One of the 22 republics of the Russian Federation. It is located in the north-west of Russia. In the east, it borders on the Arkhangelsk region, in the south - with the Vologda and Leningrad regions, in the north - with the Murmansk region.
In 1920, in the territories of the Arkhangelsk and Olonets provinces inhabited by Karelians, Karelian Labour Commune was created. In 1923, it was transformed into the Karelian ASSR. After the war with Finland and the annexation of some Finnish territories, the Karelian ASSR was reorganized in 1940 into the Karelo-Finnish SSR. The status of the Union republic was preserved until 1956. After that Karelia became an autonomous republic within the RSFSR. In 1990, the Supreme Council of Karelia adopted a declaration on state sovereignty, and the Karelian ASSR was renamed the Republic of Karelia.
The titular ethnic group is Karelians. Language is the defining marker of their differences from the titular nation of the country. Karelians speak the Karelian language, which belongs to the Baltic-Finnish group of Finno-Ugric languages. The Karelians in Russia are mostly Orthodox.
Karelia is one of the regions with a small share of the titular group in the population. According to the results of the All-Russian Census of 2010, Karelians make up only 7.4% of the population of the republic, while Russians - 82.2%.
The situation in interethnic relations in the republic is assessed as stable.