Karelo-Finnish SSR

The Karelo-Finnish SSR did not last long. Transformations in the structure of the territories of the RSFSR were associated with the deterioration of relations with Finland. Few people know the history of this republic in detail, but these facts are more important than ever in order not to repeat the mistakes of history in the future.

Creation of the Republic. History of its development

As you know, in 1939-1940 there was a war between the USSR and Finland. The result of military actions, which was enshrined in the peace treaty, was the annexation of some Finnish territories to the USSR. Before this, only the Karelian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic could be seen on the map of the USSR.

The republic was created by a decision of the majority of deputies of the USSR Supreme Council, adopted on March 31, 1940. The corresponding decision after the union body was made by the Parliament of Karelia at its session in Petrozavodsk on April 15, 1940. What territories were annexed to the former? We were talking about the area that was part of the former Vyborg province (Karelian Isthmus and Ladoga region), as well as the lands of the Kuusamo and Salla communities.

Administrative reform in Karelia was carried out in June-August 1940. For more efficient management, the former territories of Finland were divided into 7 districts: Vyborg, Kegsholm, Kurkiyok, Pitkaryant, Sortavala, Suojärvi, Yaskin. Of course, the administrative centers of these entities were located in small settlements.

These lands were not spared by the war. From the history course we remember very well that Finland was an ardent ally of Nazi Germany. The northern borders of the USSR at that time were not yet strongly fortified, so the troops of these enemies during the war quickly occupied most of the territory of the Karelo-Finnish SSR.

IN post-war years the republic developed in the same way as all other territories of the USSR. Gradually, relations between the Soviet and Finnish states improved, so the relevance of the existence of such an entity as the Karelo-Finnish SSR gradually decreased. That is why in the 1950s the lands of the KFSSR were gradually transferred under the jurisdiction of the Leningrad and Murmansk region.

Karelo-Finnish SSR: state symbols

Each state entity has its own symbols: flag and coat of arms. If we talk about the flag of the Karelo-Finnish SSR, then it had two options. The first was designed in 1940, almost completely similar to the USSR flag. In 1953, the Supreme Council of the Republic approved new version flag. Now three colors could be seen on it. Of course, there is a predominance of red, but in addition there are small stripes of blue and green at the bottom. Of course, the flag depicted the main symbols of communism - the hammer and sickle.

What did the coat of arms of the republic look like?

The coat of arms of the Karelo-Finnish SSR was developed in 1940 as one of the most important symbols of the newly created state. The basis of the image was the type of hammer and sickle. It was important for the authors to show some features of the territory, so we see on the coat of arms elements of forest landscapes, contours of mountains and rivers. The general background is similar to a sunrise.

The Karelo-Finnish SSR ceased to exist on July 16, 1956.

Around the Fountain of Friendship of Peoples in Moscow there are sculptures symbolizing the union republics of the USSR. However, few people know that there are not fifteen of these sculptures - according to the widely known number of republics, but sixteen. Fountain with sculptural compositions was created in the first half of the 1950s, when there really was one more republic. The sixteenth republic, which existed from 1940 to 1956, was the Karelo-Finnish Soviet Socialist Republic - Karjalais-suomalainen sosialistinen neuvostotasavalta. Yes, there really was a time when Karelia is now an ordinary Autonomous Republic as part of Russian Federation- had the status of a union republic, and the city of Petrozavodsk, accordingly, was equal in status to Minsk, Tbilisi or Tashkent.

The Finnish language had official status in the republic, and the slogan inscribed on the coat of arms was “Workers of all countries, unite!” in Finnish it sounds like "Kaikkien maiden proletaarit, liittykää yhteen". Until 1956 the slogan on Finnish was also present on the coat of arms of the Soviet Union. You can see it on the left if you look closely.

However, this republic had a rather indirect relationship with Finland and was located mainly on the territory of modern Karelia. It arose in March 1940 - exactly after the end of the Soviet-Finnish War. Let's try to understand the history of this national education. It will be necessary to tell a rather long backstory, which is closely connected with the Soviet-Finnish War.

Soviet Finland first appeared in January 1918, when the socialist revolution broke out in Helsinki and, following it, a civil war that lasted until May 1918. During the Finnish Civil War, the Finnish Socialist Workers' Republic was proclaimed (Suomen sosialistinen työväentasavalta), which was headed by the chairman of the Social Democratic Party of Finland, Kullervo Manner. But as a result of the defeat of the Finnish Reds, this republic dissolved itself, and its government fled to the RSFSR. Manner himself, by the way, died twenty years later in Stalin’s camps.

In Karelia, during the Russian Civil War, the Karelian Labor Commune, transformed in 1923 into the Karelian ASSR as part of the RSFSR.

In the fall of 1939, when the Second War had already flared up World War, the issue of Leningrad's security has intensified. The problem was that in close proximity- approximately 25 kilometers from the second largest Soviet city was the border with Finland, and if troops of any third major European power (primarily, of course, Germany) appeared on Finnish territory, the security of Leningrad would be under serious threat - direct artillery shelling gunfire from the shore of the Gulf of Finland could block the Soviet navy in Kronstadt, and shots from long-range guns located on the border could reach the industrial areas of Leningrad. In order to prevent such a turn of events, the government of the USSR in October 1939 proposed an exchange of territories to Finland: Finland was required to cede half of the Karelian Isthmus and a number of islands in the Gulf of Finland, in exchange the Soviet Union undertakes to give Finland twice the territory in Karelia. The second demand of the Soviet side was to lease the Hanko Peninsula for the construction of a naval base in order to cover the entrance to the Gulf of Finland. The territorial claims of the Soviet Union are shown in the map below. The light yellow color shows the territory that the USSR demanded from Finland, the light pink color shows the territory it pledged to give in return, the dark brown line marks the state border.

