English: Sailing boat and icebreakers in Helsinki as seen from Pohjoisranta.

Pleasure and hard work, summer and winter, east and west, likewise past and the present meet in this picture taken in dusk from Pohjoisranta in the Capital Helsinki.

A sailing boat representing the pleasure boating on the seas during the summer is docked near the historic Senate Square. Behind the sailing boat stand five icebreakers from various decades representing the hard work needed to survive on the wintertime on subarctic seas. The icebreakers help commercial ships to move and navigate on ice-covered seas during the wintertime. However, some commercial passanger and cargo ships are icebreakers by themselves able to move in ice without help.

On the right side of the picture, a glimpse of a yellow building can barely be seen. The building is presently the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland, but is has served also as a barrack for the Russian Navy. Finland is a country between east and west. It has been part of Sweden and Russia during the centuries before reaching its independence in 1917.