The Province of Petsamo ( fi, Petsamon lääni, sv, Petsamo län) was a Finnish panhandle and

province A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or sovereign state, state. The term derives from the ancient Roman ''Roman province, provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire ...

from 1921 to 1922, when it was merged into the

Province of Oulu The Province of Oulu ( fi, Oulun lääni, sv, Uleåborgs län) was a province of Finland from 1775 to 2009. It bordered the provinces of Lapland, Western Finland and Eastern Finland and also the Gulf of Bothnia and Russia. History ''For Histo ...

. This panhandle used to give Finland access to the

Arctic Ocean The Arctic Ocean is the smallest and shallowest of the world's five major oceans. It spans an area of approximately and is known as the coldest of all the oceans. The International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) recognizes it as an ocean, a ...

, until it was annexed by the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

in 1944. In 1921,

Soviet Russia The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, Russian SFSR or RSFSR ( rus, Российская Советская Федеративная Социалистическая Республика, Rossíyskaya Sovétskaya Federatívnaya Soci ...

was forced to cede the area of Pechenga to Finland in exchange for the return of

Repola Reboly (russian: Реболы, fi, Repola, krl, Rebol´ä) is a settlement in the Republic of Karelia of the Russian Federation by the Finnish border, located southeast of Kuhmo and northeast of Lieksa. In 1926 the settlement had a populatio ...

and Porajärvi to Soviet Russia, following Finnish independence and military

expansion Expansion may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media * ''L'Expansion'', a French monthly business magazine * ''Expansion'' (album), by American jazz pianist Dave Burrell, released in 2004 * ''Expansions'' (McCoy Tyner album), 1970 * ''Expansio ...

into neighboring Russian territory and the Treaty of Tartu. In 1922, it was merged with the province of

Oulu Oulu ( , ; sv, Uleåborg ) is a city, municipality and a seaside resort of about 210,000 inhabitants in the region of North Ostrobothnia, Finland. It is the most populous city in northern Finland and the fifth most populous in the country after: ...

. In 1938, Lapland was separated from the province of Oulu and the area of Petsamo became part of the new province of Lapland. In the

Winter War The Winter War,, sv, Vinterkriget, rus, Зи́мняя война́, r=Zimnyaya voyna. The names Soviet–Finnish War 1939–1940 (russian: link=no, Сове́тско-финская война́ 1939–1940) and Soviet–Finland War 1 ...

of 1939-1940 the

occupied Petsamo, but left the area back to Finland after the Moscow peace agreement of 1940 (Viipuri was ceded to the Soviet Union). In 1944, the whole of the former province of Petsamo was ceded to the Soviet Union as part of the preliminary peace agreement between Finland and the allies.

Maps

Municipalities

Petsamo Petsamo may refer to: * Petsamo Province, a province of Finland from 1921 to 1922 * Petsamo, Tampere, a district in Tampere, Finland * Pechengsky District, Russia, formerly known as Petsamo * Pechenga (urban-type settlement), Murmansk Oblast, Russi ...

Governors

* Ilmari Helenius 1921 {{Provinces of Finland Provinces of Finland (1917–97) 1921 establishments in Finland 1922 disestablishments in Finland