Finland rejects all proposals, negotiations reach a dead end, and, due to the obvious impossibility of a peaceful resolution of the situation, the Soviet-Finnish War, also known as Winter War (Talvisota). On the second day of the war, the puppet state of the Finnish Democratic Republic was proclaimed (Suomen kansantasavalta) and the so-called “people's government of Finland” was formed, which met in the Finnish border village of Terijoki (now the city of Zelenogorsk, a suburb of St. Petersburg) occupied by Soviet troops. Even before the start of the war, Moscow broke off diplomatic relations with Helsinki and now de jure recognized the “people's government” as the only legitimate government of Finland. A Treaty of Friendship and Mutual Assistance was concluded with the Finnish Democratic Republic, led by the Finnish communist and prominent figure of the Comintern Otto Ville Kuusinen, according to which the required exchange of territories took place. However, on a much larger scale, the USSR officially “gave” Finland not 5 and a half, but 70 thousand square kilometers of territory, as shown on the map below.

Here I must make a digression. There is a widespread point of view according to which the plans of the Soviet leadership allegedly included the complete seizure and Sovietization of Finland with its transformation into the sixteenth republic. I categorically disagree with this point of view - it was planned only in short time temporarily occupy the territory of the country and, by sending troops into Helsinki, force the Finnish government to sign peace on the terms on which the agreement was signed with the puppet government of Kuusinen. This government itself was created as an instrument of political pressure on the official government of Finland, and the possibility of putting it in Helsinki by force was intended only as a last resort, however, this would not mean the Sovietization of Finland. At the very beginning of the war, the puppet government was also used as an element of Soviet propaganda, which reported that the Red Army was going to Finland to liberate the working Finnish people from the “bourgeois oppressors,” but when it became clear that these same people were resisting the Red Army with a single impulse - propaganda faded into the background. In general, I cannot deny for sure that Stalin may have had intentions to Sovietize Finland, but this was not an end in itself.

Otto Ville Kuusinen. Photo from 1920 Signing of the Treaty of Friendship and Mutual Assistance between the USSR
and the Finnish Democratic Republic. December 1, 1939

According to the terms of the agreement, the USSR recognized half of Karelia as Finnish territory, and maps were already published in Moscow, where half of the Karelian Isthmus was designated as Soviet territory, and the western half of Karelia as Finnish. It was already planned to begin the construction of border fortifications on the new border. In the agreement, the provision on the exchange of territories was enshrined in quite eloquent wording:

“...recognizing that the time has come to realize the age-old aspirations of the Finnish people for the reunification of the Karelian people with their kindred Finnish people in a single Finnish state...”

Which is generally true. During the Russian Civil War, Finland attempted to conquer Karelia.

However, the Red Army had extremely low combat readiness and was unable to conduct fighting in the Karelian taiga. About Us with great difficulty fights against the much weaker and smaller Finnish army and suffers four times the losses. Already in the first days of the war, it was clear that a quick march to Helsinki would not be possible, and the war was becoming protracted. On the Karelian Isthmus, two weeks after the start of the war, the Red Army stopped, unable to storm the Mannerheim Line - a strip of defensive structures stretched from the Gulf of Finland to Lake Ladoga; north of Ladoga, in the area of ​​​​the village of Kollaa, near the city of Suoyarvi, the Finns stubbornly hold the defense in trenches, and in North Karelia the offensive completely fails - the Soviet divisions are surrounded. It was possible to break through the Mannerheim Line only in February 1940 - after lengthy preparations and the transfer of reinforcements. In early March, the Red Army reached Vyborg, and the official Finnish government agreed to sign peace before the Red Army entered Helsinki. However, the peace conditions were much more difficult for Finland - the USSR no longer demanded half of the Karelian Isthmus, but all of Southwestern Karelia, including Vyborg, Kexholm (now Priozersk), Sortavala and Suoyarvi, as well as the eastern part of the Arctic volost of Salla with the villages of Kuolajärvi and Alakurtti, moreover, without compensation. It's difficult to say exactly why the requirements have expanded. Perhaps this was some kind of act of retribution for the huge losses the Red Army suffered during the war. Under the peace terms, the Soviet Union also received a military base on the Hanko Peninsula. The peace that ended the Soviet-Finnish War was signed in Moscow on March 12, 1940. The puppet government was then dissolved.

Now let's move directly to the subject of the article. As already reported, at the beginning of the war, Soviet propaganda reported on the “liberation of Finnish workers,” and under an agreement with the puppet Finnish Democratic Republic, the USSR de jure transferred half of Karelia to it. Accordingly, as the final part of this propaganda, it was decided to establish a separate union republic - the Karelo-Finnish SSR, which, in addition to Karelia itself, also included the territories conquered from Finland.

The republic received the following outlines:

Thus, no matter how absurd it may sound, it could be argued that part of the Finnish people was still liberated, despite the fact that almost all Finnish residents conquered lands left their homes and moved to Finland. Actually, the republic itself could be conditionally divided territorially into Karelia and Soviet Finland. “Soviet Finland” can be conditionally considered the territory west of the border established by the agreement with the puppet government (although this agreement was annulled), as well as the lands actually seized from Finland. You can imagine this division like this (shown by the green line).

By the way, pay attention to where the border of the Karelo-Finnish and Russian Union Republics lies on the Karelian Isthmus. And it runs further north than the old border with Finland, because half of the Karelian Isthmus, which the Soviet side demanded before the war in negotiations, was officially “received” Soviet Union again under an agreement with the puppet government. Therefore, in this place, the border of the RSFSR with the Karelo-Finnish SSR coincides with the border that the USSR demanded from Finland in the negotiations.

The decision to establish the Karelo-Finnish SSR was made at the 6th session of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on March 31, 1940. And it was again headed by Otto Kuusinen. Supporters of the version that Stalin sought to Sovietize Finland are, as a rule, inclined to believe that the Karelo-Finnish SSR was created as a foundation for the future accession of Finland to the USSR. But, in my opinion, it would be more logical to consider that Stalin decided to keep Finland under a tight rein (although Nikolai Ivanovich, thanks to whom this expression appeared, had already been shot) as an unreliable neighbor, and for this purpose kept the same method in reserve political pressure on this state, as during the Soviet-Finnish War - only then there was a puppet government of the Finnish Democratic Republic, and now - the Karelo-Finnish Union Republic. Well, in order to exert a stronger influence on Finland, the USSR in 1944 demanded a military base on the Porkkala Peninsula, 20 kilometers from Helsinki, thus keeping the Finnish capital at gunpoint. Well, the second goal of creating the Karelo-Finnish Republic could be, as I already mentioned, propaganda.

