Karelo-Finnish Soviet Socialist Republic
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| Karjalais-suomalainen sosialistinen neuvostotasavalta (Finnish) Карело-Финская Советская Социалистическая Республика (Russian) Karelo-Finnish Soviet Socialist Republic |
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| Capital | Petrozavodsk | ||||
| Official language | Finnish and Russian | ||||
| Established In the USSR: - Since - Until |
31 March 1940 31 March 1940 16 July 1956 |
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| Area - Total - Water (%) |
Ranked 7th in the USSR 172,400 km² 25% |
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| Population - Total - Density |
Ranked 16th in the USSR 651,300 (1959) 3.8/km² |
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| Time zone | UTC + 3 | ||||
| Anthem | Anthem of Karelo-Finnish SSR | ||||
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The Karelo-Finnish Soviet Socialist Republic (Finnish: Karjalais-suomalainen sosialistinen neuvostotasavalta; Russian: Карело-Финская Советская Социалистическая Республика, Karelo-Finskaya Sovietskaya Sotsialisticheskaya Respublika) was a short-lived republic that was a part of the former Soviet Union. The republic existed from 1940 until it was merged back into the Russian SFSR in 1956 (as the Karelian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic).
[edit] History
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 (see Evacuation of Finnish Karelia), 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 had been 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 entire Finland) into the USSR.[1][2][3]
In the ensuing "Continuation War", in 1941 Finland occupied and reannexed the territory that it had lost in 1940; most of the Karelian lands that had been within the USSR prior to 1940, including the capital Petrozavodsk (Petroskoi), had been occupied by Finland as well.[3] 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,[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.
In the waning days of the USSR, Karelian ASSR became the Republic of Karelia, a subdivision of the Russian Federation, on November 13, 1991.
[edit] 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.
[edit] Chairmen of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet
| Name | Entered office | Left office |
|---|---|---|
| Mark Vasilyevich Gorbachev | 31 March 1940 | 11 July 1940 |
| Otto Kuusinen | 11 July 1940 | 16 July 1956 |
[edit] Chairmen of the Council of People's Commissars (1946– Chairmen of the Council of Ministers)
| Name | Entered office | Left office |
|---|---|---|
| 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 |
[edit] See also
- Winter War
- Finnish Karelia
- Karelia
- Republics of the Soviet Union
- Soviet Union
- Karelian question in Finnish politics
[edit] References
- ^ a b 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. pp. 101. http://books.google.com.au/books?id=gy4rAAAAYAAJ.
- ^ ."Memoirs of Nikita Khrushchev". Edited by Sergeĭ Khrushchev. Published by Penn State Press, 2007. ISBN 0271023325. Page 871 (biographic note on O. Kuusinen). On Google Books
- ^ a b Taagepera, Rein (1999). The Finno-Ugric Republics and the Russian State. by C. Hurst & Co. Publishers. p. 109. ISBN 1850652937. http://books.google.com.au/books?id=m-bF5dKgML4C.
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