| Peter Iiskola 9 juin, 15:25 Karelia - The unknown Northern hotspot of the new Cold War? Or is Karelia a chance for fruitful cooperation between Finland and Russia? Karelia is the land of the Karelian peoples and is an area in Northern Europe of long historical significance for Finland, Russia, and Sweden. Most of Karelia belongs to Russia. Before I below quote the article of my good Finnish learned young friend Sakari Linden, I will say a few words. The events taken place in the epoch of Peter the Great (1672-1725) directly influenced Karelia and determined its further history until now. In the first place Peter I was interested in Karelia in connection with the Northern Russian-Swedish war (1700 - 1725), the goal of which was to gain exits to the Baltic Sea and this goal he also achieved. Peter the Great founded in 1703 the current capital of Karelia or Petrozavodsk, although archeological discoveries in the urban area indicate the presence of a settlement as far back as seven thousand years ago. I must also mention the Soviet leader Yuri Andropov, who in practice became a Karelian. He was born in southern Russia and had a Don Cossack father and his mother was the adopted daughter of a Moscow watchmaker, Karl Franzovich Fleckenstein, who was originally from Finland. Yuri Andropov made his initial Soviet career in Karelia was a Soviet politician and the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 12 November 1982 until his death fifteen months later. But long before that, only few remember that Yuri Andropov was First Secretary of the Central Committee of Komsomol in the Soviet Karelo-Finnish Republic from 1940 to 1944. During World War II, Andropov took part in partisan guerrilla activities in Finland. From 1944 onwards, he left Komsomol for Communist Party work. Between 1946 and 1951, he studied in the University of Petrozavodsk in the Karelian capital and made later career to the very top of Soviet Union, where he was preceded by Leonid Brezhnev and succeeded by Konstantin Chernenko. Finally, it is to be remembered that Otto Kuusinen (1881-1964) was born in Finland and Chairman of Finland's Social Democratic Party 1913-17, but he became Karelian. From 1940 to 1957 Otto Kuusinen was the Karelian-Finnish SSR Supreme Soviet Presidium Chairman. He was one of the founders of the republic defense during the Great Patriotic War and restoration of its national economy in the post-war period. Further he was the outstanding figure in the CPSU and the Soviet State and one of the leaders of Comintern. He preserved his career in the top - as one of the few - throughout the period of Lenin, Stalin and Khrushchev. Already in about 1000 years old ancient chronicles the Karelians sided with the Novgorodians against the Swedes, which for almost a millennium thereafter tried to push eastwards until they were finally stopped 200 years ago in the Napoleonic wars, when Finland became an autonomous grand duchy of Russia in 1809. The Russian czars also removed their administrative borders of Karelia in Finnish favor, so subsequently Finland got hold of more Karelian land areas at its independence 1917 in the turmoil of the Bolshevik revolution. However, the bulk of Karelia has been and still is in the so called Novgorodian and/or Russian sphere of interest. My good young colleague and friend Safari Linden, who is a Finnish geopolitical writer and great friend of Karelia, tries to summarize in the article below the past, present and future of Karelia - but this starting only from the year 1323 onwards. Before that there is much to write about Karelia, where there have been settlements for 7000 years or more, but another time. The Swedes conducted wars against Novgorodians in 12th and 13th century. Novgorodians and their Karelian allies launched pirate raids against mainland Sweden during the 12th century and allegedly destroyed in 1187 the most important Swedish city Sigtuna, which was founded in 960. After a long pause in open hostilities, Swedes undertook an attack against Novgorod in 1240. The only source of information on the attack is a Novgorodian chronicle. Soon after their fleet entered the mouth of the Neva River, the Swedes were roundly defeated in the Battle of the Neva by a young prince, Alexander of Novgorod, who would later be called "Alexander Nevsky" to memorialize this victory. (The main church and monastery in Saint Petersburg has the remains of Alexander Nevsky and it is called the Saint Alexander Nevsky Lavra or Saint Alexander Nevsky Monastery. It was founded by Peter I or Peter the Great of Russia in 1710. This Lavra remained the main seat of the Orthodox Church in Russia from Peter the Great for 200 years until 1917.) From then on, after they lost in the battle of Neva, Sweden moved its interest to Finland. Its troops did not return to Neva before the end of the 13th century, when it had gained solid control of Finland. Earlier, Swedes had also tried to establish a bridgehead in Estonia, in vain. The Peace in Nöteborg (or Shlisselburg) in 1323 was made in a castle at the shores of Lake Ladoga, which is the largest lake in Europe and connected with the Neva river. The Peace in Nöteborg 1323 and the Peace in Novgorod 1326 - both were made between Novgorod and Ingeborg of Norway and Sweden - ended the Swedish–Novgorodian Wars