Lecture V: POSTREVOLUTIONARY KARELIA: FROM SELF RULE TO SUPRESSION.

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Lecture V POST-REVOLUTIONARY KARELIA FROM SELF
RULE TO SUPRESSION.  

• In the framework of the course Crucial Issues of
  Russian Political History from the early XXth
  century up the present time
• Sergey Verigin, Ass. Prof.
• Petrozavodsk State University

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Contents list

• Finnish immigrants in the construction of the
  national state in Karelia in the 1920s
• II. National policy in Karelia in the 1920s
  1930s

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Map of Karelian Autonomy
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I. Finnish immigrants in the construction of the
national state in Karelia in 1920s Contemporary
insight into the problem

• In recent years political and administrative
  system of Karelia in 1920-30 has been an object
  of growing scholarly interest among historians.
  New archive documents inaccessible earlier and
  now available for historians allow a wider and
  deeper view of the problem.
• The establishment and development of the
  Karelian Labour Commune (KLC) and its national
  policy during 1920s and 1930s have been discussed
  in Karelian newspapers and magazines and at
  scholarly conferences.
• One of the main issues in the discussion is the
  role of the Red Finns in these processes, and the
  way of Karelia from self-rule to Suppression. 
• Until the late 1980s most historians shared the
  traditional viewpoint the establishment and
  development of the Karelian Labour Community
  (KLC) and later Karelian Autonomous Republic was
  an expression of the Karelian people. Finnish
  immigrants were called "red Finns" (among them
  were such prominent people as E.Gulling,
  Ju.Sirola, Ya.Maki and later A.Nuorteva, G.Rovio
  etc) had a great role in the birth and life of
  the KLC and expressed the interests of Karelians.

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Contemporary insight into the problem

• From the beginning of 1990s another point of view
  appeared
• establishment and development of the Karelian
  Labour Community (KLC) was a result of agreement
  between Centre (Lenin) and Finnish immigrants to
  form the Karelian autonomy as a bulwark of the
  world revolution in the North of Europe

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Movement for independence from Russia. Reaction
of Moscow

• By the autumn of 1919 the national movement in
  the northern districts of Karelia was gaining
  under the slogan of a sovereign and independent
  Karelia.
• Late March 1920 - in the settlement of Ukhta a
  Congress of the representatives of the northern
  Karelian districts was held. It established
  Provisional Government in Karelia and adopted a
  resolution on Karelian independence.
• April 1920 - this resolution was handed over to
  the representatives of Soviet Russia during the
  Soviet-Finnish negotiations about peace..  The
  Soviets viewed that as a preliminary step on the
  way towards future incorporation of Karelia into
  Finland. Shortly after that the question of
  Karelian autonomy within Soviet Russia was
  discussed in Moscow.
• On April 18, 1920 in Petrozavodsk at a meeting of
  the Olonets Provincial Executive Committee
  (gubispolkom)  special Bureau was established.
• Its primary aim was to convene the
  Congress of the Karelian working people.
• The members of the Bureau were I. Nikitin,
  P. Kunzhin and F.Yegorov.
• The Bureau called for the election of
  delegates to the Congress of the Karelian working
  people and asked for the publication of the
  protocols of the meetings of Karelian population
  reflecting the attitude of the people towards
  Finland, Russian and Karelian independence.
• The main aim of the Congress was formulated
  as follows "The Congress will express the real
  aspirations of the Karelian working people and
  will unite and declare whom they would wish to
  live with".

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Role of the Finnish emigrants

• However before this Congress on June 8, 1920,
  VCIK - the All-Russian Central Executive
  Committee - adopted the resolution on the
  establishment of the Karelian Labour Commune in
  the areas of Olonets and Archangelsk provinces,
  inhabited by the Karelians. In this decision VCIK
  proceeded from the Constitution of the RSFSR,
  Article 11. 
• For the decision-making on Karelian national
  autonomy prominent figures of the Finnish
  revolutionary movement were invited - Gulling and
  Sirola, who immigrated to Soviet Russia alongside
  with other Finnish revolutionaries after the
  defeat of the 1918 Revolution in Finland.  Their
  views proceeded from an attractive ides of the
  world socialist revolution. In March 1920 Gulling
  wrote to Sirola "Karelia and Kola Peninsula
  should form a special KLC, which would border the
  White Sea, Lake Onego, Finland and the Arctic
  Ocean. KLC had to become a bulwark of the world
  revolution in the North of Europe. (The copy of
  this letter is kept in the National Archive of
  Karelia ). 
• Gulling believed it was necessary "to attract the
  Red Finns from Finland and Russia, for the KLC
  should be guided by the supporters of this
  cause".  Lenin and other Soviet leaders
  supported these ideas.