Flag and coat of arms of the Karelo-Finnish SSR

The Karelo-Finnish SSR became a theater of large-scale military operations during the Great Patriotic War. Summer and autumn 1941 most of The republic was occupied by Finnish troops allied to the Germans (contrary to popular belief, the Finns crossed the old border, and how), and German units based in Northern Finland also operated in the northern part of the republic. During the war, the government of the republic was located in Belomorsk, and the headquarters of the Karelian Front was also located there. Life in the territory occupied by the Finns was generally less difficult than in German occupation. However, the Slavic population, as a “non-national” population, was significantly deprived of its rights in comparison with the Finno-Ugric one, was placed in concentration camps and in the future was to be deported to the zone of German occupation.

Children are prisoners of the Finnish concentration camp in Petrozavodsk.
The photograph was presented as evidence at the Nuremberg trials

In the summer of 1944, as a result of the Vyborg-Petrozavodsk offensive operation, the Karelo-Finnish SSR was completely liberated, and on September 16, 1944, the USSR signed a separate peace treaty with Finland, under the terms of which Finland declared war on Germany, turning its arms against yesterday’s ally, and starting hostilities against German units stationed in the northern part of Finland. These events were called the "Lapland War" (Lapin sota).

In 1944, the territory of the RSFSR was slightly increased at the expense of neighboring union republics, including the Karelo-Finnish one. Thus, the Pytalovsky district was transferred from the Latvian SSR to the RSFSR, which became part of the Pskov region; from Estonian - Ivangorod and the right bank of the Narova, as well as the Pechora region, which became part of the Leningrad and Pskov regions, respectively; from the Karelo-Finnish SSR the Vyborg and Kexgolm regions (the northern part of the Karelian Isthmus) were transferred to the RSFSR, which became part of Leningrad region. In 1948, on the Karelian Isthmus (that is, already on the territory of the Leningrad region), a wave of mass renamings was carried out settlements(there will be a separate post about this soon), which did not affect the Karelian-Finnish part of the lands seized from Finland. In 1953 and 1955, respectively, the villages of Alakurtti and Kuolayarvi, which became part of the Murmansk region, were transferred from the Karelo-Finnish SSR to the RSFSR. Then Karelia received its current shape. On the map below pink shows the territories separated from the Karelo-Finnish SSR in favor of the RSFSR in the post-war period.

After Stalin's death and Nikita Khrushchev's rise to power, a warming of Soviet-Finnish relations began. In 1956, Urho Kekkonen, who was closely acquainted with Khrushchev, became the President of Finland, and Khrushchev decided to let Finland out of the “iron grip” - Soviet troops were withdrawn from the Porkkala base, and in the same year the Karelo-Finnish SSR was abolished, demoted again to the Karelian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic and included in the RSFSR.

Finally, pay attention to the flag of the modern Republic of Karelia (below) and compare it with the flag of the Karelo-Finnish SSR above. This means that Soviet symbols were preserved not only in Belarus. :)

And one more thing, you can imagine for a second a “If only” scenario. Namely, if Khrushchev had not abolished the Karelo-Finnish SSR. In this case, it would probably, like all other republics, secede in 1991. In this case, Murmansk would now occupy the same position as Kaliningrad. So, we like to remember the dashing Khrushchev for giving Crimea to Ukraine, but on the other hand, he still returned Karelia to Russia.

IN modern history The statehood of Karelia has many bright and at the same time ambiguously assessed pages. These undoubtedly include Karelia’s status as a union republic within the USSR from March 31, 1940 to July 16, 1956, when it bore the name of the Karelo-Finnish Soviet Socialist Republic (KFSSR). (Let us note in parentheses that in 1991, for six months during the slogan proclaimed by Boris Yeltsin: “Take as much sovereignty as you can swallow,” there existed, which many people forget, at least nominally, the Karelian Soviet Socialist Republic But we’ll talk about the time of the “parade of sovereignties” another time). Moreover, the history of the creation of the Karelo-Finnish SSR, and the history of this itself public education, and the reasons and circumstances of its transformation again into the Karelian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic deserve to be known, if only because, as Vasily Osipovich Klyuchevsky said:

The past must be known not because it passed, but because, when it left, it did not know how to remove its consequences.

Following this aphorism implies that in our present not everything is well, as it is today, the causes of this trouble are in the past, and to eliminate them it is necessary to know the reliable past, which is one of the fundamental pillars of developing socially beneficial policies and development society.

The fact that the formation of the Karelo-Finnish Soviet Socialist Republic was one of the consequences of the Soviet-Finnish war of 1939 - 1940 is a generally accepted truth, but it is often interpreted in a very primitive way: the Soviet Union, with aggressive goals, allegedly attacked a small independent country without any reason in order to “Sovietize it”, and when this could not be done “on the spot”, he created an artificial formation - the KFSSR to continue his aggressive policy. In fact, the history of the emergence of this national entity is far from simple and has a long prehistory, although closely related to Soviet-Finnish war.

"Let's start from the stove"

The prerequisites for Finnish statehood were formed precisely in the Russian Empire. The Grand Duchy of Finland became part of Russia after the Russo-Swedish War of 1808 - 1809. Finland enjoyed broad autonomy, having its own bank, post office, customs, and, since 1863, also an official Finnish language.

One and a half months after October revolution, December 6 (19), 1917, the Finnish parliament under the leadership of Per Evind Svinhuvud approved the declaration of state independence of Finland. Just 12 days later - December 18 (31), the Council of People's Commissars of the Russian Soviet Republic adopted a Decree recognizing the independence of Finland, signed personally by V.I. Lenin.

On such favorable soil, the ideas of brotherhood of the Finno-Ugric peoples, the ideas of independence of the Grand Duchy of Finland and the unification of the Finno-Ugric peoples around it are formed.

It was these ideas that the leaders of Finland tried to implement after the collapse of the Russian Empire. Most of us know about the intervention of the troops of the Entente countries - France and Great Britain, during the Civil War. However, the Finnish intervention on the Northwestern Front remains, as a rule, unknown page stories.

During the interwar period (from 1918 to 1939), irredentist sentiments were strong in Finland: nationalists dreamed of creating a “Greater Finland”, which would include the Soviet part of Karelia and other territories.

