Swedish Baltic Sea Water Award 2009 Helsinki Commission (HELCOM), Finland HELCOM works to protect the marine environment of the Baltic Sea from all sources of pollution through intergovernmental co-operation between Denmark, Estonia, the European Community, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia and Sweden. HELCOM is governing the "Convention on the Protection of the Marine Environment of the Baltic Sea Area" (the Helsinki Convention) and has shown exemplary commitment to improving the Baltic Sea through the adoption of the Baltic Sea Action Plan. 2008 Prof. Krzysztof Edward Skóra, Hel Marine Station at the University of Gdańsk, Poland Professor Skóra received the award for his research which
Finland–Russia border most of which were Savonians. After the Finnish War, the Treaty of Fredrikshamn converted all of Finland from Swedish territory to a Russian possession, the Grand Duchy of Finland. The Finnish–Russian border was moved back to the pre-1721 location, so that the Grand Duchy gained the so-called "Old Finland", territories previously held by Sweden, in 1812. After Finland became independent in 1917, there was the Finnish Civil War in 1918, and even after this war, the Russian Civil War continued. Finnish activists often crossed the border into Soviet territory in order to fight in the "heimosodat", wars aiming at Finnish