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Karelo-Finnish Soviet Socialist Republic Karjalais-suomalainen Sosialistinen Neuvostotasavalta
← ← 1940 — 1956 →
Flag Coat of arms
State motto: Finnish: Kaikkien maiden proletaarit, liittykää yhteen! Translation: Workers of the world, unite!
Capital	Petrozavodsk
Official language	Finnish and Russian
Established In the USSR:  - Since  - Until	March 31, 1940 March 31, 1940 July 16, 1956
Area  - Total  - Water (%)	Ranked 7th in the USSR 172,400 km² 25%
Population  - Total   - Density	Ranked 16th in the USSR 651,300 (1959) 3.8/km²
Currency	rouble (rupla)
Time zone	UTC + 3
Anthem	Anthem of Karelo-Finnish SSR
Medals	{{{medals}}}

Karelo-Finnish SSR in 1940, during the Interim Peace

The Karelo-Finnish Soviet Socialist Republic (Karelo-Finnish S.S.R., Finnish: Karjalais-suomalainen sosialistinen neuvostotasavalta, Russian: Карело-Финская Советская Социалистическая Республика or Karelo-Finskaya Sovietskaya Sotsialisticheskaya Respublika) was a republic of the Soviet Union that existed between 1940 and 1956.

The Karelo-Finnish Soviet Socialist Republic was set up on March 31, 1940 by merging the KASSR with the Finnish Democratic Republic (created in territory ceded by Finland in the Winter War with Moscow Peace Treaty, namely Karelian Isthmus and Ladoga Karelia, including the cities of Viipuri and Sortavala). The entire Karelian population of the ceded areas of about 422 thousand people was voluntarily evacuated to Finland (see Evacuation of Finnish Karelia), and the territories were settled by people from other parts of the Soviet Union. In the ensuing Continuation War, in 1941 Finland occupied and reannexed the territory. In 1944 the Soviet Union recaptured the area, which was recognized by Finland in the Moscow Armistice and Paris Peace Treaty. Karelians evacuated again. Karelian Isthmus with Vyborg (Viipuri) was transferred from Karelo-Finnish SSR to Leningrad Oblast, but Ladoga Karelia remained a part of the republic. On July 16, 1956, the republic was incorporated into the Russian SFSR as the Karelian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. It became the Republic of Karelia, a subdivision of the Russian Federation, on November 13, 1991.

Karelians and Finns were always a minority of around 10% in the republic—at the time, the only Soviet Republic whose titular nation was a minority in its own republic. A Soviet joke said there were only two Finns in Karelia - Finkelstein and Fininspektor which, on a closer look, were only one: the Jewish Finance inspector Finkelstein. .^[1]

The chairman of the Karelo-Finnish Supreme Soviet (1940-1956) was Finnish communist Otto Ville Kuusinen. In the republic there was also a separate Karelo-Finnish Communist Party led in the 1940s by G.N. Kupriyanov.

• Winter War
• Finnish Karelia
• Karelia
• Republics of the Soviet Union
• Soviet Union

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Short-lived Soviet Republics	Donetsk-Krivoy Rog Soviet Republic (1918)  · Odessa Soviet Republic (1918)  · Alsace Soviet Republic (1918)  · Bavarian Soviet Republic (1919)  · Slovak Soviet Republic (1919)  · Hungarian Soviet Republic (1919)  · Galician Soviet Socialist Republic (1920)  · Latvian Socialist Soviet Republic (1918–1920)  · Persian Socialist Soviet Republic (1920-1921)  · Abkhazian Soviet Socialist Republic (1921-1931)  ·  Transcaucasian SFSR (1922-1936)  · Karelo-Finnish Soviet Socialist Republic (1940-1956)

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