Two civil wars

The Soviet government planned to start a socialist revolution in Finland with the help of its Finnish supporters. The uprising broke out in Helsinki on the evening of January 27, 1918. The same date is also considered the date of the beginning of the Finnish Civil War.

The Red offensive attempt in the northern direction failed, and in early March the Whites, under the command of General Carl Gustav Emil Mannerheim, launched a counteroffensive.

April 26, 1918 The Soviet government of Finland fled to Petrograd, on the same day the White Finns took Viipuri (Vyborg), where they carried out mass terror against the Russian population and the Red Guards who did not have time to escape. The civil war in Finland was virtually over; on May 7, the remnants of the red units were defeated on the Karelian Isthmus, and May 16, 1918 A victory parade was held in Helsinki.

Meanwhile, the Civil War had already flared up in Russia with the active intervention of the Entente countries...

Having gained independence and waging war against the Red Guards, the Finnish state decided not to stop at the borders of the Grand Duchy of Finland. At that time, among the Finnish intelligentsia, the ideas of panphilanism, that is, the unity of the Finno-Ugric peoples, as well as the idea of ​​Greater Finland, which was supposed to include the territories adjacent to Finland, inhabited by these peoples, - Karelia (including Kola Peninsula), Ingria (neighborhood of Petrograd) and Estonia. Russian empire collapsed, and new state formations arose on its territory, sometimes considering a significant expansion of their territory in the future.

Thus, during the Civil War, the Finnish leadership planned to expel Soviet troops not only from Finland, but also from territories whose annexation was planned in the near future.

So February 23, 1918 at the Antrea railway station (now Kamennogorsk), Mannerheim pronounces the “Oath of the Sword”, in which he mentions:

I will not sheathe my sword... until the last warrior and hooligan of Lenin (who actually gave Finland independence - our note) is expelled from both Finland and Eastern Karelia.

War on Soviet Russia was not declared, but since mid-January (that is, before the start of the Finnish Civil War), Finland has been secretly sending partisan detachments, whose task was the actual occupation of Karelia and assistance to Finnish troops during the invasion. The detachments occupy the city of Kem and the village of Ukhta (now the town of Kalevala). On March 6, a Provisional Karelian Committee was created in Helsinki (occupied at that time by the Reds), and on March 15, Mannerheim approved the “Wallenius plan” aimed at invading Finnish troops into Karelia and capturing Russian territory along the line Pechenga - Kola Peninsula - White Sea - Vygozero - Lake Onega - Svir River - Lake Ladoga. Parts Finnish army were supposed to unite at Petrograd, which was supposed to be turned into a free city-republic controlled by Finland.

From September 1919 to March 1920 The Red Army completely liberates Karelia from the interventionist forces of the Entente, after which it begins the fight against the Finns. By July 21, the Red Army liberated most of Russian Karelia from Finnish troops. Only the Rebolskaya and Porosozerskaya volosts remained in the hands of the Finns.

In July 1920, in the Estonian city of Tartu (where five months earlier a peace treaty was signed between Soviet Russia and Estonia) peace negotiations begin between Soviet Russia and Finland. Representatives of the Finnish side demand the transfer of Eastern Karelia. In order to secure Petrograd, the Soviet side demands from Finland half of the Karelian Isthmus and an island in the Gulf of Finland. Negotiations lasted four months, but on October 14, 1920, a peace treaty was signed. Finland as a whole remained within the boundaries of the Grand Duchy of Finland.

The Treaty of Tartu was intended to put an end to hostilities between Russia and Finland. However, peace did not come here either. The Finnish leadership viewed it as a temporary truce and did not at all plan to renounce its claims to Karelia. Finnish nationalist circles perceived the Tartu Peace as shameful and longed for revenge.

November 6, 1921 Finnish partisan detachments begin an armed uprising in Eastern Karelia, on the same day the Finnish army under the leadership of Major Paavo Talvela crosses the border. Thus, Finnish intervention in the Russian Civil War is resumed, although in the North-West the Civil War had already ceased by that time (not counting the Kronstadt uprising of 1921). The Finns counted on the weakness of the Red Army after the Civil War and a fairly easy victory.

December 26, 1921 Soviet units strike from Petrozavodsk, and after a week and a half they occupy Porosozero, Padany and Reboly, and on January 25, 1922 they occupy the village of Kestenga. On January 15, Finnish workers hold a demonstration in Helsinki to protest against the “Karelian adventure” of the White Finns. On February 7, Red Army troops entered the village of Ukhta, the North Karelian state dissolved itself, and its leaders fled to Finland. By February 17, 1922, the Red Army finally drives the Finns over the line state border, hostilities actually stop at this point. On March 21, a truce was signed in Moscow.

After the spring of 1922, the Finns no longer crossed the Soviet border with weapons. However, the peace between neighboring states remained “cool”. Finland’s claims to Karelia and the Kola Peninsula not only did not disappear, but on the contrary, began to gain even greater popularity, and sometimes turn into more radical forms - some Finnish nationalist organizations sometimes promoted the ideas of creating a Greater Finland to the Polar Urals, which should also include Finno-Ugric peoples of the Urals and Volga region were included. Quite powerful propaganda was carried out in Finland, as a result of which the Finns formed an image of Russia as the eternal enemy of Finland.

Before World War II

In the 1930s The government of the USSR, observing such unfriendly political rhetoric from its northwestern neighbor, sometimes expressed concerns about the security of Leningrad, just 32 kilometers from which the Soviet-Finnish border passed (some Finnish irredentists even supported the idea of ​​seizing the territories around Leningrad and its subsequent destruction). If Finland joined the anti-Soviet bloc, which happened in 1941, the security of Leningrad would be under serious threat.

Since 1936 the head of German military intelligence V. Canaris, his assistants - the head of the Abwehr-I department Hans Pickenbrock and the head of the Abwehr-III department Franz Eckart von Bentivegni repeatedly met in Finland and Germany with the head of Finnish intelligence Colonel Svenson and his successor Colonel Melander, during which the parties exchanged military information about the USSR (in particular, about the Leningrad Military District, the Baltic Fleet). Even before the outbreak of World War II, the exchange of information about the USSR and the armed forces of the USSR between Finland and the Third Reich was regular.

Declassified archival documents Finnish special services confirm that in the period from 1918 to 1939 alone, 326 people were sent to the USSR on instructions from the Finnish special services, many of whom acted for years, repeatedly moving across the Soviet-Finnish border line.

