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52-602: The idea of a Greater Finland rapidly gained popularity after Finland became independent in December 1917. The idea has lost support after World War II (1939–1945). The concept of Greater Finland was commonly defined by what was seen as natural borders , which included the areas inhabited by Finns and Karelians . This ranged from the White Sea to Lake Onega and along the Svir River and Neva River . Alternatively, it ranged from

104-575: A bill simultaneously delivered to the Parliament to make Finland an independent republic instead. Declaring independence was only part of the long process leading to the independence of Finland . The declaration is celebrated as Independence Day in Finland. After the February Revolution and the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II , Grand Prince of Finland , on 2 March (15 March N.S. ) 1917,

156-476: A complete sovereignty. The century-old desire for freedom awaits fulfilment now; The People of Finland has to step forward as an independent nation among the other nations in the world. Achieving this goal requires mainly some measures by the Parliament. Finland's current form of government, which is currently incompatible with the conditions, requires a complete renewal and therefore has the Government now submitted

208-404: A free nation among the other nations in the world. (...) The people of Finland dare to confidently await how other nations in the world recognize that with their full independence and freedom, the people of Finland can do their best in fulfilment of those purposes that will win them a place amongst civilized peoples. Estonia , Latvia , and Lithuania declared their independence from Russia during

260-592: A general right of self-determination , including the right of complete secession , "for the Peoples of Russia" . On the same day the Finnish Parliament issued a declaration by which it assumed, pro tempore , all powers of the Sovereign in Finland. The old Instrument of Government was however no longer deemed suitable. Leading circles had long held monarchism and hereditary nobility to be antiquated, and advocated

312-674: A growing number of internal migrants from other areas of the Soviet Union, who steadily diluted the "national" character of the Karelian ASSR. The Karelo-Finnish Soviet Socialist Republic (KFSSR) was founded by the Soviet Union at the beginning of the Winter War , and was led by the Terijoki government and Otto Wille Kuusinen . This new entity was created with an eye to absorbing a defeated Finland into one greater Finnic (and Soviet) state, and so

364-590: A literary Karelian based on the Cyrillic alphabet , borrowing heavily from Russian. The Central Committee of the Council of Nationalities and the Soviet Academy of Sciences protested the forced Finnification of Soviet Karelia. Bubrikh's Karelian language was adopted from 1937 to 1939, and Finnish was repressed. But the new language, based on an unfamiliar alphabet and with extensive usage of Russian vocabulary and grammar ,

416-408: A proposition for a new Constitution to the Parliament's council, a proposition that is based on the principle that Finland is to be a sovereign republic. Considering that, the main features of the new polity has to be carried into effect immediately, the Government has at the same time delivered a bill of acts in this matter, which mean to satisfy the most urgent renewal needs before the establishment of

468-565: A republican constitution for Finland. The Senate of Finland , the government that the Parliament had appointed in November, drafted a Declaration of Independence and a proposal for a new republican Instrument of Government. Chairman of the Senate ( a.k.a. Prime minister) Pehr Evind Svinhufvud read the Declaration to the Parliament on 4 December. The Declaration of Independence was technically given

520-558: Is an urban locality (an urban-type settlement ) and the administrative center of Kalevalsky District in the Republic of Karelia , Russia . As of the 2010 Census , its population was 4,529. It was named Ukhta ( Russian : Ухта ; Karelian : Uhtua ) until 1963, when it was renamed after the Finnish Kalevala epos . The poem collection was in part collected in Ukhta. Within

572-565: Is unpopular today, with those who wish for Finnish territorial expansion, such as the former Finns Party Youth and some others wishing for the re-annexation of Finnish Karelia instead. Finnish Declaration of Independence The Finnish Declaration of Independence ( Finnish : Suomen itsenäisyysjulistus ; Swedish : Finlands självständighetsförklaring ) was adopted by the Parliament of Finland on 6 December 1917. It declared Finland to be independent from Russia, with reference to

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624-454: The (law and) order by filling their patriotic duty, to strain all their strength for achieving the nation's common goal in this point of time, which has such an importance and decisiveness, that there have never before been in the life of the Finnish people. In Helsinki, 4 December 1917. The Finnish Senate: Kalevala, Russia Kalevala ( Russian : Калевала ; Karelian : Kalevala )

676-615: The Finnish language during breaks at school. The Greater Finland ideology gained strength from 1918 to 1920, during the Heimosodat, with the goal of combining all Finnic peoples into a single state. Similar ideas also spread in western East Karelia . Two Russian municipalities, Repola and Porajärvi , wanted to become part of Finland but could not under the strict conditions of the Treaty of Tartu . They declared themselves independent in 1919, but

