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East Karelia (Russia), 1919-1920

by Stuart Notholt and Edward Mooney, 05 Jul 1999

Introduction
Description of the flag
State flag
War flag

See also:

Introduction

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

Description of the flag

Paskov [pas94] 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

Reading [lau97], it seems fairly clear that compared to the flag of Finland, the cross flag of East Karelia was similar, but not identical. The slight difference is due to the narrow red cross, which has just been added to the model provided by the Finnish flag. As a result, it seems the proportions of the East Karelian flag were 4-1/2-3-1/2-4 along the hoist and 5-1/2-3-1/2-10 along the length of the flag. I am not sure about proportions for the swallow-tailed war flag.
Jan Oskar Engene, 17 Jul 2000

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

According to Laurla, [lau97] the cross flag «is now used as an ethnic flag of the original Carelians in the Russian Republic of Carelia». Thus, it appears that it has no official status, but that it is actually in use by Karelians (I have myself seen a photo of this flag flying on a small boat on an East Karelian lake).
Jan Oskar Engene, 17 Jul 2000

Many variations

Laurla [