July 20, 1939 The Finnish government announced that it renounces all cooperation with the USSR in the event of aggression by Germany against Finland and will consider any assistance to the USSR as aggression.

Since September 19, 1939 Soviet border guards noted the strengthening of border security against the section of the Karelian border detachment (strengthening surveillance of the Finnish border guard over the territory of the USSR, supplying Finnish border posts with weapons and ammunition), the arrival in the Pitkäranta and Salmi area of ​​up to a regiment of field troops and one scooter company of the Finnish army.

In order to prevent the rapid capture of Leningrad, the USSR government in October 1939 offered Finland an exchange of territories: Finland was proposed to cede half of the Karelian Isthmus and a number of islands in the Gulf of Finland, in exchange the Soviet Union undertakes to give Finland twice the territory in Karelia.

Negotiations begin, during which the USSR puts forward even more favorable conditions for Finland, but the Finnish side rejects all proposals, apparently already counting on getting much more together with the Nazis, the negotiations reach a dead end. It is known that during the negotiations, the German envoy to Finland Blücher, on behalf of the German government, demanded that the Finnish Foreign Minister Erkko not allow an agreement with the USSR. And due to the obvious impossibility of a peaceful resolution of the situation, on November 30, 1939, the Soviet-Finnish war began.
Despite the obvious failures of the Red Army in the first stage of the war, in early March 1940, Soviet troops reached Vyborg, and the Finnish government agreed to sign peace before the Red Army entered Helsinki. However, the peace conditions were much more difficult for Finland - the USSR no longer demanded half of the Karelian Isthmus, but all of southwestern Karelia, including Vyborg, Kexholm (Priozersk), Sortavala and Suoyarvi, as well as the eastern part of the Arctic volost of Salla, moreover, without compensation .

History of the Karelo-Finnish SSR

The Finns signed peace on the terms of the Soviet Union, and as a result, 11% of the territory of Finland, including the second largest city - Vyborg, and almost half a million Finnish residents became part of the USSR, however, almost all of them moved to other regions of Finland, and a considerable part of them did this under duress from the Finnish authorities. This was the retribution of the Finnish people for essentially Nazi ideas.

Taking these features into account, the leadership of the USSR decided to create the Karelo-Finnish USSR. There were reasons for making such a decision, since a whole range of problems were being solved:

• socio-economic development of one of the regions of the Soviet state;
• creating an instrument of political pressure on a neighboring state that openly pursues an anti-Soviet policy;
• using the very fact of creating a new state entity for propaganda purposes.

And it should be noted that a number serious problems was resolved, moreover, in a very short time. The territories included in its composition were actively involved in the national economy of the new union republic, which, although they accounted for only one third of the former territory of Karelia, they produced approximately three-quarters of all industrial and agricultural products, almost 90% of electricity, and 277 enterprises were located , 178,000 hectares of well-maintained arable land (do not forget that until 1944 the republic included the Vyborg and Kexgolm (Priozersky) districts). The republic took first place in the country in cellulose production. Its population from January 1939 to the beginning of 1941 increased from 468,898 people to 696,997 people. As a result of the implementation of a set of socio-economic measures, the Karelo-Finnish Republic became the eighth largest union republic.

And we must assume that positive development The KFSSR would have continued, but the Great Patriotic War began and the territory of the republic became a theater of large-scale military operations.

In the summer and autumn of 1941, most of the republic was occupied by Finnish troops allied to the Germans (contrary to popular belief, the Finns crossed the old border, and how), German units also operated in the northern part of the republic. It was possible to completely liberate the KFSSR only in the summer of 1944. The Republic contributed to the overall victory Soviet people in war. Only in the first month of the war Armed forces The USSR received over 10 thousand volunteers from it, an underground movement was launched in the occupied territories, and combat partisan groups operated. In the unoccupied territories, the population of the Karelo-Finnish SSR ensured the operation of the most important communication routes and participated in the construction railway line Belomorsk - Obozerskaya, connecting Kirovskaya and Northern railways to ensure delivery of goods from Central Russia to Murmansk and back, including those received from the allies under Lend-Lease.

After the war, the population of the KFSSR began to restore the national economy, however, it should be noted that the economic potential of the republic decreased significantly due to the transfer of the Vyborg, Kexgolm (Priozersky) and Yaskinsky districts to the Leningrad region in November 1944.

In the fifties, relations began to improve between Finland, led by Y.K. Paasikivi, and then Urho Kekkonenen and the USSR led by N.S. Khrushchev.

January 1, 1956 The USSR returned to Finland ahead of schedule the territory of Porkkala it had received under the peace treaty and approved Finland's neutrality. According to the plan of the Soviet leadership, the transformation of the KFSSR into the Karelian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic was supposed to consolidate positive trends in relations between states, show the Finns that the USSR did not have aggressive goals towards Finland, and at the same time put an end to the attempts of the Finnish side to once again raise the issue of revising borders and annexing Karelia .

Officially, the USSR Law of June 16, 1956 “On the transformation of the Karelo-Finnish SSR into the Karelian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic and on the inclusion of the Karelian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic into the RSFSR” interpreted the validity of the abolition of the KFSSR as follows:

Taking into account the wishes of the workers of the Karelo-Finnish SSR, taking into account the national composition of the population, the commonality of the economy, close economic and cultural ties of the Karelo-Finnish Republic with the RSFSR, the Supreme Council of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics decides:

Article 1. Satisfy the request of the Supreme Council of the Karelo-Finnish SSR to transform the Karelo-Finnish Soviet Socialist Republic into the Karelian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic.

Let us note in parentheses that some explanation is required for the basis associated with changes in national composition its population. Indeed, in 1956, about 80% of the inhabitants were not Finno-Ugric peoples, although we note that the Finno-Ugric peoples - Karelians, Finns and Vepsians, formally considered the titular nation of the republic, were in fact a national minority already at the formation of the KFSSR.

Conclusion

We will not hide the fact that when addressing the topic “History of the Karelo-Finnish SSR” we wanted not only to recall one page from the Karelian past, but most importantly to once again use historical material in order to invite our readers, on its basis, to independently comprehend (possibly rethink) specific episodes of the past to develop solutions aimed at improving the future and preventing into it the unnecessary things that took place in history, including in the history of the USSR and Karelia.

