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.
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