...

by Yle (the Finnish Broadcasting Company), which determined the ''100 greatest

Finns Finns or Finnish people ( fi, suomalaiset, ) are a Baltic Finnic ethnic group native to Finland. Finns are traditionally divided into smaller regional groups that span several countries adjacent to Finland, both those who are native to these ...

of all time'' according to the opinions of its viewers. The viewers were able to vote during a programme which lasted from October to December 2004. The show was a Finnish spin-off of the BBC's programme ''Great Britons''.

The list

The winner

During the final stage of voting, people had the chance to vote for the following three leading candidates:

Risto Ryti Risto Heikki Ryti (; 3 February 1889 – 25 October 1956) served as the fifth president of Finland from 1940 to 1944. Ryti started his career as a politician in the field of economics and as a political background figure during the interwar peri ...

, C.G.E. Mannerheim and

Urho Kekkonen Urho Kaleva Kekkonen (; 3 September 1900 – 31 August 1986), often referred to by his initials UKK, was a Finnish politician who served as the eighth and longest-serving president of Finland from 1956 to 1982. He also served as prime minister ...

. The winner was baron

Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim Baron Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim (, ; 4 June 1867 – 27 January 1951) was a Finnish military leader and statesman. He served as the military leader of the Whites in the Finnish Civil War of 1918, as Regent of Finland (1918–1919), as c ...

, a war hero, Marshal of Finland, and

president President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese f ...

Top Ten

# C.G.E. Mannerheim (1867–1951) (

President of Finland The president of the Republic of Finland ( fi, Suomen tasavallan presidentti; sv, Republiken Finlands president) is the head of state of Finland. Under the Constitution of Finland, executive power is vested in the Finnish Government and the p ...

, 1944–1946, and Marshal of Finland) #

(1889–1956) (President of Finland, 1940–1944) #

(1900–1986) (President of Finland, 1956–1981) #

Adolf Ehrnrooth Adolf Erik Ehrnrooth (9 February 1905 – 26 February 2004) was a Finnish general who served during the Winter and Continuation wars. He also competed in two equestrian events at the 1948 Summer Olympics. Early life Born in Helsinki, Ehrnr ...

(1905–2004) (infantry general, a figurehead for the Finnish veteran community) #

Tarja Halonen Tarja Kaarina Halonen (; born 24 December 1943) is a Finnish politician who served as the 11th president of Finland, and the first woman to hold the position, from 2000 to 2012. She first rose to prominence as a lawyer with the Central Organisa ...

(1943–) (First female President of Finland, 2000–2012 ) #

Arvo Ylppö Arvo Henrik Ylppö (27 October 1887 – 28 January 1992) was a Finnish physician and professor of pediatrics who significantly decreased Finnish infant mortality during the 20th century. He is credited as the father of Finland's public m ...

(1887–1992) (famed paediatrician) #

Mikael Agricola Mikael Agricola (; c. 1510 – 9 April 1557) was a Finnish Lutheran clergyman who became the de facto founder of literary Finnish and a prominent proponent of the Protestant Reformation in Sweden, including Finland, which was a Swedish territ ...

(1510–1557) (Protestant reformer and creator of literary

Finnish language Finnish (endonym: or ) is a Uralic language of the Finnic branch, spoken by the majority of the population in Finland and by ethnic Finns outside of Finland. Finnish is one of the two official languages of Finland (the other being Swedish ...

) #

Jean Sibelius Jean Sibelius ( ; ; born Johan Julius Christian Sibelius; 8 December 186520 September 1957) was a Finnish composer of the late Romantic and early-modern periods. He is widely regarded as his country's greatest composer, and his music is often ...

(1865–1957) (world-famous composer of romantic music) #

Aleksis Kivi Aleksis Kivi (; born Alexis Stenvall; 10 October 1834 – 31 December 1872) was a Finnish author who wrote the first significant novel in the Finnish language, '' Seitsemän veljestä'' ("Seven Brothers") in 1870. He is also known for his 1864 ...

(1834–1872) (national author) #

Elias Lönnrot Elias Lönnrot (; 9 April 1802 – 19 March 1884) was a Finnish physician, philologist and collector of traditional Finnish oral poetry. He is best known for creating the Finnish national epic, ''Kalevala'', (1835, enlarged 1849), from short ...

(1802–1884) (anthropologist)

Facetious voting and speculation on manipulated results

Everybody in the top ten can be regarded as "serious" candidates, but right after those first ten are a number of candidates that have probably been selected in a more humorous sense. Positions 11–14 are held by: * Position 11,

Matti Nykänen Matti Ensio Nykänen (; 17 July 1963 – 4 February 2019) was a Finnish ski jumper who competed from 1981 to 1991. Widely considered to be the greatest male ski jumper of all time,

(1963–2019) – A four-time Olympic gold medalist who is also known for his later ill-fated careers as a singer and a

stripper A stripper or exotic dancer is a person whose occupation involves performing striptease in a public adult entertainment venue such as a strip club. At times, a stripper may be hired to perform at a bachelor party or other private event. Mo ...

