The Karelo-Finnish Soviet Socialist Republic (Karelo-Finnish S.S.R., Finnish Karjalais-Suomalainen sosialistinen neuvostotasavalta, Russian Карело-Финская Советская Социалистическая Республика or Karelo-Finskaya Sovietskaya Sotsialisticheskaya Respublika) was a republic of the Soviet Union that existed between 1940 and 1956.

History

The attack by the Soviet Union on Finland and the ensuing Winter War ended less successfully than the Soviet side had expected. The preparations for setting up a communist-controlled administration for Finland would also have been in vain if it was not for the separation of the Karelian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic from the Russian SFSR. The Karelo-Finnish Soviet Socialist Republic, which was set up on March 31, 1940, was to serve as a reminder for the Finns that the Soviet Union had not renounced their claims. In the ensuing Continuation War, the territory was occupied by Finland more or less from July 1941 until July 1944, and in the following peace Finland was able to defend its independence. On July 16, 1956, the republic was incorporated into the Russian SFSR as the Karelian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. It 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 Finland, which had suffered hard from the civil war in 1918 between the White Guard and Red (socialist) "Worker Protection Guards", Kuusinen came to be hated even by the socialist side. In the republic there was also a separate Karelo-Finnish Communist Party led in the 1940s by G.N. Kupriyanov.

Related articles

• Finnish Karelia
• Karelia
• Republics of the Soviet Union
• Soviet Union