Karelian is a Finnic language spoken mainly in the Russian Republic of Karelia. Linguistically, Karelian is closely related to the Finnish dialects spoken in eastern Finland, and some Finnish linguists have even classified Karelian as a dialect of Finnish, but nowadays it is widely considered a separate language. Karelian is not to be confused with the Southeastern dialects of Finnish, sometimes referred to as karjalaismurteet in Finland. In the Russian 2020–2021 census, around 9,000 people spoke Karelian natively, but around 14,000 said they were able to speak the language. There are around 11,000 speakers of Karelian in Finland. And around 30,000 people in Finland have at least some knowledge of Karelian.
Paavo Juho Talvela was a Finnish general of the infantry, Knight of the Mannerheim Cross and a member of the Jäger movement. He participated in the Eastern Front of World War I, the Finnish Civil War, the Finnish Kinship Wars, the Winter War and the Continuation War.
East Karelia, also rendered as Eastern Karelia or Russian Karelia, is a name for the part of Karelia that since the Treaty of Stolbovo in 1617 has remained Eastern Orthodox and a part of Russia. It is separate from the western part of Karelia, called Finnish Karelia or historically Swedish Karelia. Most of East Karelia has become part of the Republic of Karelia within the Russian Federation. It consists mainly of the old historical regions of Viena Karjala and Aunus Karjala.
The Viena expedition was the military expedition in March 1918 by Finnish volunteer forces in order to annex White Karelia from Soviet Russia. It was one of the many "kinship wars" (Heimosodat) fought near the newly independent Finland during the Russian Civil War. Russian East Karelia was never part of the Swedish Empire or the Grand Duchy of Finland, and was at the time mostly inhabited by Karelians. However, many advocates of a Greater Finland considered these Karelians "kindred" to the Finnish nation, and therefore supported Finnish annexation of Russian East Karelia.
Olonets Karelia is a historical and cultural region and the southern portion of East Karelia, which is part of Russia. Olonets Karelia is located between the other historical regions of Ladoga Karelia, to its west, White Karelia, to its north, the River Svir, to its south and Lake Onega on its eastern side. Olonets Karelia is home to its own dialect of the Karelian language, which is known as Livvi Karelian or sometimes as 'Olonets Karelian'.
Forest Guerrillas were an East Karelian resistance movement that was created officially on 14 October 1921. There were around 3,000 Forest Guerillas in total during the East Karelian Uprising as a Karelian and Finnish resistance movement against Bolshevik Russia, aiming for an East Karelian state with independence from Russia, and in some occasions unification or cooperation with Finland. Most of the soldiers of the Forest Guerillas were from White Karelia, Repola & Porajärvi and Olonets Karelia. The heraldry of the East Karelian Forest Guerillas was created by Akseli Gallen-Kallela.
The Order of the Day of the Sword Scabbard, or the Sword Scabbard Declaration, actually refers to two related declarations by the Finnish Commander-in-Chief Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim during World War I and World War II against Soviet control of East Karelia.
Greater Finland is an irredentist and nationalist idea which aims for the territorial expansion of Finland. It is associated with Pan-Finnicism. The most common concept saw the country as defined by natural borders encompassing the territories inhabited by Finns and Karelians, ranging from the White Sea to Lake Onega and along the Svir River and Neva River—or, more modestly, the Sestra River—to the Gulf of Finland. Some extremist proponents also included the Kola Peninsula, Finnmark, Swedish Meänmaa, Ingria, and Estonia.
The Finnish term Heimosodat refers to a series of armed conflicts and private military expeditions in 1918–1922 into areas of the former Russian Empire that bordered on Finland and were inhabited in large part by other Finnic peoples.
The Treaty of Tartu was signed on 14 October 1920 between Finland and Soviet Russia after negotiations that lasted nearly five months. The treaty confirmed the border between Finland and Soviet Russia after the Finnish Civil War and Finnish volunteer expeditions in Russian East Karelia that resulted in annexation of several Russian districts.
