Karjalais-šuomelaini sosialistini neuvoštotašavalta(Karelian) Karjalas-Suomelaine sosialistine nevvostotazavaldu(Livvi) Karjalais-suomalainen sosialistinen neuvostotasavalta(Finnish) Карело-Финская Советская Социалистическая Республика(Russian)
Virtually the entire Karelian population of the ceded areas, about 422,000 people,was evacuated toFinland, and the territories were settled by peoples from other parts of theSoviet Union.
Creating a newRepublic 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 thehistory of the USSR. Some later historians believe that the elevation of Soviet Karelia from anAutonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (within theRSFSR) 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.[1][2][3]
KASSR, 1938–40
Territories merged with the KASSR in 1940 to form the KFSSR
Territories added to the KFSSR in 1940 but transferred to theRSFSR in 1944 and 1953[4]
In 1941, during theContinuation War, Finland retook the territory that it had lost in 1940 after theWinter War andoccupied most of the Karelian lands that had been within the USSR before 1940, including the capitalPetrozavodsk (Petroskoi).[3] In 1944, the Soviet Union recaptured the area. Soviet sovereignty was recognized by Finland in theMoscow Armistice andParis Peace Treaty. The Finnish Karelians were evacuated to Finland again.
On 16 July 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-warimprovement of Finno-Soviet relations,[1] which also included such steps as the Soviets' return of thePorkkala Naval Base leased territory to full Finnish sovereignty (January 1956), and leasingMaly Vysotsky Island and the Soviet section of theSaimaa 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 amember republic of the USSR into another republic. Thestate emblem of the Soviet Union had to be changed to reflect this, with one of the 16 ribbons symbolizing constituent republics (that in the Finnish language) removed. Soviet banknotes bearing the emblem were also changed accordingly.
^Memoirs of Nikita Khrushchev. Edited by Sergeĭ Khrushchev. Published by Penn State Press, 2007.ISBN0-271-02332-5. Page 871 (biographic note on O. Kuusinen).On Google Books
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