of 12th and 13th centuries. The wars were conducted between the Republic of Novgorod and the medieval Sweden over control of the Gulf of Finland, an area vital to the Hanseatic League and part of the Varangian-Byzantine trade route. The Swedish attacks against Orthodox Russians had religious overtones, but before the 14th century there is no knowledge of official Crusade bulls issued by the Pope, but the action was taken whether the bulls existed or not. Hereafter the article by Sakari Linden: Russia has tightened its grip from its North Western region of Republic of Karelia in 2015. After being a remote area of negligible strategic importance, Karelia's growth in importance has been noticed by geopolitical observers in both Russia and the West. Final conclusions drawn about the means to be conducted in the region determine Karelia's status as either opportunity or threat for Russian Federation. Even more importantly, it reveals a great deal of the amount of self-confidence and strength of Russia. Does future Russia tend to rely more on hard discipline in avoiding all potentially risky influence from abroad? Or does it aim to benefit from soft power dimension provided by Karelia's unique cultural features creating cross-border links between east and west? Nikolai Patrushev, Head of the Security Council of the Russian Federation, aligned stance of his country to a social situation in the Republic of Karelia with a speech held on 19 March in Petrozavodsk. According to Patrushev, there had been "an activation of nationalist and revanchist social-political organizations in Finland" in recent months. Patrushev fears that the Finnish nationalist associations are acting under the guise of human rights organizations and begin to have "serious ideological influence" on the population of the region. He had noted already on 17 December 2014 that Karelia is Russia's most important outpost in the Northwest. Later, potentially as a further explanatory step to Patrushev's statement, Russia's Ministry of Interior Affairs started investigations about accusations claiming that a Petrozavodsk based NGO, Nuori Karjala (Young Karelia, Молодая Карелия), which aims to preserve and promote Karelian, Vepsian and Finnish indigenous cultures and languages in the region, has acted in a manner characteristic to a foreign agent. According to Russian law, a foreign agent is an organization, which receive funding from abroad and act politically. Nuori Karjala is accused on the grounds that it organised a visit of the youth organisation of the Finns Party (Perussuomalaiset Nuoret) to the Republic of Karelia in cooperation with the regional parliament of Karelia. The Finns is a populist, Eurosceptic and Nato critical party, which currently makes part of the coalition government of Finland, in which they hold Foreign and Defence Minister positions. Moreover, Nuori Karjala is accused because it received a grant from the United Nations in 2013. Nuori Karjala is Russia's first NGO representing indigenous peoples that threatens to be added to a list as a foreign agent. This would result in the closure of the organisation, has stated Alexey Tsykarev, member of board in Nuori Karjala and vice-chair of the United Nations Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Notwithstanding all the details provided, development leading to this should be seen through the lens of remarkably risen geopolitical significance of Karelia. Secretly in the spotlight Karelia has been a battleground between the East and the West for centuries. Karelia became a disputed borderland after the Peace of Nöteborg in 1323, which divided Karelia between Sweden and Novgorod. Religiously Evangelical Lutheran West Karelia was annexed as a part of the Russian Empire in the 18th century. This part of Karelia, often called as "Old Finland", became a part of the Autonomous Grand Duchy of Finland in 1812. Meanwhile, Orthodox East Karelia was all the time an integral part of Russia. Later, Soviet Union conquered Karelian Isthmus, historical fortress town of Vyborg and Ladoga Karelia from independent Finland during the Second World War. Karelia became a bleeding wound for both parts during the Second World War. Almost 430 000 Karelian Finns, i.e. 12 per cent of the country's total population, lost their homes due to area losses, which accounted for about one tenth of the country's surface area. On the other side of the border, Finland occupied Eastern Karelia as part of the German offensive against the Soviet Union between 1941 and 1944. The occupation temporarily fulfilled an old dream about establishment of the Great Finland, a state uniting the areas populated by Baltic Finnic peoples, from Finland via Karelia and Ingermanland to Estonia. Russia's suspicion in the Republic of Karelia stem from the fear that the old idea of the Great Finland could be used in the modern framework of color revolutions in order to threaten territorial integrity of Russia. The start of the new cold war suddenly signified Karelia's rise to a new prominence. The most immediate reason for this was Stratfor's Decade Forecast: 2015-2025, published in February 2015, which predicts that Russia will start to collapse during the time span of next ten years, and "in the northwest, the Karelian region will seek to rejoin Finland". Stratfor