The East Karelian Uprising and the Soviet–Finnish conflict 1921–1922 were an attempt by a group of East Karelian separatists supported by Finland to gain independence from the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic. They were aided by a number of Finnish volunteers, starting from 6 November 1921. The conflict ended on 21 March 1922 with the Agreements between the governments of Soviet Russia and Finland about the measures of maintenance of the inviolability of the Soviet–Finnish border. The conflict is regarded in Finland as one of the heimosodat – "Kinship Wars".
The Finnish invasion of East Karelia was a military campaign in 1941. It was part of the Continuation War. Finnish troops occupied East Karelia and held it until 1944. For over a month after the outbreak of the Continuation War, the Karelian Army reinforced and prepared to resume its earlier offensive while waiting for the recapture of the Karelian Isthmus. The Soviets had prepared fortifications and brought troops to the front. When encirclements on the western shore of Lake Ladoga were resolved, the Finnish 7th Division was transferred to the junction of VI and VII Corps.
The timeline of the Winter War is a chronology of events leading up to, culminating in, and resulting from the Winter War. The war began when the Soviet Union attacked Finland on 30 November 1939 and it ended 13 March 1940.
The Finnish military administration in Eastern Karelia was an interim administrative system established in those areas of the Karelo-Finnish Soviet Socialist Republic (KFSSR) of the Soviet Union which were occupied by the Finnish army during the Continuation War. The military administration was set up on 15 July 1941 and it ended during the summer of 1944. The goal of the administration was to prepare the region for eventual annexation by Finland.
The Republic of Uhtua, also Provisional Government of Karelia, officially called the Republic of East Karelia was an unrecognized state that existed from 1919 to 1920, formed out of five volosts in the Kemsky Uyezd of the Arkhangelsk Governorate.
The Karelian United Government was a short-lived state that existed from 1920 to 1923, as a merger of the Republic of Uhtua and the Olonets Government of Southern Karelia.
Iivo Ahava was a Karelian-born Finnish military officer and nationalist who supported the idea of an independent East Karelia. In the 1918 Finnish Civil War, Ahava led a Red Guard unit fighting against the Whites on their Viena expedition. During the Allied North Russia Intervention, Ahava served as a lieutenant in the British organized units of Murmansk Legion and Karelian Regiment. He was murdered in unclear circumstances in East Karelia.
Antti Isotalo was a Finnish Jäger lieutenant, military recruiter, farmer and activist. He served in the German Empire's battalion of Finnish volunteers on the Eastern Front of World War I and briefly in the Finnish Civil War (1918) on the Whites' side. He repeatedly evaded capture by authorities while recruiting men for the battalion in 1915 and 1916. After recovering from wounds sustained in the civil war, he recruited volunteers for the Estonian War of Independence and then joined the Aunus expedition as one of its commanders during Finland's "tribal wars" in 1919.
The Karelian Labor Commune was an autonomous region established in 1920 following the successes of the Red Army's incursion into the Republic of Uhtua, to undermine and discredit the separatist movements and to make Finland give up on attempting to liberate East Karelia shortly before the beginning of negotiations for the Treaty of Tartu and during the Heimosodat. Edvard Gylling and Yrjö Sirola, former members of the government of the Finnish Socialist Workers' Republic, met with Vladimir Lenin in the Kremlin to propose autonomy for Karelia within the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic. The Commune was founded on 8 June 1920 and was disestablished on 25 July 1923 and succeeded by the Karelian ASSR, following the end of the Heimosodat.
Karelian Proper is a supradialect of the Karelian language, which is a Finnic language. Karelian Proper is one of two/three Karelian dialects, along with Livvi-Karelian and Ludic. Karelian Proper is a direct descendent of the Old Karelian language, compared to Livvi-Karelian and Ludian supradialects which were formed through interactions between the Old Karelian and the Old Veps languages. Karelian Proper is situated in all of White Karelia and Central Karelia.
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