East Karelia, 1918-1922

Last modified: 2000-01-07 by antonio martins
Keywords: karelia | uhtua | ursa major | big dipper | kalevala | aurura borealis | northern lights | swallowtails | bear | chain | cross: scandinavian (black) | cross: scandinavian (blue) | east karelia | aunus | olonets |
Links: FOTW homepage | search | disclaimer and copyright | write us | mirrors

• Situating East Karelia
• Flags of East Karelia
  • 1918 Flag of Uhtua
  • Flags of free East Karelia
  • 1930 proposal
• Aunus Karelia

• Karelia
• Karelia in Soviet Union

Karelia is the area between Finland and Russia. When speaking about East Karelia, we are dealing with the Russian areas. However, autonomous East Karelia [both current and soviet] is just a small part of Russian Karelia, known as White Sea Karelia, or in other words, the area between the White Sea and the Finnish border. The area to the south of White Sea Karelia, between lakes Onega and Lagoda, is known as Aunus Karelia, named after the town with the Finnish name Aunus (in Russian: Olonets). Far into Russia itself, there is also and area inhabited by Karelians. This is Tver Karelia , named after the Russian city of Tver. When speaking about East Karelia in the following, it is mostly White Sea Karelia I am speaking about.
Jan Oskar Engene, 23 May 1997

In the aftermath of the Russian revolution and Finnish independence (December 1917), things started to happen in East Karelia too. On 17 March 1918 a meeting was convened in the village of Uhtua. The meeting expressed the wish to separate from Russia and called for union with Finland. Later in 1918 the Uhtua community used a flag consisting of a blue field with seven white five-pointed stars in the canton (representing the Ursa Major constellation). According to Paskov, the designer of this flag was J. Heiska. Apparently, the exact details of the flag are lost, because Paskov names the Finnish heraldist Kari K. Laurla as the one who reconstructed the design as shown in Paskov's book.

If you try to find Uhtua on a modern map, you will probably not find it. In 1935 the village was renamed Kalevala for the century of the publication of this work by Lönnrot. Much of the material for the Kalevala was collected in East Karelia.

Jan Oskar Engene, 23 May 1997

The East Karelians were quickly caught in the middle of the struggles between red and white Russian forces, the intervention forces under the British and Finnish volunteer expeditions. The military situation changed quickly. However, the East Karelians worked to set up a government of their own.

In July 1919 a conference of delegates from White Sea Karelian parishes met in Uhtua and appointed an East Karelian Committee that acted as a provisional government of East Karelia. This provisional government organized the first East Karelian Diet, elected by universal suffrage and consisting of representatives from twelve municipalities (or parishes). The Diet sat from 21 March to 1 April 1920 in Uhtua and appointed a regular six-member government. On 22 March the diet called for independence from Russia and adopted arms and a flag. The flag and arms were designed by Finnish artist Akseli Gallen-Kallela.

Jan Oskar Engene, 23 May 1997

Paskov shows three varieties of the flag. One is a Scandinavian cross flag of green field with a black cross bordered in red. This flag is simply labelled the flag of East Karelia by Paskov.
Jan Oskar Engene, 23 May 1997

Although reported to be [currently] in actual use, the [current] official status of this flag is not clear.
stuart notholt, 17 Sep 1995

A similar flag with a red canton set with six white design elements representing the Aurora Borealis is called 'The Civil/Folk/Flag of the Uhtua Government'.
Jan Oskar Engene, 23 May 1997

The third flag, the war flag, has short swallowtails and tongue (like some Finnish flags) and an adaption of the arms in both green fields close to the hoist. This consists of a bear raising a sword over its head and standing on a broken chain. Over the head of the bear is set four white Aurora Borealis elements.
Jan Oskar Engene, 23 May 1997

The flag shown in Paskov's book is without the red rectangle in the centre of the cross that other sources show. The dimensions of the cross differ among all three flags shown in Paskov's book, but I doubt that this was actually the case. In the simplest flag, the red and black parts of the flag is same size, while the black part is thicker than the red parts in the two other flags.
Jan Oskar Engene, 23 May 1997

A second East Karelian Diet, meeting 11-16 June 1920, voted to set up an army and to mobilize. However, the red Russian forces took the East Karelian territory in the early summer of 1920 and the at the end of June the East Karelian government fled to Finland. In exile the government of East Karelia joined forces with the Government of Aunus and representatives of two municipalities to form a Karelian Central Government and a Karelian Foreign Delegation (December 1920). In East Karelia itself, resistance was organized against the Russian Bolsheviks. A war of liberation was launched in 1921-22 and a new temporary government appointed at Uhtua. The struggle was unsuccessful in the end and the government was forced to flee to Finland once again.
Jan Oskar Engene, 23 May 1997

In the 1930's, according to Paskov, a new flag was proposed for the East Karelian government. This was also a Scandinavian cross flag, but this time much more close to the flag of Finland: White field with a blue cross bordered in yellow. Apparently, this was not adopted, because Paskov notes that the symbols adopted in 1920 are «still the official symbol of Karelian organizations in Finland up to the present and lately both symbols [arms and flag, JOE] have become current in Karelia too.», p. 343.
Jan Oskar Engene, 23 May 1997

A short-lived government existed also for Aunus Karelia. The provisional government of Aunus was set up when Finnish volunteer forces advanced into the area in April 1919. An assembly was called and met in Rajakontu 5-6 June 1919. However, the Russian Bolsheviks quickly struck back and by 10 June the provisional government and the Finnish forces were back in Finland. That was the end of the Aunus government.

I have no information about the symbols, if any, of the Aunus government. In an account of the Finnish volunteer expedition into the Aunus area, written by one of the expedition's leaders Major von Herzen, we find only two instances when flags are mentioned. The first mention is a description of how the advancing Finns were met by enthusiastic locals that had hoisted white flags over their houses. The significance of the white flags is not explained. The second mention is a reference to regimental colours. von Herzen describes how the Finns captured a regimental colour from the reds. The colour is not described, but it is interesting to note that a colour was brought with the forces into battle. I suspect that at this point in time, 1919, there were no official colours in the Bolshevik army. However, this is speculation on my part.

Jan Oskar Engene, 23 May 1997

Sources:

• Aleksandr Paskov: Karjalan vaakunat ja liput. Petroskoi/Petrosavozk, 1994
  (the book is in Finnish and Russian, but has a summary and a list of illustration captions in English)
• East Carelia: A survey of the country and its population and a review of the Carelian question. Academic Carelia-League: Helsinki, 1934
• Mauno Jääskeläinen: Die ostkarelische Frage. Helsinki, 1965
• Gunnar von Herzen: Den karelska expeditionen. Helsinki, 1920
• W. Zweguintzow: Drapeaux et étendards de l'armée russe. Paris, 1963. (Plates 27, 49)