Soviet Karelia
Subtitle: Stalin's Northern Colony, 1920-1939 (BASEES/Curzon Series on Russian & East European Studies)
Edition: 1 edition
Publisher: RoutledgeCurzon; Routledge
Published: December 14, 2007
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 288
ISBN-13: 9780415312165
Subjects: Interdisciplinary Studies; History; History - General History; History: World; Russia; Europe - Russia & the Former Soviet Union
Description: "In 1920, Lenin authorised a plan to transform Karelia, a Russian territory adjacent to Finland, into a showcase Soviet autonomous region, to show what could be achieved by socialist nationalities policy and economic planning, and to encourage other countries to follow this example. However, Stalin's accession to power brought a change of policy towards the periphery - the encouragement of local autonomy which had been a key part of Karelias model development was reversed, the state border was sealed to the outside world, and large parts of the republic's territory were given over to Gulag labour camps controlled by the NKVD, the precursor of the KGB. Using recently declassified party, state, and security police documents, this book traces the evolution of Soviet Karelia in the interwar period, discussing amongst other things how political relations between Moscow and the regional leadership changed over time; the nature of its spatial, economic and demographic development; and the origins of the massive repressions launched in 1937 against the local population."--BOOK JACKET.