Google Earth Community: Helsinki Waterfront Fortifications

This installation was part of the Russian fortifications erected around Helsinki during World War I. It was meant to protect the capital of the Russian province Finland and, of course, to guard the approach to the Imperial capital St. Petersburg against the superior German Navy. After the Russian defeat in 1917 and Finnish independence after the Brest-Litovsk treaty, socialist elements tried a Bolshevik revolution in Finland in April 1918 that was put down by a German expedition force led by General von der Goltz, supported by local troops. The Finnish Army took over the many fortifications after the war which partly remain under military control even today.

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Tall ships and tall kings,
Three times three,
What brought they from the foundered land
Over the flowing sea?
Seven stars and seven stones
And one white tree.