Karelo-Finnish SSR

The Karelo-Finnish Soviet Socialist Republic (Karelo-Finnish S.S.R.) 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 what 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 remainder 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 September 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.

Politics

The chairman of the Karelo-Finnish Supreme Soviet (1940-1956) was Finnish communist Otto Kuusinen. In Finland, which had suffered hard from the civil war in the 1920s between white and red (socialist), Kuusinen came to be seen as a traitor also by the socialist side. In the republic there was also a separate Karelo-Finnish Communist Party led in the 1940s by G.N. Kupriyanov.