REPUBLIC OF KARELIA

The 'Republic of Karelia' () is a federal subject of the Russian Federation (a republic). The direct romanization of the republic's name is ''Respublika Kareliya''. In Karelian, the Republic is called ''Karjalan Tazavalla''.

Contents

Geography

Time zone

Rivers

Lakes

Natural resources

Administrative divisions

Demographics

History

Politics

Culture

Religion

Notes

See also

External links

Geography

The Republic is located in the north-western part of the Russian Federation, taking intervening position between the basins of White and Baltic seas. The White Sea shore line is 630 km.

★ ''Area'':

★ ''Borders'':

★
★ ''internal'': Murmansk Oblast (N), Arkhangelsk Oblast (E/SE), Vologda Oblast (SE/S), Leningrad Oblast (S/SW)

★
★ ''international'': Finland (SW/W/NW) (border line length: 723 km)

★
★ ''water'': White Sea (an inlet of the Barents Sea) (N/NE/E), Lake Onega (SE), Lake Ladoga (SW)

★ ''Highest point'': , the Nuorunen peak.

Time zone

The Republic of Karelia is located in the Moscow Time Zone (MSK/MSD). UTC offset is +0300 (MSK)/+0400 (MSD).

Rivers

There are about 27,000 rivers in Karelia. Major rivers include:

★ Vodla River (149 km)

★ Kem River (191 km)

★ Kovda River

★ Shuya River

★ Suna River with Kivach Waterfall

★ Vyg River

Lakes

There are 60,000 lakes in Karelia. Republic's lakes and swamps contain about 2,000 km³ of high-quality fresh water. Lake Ladoga (Finnish:''Laatokka'') and Lake Onega (''Ääninen'') are the largest lakes in Europe. Other lakes include:


★ Nyukozero (''Nuokkijärvi'')

★ Pyaozero (''Pääjärvi'')

★ Segozero (''Seesjärvi'')

★ Syamozero (''Säämäjärvi'')

★ Topozero (''Tuoppajärvi'')

★ Vygozero (''Uikujärvi'')

Natural resources

The most part of the republic's territory (148,000 km², or 85%) is composed of state forest stock. The total growing stock of timber resources in the forests of all categories and ages is 807 million m³. The mature and overmature tree stock amounts to 411.8 million m³, of which 375.2 million m³ is coniferous.
Fifty useful minerals are found in Karelia, located in more than 400 deposits and orebearing layers. Natural resources of the republic include iron ore, diamonds, vanadium, molybdenum, and others.

Administrative divisions

Demographics

★ 'Population': 716,281 (2002)

★
★ ''Urban'': 537.395 (75.0%)

★
★ ''Rural'': 178,886 (25.0%)

★
★ ''Male'': 331,505 (46.3%)

★
★ ''Female'': 384,776 (53.7%)

★ 'Females per 1000 males': 1,161

★ 'Average age': 37.1 years

★
★ ''Urban'': 35.9 years

★
★ ''Rural'': 40.6 years

★
★ ''Male'': 33.9 years

★
★ ''Female'': 39.9 years

★ 'Number of households': 279,915 (with 701,314 people)

★
★ ''Urban'': 208,041 (with 525,964 people)

★
★ ''Rural'': 71,874 (with 175,350 people)

★ 'Vital statistics' (2005)

★
★ ''Births'': 6,952 (birth rate 9.9)

★
★ ''Deaths'': 12,649 (death rate 18.1)

★ 'Ethnic groups'
According to the 2002 Census, ethnic Russians make up 76.6% of the republic's population, while the ethnic Karelians are only 9.2%. Other groups include Belarusians (5.3%), Ukrainians (2.7%), Finns (2.0%), Veps (0.7%), and a host of smaller groups, each accounting for less than 0.5% of the total population. 4,886 people (0.7%) did not indicate their nationality during the Census.

