Republic of Karelia
Republic of Karelia | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Country | Russia |
| Federal district | [1] |
| Economic region | [2] |
| Population | |
• Estimate (2018)[4] | 622,484 |
| Time zone | UTC+3 (UTC+03:00  [5]) |
| OKTMO ID | 86000000 |
| Official languages | Russian[6] |
The Republic of Karelia (Template:Lang-ru) 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.
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: 172,400 km²
- Borders:
- internal: Murmansk Oblast (N), Arkhangelsk Oblast (E/SE), Vologda Oblast (SE/S), Leningrad Oblast (S/SW)
- international: Finland (SW/enwiki/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: 576 meter, 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%)
Early 20th-century photo of a bridge across the Shuya River - 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.
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. However, Lutheranism was brought to the area by the Finnish immigrants during Sweden's conquest of Karelia.
Notes
- ^ Президент Российской Федерации. Указ №849 от 13 мая 2000 г. «О полномочном представителе Президента Российской Федерации в федеральном округе». Вступил в силу 13 мая 2000 г. Опубликован: "Собрание законодательства РФ", No. 20, ст. 2112, 15 мая 2000 г. (President of the Russian Federation. Decree #849 of May 13, 2000 On the Plenipotentiary Representative of the President of the Russian Federation in a Federal District. Effective as of May 13, 2000.).
- ^ Госстандарт Российской Федерации. №ОК 024-95 27 декабря 1995 г. «Общероссийский классификатор экономических регионов. 2. Экономические районы», в ред. Изменения №5/2001 ОКЭР. (Gosstandart of the Russian Federation. #OK 024-95 December 27, 1995 Russian Classification of Economic Regions. 2. Economic Regions, as amended by the Amendment #5/2001 OKER. ).
- ^ "Сведения о наличии и распределении земель в Российской Федерации на 01.01.2019 (в разрезе субъектов Российской Федерации)". Federal Service for State Registration, Cadastre and Cartography. Archived from the original on 9 February 2022. Retrieved 29 August 2023.
- ^ "26. Численность постоянного населения Российской Федерации по муниципальным образованиям на 1 января 2018 года". Federal State Statistics Service. Retrieved 23 January 2019.
- ^ "Об исчислении времени". Официальный интернет-портал правовой информации (in Russian). 3 June 2011. Retrieved 19 January 2019.
- ^ Official throughout the Russian Federation according to Article 68.1 of the Constitution of Russia.
See also
External links
- Template:En icon Template:Ru icon Template:Fi icon Official website of the Republic of Karelia.
- Template:En icon Template:Ru icon Template:Fi icon Karelia.ru web server.
- Template:En icon Template:Ru icon Template:Fi icon Window to Karelia server (also in Karelian).
- Template:En icon Template:Ru icon Template:Fi icon Heninen.net - various information about Karelia.
- Template:En icon Information about Karelians.
- Template:En icon Virtual Finland - "The Many Karelias" article.
- Template:En icon ProKarelia (also available in other languages).