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All-Karelian Congress

• On July 1-3, 1920 - the All-Karelian Congress of
  working Karelians was held represented by 142
  delegates from 24 Karelian volosts (small rural
  districts) - 7 northern Karelian volosts were not
  represented. Some population and volosts
  supported the idea to unify with Finland. Most of
  the mandates to the delegates boiled down to the
  demand "to stand up for Soviet power and express
  a rebuff' to the claims of' Finland".
• A majority of the delegates supported the
  decision of the All-Union Executive Committee on
  establishing Karelian autonomy within the RSFSR.
  However some delegates were against that decision
  and in favour of an independent Karelia

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First All-Karelian Congress of Deputes

• February 1921 - the I All-Karelian Congress of'
  Soviets  of Workers, Peasants, and Red army
  Deputies was held which completed the formation
  of the KLC.
• The Congress elected an Executive Committee
  headed by Gulling. He became the leader at
  Karelian Autonomy. 
• Gulling, Rovio and other Finnish revolutionaries
  in their speeches repeatedly expressed the idea
  that the KLC had to become a bulwark of the world
  revolution in the North of Europe.

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Edvard Gylling (30.11.1881 - 14.06.1938).

• Life of Edvard Gylling can be divided into two
  halves
• Up to June 1918 he resided in Finland,
  being simultaneously a politician and an
  academic. As an academic he pioneered the use of
  statistical methods in the agrarian history of
  Finland. As a leading member of the Finnish
  Social Democratic Party, he was the party's
  expert on agrarian affairs.
• In 1918-1920 he was negotiating with
  Lenin on the issues of political and economic
  development of Karelia.
• In 1920 after the Finnish revolution was
  suppressed, he migrated to the Soviet Russia. In
  the Soviet Russia and than in the Soviet Union
  Gylling quickly became the most important
  political figure in Karelia.
• In 1920 Lenin invited Gylling to Moscow,
  they had final talks in Moscow on Karelia's
  future status. Lenin promised that Karelia would
  retain a Finnish character, and Russian migration
  would be kept to a minimum. Gylling acquired a
  measure of budgetary autonomy for Karelia and
  made Finnish language equal to the Russian
  language in official transactions
• By 1923 he was Permanent Chairman of the
  Council of People's Commissars in Karelia.
• Gylling maintained the Finnish character
  of Karelia through the 1920's. With the
  imposition of Stalin's First Five Year Plan in
  1929, Russian migration in the form of a large,
  new work force would surely change the ethnic
  character of Karelia and do so dramatically.
• Gylling decided to recruit an ethnically
  Finnish work force in North America. He had seen
  the North American Finnish diaspora form earlier
  in the century. Since the 1920's it had often
  sent aid to Karelia. By the end of the 1930's
  Gylling and the North American Finns whom he
  recruited would share the same fate they were
  repressed

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Economic basis of political and national reforms
in Karelia

• In the 1920s the policy of establishing various
  forms of statehood for different nations and
  national groups of Russia (and later - of the
  USSR) was mostly pragmatic and resulted from the
  prevailing situation. 
• At the time the situation was favourable for
  creating necessary conditions for poorly
  developed nations. Nationality statehood helped
  training cadres of national intelligentsia and
  the raising cultural level of the peoples, which
  inhabited the distant national provinces of the
  former Russian Empire.

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Edvard Gylling (30.11.1881 - 14.06.1938).
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National policy in Karelia

• The national policy of the Bolsheviks was always
  permeated with internationally favour.
• In 1921-1922 the members, of the Olonets Province
  Executive Committee (Gubispolkom) repeatedly
  appealed to Moscow protesting against
  incorporating Petrozavodsk into the KLC, its
  population was mostly Russian, thus increasing
  the total Russian population in the KLC up to
  36,2 .
• In 1922-1924 leaders of the KLC succeeded in
  proving the necessity of enlarging the territory
  owing to "Pudozh, Trans-Onego ( Zaonezhje ) and
  the White Sea areas which were attracted to the
  KLC for economic and geographic reasons." That
  allowed for establishment of the autonomous
  republic in 1923, though, the Karelian population
  in the republic was in a minority 37 . The
  territory of the KLC was favourable for its
  economic development and complied with the image
  of Karelian autonomy as the bulwark of the global
  socialist revolution in the North of Europe. 