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June 3rd, 2012

Around the Fountain of Friendship of Peoples in Moscow there are sculptures symbolizing the union republics of the USSR. However, few people know that there are not fifteen of these sculptures - according to the widely known number of republics, but sixteen. The fountain with sculptural compositions was created in the first half of the 1950s, when there really was one more republic. The sixteenth republic, which existed from 1940 to 1956, was the Karelo-Finnish Soviet Socialist Republic - Karjalais-suomalainen sosialistinen neuvostotasavalta. Yes, there really was a time when Karelia - now an ordinary autonomous republic within the Russian Federation - had the status of a union republic, and the city of Petrozavodsk, accordingly, was equal in status to Minsk, Tbilisi or Tashkent.

The Finnish language had official status in the republic, and the slogan inscribed on the coat of arms was “Workers of all countries, unite!” in Finnish it sounds like "Kaikkien maiden proletaarit, liittykää yhteen". Until 1956, the slogan in Finnish was also present on the coat of arms of the Soviet Union. You can see it on the left if you look closely.

However, this republic had a rather indirect relationship with Finland and was located mainly on the territory of modern Karelia. It arose in March 1940 - exactly after the end of the Soviet-Finnish War. Let's try to understand the history of the emergence of this national entity. It will be necessary to tell a rather long backstory, which is closely connected with the Soviet-Finnish War.

Soviet Finland first appeared in January 1918, when the socialist revolution broke out in Helsinki and, following it, a civil war that lasted until May 1918. During the Finnish Civil War, the Finnish Socialist Workers' Republic was proclaimed (Suomen sosialistinen työväentasavalta), which was headed by the chairman of the Social Democratic Party of Finland, Kullervo Manner. But as a result of the defeat of the Finnish Reds, this republic dissolved itself, and its government fled to the RSFSR. Manner himself, by the way, died twenty years later in Stalin’s camps.

In Karelia, during the Russian Civil War, the Karelian Labor Commune was established, which was transformed in 1923 into the Karelian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic within the RSFSR.

In the fall of 1939, when World War II had already broken out, the issue of Leningrad's security became more acute. The problem was that in the immediate vicinity - approximately 25 kilometers from the second largest Soviet city there was the border with Finland, and in the event of the appearance of troops of any third major European power on the territory of Finland (primarily, of course, Germany), the security of Leningrad would be under serious threat - direct fire from the shore of the Gulf of Finland could block the Soviet navy in Kronstadt, and shots from long-range guns located on the border could reach the industrial areas of Leningrad. In order to prevent such a turn of events, the government of the USSR in October 1939 proposed an exchange of territories to Finland: Finland was required to cede half of the Karelian Isthmus and a number of islands in the Gulf of Finland, in exchange the Soviet Union undertakes to give Finland twice the territory in Karelia. The second demand of the Soviet side was to lease the Hanko Peninsula for the construction of a naval base in order to cover the entrance to the Gulf of Finland. The territorial claims of the Soviet Union are shown in the map below. The light yellow color shows the territory that the USSR demanded from Finland, the light pink color shows the territory it pledged to give in return, the dark brown line marks the state border.

Finland rejects all proposals, negotiations reach a dead end, and, due to the obvious impossibility of a peaceful resolution of the situation, the Soviet-Finnish War, also known as the Winter War, begins on November 30, 1939 (Talvisota). On the second day of the war, the puppet state of the Finnish Democratic Republic was proclaimed (Suomen kansantasavalta) and the so-called “people's government of Finland” was formed, which met in the Finnish border village of Terijoki (now the city of Zelenogorsk, a suburb of St. Petersburg) occupied by Soviet troops. Even before the start of the war, Moscow broke off diplomatic relations with Helsinki and now de jure recognized the “people's government” as the only legitimate government of Finland. A Treaty of Friendship and Mutual Assistance was concluded with the Finnish Democratic Republic, led by the Finnish communist and prominent figure of the Comintern Otto Ville Kuusinen, according to which the required exchange of territories took place. However, on a much larger scale, the USSR officially “gave” Finland not 5 and a half, but 70 thousand square kilometers of territory, as shown on the map below.

Here I must make a digression. There is a widespread point of view according to which the plans of the Soviet leadership allegedly included the complete seizure and Sovietization of Finland with its transformation into the sixteenth republic. I cannot agree with this point of view - the plan was only to temporarily occupy the territory of the country in a short time and, by sending troops into Helsinki, force the Finnish government to sign peace on the terms on which the agreement was signed with the puppet government of Kuusinen. This government itself was created as an instrument of political pressure on the official government of Finland, and the possibility of putting it in Helsinki by force was intended only as a last resort, however, this would not mean the Sovietization of Finland. At the very beginning of the war, the puppet government was also used as an element of Soviet propaganda, which reported that the Red Army was going to Finland to liberate the working Finnish people from the “bourgeois oppressors,” but when it became clear that these same people were resisting the Red Army with a single impulse - propaganda faded into the background. In general, I cannot deny for sure that Stalin may have had intentions to Sovietize Finland, but this was not an end in itself.

Otto Ville Kuusinen. Photo from 1920 nbsp; Signing of the Treaty of Friendship and Mutual Assistance between the USSR
and the Finnish Democratic Republic. December 1, 1939

According to the terms of the agreement, the USSR recognized half of Karelia as Finnish territory, and maps were already published in Moscow, where half of the Karelian Isthmus was designated as Soviet territory, and the western half of Karelia as Finnish. It was already planned to begin the construction of border fortifications on the new border. In the agreement, the provision on the exchange of territories was enshrined in quite eloquent wording:

“...recognizing that the time has come to realize the age-old aspirations of the Finnish people for the reunification of the Karelian people with their kindred Finnish people in a single Finnish state...”

Which is generally true. During the Russian Civil War, Finland.