728-547: The Karelian ASSR . Finnish nationalists helped some Karelians who were unhappy with the failure of the Karelian independence movement to organize an uprising , but it was unsuccessful, and a small number of Karelians fled to Finland. After the civil war, a large number of left-wing Finnish refugees fled for the Karelian ASSR. These Finns—an urbanized, educated, and Bolshevik elite—tended to monopolize leadership positions within

780-585: The Moscow Peace Treaty was incorporated partly into the KFSSR, but also into Leningrad Oblast to the south and Murmansk Oblast to the north. During the Continuation War from 1941 to 1944, about 62,000 Ingrian Finns escaped to Finland from German-occupied areas, of whom 55,000 were returned to the Soviet Union and expelled to Siberia . Starting in the 1950s and 1960s, they were permitted to settle within

832-602: The Republic of Uhtua . Ingrian Finns also created their own state, North Ingria , but with the intention of being incorporated into Finland. Both states ceased to exist in 1920. The Greater Finland ideology inspired the Academic Karelia Society , the Lapua movement , and that movement's successor, the Patriotic People's Movement . The Mannerheim Sword Scabbard Declarations in 1918 and 1941 increased enthusiasm for

884-934: The Sestra River to the Gulf of Finland . Some extremists also included the Kola Peninsula and Ingria in Russia, Finnmark in Norway, the Torne Valley in Sweden, and Estonia . The idea of the so-called three-isthmus border—defined by the White Isthmus, the Olonets Isthmus , and the Karelian Isthmus —is hundreds of years old, dating back to the period when Finland was part of Sweden. There

936-623: The framework of administrative divisions , Kalevala serves as the administrative center of Kalevalsky District , of which it is a part. As a municipal division , Kalevala, together with one rural locality (the settlement of Kuusiniyemi ) is incorporated within Kalevalsky Municipal District as Kalevalskoye Urban Settlement . Kalevala has a subarctic climate . Its climate is somewhat tempered by its relative proximity to mild marine areas, ensuring winters that are more habitable than areas further east. However, in spite of this,

988-683: The personal union between Russia and Finland lost its legal base – at least according to the view in Helsinki . There were negotiations between the Russian Provisional Government and Finnish authorities. The resulting proposal, approved by the Provisional Government, was heavily rewritten in the Eduskunta ( Finnish Parliament ) and transformed into the so-called Power Act (Finnish: Valtalaki , Swedish: Maktlagen ), whereby

1040-687: The Åland crisis in Finland's favor. After the Finnish Civil War in 1918, the Red Guards fled to Russia and rose to a leading position in Eastern Karelia. Led by Edvard Gylling , they helped establish the Karelian Workers' Commune. The Reds were also assigned to act as a bridgehead in the Finnish revolution. Finnish politicians in Karelia strengthened their base in 1923 with the establishment of

1092-724: The "White friend", wrote about his travels to White Karelia in the 1918 book Finland at Its Largest: For the Liberation of White Karelia . The Kvens , a minority in Northern Norway , helped Finnish settlements spread, especially in the 1860s. The Academic Karelia Society and the Finnish Heritage Association worked actively with the Kvens from 1927 to 1934, and the Finnish media spread pan-Fennicist propaganda through various channels. Activity slowed down from 1931 to 1934. In

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1144-564: The Continuation War, Mannerheim gave the second Sword Scabbard Declaration. In it, he mentioned "the Great Finland", which brought negative attention in political circles. During the Continuation War, Finland occupied the most comprehensive area in its history. Many people elsewhere, as well as Finland's right-wing politicians, wanted to annex East Karelia to Finland. The grounds were not only ideological and political but also military, as

1196-550: The KFSSR, although not in Ingria itself. During the civil war in 1918, when the military leader Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim was in Antrea , he issued one of his famous Sword Scabbard Declarations , in which he said that he would not "sheath my sword before law and order reigns in the land, before all fortresses are in our hands, before the last soldier of Lenin is driven not only away from Finland, but from White Karelia as well". During

1248-413: The Karelian ASSR. Most Finns in the area were executed or forcefully transferred to other parts of the Soviet Union. During this period, no official usage of Karelian was pursued, and the use of the Finnish language was repressed, relegating it to an extremely marginal role, making Russian the de facto official language of the republic. By this time, the economic development of the area had also attracted

1300-611: The Karelian Red Finns) began to protest Finnish chauvinism toward the Karelians in concert with the Tver Karelians. This coincided with increasing centralization under Joseph Stalin and the concurrent decline in power of many local minority elites. Gylling and Kustaa Rovio tried to expand the usage of Karelian in certain spheres, but this process was hardly begun before they were deposed. The academic Dmitri Bubrikh then developed

1352-520: The Parliament declared itself to now hold all powers of legislation, except with respect to foreign policy and military issues, and also that it could be dissolved only by itself. At the time of the vote, it was believed that the Provisional Government would be quickly defeated by the rebellion in Saint Petersburg . The Provisional Government survived, however, disapproved of the Power Act and dissolved

