The áʼíBaháʼí Faith in Finland began with contact between traveling Scandinavians with early Persian believers of the Baháʼí Faith in the mid-to-late 19th century while Finland was politically part of the Russian Empire. In the early 20th century ʻAbdu'l-Bahá, then head of the religion, requested Baháʼís from the United States and Canada consider Scandinavian countries and Russia among the places Baháʼís should pioneer to. Later, after Finland gained independence from Russia, Baháʼís began to visit the Scandinavian area in the 1920s. Following a period of more Baháʼí pioneers coming to the country, Baháʼí Local Spiritual Assemblies spread across Finland while the national community eventually formed a Baháʼí National Spiritual Assembly in 1962. Some estimates in 2004 of the Baháʼís in Finland number about 500 Baháʼís including a winner of human rights award and a television personality. In 2005 there was an estimate of over 1,700 according to the Association of Religion Data Archives (relying on World Christian Encyclopedia).
Early history
The first mentions of the religion among Scandinavians happened in the era when Finland was politically united with the Russian Empire; the first mention of the Báb, who Baháʼís view as the herald to the founder of the religion, Baháʼu'lláh, was published in accounts of Persian travels by Scandinavians in 1869, and the first mentions of Baháʼu'lláh were made in 1896.
Shoghi Effendi, then head of the religion, visited Finland in 1926. Josephine Kruka, Knight of Baháʼu'lláh, entered Finland and later, in 1938, Pastor Väinö Rissanen became the first Baháʼí of Finland and the first Baháʼí Local Spiritual Assembly of Finland was formed in Helsinki in 1953. In 1955, another Knight of Baháʼu'lláh, Greta Jankko arrived in Finland after having to leave her pioneer post in the Marquesas Islands. Greta served on every Local Spiritual Assembly in Finland during the Ten Year Plan as well as for most of the Nine Year Plan. She also spent some of her time in Lapland, especially to teach the Sámi. Greta edited and retranslated sections for the second Finnish edition of Baháʼu'lláh and the New Era, and she translated the first Finnish language editions of Gleanings from the Writings of Baháʼu'lláh, Baha'i Prayers, Some Answered Questions, The Will and Testament of ʻAbdu'l-Bahá, and The Dispensation of Baháʼu'lláh. When she arrived in Finland, there were just a handful of Baháʼís, mostly elderly ladies, in the Helsinki area. When she died in 1973, there were nearly a hundred Baháʼís at her funeral.
Growth
In 1957 Finland, Denmark, and other Scandinavian countries formed a regional Baháʼí National Spiritual Assembly. In 1959, Knight of Baháʼu'lláh Brigitte Hasselblatt moved to Turku from the Shetland Islands and married Milton Lundblade. After living some years there she moved to the United States but returned again to Finland to Salo in the summer of 1984 (in the meantime their first son Laurence Lundblade would later be one of the initial authors of the e-mail client Pine.) For 1957 through 1962 Finland Baháʼí institutions were part of the regional National Spiritual Assembly of Scandinavia and Finland. In 1960, Hand of the Cause Adelbert Muhlschlegel visited in Finland. In 1962 Sweden, Finland, and Norway each elected their own National Spiritual Assembly. The members of the National Assembly who participated in the election of the Universal House of Justice in 1963 were Godratollah Bidardel, Greta Sofia Jankko-Badeau, Aminda Josephine Kruka, Mozaffar Namdar, Gudrun Ofstegaard, Maija-Liisa Ravola, Sirkka Inkeri Salmi, Mailis Kaarina Talvenheimo and Habibu'llah Zabihian. By the end of 1963 there were local spiritual assemblies in Helsinki, Lahti, Tampere, Turku, and groups of Baháʼís in Kaaresuvanto and isolated Baháʼís in Hämeenlinna, Kilo, Koski Tl, Rovaniemi, and Vartsalo. In 2019 there were 14 Local Spiritual Assemblies, and Baháʼís living in 87 localities.