Military Museum of Finland The Military Museum of Finland ( ) is the central museum of the Finnish Defence Forces and the national special museum of military history . It is located in Helsinki and it is part of the Finnish National Defence University . Military Museums exhibitions in Kruununhaka and Suomenlinna had around 55 000 visitors in 2012 . The most popular exhibition space is submarine Vesikko , visited by around 27 000 people annually . The Military Museum ' s task is to collect , preserve , research and display artefacts and other heritage related to the Defence Forces of Finland , to military history and to the history of weaponry . History . Military Museum was founded November 25 , 1929 . The opening ceremony followed October 18 , 1930 at Liisankatu , Kruununhaka . Before the foundation Finnish military history was shown to public first in 1908 at Valtion historiallinen museo ( The History Museum of the State ) and in 1918 - 1919 at the National Museum . The former exhibition ’ s theme was The War of 1808 - 1809 and latter ’ s Finnish Civil War . In January 1930 The Ministry of Defence ordered Military Museum to continue in Suomenlinna Sea Fortress , where bastion Carpelan was reserved to museum ’ s use . Lieutenant Reijo Wilhelm Palmroth was elected as museum ’ s manager . The opening ceremony occurred June 11 , 1933 and after that museum was seen by around 9254 visitors annually . The exhibition consisted of different arms sections which included jaegers , engineers , arms and navy . There were also civil war collections to be seen . Military Museum was closed however in autumn 1939 , just before the break out of Winter War against Soviet Union . The items and collections were removed from bastion Carpelan during the war and stored around Finland . The museum office had to also relocate from Helsinki because of the Soviet air bombings in 1944 . During the Winter War and Continuation War Military Museum organized a series of exhibitions at the Exhibition Hall . The first was Sotasaalisnäyttely ( War Looting Exhibition ) in February 1940 which was shortly followed by Sotamuistonäyttely ( War Memories Exhibition ) I and II in 1941 . Military Museum organized also touring exhibitions around Finland between 1941 and 1943 and even had exhibitions in Sweden in 1942 - 43 . There were several purposes for these kinds of war exhibitions . It was , for example , a means to gather funds for war invalids and their families , to show how it was to fight on Finnish side at the front and to lift up morale among citizens . 1944 was the year of the foundation of Sotamuistoyhdistys , later to be named Suomen sotahistoriallinen seura ( The Association for Military History in Finland ) . The Association is and independent unit but it runs in close relationship with The Military Museum . Its goal is to cherish the memory of Finnish wars in various ways . After the war Military Museum had to manage without exhibition halls for a short period of time . The situation changed when it received a hall at Maurinkatu , Kruununhaka . The Military Museum is now located in a garrison building designed by Evert Lagerspetz in 1883 . Military Museum expanded more in the mid - 1990s after setting up an exhibition also at Liisankatu . In March 2013 , a new permanent exhibition was opened there . Military Museum ’ s presence in Suomenlinna ceased to be at the brink of Winter War in 1939 . The collections in bastion Carpelan were moved to the mainland and later Military Museum had to make way for the Armfelt Museum . However , there had been thoughts and debate about founding a Coastal Artillery Museum and Naval Museum in Suomenlinna in 1946 - 1948 . Finally , the Coastal Artillery Museum was opened in December 1948 . The exhibition ’ s time range was from autonomy to the times of independence . The Museum was closed in 2007 because the building was considered too unsound . The Naval Museum opened its doors on 6 November 1948 although considerations about the exhibition had been made already in 1923 . The exhibition showed Finnish naval defence during her independence era but in the end it didn ’ t last long . Museum was ordered to close in 1963 due to high moisture and didn ’ t manage to find new exhibition hall . In the 1970s there emerged series of debates about opening Military Museum exhibition again in Suomenlinna in addition to submarine Vesikko , which was had been there as a museum since July 1973 . After a number of failures Military Museum managed to gain the permit in August 1980 . The Manege , which had been storage for Military Museum since 1974 , was constructed to an exhibition hall during 1986 - 1989 . The opening followed June 1 , 1989 . In summer 2011 Military Museum opened a Submarine Vesikko - special exhibition in addition to current Winter War - , The Continuation War - and Lapland War - exhibition . The Military Museum has organized over 30 special exhibitions during 1962 - 1984 . Among these are for example 40th and 90th anniversaries of the Finnish Defence Forces in 1958 and 2008 respectively and several Winter War exhibitions . Collections . The collections of the Military Museum cover over 200 000 artefacts . Most of the artefacts are organized in research collections or stored . The collections include weapons , uniforms , medals , artworks , flags and vehicles among other things . Publications . Military Museum publishes Journal of Military History ( Sotahistoriallinen Aikakauskirja ) together with The Military History Society of Finland annually and has also created content to various multimedia publications . Exhibitions . Permanent exhibition . The Military Museum ' s permanent exhibition displays Finnish military history since the beginning of the fifteenth century . The main focus is in the 19th century . Exhibition has been updated and opened again 8 . 3 . 2013 at Liisankatu 1 . Submarine Vesikko and Manege . The Military Museum has in the summer time two exhibitions open in Suomenlinna . Submarine Vesikko is a Finnish submarine built in 1933 that served in the second World War in the Gulf of Finland . Vesikko is the only remaining submarine of the Finnish Fleet during the World War II . Other four U - boats were scrapped in 1953 . During the Winter War and the Continuation war 1939 - 1944 Vesikko was in active service , conducting patrol and safeguard missions in the Gulf of Finland and Åland archipelago . Vesikko managed to destroy one enemy transport ship as it sank Soviet Vyborg July 3 , 1941 near Suursaari . After the peace treaty with the Soviet Union Vesikko ’ s days in active service were over because The Peace Treaty of 1947 banned Finnish submarines . Vesikko was however saved for possible Finnish Navy ’ s educational purposes . But no use emerged for Vesikko and it was transferred to Katajanokka dockyard . The state planned to sell it in 1959 but thanks to ex - submariners ' strong lobbying , the submarine was once again saved and transported from Katajanokka to Suomenlinna in the early 1960s . After opening as a museum July 9 , 1973 it has become the Military Museum ' s most popular exhibition . The Manege was opened to public June 1 , 1989 . The original exhibition consisted mainly of heavy weapons from Finnish wars against Soviet Union in 1939 - 1944 . There have been arranged also special exhibitions , for example in 2003 - 2004 about Finnish submarines and in summer 2011 about the submarine Vesikko . The Manege ’ s collections include e . g a German 88mm Flak 37 Anti - Aircraft gun and British Vickers - Armstrong 38 light tank . Both have been used by the Finnish Army during the wars . One specialty in the exhibition is a torpedo tube from a Finnish S2 - torpedo boat , sunk in 1925 . In summer 2012 there opened a new exhibition , From Autonomy to Atalanta - an exhibition on Finnish military history . Special Military Museums . At the moment there are eight special military museums in Finland , which operate under Military Museum ’ s supervision . Due to limited resources and lack of exhibition halls historical military collections have been divided to special arms museums . Especially the growing amount of collections in different army units affected to the founding of special military museums . They are often financed by foundations and have been founded since 1945 . Special military museums include The Tank Museum , The Anti - Aircraft Museum , The Finnish Aviation Museum , The Infantry Museum , The Museum of Military Medicine , Mobilia , Forum Marinum and Museum Militaria , which comprises the Engineers Museum , The National Signals Museum and The Artillery Museum of Finland .