1404-521: The Parliament. After new elections and the ultimate defeat of the Provisional Government in the October Revolution , the Finnish Parliament decided to set a three-man regency council, based on Finland's Constitution, and more precisely on clause §38 of the old Instrument of Government of 1772 , which had been enacted by the Estates after Gustav III 's bloodless coup. This paragraph provided for

1456-656: The Scientific Committee of East Karelia on 11 December 1941 to guide research in East Karelia. The first chairman of the commission was the rector of the University of Helsinki , Kaarlo Linkola , and the second chairman was Väinö Auer . Jurists worked to prepare international legal arguments for why Finland should get East Karelia. The rationales of the Greater Finland idea are a subject of disagreement. Some supported

1508-558: The Supreme holder of the State Authority as well as set up a Government to the country, that has taken to its primary task the realization and safeguarding Finland's independence as a state. The people of Finland have by this step taken their fate in their own hands: a step both justified and demanded by present conditions. The people of Finland feel deeply that they cannot fulfil their national duty and their universal human obligations without

1560-559: The border change was never officially confirmed, mainly because of the treaty, which was negotiated the following year. In the Treaty of Tartu negotiations in 1920, Finland demanded more of Eastern Karelia. Russia agreed to this but kept Repola and Porajärvi for itself, offering Finland Petsamo instead. President Kaarlo Juho Ståhlberg of Finland agreed to the exchange. Karelians in Uhtua (now Kalevala, Russia ) wanted their own state, so they created

1612-604: The early days of its independence, Finland wanted Finnish-speaking areas in Norrbotten , Sweden, to join Finland. This was a reaction to the effort by Finland's own Åland to join Sweden. The Finnish government set up a committee to expand Finnish national movements. Sweden, for its part, pushed for instruction in the Swedish language in its northern Finnish regions. Until the 1950s, many schoolchildren in Norrbotten were banned from using

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1664-484: The eastern border lines of the White Sea , Lake Onega , and the River Svir . The geologist Wilhelm Ramsay defined the bedrock concept of Fenno-Scandinavia in 1898. Karelianism was a national romantic hobby for artists, writers, and composers in which Karelian and Karelian-Finnish culture was used as a source of inspiration. Karelianism was most popular in the 1890s. For example, the author Ilmari Kianto , known as

1716-469: The election of a new monarch in case of the extinction of the royal line and was interpreted in Finland as vesting sovereignty in the estates, later the Parliament, in such an interregnum. The regency council was never elected, because of the strong opposition of Finnish socialists and their general strike which demanded for more radical action. On 2 November (15 November N.S.) 1917, the Bolsheviks declared

1768-528: The foreign powers, which prompt assistance in satisfying the necessities of life and in importing the essential goods for the industry, are our only rescue from the imminent famine and industrial stagnation. The Russian people have, after subverting the Tsarist Regime, in a number of occasions expressed their intention to favour the Finnish people the right to determine their own fate, which is based on their centuries-old cultural development. And widely over all

1820-543: The form of a preamble of the proposition, and was intended to be agreed by the Parliament, which adopted the Declaration on 6 December. On 18 December (31 December N. S.) shortly after the head of Finnish government Svinhufvud declared his nation's full independence the Soviet Russian government became the first government outside of Finland to recognize Finnish independence. It issued a Decree recognising Finland's independence, and on 22 December (4 January 1918 N. S.) it

1872-511: The government published a German edition of Finnlands Lebensraum , a book supporting the idea of Greater Finland, with the intention of annexing Eastern Karelia and Ingria. During the Continuation War's attack phase in 1941, when the Finns hoped for a German victory over the Soviet Union, Finland began to consider what areas it could get in a possible peace treaty with the Soviets. The German objective

1924-482: The horrors of the war is heard a voice, that one of the goals of the present war is to be, that no nation shall be forced against its will to be dependent on another (nation) . The Finnish people believe that the free Russian people and its constitutive National Assembly don't want to prevent Finland's aspiration to enter the multitude of the free and independent nations. At the same time the People of Finland dare to hope that

1976-411: The idea out of a desire for wider cultural cooperation. Later, however, the ideology gained clearer imperialist characteristics. The main supporter of the idea, the Academic Karelia Society , was born as a cultural organization, but in its second year, it released a program that dealt with broader strategic, geographical, historical, and political arguments for Greater Finland. The Greater Finland idea

2028-509: The idea. Under the Treaty of Tartu , Soviet Russia agreed to give Eastern Karelia (known simply as Karelia in the later Soviet Union ) political autonomy as a concession to Finnish sentiment. This was in line with the Bolshevik leadership's policy at the time of offering political autonomy to each of the national minorities within the new Soviet state. At the same time, the League of Nations solved

