Karelians (Carelians; Karjalaiset; Karjalazhet; Korlaks)

The Karelians are a Finnic-speaking people living in both Finland and Russia. In Finland they are classified as one of the major tribal groups of Finns, a subgroup of Finno-Ugrians, in the historic record since the ninth century C. E. Their homeland comprised central and eastern regions of Finland. The Karelians gave their name to the Russian Federation’s Republic of Karelia to the north of st. Petersburg; the largest Karelian population is found in the province of Tver, southeast of St. Petersburg. The Izhorians, who live around St. Petersburg in Russia, are considered an offshoot of the Karelians, as are the Kainulaiset (or Kvens), who migrated from Finland to sweden and

Norway. Among the other subgroups of the Karelians in Finland and Russia are the Ludes, olonets, and Tvers. Karelians who moved to siberia are known as Korlaks. on the basis of their language, which has Estonian elements, a connection is made to the Esths, also Finnic speaking, but whether the Karelians ever lived in present-day Estonia or when they settled their homeland is not known.

The name Karelia first occurs in scandinavian sources in the eighth century c. e. A later report by the viKiNGs to King Alfred of the Anglo-Saxons places the Karelians on the southern Kola Peninsula and White Sea in the ninth century c. e. From the ninth to the 12th century the southern part of Karelia was ruled by the Rus of the Kievan Rus principality. In the 12th century the Karelians were subservient to Novgorod and were converted to Eastern Orthodox Christianity. From the 13th century Sweden and Russia battled over Karelia; in 1323 the Russian-Swedish border divided the Karelian territory.

The Karelians traditionally have been fishermen, hunters, farmers, and lumberjacks. They have lived in large family groups. Karelians have always followed the Finnic practice of creating story songs, often with magical lyrics. Most of the famous Finnish Kalevala songs originated in Karelia, but very few Karelian language books have ever been published. The earliest example of the Karelian Balto-Finnic language is written on birch bark and was discovered in Novgorod in 1957. The document dates from the 13th century and represents a pagan prayer for protection against lightning. The writing is in the Cyrillic alphabet.

See also Russians: nationality.