Karelia

Karelia (Karelian: Karjala), officially the Republic of Karelia (Karelian: Karjalan tazavaldu), is a Nordic country located in Northern Europe. Karelia shares land borders with Finland to the west, Russia to the east, and Norway to the north. Karelia has a population of approximately 3.8 million, making it the 31th-most populous country in Europe. With an area of 214,948 square kilometers (82,992 sq mi), Karelia is the 13th-largest country in Europe, and the second most sparsely populated country in the European Union. Petroskoi, the capital of Karelia, is the largest city in the country.

Karelia is among the founding members of the Nordic Council, OECD, OSCE, and the United Nations; it is also part of the Schengen Area.

Early history
Karelia was bitterly fought over by Sweden and the Novgorod Republic for a period starting in the 13th-century Swedish-Novgorodian Wars. The Treaty of Nöteborg in 1323 divided Karelia between the two. Viborg became the capital of the new Swedish province. In the Treaty of Stolbovo in 1617 large parts of Russian Karelia were ceded to Sweden. Conflicts between the new Swedish rulers and the indigenous population of these areas led to an exodus: thousands of Karelians, including the ancestors of the Tver Karelians, emigrated to Russia.

The Treaty of Nystad in 1721 between Imperial Russia and Sweden ceded most of Karelia to Russia. The Treaty of Åbo in 1743 between Sweden and Russia then ceded South Karelia to Russia. After Finland had been occupied by Russia in the Finnish War, parts of the ceded provinces (Old Finland) were incorporated into the Grand Duchy of Finland. In 1917, Finland became independent and the border was confirmed by the Treaty of Tartu in 1920.

On November 7, 1917, the Russian Civil War started in the former Russian Empire immediately after the two Russian revolutions of 1917, as many factions vied to determine Russia's political future. The two largest combatant groups were the Red Army, fighting for the Bolshevik form of socialism led by Vladimir Lenin, and the loosely allied forces known as the White Army, which included diverse interests favoring political monarchism, capitalism, and social democracy, each with democratic and anti-democratic variants.

In the Russian Civil War, pro-independence movements within the former Russian Empire’s territory sought to create independent and non-Bolshevik nation-states after the October Revolution. Among these was Finland, which had entered a civil war in 1918, fought for the leadership and control of Finland during the country's transition from a Grand Duchy of the Russian Empire to an independent state.

Independence
Nearby in the region of Karelia, the Karelian people saw this chaos and turmoil in the former Russian Empire and Finland as a chance to reunite as one independent country. On February 6th, 1918, Karelian officials from the Russian regions of White Karelia, Olonets Karelia, Ladoga Karelia, the Karelian Isthmus, and the Finnish Karelian province, met in Petrozavodsk and declared the independence of the Republic of Karelia, with its capital at Petrozavodsk, which was renamed Petroskoi, the name in Karelian.

Both the Bolsheviks and White Army of Russia were too busy fighting each other in the brutal civil war to deal much with the newly formed Karelian Republic, which gave the Karelians time to mobilize their army. Karelia quickly made allies with other fellow separatists from the former Russian Empire, including Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Ukraine. Karelia conscripted soldiers for a new Karelian army and supplied them with weapons from around the nation. Karelia's allies also helped supply them with weapons.

Karelia then saw a good opportunity to invade the mostly undefended Kola Peninsula to the north for more safety and land. The Karelian Army quickly invaded and occupied the rest of the land to the north of the country, and then invaded the rest of the Kola Peninsula. They were met with a considerable amount of troops from the White Army defending the quite recently founded City of Murmansk. The Karelian army fought over the city with them. The holdout ran out of supplies, became outnumbered by the Karelian troops, and surrendered. Karelia proceeded to occupy the rest of the Kola Peninsula and annexed it.

The Finnish Civil War had recently ended in a victory for the Finnish Whites. Karelia was not on very good terms with Finland as two of their regions had joined the new republic. Karelia hosted a summit with the Finnish leaders in the capital, Petroskoi, and agreed to make peace with the Finns. The Bolsheviks were starting to win the war, and Finland helped defend Karelia's borders from them, now that Finland no longer bordered Russia.