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II. National policy in Karelia in the
1920s.Language policy in contemporary historical
science

• The authors of the Russian publications on the
  problem of' language policy pursued by the Red
  Finns - the leaders of the KLC and the Karelian
  Autonomous Republic in the 1920s - early 1930s. -
  are not unanimous either. Some scholars believe
  the pre - revolutionary policy of russifying the
  Karelian population was changed for the policy of
  extensively cultivating the Finnish language and
  culture which undermined the development of the
  Karelian and Veps languages (policy of
  finnization) 
• other scholars understand it as an honest attempt
  of the leaders of Karelian Autonomy to make use
  of a developed Finnish language for promoting the
  culture of the Karelian and the Veps peoples.

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All-Karelian Congress and language policy

• July 1920 - many delegates of the All -Karelian
  Congress of working Karelians asked for
  development and cultivating of the Karelian
  literary languages.
• In the "Immediate Tasks of the Revcom" approved
  by the Congress. In paragraph 1 we read
• "To develop the people's culture as many
  public schools should be opened as possible with
  the teaching done in the mother tongue (i.e. the
  Karelian language - S.V.), Russian, or Finnish in
  accordance with the people's will".
• In the "Statement on Self - Government in Eastern
  Karelia" which was included in the Protocol of
  the Peace Treaty between the Soviet Russia and
  Finland, signed 14 October 1920, in paragraph 4
  we read
• "The local national language is the
  language of administration, legislation and
  education". 
• However, these decisions were not fulfilled
  in the years that followed

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Diversity of national languages in Karelia

• Factors influenced the stand of the Red Finns in
  determining language policy in the 1920s
• the Karelian language was poorly studied by
  Russian linguists
• serious differences among the Karelian dialects,
• lack of' cadres among the Karelian
  intelligentsia
• the northern dialects of' the Karelian language
  had much in common with the Finnish language .
• The Red Finns came to the conclusion that
  the formation of a Karelian literary language was
  unreasonable and that the promotion of cultural
  level of the Karelian population could easily be
  done with the help of the Finnish language. 

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Finnish language as the second official language

• With the formation of the KLC the Finnish
  language was acknowledged as an official language
  of' the autonomy, alongside the Russian language,
  though only 0,5 of the total population spoke
  Finnish. 
• The main principles of' language policy were
  specified in 1921-1924 at the All-Karelian
  Congresses of Soviets. There were two literary
  languages in the region, and the Karelians   were
  offered to choose either Russian or Finnish.

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"Finnization"

• The 1920s - was a period of' a policy of' a
  "smooth finnization" (imposing the Finnish
  language and culture).
• The Red Finns were trying to give the Karelians
  access to the Finnish language through the
  intensive use of local Karelian dialects.
• The cultural experience of the republic in the
  1920 s showed that the Karelians of the northern
  and north-western districts chose the Finnish
  literary language, which was close to them, while
  the Karelians of the southern districts and the
  Vepsian were brought to literacy and culture
  through the Russian language.
• August 1929 - the issues of language policy were
  discussed at the plenary session of' the Karelian
  regional committee of' the All-Union Communist
  Party of the Bolsheviks, (the VCP (b)).
• The resolution of the plenum stressed compulsory
  study of the Finnish language at schools with
  prevailing Karelian population and emphasized
  Finnish as the main language of' culture and even
  of everyday communication of' the Karelians,
  which would result in equality of' the social
  functions of the Finnish and Russian languages.
  This resolution was an expression of wish to
  raise the cultural level of the Karelian people
  in a short time. (It was a period of a policy of
  a tough finnization)

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New settlers

• Migration processes also influenced the language
  policy of the Red Finns.
• Fast growing industry, timber cutting in
  particular, required additional seasonal work
  force from other regions of the RSFSR.
• Thus, in 1928-1929 25.000 people arrived in
  timber-cutting areas
• in 1929-1930 - about 60.000
• the next year - still more.
• Among those seasonal workers were Russians,
  Byelorussians, Ukranians, Tatars, Mordva and
  others. Many of them settled there permanently.
  In this way the proportion of Karels, Veps and
  Finns in the total population of the republic was
  declining while the number of Russians and
  representatives of other nationalities was
  growing.
• The Red Finns believed that the policy of
  finnisation pursued in the late 1920s and early
  1930s would strengthen the nationality elements
  in the republic.

