The Karelian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (Russian: Каре́льская Автоно́мная Сове́тская Социалисти́ческая Респу́блика, Karelskaya Avtonomnaya Sovetskaya Sotsialisticheskaya Respublika; Finnish: Karjalan autonominen sosialistinen neuvostotasavalta), or, in short, the Karelian ASSR (Russian: Каре́льская АССР, Karelskaya ASSR; Finnish: Karjalan ASNT) was an autonomous republic of the Russian SFSR, Soviet Union, with the capital in Petrozavodsk.
The Karelian ASSR was formed as a part of the Russian SFSR by the Resolution of the Presidium of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee (VTsIK) of June 27, 1923 and by the Decree of the VTsIK and the Council of People's Commissars of July 25, 1923 from the Karelian Labor Commune. In 1927, the ASSR was divided into districts, which replaced the old volosts.
From 1940 to 1956, territory annexed from Finland was incorporated with the previous Karelian Autonomous Republic to form the Karelo-Finnish Soviet Socialist Republic, which had the status of a union republic in the federal structure of the Soviet Union. By this time, only about 10% of the population of this region was of Karelian or Finnish ethnic background.
On July 16, 1956, the SSR was downgraded from a Union Republic to an ASSR, and retroceded to the Russian SFSR.
Today, the Republic of Karelia is a federal subject of Russia.
Famous quotes containing the words autonomous, soviet, socialist and/or republic:
“There is a totalitarian regime inside every one of us. We are ruled by a ruthless politburo which sets ours norms and drives us from one five-year plan to another. The autonomous individual who has to justify his existence by his own efforts is in eternal bondage to himself.”
—Eric Hoffer (1902–1983)
“In the Soviet Union everything happens slowly. Always remember that.”
—A.N. (Arkady N.)
“Democracy is the wholesome and pure air without which a socialist public organization cannot live a full-blooded life.”
—Mikhail Gorbachev (b. 1931)
“Paper is cheap, and authors need not now erase one book before they write another. Instead of cultivating the earth for wheat and potatoes, they cultivate literature, and fill a place in the Republic of Letters. Or they would fain write for fame merely, as others actually raise crops of grain to be distilled into brandy.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)