However, the Red Army had extremely low combat readiness and was unable to conduct combat operations in the Karelian taiga. It fights with great difficulty against the much weaker and smaller Finnish army and suffers four times as many losses. Already in the first days of the war, it was clear that a quick march to Helsinki would not be possible, and the war was becoming protracted. On the Karelian Isthmus, two weeks after the start of the war, the Red Army stopped, unable to storm the Mannerheim Line - a strip of defensive structures stretched from the Gulf of Finland to Lake Ladoga; north of Ladoga, in the area of ​​​​the village of Kollaa, near the city of Suoyarvi, the Finns stubbornly hold the defense in trenches, and in North Karelia the offensive completely fails - the Soviet divisions are surrounded. It was possible to break through the Mannerheim Line only in February 1940 - after lengthy preparations and the transfer of reinforcements. In early March, the Red Army reached Vyborg, and the official Finnish government agreed to sign peace before the Red Army entered Helsinki. However, the peace conditions were much more difficult for Finland - the USSR no longer demanded half of the Karelian Isthmus, but all of Southwestern Karelia, including Vyborg, Kexholm (now Priozersk), Sortavala and Suoyarvi, as well as the eastern part of the Arctic volost of Salla with the villages of Kuolajärvi and Alakurtti, moreover, without compensation. It's difficult to say exactly why the requirements have expanded. Perhaps this was some kind of act of retribution for the huge losses the Red Army suffered during the war. Under the peace terms, the Soviet Union also received a military base on the Hanko Peninsula. The peace that ended the Soviet-Finnish War was signed in Moscow on March 12, 1940. The puppet government was then dissolved.

Now let's move directly to the subject of the article. As already reported, at the beginning of the war, Soviet propaganda reported on the “liberation of Finnish workers,” and under an agreement with the puppet Finnish Democratic Republic, the USSR de jure transferred half of Karelia to it. Accordingly, as the final part of this propaganda, it was decided to establish a separate union republic - the Karelo-Finnish SSR, which, in addition to Karelia itself, also included the territories conquered from Finland.

The republic received the following outlines:

Thus, no matter how absurd it may sound, it could be argued that part of the Finnish people was still liberated, despite the fact that almost all Finnish inhabitants of the conquered lands left their homes and moved to Finland. Actually, the republic itself could be conditionally divided territorially into Karelia and Soviet Finland. “Soviet Finland” can be conditionally considered the territory west of the border established by the agreement with the puppet government (although this agreement was annulled), as well as the lands actually seized from Finland. You can imagine this division like this (shown by the green line).

By the way, pay attention to where the border of the Karelo-Finnish and Russian Union Republics lies on the Karelian Isthmus. And it runs further north than the old border with Finland, because half of the Karelian Isthmus, which the Soviet side demanded before the war in negotiations, was officially “received” by the Soviet Union, again under an agreement with the puppet government. Therefore, in this place, the border of the RSFSR with the Karelo-Finnish SSR coincides with the border that the USSR demanded from Finland in the negotiations.

The decision to establish the Karelo-Finnish SSR was made at the 6th session of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on March 31, 1940. And it was again headed by Otto Kuusinen. Supporters of the version that Stalin sought to Sovietize Finland are, as a rule, inclined to believe that the Karelo-Finnish SSR was created as a foundation for the future accession of Finland to the USSR. But, in my opinion, it would be more logical to consider that Stalin decided to keep Finland under a tight rein (although Nikolai Ivanovich, thanks to whom this expression appeared, had already been shot) as an unreliable neighbor, and for this purpose kept the same method in reserve political pressure on this state, as during the Soviet-Finnish War - only then there was a puppet government of the Finnish Democratic Republic, and now - the Karelo-Finnish Union Republic. Well, in order to exert a stronger influence on Finland, the USSR in 1944 demanded a military base on the Porkkala Peninsula, 20 kilometers from Helsinki, thus keeping the Finnish capital at gunpoint. Well, the second goal of creating the Karelo-Finnish Republic could be, as I already mentioned, propaganda.

Flag and coat of arms of the Karelo-Finnish SSR

The Karelo-Finnish SSR became a theater of large-scale military operations during the Great Patriotic War. In the summer and autumn of 1941, most of the republic was occupied by Finnish troops allied to the Germans (contrary to popular belief, the Finns crossed the old border, and how), and German units based in Northern Finland also operated in the northern part of the republic. During the war, the government of the republic was located in Belomorsk, and the headquarters of the Karelian Front was also located there. Life in the territory occupied by the Finns was generally less difficult than under the German occupation. However, the Slavic population, as a “non-national” population, was significantly deprived of its rights in comparison with the Finno-Ugric one, was placed in concentration camps and in the future was to be deported to the zone of German occupation.

Children are prisoners of the Finnish concentration camp in Petrozavodsk.
The photograph was presented as evidence at the Nuremberg trials

In the summer of 1944, as a result of the Vyborg-Petrozavodsk offensive operation, the Karelo-Finnish SSR was completely liberated, and on September 19, 1944, the USSR signed a separate peace treaty with Finland, under the terms of which Finland declared war on Germany, turning its arms against yesterday’s ally, and starting hostilities against German units stationed in the northern part of Finland. These events were called the "Lapland War" (Lapin sota).

In 1944, the territory of the RSFSR was slightly increased at the expense of neighboring union republics, including the Karelo-Finnish one. Thus, the Pytalovsky district was transferred from the Latvian SSR to the RSFSR, which became part of the Pskov region; from Estonian - Ivangorod and the right bank of the Narova, as well as the Pechora region, which became part of the Leningrad and Pskov regions, respectively; From the Karelo-Finnish SSR, the Vyborg and Kexholm regions (the northern part of the Karelian Isthmus), which became part of the Leningrad Region, were transferred to the RSFSR. In 1948, on the Karelian Isthmus (that is, already on the territory of the Leningrad region), a wave of mass renaming of settlements was carried out (there will be a separate post about this soon), which did not affect the Karelian-Finnish part of the lands seized from Finland. In 1953 and 1955, respectively, the villages of Alakurtti and Kuolayarvi, which became part of the Murmansk region, were transferred from the Karelo-Finnish SSR to the RSFSR. Then Karelia received its current shape. The map below shows in pink the territories separated from the Karelo-Finnish SSR in favor of the RSFSR in the post-war period.

After Stalin's death and Nikita Khrushchev's rise to power, a warming of Soviet-Finnish relations began. In 1956, Urho Kekkonen, who was closely acquainted with Khrushchev, became the President of Finland, and Khrushchev decided to release Finland from the “iron grip” - Soviet troops were withdrawn from the Porkkala base, and in the same year the Karelo-Finnish SSR was abolished, demoted again to the Karelian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic and was included in the RSFSR.