is not the first actor to give Karelia a major importance in the geopolitical game of modern times. The main ideologist of New Eurasianism, Alexander Dugin, proposed in his book The Foundations of Geopolitics: The Geopolitical Future of Russia, published in 1997, that "the unstable state of Finland, which historically enters into the geopolitical space of Russia" would be "combined together with the Karelian Autonomous Republic of the Russian Federation into a single ethno-territorial formation with maximal cultural autonomy, but with strategic integration into the Eurasian bloc". According to Dugin, "the northern regions of Finland should be excised and donated to Murmansk oblast". Lack of knowledge about present day realities of the Republic of Karelia can be found from both Stratfor and Dugin's views. Although Finno-Ugric peoples have historically populated the region, there has been a dramatic fall in the amount of Karelian and Vepsian speakers. Karelians made up 37 per cent of the region's population in 1926, whereas in 2010, according to the Census of Russia, their share was only 7,4 per cent. Karelian speaking population is nowadays heavily concentrated to the countryside and especially to the national districts of Olonets, Kalevala and Pryazha. In reality, they lack political significance, which could affect the region's international status. It is difficult to estimate whether Stratfor's Decade Forecast was seriously made, given the absence of further arguments to the prediction about Karelia seeking to join Finland. Or was it just a provocation aiming to recreate tensions related to a national question of East Karelia, which flamed out a long time ago? Or was it made to encourage the support of NATO in Finland or to create wishful thinking among those Finns, who wish to regain the territories lost by Finland during the Second World War? The latter have for a very long time had only a trivial role in Finnish political life. It is also important to realize that there are at least three different notions of Karelia: Orthodox East Karelia that has never made part of Finland, the old Finnish territories annexed by the Soviet Union, and provinces of North and South Karelia, which currently are an integral part of Finland. Very few people in Finland consider changes of borders as a realistic or even wise option. Rather an opportunity? Alexander Dugin reflected more realism and understanding about the new realities of Russian Karelia in his words during his visit to Finland in May 2014. Instead of proposing any changes of borders, as in his book published in 1997, he raised the possibility that Russian Karelia, Karelian language and culture could be a bridge between Finland and Russia, and more broadly between the West and Eurasia. Dugin said in his speech he gave in Helsinki that Finno-Ugric peoples are part of a common Eurasian heritage and identity together with Slavic, Turkish and Caucasian peoples. Consequently, connections of the Finns to Karelia, Udmurtia and other Finno-Ugric regions of Russia should be encouraged. Dugin's statement is remarkable because it is the first expression of support from the part of a remarkable Russian commentator to the Finno-Ugric languages and cultures of Russia. A deteriorated political situation of the world has cast a shadow even on the cooperation between Finland and Russia. Sometimes it feels like western and Russian orthodox civilizations do not understand each other's thinking at all. Karelia could potentially be a bridge between Finland and Russia. Karelia, at the same time as a linguistically close and religiously differing territory to Finland, would have an opportunity to illustrate the other side of the border with another way of thinking. Karelia could lower the mental gap between Finland and Russia and create links between different cultural spheres. The main merit of Alexander Dugin's speech was to demonstrate that Karelia, where Baltic Finnic languages are spoken, are in both Russia and Finland's interest. Currently, there is a clear contradiction in Dugin's message compared to the latest news heard from the Republic of Karelia. It is unclear whether the rhetorics used by Nikolai Patrushev in March 2015 related to Karelia was meant to be a signal inside Karelia or towards Finland. What is clear is that it does not serve the best interest of Russia from the point of view of its soft power abroad. However, there is still hope that Karelian language and culture could be seen in a positive way even more broadly in Russia. Implications for the new cold war Finland is situated in a very strategically important position from the point of view of Russia. It shares a long border with Russia with a situation close to the crucial Murmansk naval base and Russia's second most important city, Saint Petersburg. Moreover, domination of the south coast of Finland would provide the NATO with a potential to block the Gulf of Finland and maritime routes to Saint Petersburg. Therefore, Finland's non-aligned position is of utmost importance to Russia. Nowadays Finland is the only EU member state with a long border with Russia that does not belong to the NATO. After having been a militarily non-aligned country for several decades, there has been an increasingly hectic debate about whether Finland