Towards the end of the Russian Civil War, the Bolsheviks had largely defeated the White Army in Europe, and now wanted revenge on Karelia for seceding. On April 17th, 1921, the Red Army invaded Karelia's eastern borders. The Karelian Army was ready for an attack by the Reds and had plenty of Finnish troops reinforcing them. A Karelian camp by the border poisoned the food at their camp fled westwards. The Red Army thought were an incompetent new country for leaving all their food at the camp. Little did they know it was poisoned, and many started suffering severe illness and vomiting once they ate it. A lot died within days, and the regiment was forced to retreat. Karelia knew they would attack again with more reinforcements, and sent their army to counterattack. On April 25th, the Karelian Army ambushed the resting Bolshevik soldiers at a nearby settlement in a surprise attack. The Karelians burned down any supplies or food at the settlement and returned to Karelia.

The Bolshevik reinforcements soon came and were met with the defending Karelians and Finns. Karelia fiercely defended its capital Petroskoi, and any Russian attack failed. The Bolsheviks decided to attack the nearby town of Pitkyrandu, formerly Pitkyaranta. Most Karelians were guarding Petroskoi, so the small army defending Pitkyrandu used guerrilla tactics against the Red Army until more Finnish reinforcements came to win the siege. The Bolsheviks saw the Karelian Campaign as hopeless and decided to make peace with Karelia. The Treaty of Petroskoi was signed on August 2nd, 1921 between the Republic of Karelia and the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, ending the Karelian War of Independence. The Russian Civil War itself later came to an end on June 16, 1923, with a Bolshevik victory.

Post-independence
Karelia was quite dependent on Finland after the war. A few Karelians even suggested uniting with Finland. However, this did not happen. Karelia worked hard to reestablish its own identity and culture and made Karelian an official language. Russian city names were renamed to Karelian, and Karelian became mandatory in schools to increase the number of speakers. The population grew rapidly soon after, along with the standard of living.

Karelia has been rumored to have been involved in the 2020 Belarusian protests against the re-election of Alexander Lukashenko, in which Lukashenko sought a sixth term in office. Belarusian officials have accused Karelia of supplying weapons to the rebels, which has damaged their relations. Russian and Karelian relations have also taken a downturn from this.

Administrative Divisions
The Republic of Karelia is divided into 7 first-level administrative regions.

The Kola region is the largest in land area at 144,900 km2, while the South Karelia region is the smallest at 6,873 km2.

Olonets Karelia is the most populated region, with a population of 1,370,508, while Ladoga Karelia is the least populated region, with a population of 231,881.

South Karelia is the most densely populated region at 35.01/km2, while White Karelia is the least densely populated region at 4.74/km2.

Government
Karelia is a unitary presidential republic, with a president as the head of state. The president is elected by popular vote every five years. The current president is Arthur Parfenchikov; he took office on February 6th, 2017.

Law
The Constitution of Karelia is the enacted supreme law, and the Karelian legal system is based on the principle of civil rights, governed by the code of civil law. The current democratic constitution was adopted on May 13, 1918; it guarantees a multi-party state with freedoms of religion, speech and assembly,

Foreign Relations
After independence, Karelia quickly befriended the Western world and the United States. They became closely aligned with the other Nordic countries and is considered Nordic and Northern European along with them. Sweden and Norway are close with Karelia, and Norway even shares a tiny border with Karelia. Iceland and Denmark are also close allies with Karelia.

Karelia became good friends with Estonia after independence, as both had been oppressed by the Soviet Union and closely related to Finland. Many Karelians would say Estonia is their best friend.

Karelia shares good relations with former Soviet countries such as Latvia, Lithuania, and Ukraine, as well as the former Eastern Bloc.

Karelia's relationship with Finland is a bit complicated. They have tensions about borders, history, and ownership of the national poem Kalevala. The two countries rival each other in sports and culture. Nonetheless, Karelians would say they are close friends with Finns.

Karelia's relationship with the Russian Federation after the collapse of the Soviet Union has been complex. They have trade and business with each other, and Russia recognizes them as a country, but they are still quite cold with each other after the Soviet failure in the Russo-Karelian War. Many Russian nationalists consider Karelia as lost territory and promote the annexation it.

Largest Cities
The following is a list of the largest settlements in Karelia ranked by population. The official names are in Karelian, and the names translated to Finnish and Russian are beside. All of the cities used to use the Russian name before independence but were renamed to the Karelian version.

