WIP ultra-paranoid juche-esque isolated fascist Greater Finland, observe.
Heck it. This is the real thing ( I won't milk any unnecessary upvotes by posting a slightly more filled map with a fancy bit of text under it, so here we go):
Following the Fall of the Soviet Union, Finland was granted rather large swathe of what was then considered frozen wasteland (and which it still is). The Finnish-German relations began to cool as large amounts of refugees were accepted/smuggled into Finland proper from Estonia and Northern Russia, Leningrad in particular, often under the guise of rescuing related ethnic groups from extermination. This massive population of effective prisoners was offered a chance to work at large-scale government projects.
Paranoid of the now-neutral Germany to the South, the capital was moved from vulnerable Helsinki to a more protected and central location, where extensive effort built a pragmatically designed city practically overnight. The largest lake systems had been connected using painstakingly-dug canals ( Great National Effort III: Green Gold, Blue Highways), facilitating the transfer of raw materials and finished products, especially wood, which was vital for the motorized faculties of the newly isolated and oil-starved country.
Massive population transfer was incentivized, then forced, deserting large stretches of the Baltic coast (most Swedish-speaking people had also been forcefully drafted and confiscated of property deemed 'unnecessary and lavish') in favour of the new growth centres inland. The occasional air raids at the Old Coast have created ghost towns, especially in the West where German bombers based in Sweden are yet another reason to suspect the Swedish minority of treason.
The wood gasifier has become iconic in its widespread adaptation in nearly all previously combustion engine-run machinery and vehicles. Wood has thus retained most of its value even after the international market for paper and timber allegedly vanished. Hydroelectric and biocombustion plants are practically the sole means of power production.
Further North, the mass Sami immigration ( Great National Effort VII: the Great Call Home/ Strength in Kinship (Kuosmanen 1951/Lindén 1951) has seen the ancient way of nomad life once more spread across the tundra as the tribes strive to coordinate themselves in a vastly smaller area than before. On the positive side, reindeer meat is now widely available in the South.
The mines of Kola and Kiruna supply ample metals and fertilizers for the still-industrializing nation. Metallurgy and mining employ most of the non-Sami Northern population, side sources of income being fishing and small-scale agriculture and forestry.
In the South new farmland is being cleared wherever possible using new state-leased motorized farming equipment, even though the horse is still king in rougher terrain, remote locations and smaller pieces of land.
Family quotas (incentives, officially, but the only way to live above the poverty line) are proving effective in spreading civilization into the previously 'underutilized wilderness of our forefathers'. Conservatism doesn't stop at family values- the very national ethos is to be productive and rather more collectivist than OTL Finns.
Large reserves of minerals, practically unlimited renewable fuel resources and heavy government directions have all contributed to creating a somewhat stable closed economy. I do not advocate for genocide or racism.
