Karelia

The highest point of Karelia, the 576 metres (1,890 ft) high Nuorunen, is located on the Russian side of the Maanselka hill region.

[1] The border between Karelia and Ingria, the land of the closely related Ingrian people, had originally been the Neva River itself but later on it was moved northward into the Karelian isthmus to follow the Sestra River (Russian: Сестра), today in the Saint Petersburg metropolitan area, but in 1812–1940 the Russo-Finnish border.

[2] The River Kymi is also said to have formed a boundary between the eastern and western cultural spheres by the beginning of the Bronze Age at the latest.

[3] In the North lived the nomadic Samis, but there were no natural borders except for large wooded areas (taiga) and the tundra.

During the Early Middle Ages, settlers from western Finland mixed with the local population to form the Karelian ethnic group.

In South Karelia, the number of archeological discoveries from this time period is lower, though permanent inhabitation was nonetheless present.

The Treaty of Moscow, signed in 1940, handed a large portion of Finnish Karelia to the Soviet Union, and over 400,000 people had to be relocated within Finland.

The present inhabitants of the former Finnish parts of Russia, including the city of Vyborg/Viipuri and the Karelian Isthmus – are post-war immigrants or their descendants.

There are some small groups of Finns campaigning for closer ties between Finland and Karelia: for instance, in the Karjalan Liitto (Karelian League) and ProKarelia.

[6] Ingrian Finnish dialects are spoken in Ingria, which is an area around St. Petersburg, between the Estonian border and Lake Ladoga.

Today about one million people in Finland can trace their roots in the area ceded to the Soviet Union after World War II.

Russian Karelia is a regular destination for international tourism due to its unique architectural, cultural and historical sites such as Kizhi and Valaam.

[8] The region is visited by tourists in both summer and winter when possible activities include riding in a sled behind a dog team and running from the banya to an ice hole and back.

[10] Imatrankoski in Imatra has been a tourist attraction since the late 18th century, when the Empress of Russia Catherine the Great visited the site in 1772.

Koli National Park in North Karelia began receiving tourists when Karelianism became a major trend.

Koli was a source of inspiration for numerous painters and composers such as Jean Sibelius, Juhani Aho and Eero Järnefelt, who in turn contributed to Karelianism through their work.