page_title: Karelians
hierarchical_section_title: Karelians
context_page_description: Karelians are a group of Baltic Finns who are native to the Northern European historical region of Karelia, which is today split between Finland and Russia. Karelians living in Russian Karelia are considered a distinct ethnic group closely related to Finnish Karelians, who are considered a subset of Finns. This distinction historically arose from Karelia having been fought over and eventually split between Sweden and Novgorod, resulting Karelians being under different cultural spheres.
  In Russia, Karelians mostly live in the Republic of Karelia where they are the designated ethnic group and in other adjacent north-western parts of the country. They traditionally speak the Karelian language and are Eastern Orthodox Christians There are also significant Karelian enclaves in the Tver and Novgorod oblasts, as some Karelians migrated to those areas after the Russo-Swedish War of 1656-1658.
  In Finland, Finnish Karelians traditionally live in the regions of Savonia and Northern and Southern Karelia. As Finland had to cede parts of Karelia to Soviet Union in World War II, evacuated Finnish Karelians settled also elsewhere in Finland.
context_section_description: Karelians (Karelian: karjalaižet, karjalazet, karjalaiset, Finnish: karjalaiset) are a group of Baltic Finns who are native to the Northern European historical region of Karelia, which is today split between Finland and Russia. Karelians living in Russian Karelia are considered a distinct ethnic group closely related to Finnish Karelians, who are considered a subset of Finns. This distinction historically arose from Karelia having been fought over and eventually split between Sweden and Novgorod, resulting Karelians being under different cultural spheres. 
  In Russia, Karelians mostly live in the Republic of Karelia where they are the designated ethnic group and in other adjacent north-western parts of the country. They traditionally speak the Karelian language and are Eastern Orthodox Christians There are also significant Karelian enclaves in the Tver and Novgorod oblasts, as some Karelians migrated to those areas after the Russo-Swedish War of 1656-1658.
  In Finland, Finnish Karelians traditionally live in the regions of Savonia and Northern and Southern Karelia. As Finland had to cede parts of Karelia to Soviet Union in World War II, evacuated Finnish Karelians settled also elsewhere in Finland. They traditionally speak the Karelian dialect of the Finnish language and are Lutheran.
caption: Flag of Karelians[1][2]