Karelo-Finnish Soviet Socialist Republic

Karelo-Finnish Soviet Socialist Republic Karjalais-Suomalainen sosialistinen neuvostotasavalta Карело-Финская Советская Социалистическая Республика
←   ← 1940–1956 →
Flag Coat of arms
Motto Kaikkien maiden proletaarit, liittykää yhteen!
Anthem Anthem of Karelo-Finnish SSR
Capital	Petrozavodsk
Language(s)	Finnish and Russian
Religion	Secular state
Government	Communist state, Soviet Socialist Republic
History
- SSR established	31 March 1940
- Demoted to ASSR	16 July 1956
Area
- 1959	172,400.00 km2 (66,564 sq mi)
Population
- 1959 est.	651,300
Density	3.8 /km2  (9.8 /sq mi)
Currency	Soviet ruble

The Karelo-Finnish Soviet Socialist Republic (Finnish: Karjalais-suomalainen sosialistinen neuvostotasavalta; Russian: Каре́ло-Фи́нская Сове́тская Социалисти́ческая Респу́блика, tr. Karelo-Finskaya Sovetskaya Sotsialisticheskaya Respublika), or, in short, Karelo-Finnish SSR (Finnish: Karjalais-suomalainen SNT; Russian: Каре́ло-Фи́нская ССР), was a short-lived republic that was a part of the former Soviet Union. The republic existed from 1940 until it was merged into the Russian SFSR in 1956 (as the Karelian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic).

History

Karelo-Finnish SSR in 1940, during the Interim Peace

The Karelo-Finnish Soviet Socialist Republic was set up on March 31, 1940 by merging the KASSR with the Finnish Democratic Republic (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). The entire Karelian population of the ceded areas, about 422,000 people, was evacuated to Finland, and the territories were settled by people from other parts of the Soviet Union.

Creating a new Republic of the Union for an ethnic group that neither was large in absolute terms, nor constituted anything close to a majority in its territory, nor had been a separate independent nation prior to its incorporation into the USSR, was unprecedented in the history of the USSR. Some later historians explained the elevation of Soviet Karelia from an Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (within the RSFSR) to a SSR by political reasons, as a "convenient means for facilitating the possible incorporation of additional Finnish territory" (or, possibly, the whole of Finland) into the USSR.

In the ensuing Continuation War, in 1941 Finland re-annexed the territory that it had lost in 1940, and occupied most of the Karelian lands that had been within the USSR prior to 1940, including the capital Petrozavodsk (Petroskoi). In 1944 the Soviet Union recaptured the area, which 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 July 16, 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, 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.

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

Politics

The chairman of the Karelo-Finnish Supreme Soviet (1940–1956) was Finnish communist Otto Ville 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

Name	Period
Nikolai Sorokin	August 7, 1940-?
Adolf Taimi	April 15, 1947–1955

Chairmen of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet

Name	Period
Mark Vasilyevich Gorbachev	31 March 1940-11 July 1940
Otto Kuusinen	11 July 1940-16 July 1956

Chairmen of the Council of People's Commissars (1946– Chairmen of the Council of Ministers)

Kantele-players from the KFSSR at the 2nd World Festival of Youth and Students (1949)

Name	Period
I. P. Babkin (acting)	31 March 1940-1940
Pavel Prokkonen	1940-February 1947
Voldemar Virolainen	February 1947-24 February 1950
Pavel Prokkonen	1950-16 July 1956

See also

• Winter War
• Karelia (historical province of Finland)
• Karelia
• Republics of the Soviet Union
• Soviet Union
• Karelian question in Finnish politics