Finns and Karelians

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FINNS AND KARELIANS

Finns, Karelians (in Karelian Republic and eastern Finland), Izhorians (Ingrians) and Ingrian Finns (around St. Petersburg), Vepsians (southeast of St. Petersburg), near-extinct Votians (southwest of St. Petersburg), and Estonians speak mutually semi-intelligible Finnic languages. Novgorod absorbed many of them during the thirteenth century, without formal treaties. After defeating the Swedes and taking territory that included the present St. Petersburg, tsarist Russia subjugated all these peoples. Finns, Ingrian Finns, and most Estonians were Lutheran, while Karelians, Vepsians, Izhorians, and Votians were Greek Orthodox. Livelihood has extended from traditional forest agriculture to urban endeavors.

Finland and Estonia emerged as independent countries by 1920, while Karelia became an autonomous oblast (1920) and soon an Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (1923). Deportations, immigration, and other means of russification have almost obliterated the Izhorians, while reducing the Karelians, Finns, and Vepsians to 13 percent of Karelia's population (103,000 out of 791,000, in 1989). Altogether, the Soviet 1989 census recorded 131,000 Karelians (23,000 in Tver oblast), 18,000 Finns, and 6,000 Vepsians (straddling Karelia and the Leningrad and Vologda oblasts).

Karelia occupies a strategic location on the railroad to Russia's ice-free port of Murmansk on the Arctic Ocean. Much of the crucial American aid to the Soviet Union during World War II used this route. The Karelian Isthmus, seized by Moscow from Finland during that war, is not part of the Karelian republic, which briefly (1940 to 1956) was upgraded to a Karelo-Finnish union republic so as to put pressure on Finland.

The earliest surviving written document in any Finnic language is a Karelian thunder spell written on birch bark with Cyrillic characters. Karelia contributed decisively to the world-famous Finnish epic Kalevala. Finnish dialects gradually mutate to northern and western Karelian, to Aunus and Ludic in southern Karelia, and on to Vepsian. Given such a continuum, a common Karelian literary language has not taken root, and standard Latin-script Finnish is used by the newspaper Karjalan Sanomat (Karelian News) and the monthly Karjala (Karelia). A Vepsian periodical, Kodima (Homeland), uses both Vepsian (with Latin script) and Russian. Only 40,000 Karelians in Karelia and 22,000 elsewhere in the former Soviet Union consider Karelian or Finnish their main language. Among the young, russification prevails.

Karelia is an "urbanized forest republic" where agriculture is limited and industry ranges from lumber and paper to iron ore and aluminum. The capital, Petrozavodsk (Petroskoi in Karelian), includes 34 percent of Karelia's entire population. Ethnic Karelians have little say in political and economic management. Hardly any of the republic government leaders or parliament members speak Karelian or Finnish. The cultural interests of the indigenous minority are voiced by Karjalan Rahvahan Liitto (Union of the Karelian People), the Vepsian Cultural Society, and the Ingrian Union for Finns in Karelia.

Economic and cultural interactions with Finland, blocked under the Soviet rule, have revived. Karelia's future success depends largely on how far a symbiosis with this more developed neighboring country can reach.

See also: finland; nationalities policies, soviet; nationalities policies, tsarist; northern peoples