should join the NATO. Notwithstanding strong efforts by the mainstream media and political elite to push the public opinion in favour of joining the transatlantic community, only 27 per cent of the Finns supported their country's membership in the military alliance. Finland was a crucial mediator between the west and east during the Cold war in the process, which culminated in the Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe (CSCE) held in 1975 in Helsinki, Finland. Although Finland has lost a great deal of its sovereignty of its foreign policy due to its EU membership, President Sauli Niinistö has taken a rather mediating role between the west and Russia during the Ukraine crisis, relying on its last remains of its old non-aligned tradition. This highlights the potential that Russia can either utilize or lose in Finland. Currently, Finnish public is scrutinizing the influence of Russia to their wellbeing and especially all efforts across their eastern border to put pressure on their country are under scrutiny. Therefore, one can just imagine the effect of the opening of the Finnish-speaking Sputnik news agency, which immediately reported as its breaking news about Mr Patrushev's warnings about the growing activity of Finnish nationalists and revanchists in Karelia. Russia needs every bit of soft power in order to survive in the relentless informational warfare aiming to harm the Eurasian connection between Europe and Russia. As George Friedman, founder and chairman of Stratfor, has pointed out, the primordial interest of the United States is to stop a coalition between Germany and Russia (http://russia-insider.com/en/2015/03/16/4571). Consequently, Russia should not undermine the importance of Karelia as a potential source of its soft power. Karelian as a mutually intelligible language to Finnish, Karelia and Finland's common Kalevala folklore heritage, which has inspired even J. R. R. Tolkien, as well as Karelia's potential to function as a window to Russian and Eurasian mindscape for the Finns, are reasons why Russian authorities should think carefully if they are doing irreversible damage in the Russian-Karelian-Finnish cultural relations. The beginning of the new cold war has raised tensions around the world. This has already reflected to the social situation in the Republic Karelia. Russian establishment's future reactions to Stratfor's predictions related to Karelia will tell about the ability and preparedness of the country to endure amid new geopolitical game. Russia's support to Karelian language and encouragement of creating contacts between locals and foreigners in the Republic of Karelia would be a signal to the world about a self-confident and strong country. Sakari Linden is a geopolitical writer, who has participated actively in the cultural cooperation to preserve and promote Karelian language and culture. He holds Master's degrees in Political Science and International Law. (end of article by Sakari Linden) Here are the most important dates from the site of Russian Karelian Republic http://www.gov.karelia.ru/gov/Info/people/statesmen_e.html… The Most Important Dates and Events Year/ Events 7000-6000 B.C. The beginning of Karelia inhabitance 12-15 cc. Karelia is part of Novgorod feudal republic. 1227 Baptizing of the Karelians 1478 Karelia is included in the Russian state 1610-1611 Heroic defense of the town of Korela (Priozerks) from the Swedish invaders 1649 Olonets's foundation 1703-1707 Building of Olonetsky Petrovsky plant system 1773-1774 Foundation of Alexandrovsky (now Onezhsky) plant 1861 Opening of a regular transport connection between Petrozavodsk and St.Petersburg. 1869 Foundation of the first steam saw-mill in the region by the merchants Belyaevs in the settlement of Soroka (now the town of Byelomorsk). 1914-1916 Murmansk railway road construction November 1917 - April 1918 The Soviet power establishment July 1918 - March 1920 Civil war and foreign intervention in the region 8 of June, 1920 Establishment of Karelian Labor Commune 25 of July, 1923 Establishment of Karelian ASSR 1929 Konopozhskaya pulp and paper mill is the first enterprise of pulp and paper industry in Karelia 31 of March, 1940 Karelian ASSR is reestablished into Karelian-Finnish SSR June 1941 The Great Patriotic war broke off December 1941 The Soviet troops seized the enemy attack on the territory of Karelia June-September, 1944 Karelia was set free from German-Finnish aggressors 16 of July,1956 Karelian-Finnish SSR was reestablished into Karelian SSR 9 of August,1990 State Sovereignty of Karelian ASSR was adopted by the Supreme Soviet of the Republic 13 of November, 1991 Karelian ASSR was renamed into the Republic of Karelia Karelia: The unknown hotspot of the new Cold War | The Vineyard of the Saker thesaker.is A bird's eye view of the vineyard J'aime Commenter Partager | | | | | | | | | | | |  | | | | | Karelia - The unknown Northern hotspot of the new Cold War? Or is Karelia a chance for fruitful cooperation between Finland and Russia? Karelia is the land of the Karelian peoples and is an area in Northern Europe of long historical significance for Finland, Russia, and Sweden. Most of Karelia belongs to Russia. Before I below quote the article of my good Finnish learned young friend Sakari Linden, I will say a few words.
