Re: Russians, alcohol, making toasts
Yes, and I would claim that when people use the word "Scandinavia" it's about culture and type of society and not about anything else.
Finland was a part of Sweden for more than 600 years and both Swedish and Finnish law is based on old Swedish law and Swedish is the second official language in Finland.
But I still prefer to use the word "Nordic" as that keeps everybody (also Swedes) happy.
We have a lot together like "Freedom to roam" .
"the right to roam has survived in perhaps its purest form in Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden. Here the right has been won through practice over hundreds of years and it is not known when it changed from mere 'common practice' to become a commonly recognised right. ".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_to_roam#Nordic_countries
And we have the Nordic Council.
"The Nordic Council is the official body for formal inter-parliamentary Nordic cooperation among the Nordic countries. Formed in 1952, it has 87 representatives from Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden as well as from the autonomous areas of the Faroe Islands, Greenland, and the Åland Islands. "
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nordic_Council
Not to mention the Nordic Model.
"The Nordic model comprises the economic and social policies as well as typical cultural practices common to the Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden). This includes a comprehensive welfare state and multi-level collective bargaining based on the economic foundations of free market capitalism, with a high percentage of the workforce unionized and a large percentage of the population employed by the public sector (roughly 30% of the work force)."
How did I end up here from "Quality control, Soviet style".