Letter to Secretary of the Central Commitee of the AUCP(b) I.Stalin from the Karelian regional committee of AUCP(b) |
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Top secret The Constitution of the Karelian ASSR, approved in June 1937 by the Extraordinary XI All-Karelian Congress of Soviets, established three state languages in the KASSR: Karelian, Finnish and Russian. In accordance with this, Article 24 of the Constitution of the KASSR states that the laws adopted by the Supreme Council of the KASSR must be published in Karelian, Finnish and Russian languages; article 78 – that legal proceedings in the KASSR must be processed by Karelian, Finnish and Russian language; Article 111 – that the inscriptions on the State Coats of arms and Article 112 – the inscriptions on the State Flag of the KASSR must be by Russian, Karelian and Finnish language. Data on the population of the KASSR show that there are now no more than 4,000 Finns living in the KASSR, most of them are defectors and immigrants. Adoption of the Finnish language as the state languages of the KASSR is a clear proof of the enemy work of the counter-revolutionary Trotsky-Bukharin and bourgeois-nationalist elements, which infiltrated to the leadership of the party and Soviet bodies of the KASSR. During the elimination of consequences of enemy work, the following activities were carried out by the Karelian regional committee of the AUCP(b): 1. Paperwork in district and rural institutions in districts with a Karelian population has been changed from Finnish to Karelian language. 2. Signboards, stamps and seals of institutions with inscriptions by Finnish language have been replaced to inscriptions by Karelian language. 3. Teaching in Karelian schools has been changed from Finnish to Karelian language. 4. The publication of regional and district newspapers by Finnish language was discontinued has been discontinued from January 1, 1938. The regional newspaper "Sovetskaya Karelia" is published by Karelian language, district newspapers in Karelian district s are completely changed into Karelian language. 5. The publication of literature by Finnish language has been discontinued. A plan of publication of fiction and educational literature by the Karelian language in 1938 was created and approved, its implementation is ensured on time. 6. There are a number of preparation courses for communists and not party members Karelians for promotion to leadership positions in the party, Soviet, economic and public-political work. 7. Significant work has been done to purge the apparatuses of Soviet, agriculture, cooperative and public organizations of Finns-defectors, most of whom were exposed as enemies of the people, arrested by the NKVD and convicted (up to 7 thousand people in total). A detailed memorandum on this topic is sent to You separately. 8. Substantive work was also done to promote Karelians (communists and not party members) to leadership positions and, in general, functionaries positions in the party, Soviet, economic, agriculture, collective-farm and other organizations. Reporting this, the Karelian Regional Committee of the AUCP(b) asks for permission to exclude the Finnish language from the state languages of the KASSR and to make appropriate changes to the Constitution of the KASSR (to articles 24, 78, 111 and 112).
April 21, 1938 |