In 1940, when Finland became the target of a massiveSoviet attack during theWinter War, Granit sought refuge – and peaceful surroundings for his studies and research work – inStockholm, the capital of neighbouringSweden, at the age of 40. In 1941, Granit receivedSwedish citizenship, which made it possible for him to live and continue with his work without having to worry about theContinuation War, which lasted in Finland until 1944. Granit was proud of hisFinnish-Swedish roots and remained a patriotic Finnish-Swede throughout his life, maintaining homes in both Finland and Sweden after theMoscow Armistice ended the Continuation War and secured Finnish independence.
Granit died on 12 March 1991 in Stockholm at the age of 90. Granit and his wife Marguerite, who died the same year, were buried in a church cemetery on the Finnish island ofKorpo.[citation needed]
^Ragnar Granit in theNational Biography of Finland: "There have since been occasional arguments about how many of the observations that led to the Nobel Prize were made only after Granit arrived in Sweden and about whether he is 'a Finnish or a Swedish Nobel laureate'. Granit commented diplomatically on the matter by saying "fifty-fifty". When he received his Nobel Prize, Granit was indeed a Swede by citizenship; but a significant amount of his experimental work had been done in Oxford and Helsinki, and even in Stockholm his colleagues were still mostly Finns."
