I would imagine this happens a lot along international borders and it could just as easily reverse at different locations along the same border. One side might be a national park or designated forest land and the other side have zoned it as residential.
The East side of Finland was purposely over-settled to keep Russia / USSR from taking the land in the future. The whole region was nearly empty wilderness, but they figured if it was heavily inhabited, Russia would have a harder time taking it. It would also gain more international attention if people were living there as opposed to if it were just forest.
EDIT: Some folks have asked for more information on this. It wasn't USSR, since the settlement happened well before the existence of USSR. Here is some more information: https://i.redd.it/f2v0smghri721.jpg
lanson15 on December 31st, 2018 at 02:00 UTC »
On google maps:
https://www.google.com/maps/@62.2849609,30.8664076,10z
Edit: Also a part of the Russian-Chinese border compared
https://imgur.com/fLVjaX9
absfca on December 31st, 2018 at 02:11 UTC »
I would imagine this happens a lot along international borders and it could just as easily reverse at different locations along the same border. One side might be a national park or designated forest land and the other side have zoned it as residential.
vainamo- on December 31st, 2018 at 03:10 UTC »
The East side of Finland was purposely over-settled to keep Russia / USSR from taking the land in the future. The whole region was nearly empty wilderness, but they figured if it was heavily inhabited, Russia would have a harder time taking it. It would also gain more international attention if people were living there as opposed to if it were just forest.
EDIT: Some folks have asked for more information on this. It wasn't USSR, since the settlement happened well before the existence of USSR. Here is some more information: https://i.redd.it/f2v0smghri721.jpg
HAHA EDIT 2. I accidentally posted a meme instead of the real info. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forest_Finns