The events taken place in the epoch of Peter the Great (1672-1725) directly influenced Karelia and determined its further history until now. In the first place Peter I was interested in Karelia in connection with the Northern Russian-Swedish war (1700 - 1725), the goal of which was to gain exits to the Baltic Sea and this goal he also achieved. Peter the Great founded in 1703 the current capital of Karelia or Petrozavodsk, although archeological discoveries in the urban area indicate the presence of a settlement as far back as seven thousand years ago.
I must also mention the Soviet leader Yuri Andropov, who in practice became a Karelian. He was born in southern Russia and had a Don Cossack father and his mother was the adopted daughter of a Moscow watchmaker, Karl Franzovich Fleckenstein, who was originally from Finland. Yuri Andropov made his initial Soviet career in Karelia was a Soviet politician and the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 12 November 1982 until his death fifteen months later. But long before that, only few remember that Yuri Andropov was First Secretary of the Central Committee of Komsomol in the Soviet Karelo-Finnish Republic from 1940 to 1944. During World War II, Andropov took part in partisan guerrilla activities in Finland. From 1944 onwards, he left Komsomol for Communist Party work. Between 1946 and 1951, he studied in the University of Petrozavodsk in the Karelian capital and made later career to the very top of Soviet Union, where he was preceded by Leonid Brezhnev and succeeded by Konstantin Chernenko.
Finally, it is to be remembered that Otto Kuusinen (1881-1964) was born in Finland and Chairman of Finland's Social Democratic Party 1913-17, but he became Karelian. From 1940 to 1957 Otto Kuusinen was the Karelian-Finnish SSR Supreme Soviet Presidium Chairman. He was one of the founders of the republic defense during the Great Patriotic War and restoration of its national economy in the post-war period. Further he was the outstanding figure in the CPSU and the Soviet State and one of the leaders of Comintern. He preserved his career in the top - as one of the few - throughout the period of Lenin, Stalin and Khrushchev.
Already in about 1000 years old ancient chronicles the Karelians sided with the Novgorodians against the Swedes, which for almost a millennium thereafter tried to push eastwards until they were finally stopped 200 years ago in the Napoleonic wars, when Finland became an autonomous grand duchy of Russia in 1809. The Russian czars also removed their administrative borders of Karelia in Finnish favor, so subsequently Finland got hold of more Karelian land areas at its independence 1917 in the turmoil of the Bolshevik revolution. However, the bulk of Karelia has been and still is in the so called Novgorodian and/or Russian sphere of interest.
My good young colleague and friend Safari Linden, who is a Finnish geopolitical writer and great friend of Karelia, tries to summarize in the article below the past, present and future of Karelia - but this starting only from the year 1323 onwards. Before that there is much to write about Karelia, where there have been settlements for 7000 years or more, but another time.
The Swedes conducted wars against Novgorodians in 12th and 13th century. Novgorodians and their Karelian allies launched pirate raids against mainland Sweden during the 12th century and allegedly destroyed in 1187 the most important Swedish city Sigtuna, which was founded in 960. After a long pause in open hostilities, Swedes undertook an attack against Novgorod in 1240. The only source of information on the attack is a Novgorodian chronicle. Soon after their fleet entered the mouth of the Neva River, the Swedes were roundly defeated in the Battle of the Neva by a young prince, Alexander of Novgorod, who would later be called "Alexander Nevsky" to memorialize this victory. (The main church and monastery in Saint Petersburg has the remains of Alexander Nevsky and it is called the Saint Alexander Nevsky Lavra or Saint Alexander Nevsky Monastery. It was founded by Peter I or Peter the Great of Russia in 1710. This Lavra remained the main seat of the Orthodox Church in Russia from Peter the Great for 200 years until 1917.) From then on, after they lost in the battle of Neva, Sweden moved its interest to Finland. Its troops did not return to Neva before the end of the 13th century, when it had gained solid control of Finland. Earlier, Swedes had also tried to establish a bridgehead in Estonia, in vain.
