Karelo-Finnish Soviet Socialist Republic

The Karelo-Finnish Soviet Socialist Republic (Karelo-Finnish SSR; Finnish: Karjalais-suomalainen sosialistinen neuvostotasavalta; Russian: Каре́ло-Фи́нская Сове́тская Социалисти́ческая Респу́блика, tr. Karelo-Finskaya Sovetskaya Sotsialisticheskaya Respublika), also called Soviet Karelia or simply known as Karelia, was a republic of the Soviet Union. It existed from 1940 until it was made part of the Russian SFSR in 1956 as the Karelian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. The latter became the Republic of Karelia, a federal subject of Russia, on 13 November 1991.

Karelo-Finnish Soviet Socialist Republic
Karjalas-Suomelaine sosialistine nevvostotazavaldu
Karjalais-suomalainen sosialistinen neuvostotasavalta
Карело-Финская Советская Социалистическая Республика
1940–1956
Flag of Karelo-Finnish SSR
Flag
(1953–1956)
Emblem(1941–1956) of Karelo-Finnish SSR
Emblem
(1941–1956)
Motto: Kaikkien maiden proletaarit, liittykää yhteen!
"Proletarians of all countries, unite!"
Anthem: Karjalais-suomalaisen sosialistisen neuvostotasavallan hymni
"Anthem of the Karelo-Finnish SSR"
(1945–1956)
Location of the Karelo-Finnish SSR (red) within the Soviet Union (1940 boundaries)
Location of the Karelo-Finnish SSR (red) within the Soviet Union (1940 boundaries)
CapitalPetrozavodsk
Common languagesKarelian, Finnish, Russian
GovernmentMarxist-Leninist one-party socialist soviet republic
First Secretary 
 1940–1950
Gennady Kupriyanov
 1950
Aleksandr Kondakov
 1950–1955
Aleksandr Egorov
 1955–1956
Leonid Lubennikov
Head of State 
 1940–1956
Otto Wille Kuusinen
Head of Government 
 1940–1947
Pavel Prokkonen
 1947–1950
Voldemar Virolainen
 1950–1956
Pavel Prokkonen
LegislatureSupreme Soviet of the Karelo-Finnish SSR
Historical eraWorld War II / Cold War
 SSR established
31 March 1940
 Demoted to ASSR
16 July 1956
CurrencySoviet ruble (Rbl) (SUR)
Preceded by
Succeeded by
Karelian ASSR
Finnish Democratic Republic
Leningrad Oblast
Murmansk Oblast
Karelian ASSR
Today part ofRussia

History

The Karelo-Finnish Soviet Socialist Republic was established by the Soviet government on 31 March 1940 by merging the KASSR with the Finnish Democratic Republic. The latter was created in territory ceded by Finland in the Winter War by the Moscow Peace Treaty, namely the Karelian Isthmus and Ladoga Karelia, including the cities of Viipuri and Sortavala.

Virtually the entire Karelian population of the ceded areas, about 422,000 people, was evacuated to Finland, and the territories were settled by peoples from other parts of the Soviet Union.

Creating a new Republic of the Union for an ethnic group that was not large in absolute terms, nor constituted anything close to a majority in its territory, nor had been a separate independent nation before its incorporation into the USSR, was unprecedented in the history of the USSR. Some later historians believe that the elevation of Soviet Karelia from an Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (within the RSFSR) to an SSR was a political move as a "convenient means for facilitating the possible incorporation of additional Finnish territory" (or, possibly, the whole of Finland) into the USSR.[1][2][3]

  KASSR, 1938–40
  Territories merged with the KASSR in 1940 to form the KFSSR
  Territories added to the KFSSR in 1940 but transferred to RSFSR in 1944, 1953 and 1955[4]

In 1941, Finland retook the territory that it had lost in 1940 and occupied most of the Karelian lands that had been within the USSR before 1940, including the capital Petrozavodsk (Petroskoi).[3] In 1944, the Soviet Union recaptured the area. Soviet sovereignty was recognized by Finland in the Moscow Armistice and Paris Peace Treaty. The Finnish Karelians were evacuated to Finland again.

In September 1944, the Karelian Isthmus with Vyborg (Viipuri) was transferred from the Karelo-Finnish SSR to the Leningrad Oblast of the RSFSR, but Ladoga Karelia remained a part of the republic.

On 16 July 1956, the republic was incorporated into the Russian SFSR as the Karelian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. This move can perhaps be explained in the context of the general post-war improvement of Finno-Soviet relations,[1] which also included such steps as the Soviets' return of the Porkkala Naval Base leased territory to full Finnish sovereignty (January 1956), and leasing Maly Vysotsky Island and the Soviet section of the Saimaa Canal (conquered by the USSR in 1940 and 1944) back to Finland (1963).

The abolition of the Karelian SSR in 1956 was the only case in the history of the USSR (1922–1991) of merging a member republic of the USSR into another republic. The state emblem of the Soviet Union had to be changed to reflect this, with one of the 16 ribbons symbolizing constituent republics (that in the Finnish language) removed. Soviet banknotes bearing the emblem were also changed accordingly.

In the last days of the USSR, the Karelian ASSR became the Republic of Karelia, a subdivision of the Russian Federation, on 13 November 1991.

Politics

The chairman of the Karelo-Finnish Supreme Soviet (1940–1956) was a Finnish communist Otto Wille Kuusinen. In the republic, there was also a separate Karelo-Finnish Communist Party led in the 1940s by G.N. Kupriyanov.

Yuri Andropov served for some years as the first secretary of the republic's Komsomol branch, the Leninist Communist Youth League of the Karelo-Finnish Soviet Socialist Republic.

Chairmen of the Supreme Soviet

NamePeriod[5]
Nikolai Sorokin7 August, 1940 1947
Adolf Taimi15 April, 1947 1955
Johannes Sogijainen1955 1956

Chairmen of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet

NamePeriod
Mark Gorbachev
(As head of the Karelian ASSR)
31 March, 1940 11 July, 1940
Otto Wille Kuusinen11 July, 1940 16 July, 1956

Chairmen of the Council of People's Commissars

Kantele players from the KFSSR at the Second World Festival of Youth and Students, 1949

The Council of People's Commissars was renamed the Council of Ministers in 1946.

NamePeriod
Pavel Prokkonen1940 February 1947
Voldemar VirolainenFebruary 1947 24 February, 1950
Pavel Prokkonen1950 16 July, 1956

See also

References

  1. Helin, Ronald Arthur (1961). Economic-geographic Reorientation in Western Finnish Karelia: A Result of the Finno-Soviet Boundary Demarcations of 1940 and 1944. National Academy of Sciences, National Research Council. p. 101.
  2. Memoirs of Nikita Khrushchev. Edited by Sergeĭ Khrushchev. Published by Penn State Press, 2007. ISBN 0-271-02332-5. Page 871 (biographic note on O. Kuusinen). On Google Books
  3. Taagepera, Rein (1999). The Finno-Ugric Republics and the Russian State. C. Hurst & Co. Publishers. p. 109. ISBN 1-85065-293-7.
  4. "История - Сельское поселение Алакуртти Кандалакшского района". Archived from the original on March 15, 2014.
  5. http://knowbysight/1_KAREL/03476.asp%5B%5D

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