Finally, pay attention to the flag of the modern Republic of Karelia (below) and compare it with the flag of the Karelo-Finnish SSR above. This means that Soviet symbols were preserved not only in Belarus. :)

And one more thing, you can imagine for a second a “If only” scenario. Namely, if Khrushchev had not abolished the Karelo-Finnish SSR. In this case, it would probably, like all other republics, secede in 1991. In this case, Murmansk would now occupy the same position as Kaliningrad. So, we like to remember the dashing Khrushchev for giving Crimea to Ukraine, but on the other hand, he still returned Karelia to Russia.

On March 31, 1940, at the VI session of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, a law was adopted on the transfer of the Karelian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic transferred from Finland after the Soviet-Finnish war of 1939-1940, in accordance with the Moscow Peace Treaty of 1940, the territories of the Karelian Isthmus and Northern Ladoga region, as well as the transformation
KASSR to the Karelo-Finnish SSR. The capital of the KFSSR remained the city of Petrozavodsk.
According to some historians, the KFSSR posed a threat to Finland, as it could be a potential “background” for its accession to the USSR. In favor of this theory, an argument is given that earlier, on December 1, 1939, the so-called People's Government Finnish Democratic Republic of Finnish communists led by
O. Kuusinen, who later headed the KFSSR.
In 1937, the areas of the Kalinin region inhabited by Karelians formed the Karelian national district, which existed until 1939. The circumstances surrounding the dissolution of the district are unknown. Presumably, the planned annexation of Finland in 1939.
“Titular” Karelian and Finnish population, unlike others Soviet republics, represented a national minority throughout the existence of the republic. In 1939, even before the Soviet-Finnish War and the annexation of the Karelian Isthmus and Ladoga region, the share of the Finno-Ugric population (Karelians, Finns and Vepsians) in the Karelian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic was 27%, and according to
In the 1959 census, conducted after the abolition of the republic, it dropped to 18.3%. The Finnish and Karelian population of the western lands of Karelia annexed in 1940 (more than 400 thousand people) were evacuated in advance to the central regions of Finland. In this regard, at that time there was a joke that “in the Karelo-Finnish Republic there are only two Finns: the Financial Inspector and FINkelstein, but in general they are one and the same person.”
On July 16, 1956, the KFSSR was again demoted in status to the ASSR and returned to the RSFSR. At the same time, the word “Finnish” (Karelian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic) was removed from its name.
One of the monuments of the Karelo-Finnish SSR is the “Friendship of Peoples” fountain at VDNKh in Moscow. 16 female figures in the fountain ensemble symbolize the union republics of the USSR. One of them is the Karelo-Finnish SSR, which has not existed since 1956, the rest became independent states in 1991.
It would be interesting to see today the independent state of the Karelo-Finnish Republic.
Yuri Andropov in 1947-1951 He was the Second Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Karelo-Finnish SSR.

The formation of the Karelo-Finnish SSR is directly related to the Soviet-Finnish war of 1939-1940.
After it was not possible to conclude an agreement with Finland on military assistance and the deployment of Soviet bases on the country’s territory, as happened with the Baltic states, as well as the concession of the Karelian Isthmus and the Peninsula to the Soviet Union
Hanko, in exchange for twice the territory north of Lake Ladoga, Moscow decided to carry out a military occupation of Finland. On November 26, 1939, NKVD officers carried out a provocative shelling of Soviet positions near the border village of Maynila. After this, the Soviet Union broke off diplomatic relations with Finland, and on November 30 the Red Army began
large-scale invasion of Finnish territory. A month earlier, the Finnish People's Army Corps was formed in the USSR, designed to become the troops of the puppet pro-communist government of the Finnish Democratic Republic, led by a prominent figure of the Comintern, Otto Kuusinen.
On November 23, the political department of the Leningrad Military District sent the following instructions to the troops: “We are not marching as conquerors, but as friends of the Finnish people... The Red Army supports the Finnish people, who stand for friendship with the Soviet Union... Victory over the enemy must be achieved with little bloodshed.” .
However, it was not possible to win with little blood. The frontal assault on the Mannerheim line failed. In the first three weeks, the Red Army failed not only to reach Helsinki, as planned, but even to break through the first line of Finnish positions. On the Karelian Isthmus, by December 21, 1939, the Soviet offensive had completely stopped. On December 26, Soviet troops went on the defensive.
The auxiliary strike, delivered in difficult areas north of Lake Ladoga, ended in complete failure. Two Soviet divisions were surrounded and almost completely destroyed. In total, five Soviet divisions were surrounded and almost completely destroyed in that area before the end of the war. The lack of preparation for combat operations in general and in winter affected
conditions in particular. Only after bringing in reinforcements did the Red Army resume its offensive on the Karelian Isthmus. Every day for several days, Soviet troops rained down 12 thousand shells on the fortifications of the Mannerheim Line. On the morning of February 11, a general offensive began. On the first day, the divisions of the 7th Army were able to wedge themselves into the defense system of the Summsky fortified junction, the fall of which the front command hastened to notify Moscow on the same day. In reality, the amount was only withdrawn on February 14th. By the end of February, Soviet troops reached Finnish rear defensive positions in the Vyborg area. Battle for
this city continued until the conclusion of the truce.
Subsequent failures of the Finnish army on the Karelian Isthmus forced Helsinki to hesitate between concluding a difficult peace and the possibility of continuing resistance with the help of the Western allies. Mannerheim feared that the fatigue of the Finnish troops, who had already brought all their reserves into action, could lead to the fact that the front was about to collapse.
The peace signed in Moscow was difficult for Finland. The new border roughly corresponded to that established by the Treaty of Nystadt in 1721 after the Great Northern War.
About Finnish Democratic Republic were no longer remembered, but the Karelo-Finnish Union Republic and the 71st Special Division remained, as it were, “an armored train on a siding.” In case of a favorable military-political situation, it was always possible to join the rest of Finland. Stalin wanted the government in Helsinki to remember this.
Stalin's new ally Hitler watched with a grin at Stalin's attempts to defeat Finland. Maybe it was then that he became convinced
in its victory in the war with the USSR.