. He is a person loved dearly by the Finnish sensationalist press. * Position 12, Väinö Myllyrinne (1909–1963) – The tallest Finnish person ever. In the

, the words "great", "tall" and "big" can all be expressed with the word ''"suuri"'', which is used in the name of the program. Thus, voting for Myllyrinne was a kind of joke. * Position 13,

Ville Valo Ville Hermanni Valo (; born 22 November 1976) is a Finnish singer, songwriter and musician. He is best known as the lead vocalist of the gothic rock band HIM. Born and raised in Helsinki to a Hungarian mother and Finnish father, Valo began h ...

(1976–) – The vocalist of the famous Finnish

alternative rock Alternative rock (also known as alternative music, alt-rock or simply alternative) is a category of rock music that evolved from the independent music underground of the 1970s. Alternative rock acts achieved mainstream success in the 1990s w ...

band HIM. * Position 14, Lalli – A mythical and possibly

apocrypha Apocrypha are works, usually written, of unknown authorship or of doubtful origin. The word ''apocryphal'' (ἀπόκρυφος) was first applied to writings which were kept secret because they were the vehicles of esoteric knowledge considered ...

l figure who, according to a medieval legend, killed Bishop Henry in Finland in 1156. After the results were published, much speculation started on the issue of whether Yle had manipulated the results to keep facetious candidates out of the top ten. Yle has condemned the accusations but has refused to publish the number of votes that candidates below top ten received. The person most conspicuously not appearing on the list is the international diplomat and former President of Finland

Martti Ahtisaari Martti Oiva Kalevi Ahtisaari (; born 23 June 1937) is a Finnish politician, the tenth president of Finland (1994–2000), a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, and a United Nations diplomat and mediator noted for his international peace work. Ahtisaa ...

, who has been a perennial favourite in Finland for the

Nobel Peace Prize The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Swedish industrialist, inventor and armaments (military weapons and equipment) manufacturer Alfred Nobel, along with the prizes in Chemistry, Physics, Physiolog ...

, and was finally awarded it in 2008.

Advocates

In broadcast order: # Jari Tervo, (1959–) author, humorist and TV personality from the show ''Uutisvuoto'' ('' Have I Got News For You''); for Arvo Ylppö # Paula Lehtomäki, (1972–) current Minister for Foreign Trade and Development ( Kesk.); for Urho Kekkonen # Pirkko Saisio, (1949–)

Finlandia ''Finlandia'', Op. 26, is a tone poem by the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius. It was written in 1899 and revised in 1900. The piece was composed for the Press Celebrations of 1899, a covert protest against increasing censorship from the Russian ...

-winning author; for Mikael Agricola #

Kaari Utrio Kaari Marjatta Utrio (born 28 July 1942, official surname Utrio-Linnilä, formerly Virkajärvi) is a Finnish writer. She has written over 35 historical novels and 13 non-fiction books on historical topics. She is a historian, holding the degree ...

, (1942–) author and feminist; for Tarja Halonen # Jukka Virtanen, author, director and actor; for Aleksis Kivi # Lasse Lehtinen, (1947–) author,

Member of the European Parliament A Member of the European Parliament (MEP) is a person who has been elected to serve as a popular representative in the European Parliament. When the European Parliament (then known as the Common Assembly of the European Coal and Steel Commu ...

( PES); for Risto Ryti # Sari Kaasinen, musician in the traditional music band Värttinä; for Elias Lönnrot #

Arto Nyberg Arto Kalevi Nyberg (born 28 May 1966, Viiala) is a Finnish journalist working for Yleisradio. He hosts his own talk show called '' Arto Nyberg''. Before getting his own show, Nyberg worked as a journalist and host on the Finnish morning televi ...

, (1966–) journalist, TV personality, host of the talk show ''

''; for Adolf Ehrnrooth #

Pekka Kuusisto Pekka Kuusisto (born 7 October 1976 in Espoo) is a Finnish musician. Biography Kuusisto comes from a musical lineage. His grandfather was a composer and organist, his father is a jazz musician who has composed operas, and his mother is a music ...

, (1976–) musician, composer, prize-winning violin player; for Jean Sibelius # Riitta Uosukainen, (1942–) veteran politician ( Kok.), first female Speaker of the

Parliament of Finland The Parliament of Finland ( ; ) is the unicameral and supreme legislature of Finland, founded on 9 May 1906. In accordance with the Constitution of Finland, sovereignty belongs to the people, and that power is vested in the Parliament. Th ...

; for C. G. E. Mannerheim

Other editions

Other countries have produced similar shows; see Greatest Britons spin-offs

References

External links

Suuret suomalaiset
{{Countries' greatest people TV series Greatest Nationals 2004 Finnish television series debuts 2004 Finnish television series endings Finnish television shows Finnish television series based on British television series Lists of Finnish people Yle original programming