2080-433: The new Constitution. The same goal also calls for measures from the part of the Government. The Government will approach foreign powers to seek an international recognition of our country's independence as a state. At the present moment this is particularly all the more necessary, when the grave situation caused by the country's complete isolation, famine and unemployment compels the Government to establish actual relations to

2132-565: The new republic. The "Finnishness" of the area was enhanced by some migration of Ingrian Finns , and by the Great Depression . Gylling encouraged Finns in North America to flee to the Karelian ASSR, which was held up as a beacon of enlightened Soviet national policy and economic development. Even by 1926, 96.6% of the population of the Karelian ASSR spoke Karelian as their mother tongue. No unified Karelian literary language existed, and

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2184-520: The official language returned to Finnish. However, the Soviet military was unable to completely defeat Finland, and this idea came to nothing. Despite this, the KFSSR was maintained as a full Union Republic (on a par with Ukraine or Kazakhstan , for example) until the end of the Stalinist period , and Finnish was at least nominally an official language until 1956. The territory Finland was forced to cede under

2236-500: The other nations of the world recognizes, that with their full independence and freedom the People of Finland can do their best in fulfilment of those purposes that will win them an independent position amongst the people of the civilized world. At the same time as the Government has wanted to let all the Finnish citizens to know these words, the Government turns to the citizens, as well as the private and public authorities, calling everyone on their own behalf with rapt attention to follow

2288-515: The prospect of creating one was considered problematic because of the language's many dialects. The local Finnish leadership had a dim view of the potential of Karelian as a literary language and did not try to develop it. Gylling and the Red Finns may have considered Karelian to be a mere dialect of Finnish. They may also have hoped that, through the adoption of Finnish, they could unify Karelians and Finns into one Finnic people. All education of Karelians

2340-509: The same period. See Estonian War of Independence , Latvian Independence and Lithuanian Wars of Independence . These three countries were occupied by, and annexed into, the Soviet Union (1940–1941, 1944–1991). See Occupation of the Baltic states . To The Finnish People. The Finnish Parliament has on 15th day of the last November, in support of Section 38 of the Constitution, declared to be

2392-463: The small, local Karelian intelligentsia . Reactions to the use of Finnish among the Karelians themselves were diverse. Some had difficulty understanding written Finnish. There was outright resistance to the language from residents of Olonets Karelia , while White Karelians had a more positive attitude toward it. In the summer of 1930, "Finnification politics" became politically sensitive. The Leningrad party apparatus (the powerful southern neighbor of

2444-644: The so-called three-isthmus line were considered easier to defend. On 20 July 1941, a celebration was held in Vuokkiniemi , where White and Olonets Karelia were declared to have joined Finland. Russians and Karelians were treated differently in Finland, and the ethnic background of the country's Russian-speaking minority was studied to determine which of them were Karelian (i.e., "the national minority") and which were mostly Russian (i.e., "the un-national minority"). The Russian minority were taken to concentration camps so that they would be easier to move away. In 1941,

2496-441: Was a disagreement between Sweden and Russia as to where the border between the two countries should be. The Swedish government considered a three-isthmus border to be the easiest to defend. Although the term "Greater Finland" was not used in the early 19th century, the idea of Finland's natural geographical boundaries dates back to then. In 1837, the botanist Johan Ernst Adhemar Wirzén defined Finland's wild plant distribution area as

2548-615: Was approved by the highest Soviet executive body, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee (VTsIK) . With reference to the declaration of 15 November, the declaration says: The people of Finland have by this step taken their fate in their own hands; a step both justified and demanded by present conditions. The people of Finland feel deeply that they cannot fulfil their national and international duty without complete sovereignty. The century-old desire for freedom awaits fulfilment now; Finland's people step forward as

2600-413: Was conducted in Finnish, and all publications became Finnish (with the exception of some in Russian ). By contrast, the Karelians of Tver Oblast , who had gained a measure of political autonomy independent of Finnish influence, were able by 1931 to develop a literary Karelian based on the Latin alphabet . These Tver Karelians became hostile to what they saw as Finnish dominance of Karelia, as did some of

2652-409: Was difficult for many Karelians to comprehend. By 1939, Bubrikh himself had been repressed, and all forms of Karelian were dropped in both the Karelian ASSR and Tver Oblast (where the Karelian National District was dissolved entirely). In Stalin's Great Purge in 1937, the remaining Red Finns in Soviet Karelia were accused of Trotskyist - bourgeois nationalism and purged entirely from the leadership of

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2704-410: Was to take over the Arkhangelsk – Astrakhan line, which would have allowed Finland to expand to the east. A 1941 book by professor Jalmari Jaakkola , titled Die Ostfrage Finnlands , sought to justify the occupation of East Karelia. The book was translated into English , Finnish, and French , and received criticism from Sweden and the United States . The Finnish Ministry of Education established

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