The Peace in Nöteborg (or Shlisselburg) in 1323 was made in a castle at the shores of Lake Ladoga, which is the largest lake in Europe and connected with the Neva river. The Peace in Nöteborg 1323 and the Peace in Novgorod 1326 - both were made between Novgorod and Ingeborg of Norway and Sweden - ended the Swedish–Novgorodian Wars of 12th and 13th centuries. The wars were conducted between the Republic of Novgorod and the medieval Sweden over control of the Gulf of Finland, an area vital to the Hanseatic League and part of the Varangian-Byzantine trade route. The Swedish attacks against Orthodox Russians had religious overtones, but before the 14th century there is no knowledge of official Crusade bulls issued by the Pope, but the action was taken whether the bulls existed or not.
Hereafter the article by Sakari Linden:
Russia has tightened its grip from its North Western region of Republic of Karelia in 2015. After being a remote area of negligible strategic importance, Karelia's growth in importance has been noticed by geopolitical observers in both Russia and the West. Final conclusions drawn about the means to be conducted in the region determine Karelia's status as either opportunity or threat for Russian Federation. Even more importantly, it reveals a great deal of the amount of self-confidence and strength of Russia. Does future Russia tend to rely more on hard discipline in avoiding all potentially risky influence from abroad? Or does it aim to benefit from soft power dimension provided by Karelia's unique cultural features creating cross-border links between east and west?
Nikolai Patrushev, Head of the Security Council of the Russian Federation, aligned stance of his country to a social situation in the Republic of Karelia with a speech held on 19 March in Petrozavodsk. According to Patrushev, there had been "an activation of nationalist and revanchist social-political organizations in Finland" in recent months. Patrushev fears that the Finnish nationalist associations are acting under the guise of human rights organizations and begin to have "serious ideological influence" on the population of the region. He had noted already on 17 December 2014 that Karelia is Russia's most important outpost in the Northwest.
Later, potentially as a further explanatory step to Patrushev's statement, Russia's Ministry of Interior Affairs started investigations about accusations claiming that a Petrozavodsk based NGO, Nuori Karjala (Young Karelia, Молодая Карелия), which aims to preserve and promote Karelian, Vepsian and Finnish indigenous cultures and languages in the region, has acted in a manner characteristic to a foreign agent. According to Russian law, a foreign agent is an organization, which receive funding from abroad and act politically. Nuori Karjala is accused on the grounds that it organised a visit of the youth organisation of the Finns Party (Perussuomalaiset Nuoret) to the Republic of Karelia in cooperation with the regional parliament of Karelia. The Finns is a populist, Eurosceptic and Nato critical party, which currently makes part of the coalition government of Finland, in which they hold Foreign and Defence Minister positions. Moreover, Nuori Karjala is accused because it received a grant from the United Nations in 2013.
Nuori Karjala is Russia's first NGO representing indigenous peoples that threatens to be added to a list as a foreign agent. This would result in the closure of the organisation, has stated Alexey Tsykarev, member of board in Nuori Karjala and vice-chair of the United Nations Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Notwithstanding all the details provided, development leading to this should be seen through the lens of remarkably risen geopolitical significance of Karelia.
Secretly in the spotlight
Karelia has been a battleground between the East and the West for centuries. Karelia became a disputed borderland after the Peace of Nöteborg in 1323, which divided Karelia between Sweden and Novgorod. Religiously Evangelical Lutheran West Karelia was annexed as a part of the Russian Empire in the 18th century. This part of Karelia, often called as "Old Finland", became a part of the Autonomous Grand Duchy of Finland in 1812. Meanwhile, Orthodox East Karelia was all the time an integral part of Russia. Later, Soviet Union conquered Karelian Isthmus, historical fortress town of Vyborg and Ladoga Karelia from independent Finland during the Second World War.
Karelia became a bleeding wound for both parts during the Second World War. Almost 430 000 Karelian Finns, i.e. 12 per cent of the country's total population, lost their homes due to area losses, which accounted for about one tenth of the country's surface area. On the other side of the border, Finland occupied Eastern Karelia as part of the German offensive against the Soviet Union between 1941 and 1944. The occupation temporarily fulfilled an old dream about establishment of the Great Finland, a state uniting the areas populated by Baltic Finnic peoples, from Finland via Karelia and Ingermanland to Estonia. Russia's suspicion in the Republic of Karelia stem from the fear that the old idea of the Great Finland could be used in the modern framework of color revolutions in order to threaten territorial integrity of Russia.
