Global InformationKarelian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic information
| Karelian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic Карельская Автономная Советская Социалистическая Республика Karjalan autonominen sosialistinen neuvostotasavalta | |||||||||||||
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| ASSR of the Russian SFSR | |||||||||||||
| 1923–1940 1956–1991 | |||||||||||||
 Flag
(1978-1991)  Coat of arms
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 Location of Karelian ASSR within RSFSR and Soviet Union (1956-1991) | |||||||||||||
| Capital | Petrozavodsk | ||||||||||||
| Area | |||||||||||||
| • Coordinates | 61°47′00″N 34°21′00″E / 61.783333°N 34.35°E | ||||||||||||
• 1926 | 147,000 km2 (57,000 sq mi) | ||||||||||||
| Population | |||||||||||||
• 1926 | 269,700 | ||||||||||||
| • Type | Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic | ||||||||||||
| History | |||||||||||||
• Established | 1923 | ||||||||||||
• Promoted to SSR | 1940 | ||||||||||||
• Demotion to ASSR | 6 July 1956 | ||||||||||||
• Sovereignty declared | 9 August 1990 | ||||||||||||
• Republic of Karelia | 13 November 1991 | ||||||||||||
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The Karelian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic,[a] Karelian ASSR[b] for short, sometimes referred to as Soviet Karelia or simply Karelia, was an autonomous republic of the Russian SFSR, Soviet Union, with the capital in Petrozavodsk.
The Karelian ASSR was formed as a part of the Russian SFSR by the Resolution of the Presidium of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee (VTsIK) of June 27, 1923 and by the Decree of the VTsIK and the Council of People's Commissars of July 25, 1923 from the Karelian Labor Commune.[1] In 1927, the ASSR was divided into districts,[2] which replaced the old volosts.
From 1940 to 1956, territory annexed from Finland (which had briefly constituted a puppet Finnish Democratic Republic) was incorporated with the previous Karelian Autonomous Republic to form the Karelo-Finnish Soviet Socialist Republic, which had the status of a union republic in the federal structure of the Soviet Union. However, by this time, only a small portion of the population of this region was of Karelian or Finnish ethnic background.[nb 1] Some later historians believe that this unorthodox upgrade was likely a "convenient means for facilitating the possible incorporation of additional Finnish territory"[5] (or all of Finland[6]) or "at least a way to keep Finland continuously under the gun".[6]
On July 16, 1956, the SSR was downgraded from a Union Republic to an ASSR, and retroceded to the Russian SFSR. Beginning on August 9, 1990, the Karelian ASSR declared state sovereignty and renamed to the Karelian Soviet Socialist Republic.[c] The Karelian SSR was renamed to the Republic of Karelia on November 13, 1991, and remains a federal subject of Russia.
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- ^ Administrative-Territorial Division of Murmansk Oblast, p. 31
- ^ Administrative-Territorial Division of Murmansk Oblast, p. 35
- ^ Демоскоп. Всесоюзная перепись населения 1939 года. Национальный состав населения по регионам России: Карельская АССР
- ^ Демоскоп. Всесоюзная перепись населения 1959 года. Национальный состав населения по регионам России: Карельская АССР
- ^ 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.
- ^ a b Taagepera, Rein (1999). The Finno-Ugric Republics and the Russian State. C. Hurst & Co. Publishers. p. 109. ISBN 1-85065-293-7.
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