Karelian Association | |
| Formation | 20 April 1940 |
|---|---|
| Purpose | Cultural institution Advocacy group |
| Headquarters | Helsinki |
| Location | |
| Origins | Local government of Finnish Karelia |
Membership (2022) | 20000 |
Chairman | Martti Talja |
| Federal Council | |
| Website | https://www.karjalanliitto.fi/ |
Karjalan Liitto (in English: Karelian Association) is a Finnish organisation that promotes Karelian culture and history. It also functions as an interest group for Karelian evacuees. As of 2023, the organization consists of 14 districts in Finland, cooperating with other Karelian movements and organisations. [1]
The association was established by Karelian local governments, parishes and provincial organizations on 20 April 1940, immediately after the Winter War. The chief aim was to attend to the interests of Karelians who had lost their homes.
By the 1960s, the organization started to focus on preservation of the Karelian culture, by that point most of the economic and social problems faced by resettled Karelians were addressed. [2]
The Karelian Association has close ties to the Finnish government and the European Union.
The organization had an official magazine Karjala Lehti, which stopped being published in September 2022, but there are plans to restart printing in 2023. [3]
In 2023, Karjalan Liitto was contacted by a Karelian nationalist organisation, which wanted to cooperate with the movement in order to return Karelia back to Finland. The movement refused the offer, seeing it as a Russian information attack. [4]
Some members of Karjalan Liito supported a peaceful return of Karelia, but as of 2023, the movement is against border changes with Russia. [5]
The Republic of Karelia, Karjala or Karelia, is one of the republics of the Russian Federation situated in the northwest of the country. The republic is a part of the Northwestern Federal District, and covers an area of 172,400 square kilometres, with a population of 533,121 residents. Its capital is Petrozavodsk.
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, though in the modern day 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 to be able to speak the language.
Karelians are a Finnic ethnic group who are indigenous to the historical region of Karelia, which is today split between Finland and Russia. Karelians living in Russian Karelia are considered a distinct ethnic group closely related to Finnish Karelians, who are considered a subset of Finns. This distinction historically arose from Karelia having been fought over and eventually split between Sweden and Novgorod, resulting in Karelians being under different cultural spheres.
Karelia is a historical province of Finland, consisting of the modern-day regions of South Karelia and North Karelia. Historical Karelia also extends to the regions of Kymenlaakso, Northern Savonia and Southern Savonia (Mäntyharju).
South Karelia is a region of Finland. It borders the regions of Kymenlaakso, South Savo and North Karelia, as well as Russia.
Karelia is an area in Northern Europe of historical significance for Russia, Finland, and Sweden. It is currently divided between northwestern Russia and Finland.
Olonets Karelia is a historical and cultural region and the southern portion of East Karelia, which is apart 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 it's 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'.
The Karelian question or Karelian issue is a dispute in Finnish politics over whether to try to regain control over eastern Karelia and other territories ceded to the Soviet Union in the Winter War and the Continuation War. Despite the name "Karelian question", the term may refer also to the return of Petsamo, ceded parts of Salla and Kuusamo, and four islands in the Gulf of Finland. Sometimes the phrase "debate on the return of the ceded territories" is used. The Karelian question remains a matter of public debate rather than a political issue.
Greater Finland, was an irredentist and nationalist idea which emphasized the territorial expansion of Finland. The most common concept of Greater Finland 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 proponents also included the Torne Valley, Ingria, and Estonia.
The flag of the Republic of Karelia is the official state symbol of the Republic of Karelia. Adopted by the Supreme Council of the Republic of Karelia on February 16, 1993. The flag was designed by Alexander Ivanovich Kinnear.
Ladoga Karelia is a historical region of Karelia, currently largely in Russia. Today, the term refers to the part of the Republic of Karelia in the Russian Federation comprising the south-west part of the Republic, specifically Lakhdenpokhsky District, Pitkyarantsky District and Sortavala District. This region is on the northern littoral of Lake Ladoga, which borders Olonets Karelia to the East, Leningrad Oblast to the south-west and the North Karelia region of Finland to the west.
The Karelian people's presence can be dated back to the 7th millennium BC–6th millennium BC. The region itself is rich with fish, lakes, and minerals, and because of that throughout history changed its holder, to this day divided between the Republic of Finland and the Russian Republic.
The East Karelian Uprising and the Soviet–Finnish conflict 1921–1922 were an attempt by a group of East Karelian separatists 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".
Čičiliusku is a puppet theatre company from the Republic of Karelia in Russia.The company performs in the Karelian language. The company was founded in 2005 at the initiative of Pekka Zaikov, who at the time was the head of the Department of the Karelian and Veps languages. Amongst those who founded the company were teachers, students and alumni of the Faculty of Baltic Finnic languages of the Petrozavodsk State University. The Karelian folk theater was created in order to preserve the Karelian national intangible culture, popularize the Karelian language among children and youth language, introducing the younger generation to ethnocultural activities. A year later the company performed their first play, Kuin hukka vasikalla muamona oli.
The Juminkeko Foundation, or simply Juminkeko, is a Finnish organization founded in 1991. It runs Juminkeko, an eponymous information centre of the national epic Kalevala and Karelian culture located in Kuhmo, Finland. The centre was designed by the Finnish architects Mikko Heikkinen and Markku Komonen and was completed in 1999.
The Republican Movement of Karelia or Karelian Republican Movement or RMK was a Karelian regionalist and separatist organization founded by a Russian philosopher and author Vadim Vladimirovich Shtepa and registered in January 2014.
The Karelian National Movement, officially KKL-Stop the Occupation of Karelia is an umbrella term for two organizations that split from each other in 2023. The organization led by the original creator, Dmitry Kuznetsov, who also goes by the name Miteri Panfilov, is called Stop the Occupation of Karelia, it was previously know as the Karelian National Liberation Movement. The organization led by Vladislav Oleynik is called the Karelian National Movement.
Union of Karelian People or Regional Public Organization "Union of Karelian People" or RPO "UKP" is a regional Karelian public organization dedicated to the preservation and development of the Karelian culture and the Karelian language. It carries out its activities in the Republic of Karelia and other regions of the Russian Federation, Finland and other Karelian communities. It is one of the biggest and oldest Karelian culture organizations in Russia.
Karjalatalo is a red brick building in the Käpylä neighbourhood of Helsinki, Finland. It is owned by the Karelian Association, who built it as a meeting place for the Finnish Karelians who were displaced during World War II and their descendants. Designed by architect Into Pyykkö, construction of the building began in 1972 and completed in 1974. The interior design by Maisa Laaksonen features large amounts of pine, as well as the colours red, black and green.
Pan-Finnicism, also known as Pan-Fennicism or sometimes even referred to as Heimoaate is a pan-nationalist irredentist idea that advocates for the political or economic unification of the Baltic Finnic peoples, and sometimes includes the Volga Finns or even the Sámi. It is different from the Greater Finland idea for its more "equal tone" to the different ethnicities of the Finnic peoples.
