How well did the Finnish speaking soldiers integrate with the Swedish army during the times when Sweden and Finland was the same kingdom?

by Toxirine

When Sweden and Finland was the same kingdom, how well did Finnish speaking soldiers and, by extension, officers integrate in the army?

Individually, were they treated the same as Swedish speaking soldiers? If not, how?
Were there officers who spoke Finnish as first language, how far could they climb? Did they have equal opportunity to Swedes (or Swedish speakers from todays Finland)?
Would the commanders of said units, if not Finnish speakers themselves, have to learn Finnish? Or was it the other way around?
How were the general feelings from Finnish speaking soldiers on serving under Swedish speaking officers?
On a regimental level, were the Finnish ones and Swedish ones handled differently?

Since the Aristocracy was (mainly?) Swedish speaking in what is today Finland, I know of several notable officers from this era from that population. Mind, these are not the people I am interested in. They should have had Finnish as a first language (Swedish as a Second Language is acceptable though). I am especially interested in the period of 1500s to 1750s, with events such as The Thirty Years' Wars, March across the Belts, Great Nordic War, etc.

If you have answers to the questions but about sailors rather than soldiers, I am just as happy to hear it!

Looking forward to reading, if any, answers! Thank you.

The Swedish army created Finnish-speaking and Swedish-speaking units. Most of the regiments raised in Finland were Finnish-speaking, while commanded by bilingual officers and NCOs.

During this era it was hard for commoners to advance in the ranks as most officers were of noble extrations, although it was not unhead of. Erik Dahlbergh was a commoner that advanced to become Chief Engineer of the Army, Field Marshal and Governor of Livonia.

To become an officer, the Finnish-speaker would have to learn Swedish to be able to communicate with senior officers, who usually were noble Swedish-speakers (regardless if they came from Finland or Sweden).

The men were equipped and trained the same way as Swedish-speaking units and had roughly the same level of respect and prestige - although at times the Finnish soldiers were considred hardier and more suited to difficult tasks.

Several of Sweden's enemies considered the Finnish-speakers as semi-barbarion and vicous, even demonic in battle. Swedish and German are similar languages and to some extent a German-speaker and a Swedish-speaker could understand each other, while Finnish (being a Finno-Ugric language) is completely alien to a speaking of a Germanic language. Sweden was not below using this fear of the Finns in battle, and the cruelty of men like General Torsten Stålhandske who led the hardy Finnish cavalry of Nyland och Tavastehus Regemente in several very tough engagements.

Generally, during the era in question, the government of Sweden cared very little about what language their subjects spoke. The Nobility spoke French, the Priests Latin (and the language of their Parish), the Burghers German or Dutch (and sometimes the language of the area they worked in) and the Peasants Swedish (of various dialects), Finnish (of various dialects), Estonian, Latvian, Russian or German. As long as you could communicate with your tax collector, priest and officer and he could communicate with the government, the government cared little.

A permanent translation office was opened in the Estates Parliament in 1735, allowing Finnish-speakers to adress the Parliament in Finnish should they so please.

To answer your questions one by one;

Yes, the same training, the same equipment, the same rations, the same pay, the same indelningsverket allotment system. Finnish-speakers were recruited for the Finnish-speaking regiments and the other way around.
Yes, there were. Very few commoners rose to high ranks though, and you needed to be bilingual as a Finnish-speaker to reach higher ranks. Many of the Finnish nobility who served as officers in the Finnish-speaking regiments were bilingual, with Swedish as their first language.
It is hard to find specific data on which was the first language of lower officers and NCOs, but they were often bilingual.
I have rarely read any complaints from either side - the Swedish officers considered their Finnish-speaking troops as reliable and steadfast men that conducted themselves well in battle and the Finns, as long as they were adequately supplied, rarely complained.
Finnish regiments were sometimes used more for independent operations (such as Stålhandske's cavalry), while regiments from Sweden sometimes were used as the reliable center of a line to break the enemy (such as Dalregementet).

To add an ancedote to this, it is sometimes tounge-in-cheek said by Finns that "Sweden always fought bravely to the last Finn!" referring to the fact that after Sweden lost Finland 1809, the Swedish army only participated lightly in the German campaign 1813 and capturing Norway with very light casualties 1814. Swedes sometimes responds with "And Finland fought bravely to the last Swede!" referring to Mannerheim, who was Swedish-speaking and only spoke little Finnish (and, it is said, with bad pronounciation).