The start of the new cold war suddenly signified Karelia's rise to a new prominence. The most immediate reason for this was Stratfor's Decade Forecast: 2015-2025, published in February 2015, which predicts that Russia will start to collapse during the time span of next ten years, and "in the northwest, the Karelian region will seek to rejoin Finland".
Stratfor is not the first actor to give Karelia a major importance in the geopolitical game of modern times. The main ideologist of New Eurasianism, Alexander Dugin, proposed in his book The Foundations of Geopolitics: The Geopolitical Future of Russia, published in 1997, that "the unstable state of Finland, which historically enters into the geopolitical space of Russia" would be "combined together with the Karelian Autonomous Republic of the Russian Federation into a single ethno-territorial formation with maximal cultural autonomy, but with strategic integration into the Eurasian bloc". According to Dugin, "the northern regions of Finland should be excised and donated to Murmansk oblast".
Lack of knowledge about present day realities of the Republic of Karelia can be found from both Stratfor and Dugin's views. Although Finno-Ugric peoples have historically populated the region, there has been a dramatic fall in the amount of Karelian and Vepsian speakers. Karelians made up 37 per cent of the region's population in 1926, whereas in 2010, according to the Census of Russia, their share was only 7,4 per cent. Karelian speaking population is nowadays heavily concentrated to the countryside and especially to the national districts of Olonets, Kalevala and Pryazha. In reality, they lack political significance, which could affect the region's international status.
It is difficult to estimate whether Stratfor's Decade Forecast was seriously made, given the absence of further arguments to the prediction about Karelia seeking to join Finland. Or was it just a provocation aiming to recreate tensions related to a national question of East Karelia, which flamed out a long time ago? Or was it made to encourage the support of NATO in Finland or to create wishful thinking among those Finns, who wish to regain the territories lost by Finland during the Second World War? The latter have for a very long time had only a trivial role in Finnish political life. It is also important to realize that there are at least three different notions of Karelia: Orthodox East Karelia that has never made part of Finland, the old Finnish territories annexed by the Soviet Union, and provinces of North and South Karelia, which currently are an integral part of Finland. Very few people in Finland consider changes of borders as a realistic or even wise option.
Rather an opportunity?
Alexander Dugin reflected more realism and understanding about the new realities of Russian Karelia in his words during his visit to Finland in May 2014. Instead of proposing any changes of borders, as in his book published in 1997, he raised the possibility that Russian Karelia, Karelian language and culture could be a bridge between Finland and Russia, and more broadly between the West and Eurasia.
Dugin said in his speech he gave in Helsinki that Finno-Ugric peoples are part of a common Eurasian heritage and identity together with Slavic, Turkish and Caucasian peoples. Consequently, connections of the Finns to Karelia, Udmurtia and other Finno-Ugric regions of Russia should be encouraged. Dugin's statement is remarkable because it is the first expression of support from the part of a remarkable Russian commentator to the Finno-Ugric languages and cultures of Russia.
A deteriorated political situation of the world has cast a shadow even on the cooperation between Finland and Russia. Sometimes it feels like western and Russian orthodox civilizations do not understand each other's thinking at all. Karelia could potentially be a bridge between Finland and Russia. Karelia, at the same time as a linguistically close and religiously differing territory to Finland, would have an opportunity to illustrate the other side of the border with another way of thinking. Karelia could lower the mental gap between Finland and Russia and create links between different cultural spheres.
The main merit of Alexander Dugin's speech was to demonstrate that Karelia, where Baltic Finnic languages are spoken, are in both Russia and Finland's interest. Currently, there is a clear contradiction in Dugin's message compared to the latest news heard from the Republic of Karelia. It is unclear whether the rhetorics used by Nikolai Patrushev in March 2015 related to Karelia was meant to be a signal inside Karelia or towards Finland. What is clear is that it does not serve the best interest of Russia from the point of view of its soft power abroad. However, there is still hope that Karelian language and culture could be seen in a positive way even more broadly in Russia.
Implications for the new cold war
Finland is situated in a very strategically important position from the point of view of Russia. It shares a long border with Russia with a situation close to the crucial Murmansk naval base and Russia's second most important city, Saint Petersburg. Moreover, domination of the south coast of Finland would provide the NATO with a potential to block the Gulf of Finland and maritime routes to Saint Petersburg. Therefore, Finland's non-aligned position is of utmost importance to Russia.
