The ****Karelian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, ****Karelian ASSR 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. In 1927, the ASSR was divided into districts, which replaced the old volosts. Prior to the Great Purge and World War II, the leaders of the Karelian ASSR were applying a significant policy of indigenization over the ASSR. This was mainly taken care of by the long-time leader of the Karelian ASSR, Edvard Gylling. Finnish was used as the primary language for education and administration, with Russian in second. It's believed that Gylling, a Finnish socialist, wished to create his own Red Finland in Soviet Karelia following the defeat of the Reds in the Finnish Civil War. However, with Stalin's purges, Gylling was executed and any indigenization process and effort faded away, giving way to Russification instead. He was replaced by Tver Karelian Pavel Bushuev, who also got purged not long after. Pjotr Soljakov replaced Bushuev, and he led the Karelian ASSR until 1940. In 1938, the Kandalakshsky District was transferred from the Karelian ASSR to the Murmansk Oblast. 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. Some later historians believe that this unorthodox upgrade was likely a "convenient means for facilitating the possible incorporation of additional Finnish territory" (or all of Finland ) or "at least a way to keep Finland continuously under the gun". On July 16, 1956, the SSR was downgraded from a Union Republic to an ASSR, and retroceded to the Russian SFSR. Due to the ethnic composition, it was decided in 1958 to abolish the compulsory study of the Finnish language within the KASSR. However, Finnish retained its status as an official language. The last territorial change of the Karelian ASSR happened in 1987, when the locality of Poyakonda was transferred to the Murmansk Oblast. Beginning on August 9, 1990, the Karelian ASSR declared state sovereignty and renamed to the Karelian Soviet Socialist Republic. The Karelian SSR was renamed to the Republic of Karelia on November 13, 1991, and remains a federal subject of Russia.

Administration

Chairmen of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet

Sources