The population of all of the top 25 most populous cities combined is 3,354,527, meaning that only 430,069 people live in places outside of them.

Languages
The official language of Karelia is Karelian. Finnish, Russian, Veps, and Sámi are recognized minority languages.

Karelian is the most spoken out of these languages and is taught in schools. Karelian is a Finnic language. Linguistically, Karelian is closely related to the Finnish dialects spoken in eastern Finland, and some Finnish linguists have even classified Karelian as a dialect of Finnish though in the modern day it is widely considered a separate language. Karelian is not to be confused with the Southeastern dialects of Finnish, sometimes referred to as karjalaismurteet ("Karelian dialects") in Finland.

There is no single standard Karelian language. Each writer writes in Karelian according to their dialectal form. Three main written standards have been developed, for North Karelian, Olonets Karelian, and Tver Karelian. All variants are written with the Latin-based Karelian alphabet, though the Cyrillic script has been used in the past.

Finnish is often used in the South Karelia and North Karelia regions, which were once part of Finland.

Russian is spoken in southeastern regions and the Kola region.

Veps is spoken by the Vepsians, and belongs to the Finnic group of the Uralic languages alongside Karelian and Finnish, and is mainly spoken in southern Karelia.

Sámi is spoken mainly in the north and the Kola Peninsula, specifically Skolt Sami, Kildin Sami, and Ter Sami. Akkala Sami is near extinct, but recently is trying to be revived by Karelia.

Ethnic groups
At the founding of Karelia, ethnic Russians made up a large portion of the population, at nearly 50%. However, the Karelian population continued to grow tremendously after independence, while many Russians felt out of place and started to move out. About 78% of the population are ethnic Karelians, 11% are Russians, 8% are Finns, and 3% are other ethnic groups, mainly consisting of Azeris, Belarusians, Komi, Mordvins, Sámi, Tatars, Ukrainians, and Vepsians.

Religion
The Karelians have traditionally been Russian Orthodox. Lutheranism was brought to the area by the Finnish immigrants during Sweden's conquest of Karelia and was common in regions that then belonged to Finland. Some Lutheran parishes remain in Karelia.

27% of the population of Karelia adheres to the Russian Orthodox Church, 10% are members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland, 2% are unaffiliated Christians, and 1% are members of Protestant churches. In addition, 34% of the population declared to be "spiritual but not religious", 18% is atheist, and 8% followed other religions or did not give an answer to the question.

Currency
The official currency of Karelia is the Karelian markka, which was introduced as legal tender in 1935. Before then, the Finnish markka and Russian ruble were used. They both ceased to be legal tender in Karelia in 1940, and it was guaranteed that all Finnish markkaa and Russian rubles in cash form can be exchanged into the Karelian markka at banks.

Each Karelian markka is equal to 0.32 USD. Its ISO 4217 code symbol is KLM, and its symbol is mk. The plural for markka is markkaa. The subunit for the Karelian markka is the penni, worth 1⁄100 of the markka. The plural for penni is penniä.

The 5 mk, 10 mk, 20 mk, 50 mk, 100 mk, and 500 mk banknotes are frequently used, and the 1 mk and 1,000 mk banknotes are rarely used. The 2 mk, 1 mk, and 5,000 mk banknotes are rarely used. The 5 p, 10 p, 50 p, 1 mk, 5 mk, and 10 mk coins are frequently used. The 1 p, 5 p, and 20 p coins are rarely used.

There have been recent proposals to have Karelia join the Eurozone, and switch its currency to the Euro, however, oppositions say that the Karelian markka is a symbol of Karelian identity and independence.

Flag
Karelia's flag is based off of the Nordic cross design.

The flag of Karelia is green with a black Scandinavian cross fimbriated in red that extends to the edges of the flag.

The green represents the woodlands of Karelia. The black and red are traditional national colors of Karelians.

Meta

 * Karelia was originally named "Pravlyandi" by RedLightningStrike, the creator of this country, shortened from "pravo finlyandii", meaning "right of Finland", and had a different history and information.
 * RedLightningStrike scrapped the idea and remade Pravlyandi into Karelia, seeing it to be very unrealistic, and redeveloped the entire history.