Karjalan Liitto
Finnish organization that promotes Karelian culture and history
title: "Karjalan Liitto" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["history-of-karelia"] description: "Finnish organization that promotes Karelian culture and history" topic_path: "history" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karjalan_Liitto" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::summary Finnish organization that promotes Karelian culture and history ::
::data[format=table title="Infobox organization"]
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| name | Karjalan Liitto |
| formation | |
| native name | Karelian Association |
| native_name_lang | EN |
| purpose | Cultural institution |
| Advocacy group | |
| headquarters | Helsinki |
| location_country | Finland |
| origins | Local government of Finnish Karelia |
| membership | 20,000 |
| membership_year | 2022 |
| leader_title | Chairman |
| leader_name | Martti Talja |
| board_of_directors | Federal Council |
| website | https://www.karjalanliitto.fi/ |
| :: |
| name = Karjalan Liitto | formation = | native name = Karelian Association | native_name_lang = EN | purpose = Cultural institution Advocacy group | headquarters = Helsinki | location_country = Finland | origins = Local government of Finnish Karelia | membership = 20,000 | membership_year = 2022 | leader_title = Chairman | leader_name = Martti Talja | board_of_directors = Federal Council | website = https://www.karjalanliitto.fi/
Karjalan Liitto (in English: Karelian Association) is a Finnish organisation that promotes Karelian culture and history. It also functions as an interest group for Karelian evacuees. As of 2023, the organization consists of 14 districts in Finland, cooperating with other Karelian movements and organisations.
History
The association was established by Karelian local governments, parishes and provincial organizations on 20 April 1940, immediately after the Winter War. The chief aim was to attend to the interests of Karelians who had lost their homes.
By the 1960s, the organization started to focus on preservation of the Karelian culture, by that point most of the economic and social problems faced by resettled Karelians were addressed.
The Karelian Association has close ties to the Finnish government and the European Union.
The organization had an official magazine Karjala Lehti, which stopped being published in September 2022, but there are plans to restart printing in 2023.
In 2023, Karjalan Liitto was contacted by a Karelian nationalist organisation, which wanted to cooperate with the movement in order to return Karelia back to Finland. The movement refused the offer, seeing it as a Russian information attack.
Goals
::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d3/Karjalaisten_suurjuhlat_1960_(JOKAMT2Ku48-2).tif" caption="Karelians' big celebrations at the [[Helsinki Olympic Stadium]] in 1960"] ::
- Preservation of Karelian culture
- Displaying Karelian culture
- Cross border cooperation (frozen)
- Promotion of Karelianism
- Cooperation with other Karelian organizations
Some members of Karjalan Liito supported a peaceful return of Karelia, but as of 2023, the movement is against border changes with Russia.
References
References
- "Jäsenyhteisöt - Karjalan Liitto".
- "Karjalan Liiton historia - Karjalan Liitto".
- "Lehden historiaa - Karjalan Liitto".
- (2023-01-05). "Karjalan Liitto epäilee Suomeen kohdistuvaa informaatiovaikuttamista – "Huonolla suomen kielellä viestejä Karjalan itsenäistymisestä…"".
- (2023-01-29). ""Нужны не земли, а люди". Может ли Карелия отделиться от России?".
::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::