	census 1926	census 1939	census 1959	census 1970	census 1979	census 1989	census 2002
Karelians	100,781 (37.4%)	108,571 (23.2%)	85,473 (13.0%)	84,180 (11.8%)	81,274 (11.1%)	78,928 (10.0%)	65,651 (9.2%)
Finns	2,544 (0.9%)	8,322 (1.8%)	27,829 (4.2%)	22,174 (3.1%)	20,099 (2.7%)	18,420 (2.3%)	14,156 (2.0%)
Veps	8,587 (3.2%)	9,392 (2.0%)	7,179 (1.1%)	6,323 (0.9%)	5,864 (0.8%)	5,954 (0.8%)	4,870 (0.7%)
Russians	153,967 (57.2%)	296,529 (63.2%)	412,773 (62.7%)	486,198 (68.1%)	522,230 (71.3%)	581,571 (73.6%)	548,941 (76.6%)
Belarusians	555 (0.2%)	4,263 (0.9%)	71,900 (10.9%)	66,410 (9.3%)	59,394 (8.1%)	55,530 (7.0%)	37,681 (5.3%)
Ukrainians	708 (0.3%)	21,112 (4.5%)	23,569 (3.6%)	27,440 (3.8%)	23,765 (3.2%)	28,242 (3.6%)	19,248 (2.7%)
Others	2,194 (0.8%)	20,709 (4.4%)	29,869 (4.5%)	20,726 (2.9%)	19,565 (2.7%)	21,505 (2.7%)	25,734 (3.6%)

The Karelian language is close to Finnish, and in recent years, it has been considered by some authorities as a dialect of Finnish. Nevertheless, far Eastern Karelian might not be completely mutually intelligible with Finnish and could be considered a proper language. Russian is currently the only official language of the republic, but there is a motion in the republic's government to make Karelian official as well.
Ethnic Russian and other Soviet-era immigrants in the republic rarely speak Karelian. Russification of Karelia is still ongoing.

History

Historically, Karelia was a region to the northwest of Russia, east of present-day Finland, controlled by the Novgorod Republic. From the 13th century and onwards, various parts were conquered by Sweden, and incorporated into Swedish Karelia until they were lost to Russia by the Treaty of Nystad in 1721.
In 1923, the province became the 'Karelian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic' (Karelian ASSR). From 1940 it was made into the Karelo-Finnish SSR, incorporating the Finnish Democratic Republic created during the Winter War. Annexed territories were incorporated into Karelo-Finnish SSR after the Winter War but after the Continuation War the Karelian Isthmus was incorporated into the Leningrad Oblast. Its status was changed back to an ASSR in 1956. During the Continuation War in 1941 Finland occupied large parts of the area but was forced to withdraw in 1944. Though Finland is not currenty pursuing any measures to reclaim Karelian lands ceded to Russia, the "Karelian Question" is still a topic present in Finnish politics.
The autonomous ''Republic of Karelia'' in its present form was formed on November 13, 1991.

Politics

The highest executive authority in the Republic of Karelia is the Head of the Republic. As of 2007, the Head of the Republic is Sergey Leonidovich Katanandov, who was elected in May of 2002.
The parliament of the Republic of Karelia is the Legislative Assembly comprising 50 deputies elected for a four year term.
The Constitution of the Republic of Karelia was adopted on February 12, 2001.

Culture

Karelia is sometimes called "the songlands" in the Finnish culture, as Karelian poems constitute most of the Finnish national epic Kalevala.

Religion

The Karelians have been traditionally Russian Orthodox, known in Finland for their small chapels called ''tsasouna'' (variant spelling of Russian "часовня" "chasovnya", chapel). However, Lutheranism was brought to the area by the Finnish immigrants during Sweden's conquest of Karelia.

Notes

1. Russian is currently the only official language of the Republic of Karelia. Although the Karelian language does not have official status at present, a motion has been set in place to grant it a place alongside Russian in the republic's government.

See also

★ Karelia

★ Music of Karelia

★ Sami music

★ Pegrema

★ Karelian Isthmus

External links

★ Official website of the Republic of Karelia.

★ Karelia.ru web server.

★ Window to Karelia server (also in Karelian).

★ Heninen.net - various information about Karelia.

★ Information about Karelians.

★ Virtual Finland - "The Many Karelias" article.

★ ProKarelia (also available in other languages).