As the ice retreated about 10,000 years ago, stone-age men, perhaps early Finns, occupied the rich new lands between Norway and the Urals. They were followed by other wanderers in the North, many of which were Germanic. According to Matti Klinge, (University of Helsinki), the dominant "genetic element" in Finland today is Germanic. Perhaps Germanic people had also followed game northward since the dawn of history and were accepted there amongst the Finns. When the waves of disease swept over Europe, it is possible that the germanic genetic traits (i.e. the ones carrying specific immune factors, such as blood type A), survived because the immune factors were already there and did not have to be produced by the human immune response. In this way, beneficial traits were gradually imported along with technology to the North from Europe, while preserving the core Finnish "soul" and most of the language.

The eastern Finnic nations mixed with wanderers from the south and east and therefore genetically, they differ from the western Finns. This genetic variability was beneficial to the eastern Finns as well. Naturally, in different geographical areas gene pools differ due to "genetic drift," which is a very well understood phenomenon. The Volga Finnic people are referred to as Finns here even though they differ significantly in many ways, especially in the language which is mostly conversationally unintelligible to Baltic Finns.The Swedes, with whom the Finns lived in harmony for over one millennium, did not practice genocide against the Finns as the Slavs did. For this reason, the Finns have historically been on friendly terms with the Swedes.

The Mari people are a middle Volga ancient Finno-Ugric nation.