Nowadays Finland is the only EU member state with a long border with Russia that does not belong to the NATO. After having been a militarily non-aligned country for several decades, there has been an increasingly hectic debate about whether Finland should join the NATO. Notwithstanding strong efforts by the mainstream media and political elite to push the public opinion in favour of joining the transatlantic community, only 27 per cent of the Finns supported their country's membership in the military alliance.
Finland was a crucial mediator between the west and east during the Cold war in the process, which culminated in the Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe (CSCE) held in 1975 in Helsinki, Finland. Although Finland has lost a great deal of its sovereignty of its foreign policy due to its EU membership, President Sauli Niinistö has taken a rather mediating role between the west and Russia during the Ukraine crisis, relying on its last remains of its old non-aligned tradition. This highlights the potential that Russia can either utilize or lose in Finland.
Currently, Finnish public is scrutinizing the influence of Russia to their wellbeing and especially all efforts across their eastern border to put pressure on their country are under scrutiny. Therefore, one can just imagine the effect of the opening of the Finnish-speaking Sputnik news agency, which immediately reported as its breaking news about Mr Patrushev's warnings about the growing activity of Finnish nationalists and revanchists in Karelia.
Russia needs every bit of soft power in order to survive in the relentless informational warfare aiming to harm the Eurasian connection between Europe and Russia. As George Friedman, founder and chairman of Stratfor, has pointed out, the primordial interest of the United States is to stop a coalition between Germany and Russia (http://russia-insider.com/en/2015/03/16/4571). Consequently, Russia should not undermine the importance of Karelia as a potential source of its soft power. Karelian as a mutually intelligible language to Finnish, Karelia and Finland's common Kalevala folklore heritage, which has inspired even J. R. R. Tolkien, as well as Karelia's potential to function as a window to Russian and Eurasian mindscape for the Finns, are reasons why Russian authorities should think carefully if they are doing irreversible damage in the Russian-Karelian-Finnish cultural relations.
The beginning of the new cold war has raised tensions around the world. This has already reflected to the social situation in the Republic Karelia. Russian establishment's future reactions to Stratfor's predictions related to Karelia will tell about the ability and preparedness of the country to endure amid new geopolitical game. Russia's support to Karelian language and encouragement of creating contacts between locals and foreigners in the Republic of Karelia would be a signal to the world about a self-confident and strong country.
Sakari Linden is a geopolitical writer, who has participated actively in the cultural cooperation to preserve and promote Karelian language and culture. He holds Master's degrees in Political Science and International Law. (end of article by Sakari Linden)
Here are the most important dates from the site of Russian Karelian Republic
http://www.gov.karelia.ru/gov/Info/people/statesmen_e.html…
The Most Important Dates and Events
Year/ Events
7000-6000 B.C. The beginning of Karelia inhabitance
12-15 cc. Karelia is part of Novgorod feudal republic.
1227 Baptizing of the Karelians
1478 Karelia is included in the Russian state
1610-1611 Heroic defense of the town of Korela (Priozerks) from the Swedish invaders
1649 Olonets's foundation
1703-1707 Building of Olonetsky Petrovsky plant system
1773-1774 Foundation of Alexandrovsky (now Onezhsky) plant
1861 Opening of a regular transport connection between Petrozavodsk and St.Petersburg.
1869 Foundation of the first steam saw-mill in the region by the merchants Belyaevs in the settlement of Soroka (now the town of Byelomorsk).
1914-1916 Murmansk railway road construction
November 1917 - April 1918 The Soviet power establishment
July 1918 - March 1920 Civil war and foreign intervention in the region
8 of June, 1920 Establishment of Karelian Labor Commune
25 of July, 1923 Establishment of Karelian ASSR
1929 Konopozhskaya pulp and paper mill is the first enterprise of pulp and paper industry in Karelia
31 of March, 1940 Karelian ASSR is reestablished into Karelian-Finnish SSR
June 1941 The Great Patriotic war broke off
December 1941 The Soviet troops seized the enemy attack on the territory of Karelia
June-September, 1944 Karelia was set free from German-Finnish aggressors
16 of July,1956 Karelian-Finnish SSR was reestablished into Karelian SSR
9 of August,1990 State Sovereignty of Karelian ASSR was adopted by the Supreme Soviet of the Republic
13 of November, 1991 Karelian ASSR was renamed into the Republic of Karelia | |
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