The Karelo-Finnish Soviet Socialist Republic (Karelo-Finnish SSR), also called Karelo-Finland, Finno-Karelia and Soviet Karelia or simply known as Karelia, was a republic of the Soviet Union. It existed from 31 March 1940 until it was made part of the Russian SFSR on 16 July 1956 as the Karelian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. The latter became the Republic of Karelia, a federal subject of Russia, on 13 November 1991.

History

thumb|left|Karelo-Finnish SSR building in 1940

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.

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In 1941, during the Continuation War, Finland retook the territory that it had lost in 1940 after the Winter War and occupied most of the Karelian lands that had been within the USSR before 1940, including the capital Petrozavodsk (Petroskoi).

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|Nikolai Sorokin || 7 August 1940 – 1947

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|Adolf Taimi || 15 April 1947 – 1955

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|Johannes Sogijainen || 1955–1956

|}

Chairmen of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet

{| class="wikitable"

! Name !! Period

|-

|Mark Gorbachev<br />(As head of the Karelian ASSR)||31 March 1940 – 11 July 1940

|-

|Otto Wille Kuusinen ||11 July 1940 – 16 July 1956

|}

Chairmen of the Council of People's Commissars

thumb|[[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.

{|class="wikitable"

!Name !!Period

|-

|Pavel Prokkonen ||1940 – February 1947

|-

|Voldemar Virolainen ||February 1947 – 24 February, 1950

|-

|Pavel Prokkonen ||1950 – 16 July, 1956

|}

See also

  • Winter War
  • Karelia
  • Karelia (historical province of Finland)
  • Karelian question in Finnish politics
  • Republics of the Soviet Union
  • Communist Party of the Karelo-Finnish Soviet Socialist Republic

Notes

References