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White and Baltic Sea Canal new settlers are
working under the music of orchestra
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Census of 1933 in Karelia

• January 1933 - the initial results of cultural
  development in Karelia under the accelerated
  introduction of' the Finnish language were shown
  by the census of the population.
• The census showed the trend to literacy in
  Finnish among the Karels of the northern
  districts of Karelia district of Ukhta, where 80
  of the literate population knew Finnish and 17
  knew both Russian and Finnish of Kestenga
  where those numbers were 81 and 16
  respectively of Rugozero with 46 and 35
  respectively . Thus that trend in the above areas
  continued as before. 
• In the central and southern districts the trend
  to Russian literacy continued as before in
  Segozero District, of all literate people 62
  spoke Russian and 22 , spoke both Russian and
  Finnish in Petrovsky District, those figures
  constituted 64 and 24 respectively in the
  district of Olonets 60 and 22 in that of'
  Pryazha 56 and 24 respectively.

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Opposition to the policy of finnization

• In some parts of Karelia, mainly in its southern
  districts (Olonetsky, Vidlitsky, Petrovsky
  districts) the policy of finnization encountered
  opposition from the local population.
• However, any attempts to raise the question
  of developing the Karelian language were
  counteracted by the leadership of' the Karelian
  republic. 
• In 1929 newspaper "The Red Karelia" wrote
• "Some groups of the Russian and Karelian
  russified intelligentsia are considering
  elaboration of a special Karelian literary
  language. Without discussion a political nature
  of this issue we can say all that is beneath any
  criticism from cultural points of view".

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Attempts of finnization outside Karelia

• In early 1930s the republic government suggested
  an idea of introduction the Finnish language as
  the literary and unifying language not only for
  local Karelian population but for the
  Ingermanlanders of Leningrad region and for the
  Karelians of Tver region as well.
• In 1930-1931 on the initiative of the
  Karelian leaders literature in the Finnish
  language started circulating among the Karelians
  of Tver region.
• This idea was met with a strong rebuff on
  the part of the Karelian population of Tver
  region an its leadership, on whose initiative in
  the 1930s the elaboration of the Karelian written
  language was started for the local population.
  Moscow also did not support this idea of Red
  Finns.

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A cease of the finnization policy

• In September 1935 - national policy was discussed
  at the Vth plenary session of' the Karelian
  regional Communist party committees, which was
  prepared and held under the guidance of the
  Leningrad regional committees of the VCP (b).
• The Red Finns' policy was subjected to
  strong criticism and the compulsory introduction
  of the Finnish literary language for the whole of
  the Karelian population in particular.
  Proceeding from the facts that stemmed from
  these objective realities, far-fetching political
  conclusions were drawn.
• To quote the plenary session resolution, " the
  party leaders of' the republic not only failed to
  provide education of the working masses of
  Karelia in the spirit of' internationalism but in
  many cases followed nationalist elements
  attracted by bourgeois Finland", which distorted
  the real state of things.
• On these grounds Rovio, the Regional
  Committee secretary, Gulling, the Chairman of the
  Council of People's Commissary, and a number of
  other leaders, Finns and Karels by nationality,
  were dismissed. Later, in the second half of the
  1930s most of them were lawlessly subjected to
  repression.
• After that the Karelia republic lost self-rule
  and became ordinary district of Russian
  Federation.

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Literature to topic 5

• North American Finns in Soviet Karelia in the
  1930s. Petrozavodsk, 2008. 270 p.
• Missing in Karelia http // missinginkarelia.org
  
• Oral History Center of Petrozavodsk State
  University http // oralhist. karelia.ru
• Kostiainen, Auvo, 1977. The Tragic Crisis
  Finnish-American Workers and Civil War in
  Finland.
• Kangaspuro, Markku, 2004. The Soviet Depression
  and Finnish Immigrants in Soviet Karelia. Journal
  of Finnish Studies Vol 8 ?1.
• Kangaspuro, Markku, 2000. Neuvosto-Karjalan
  taistelu itsehallinnosta. Helsinki.