Once a Soviet Socialist Republic, Karelia was re-absorbed into the Russian SFSR as an autonomous republic in 1956. When Russia became independent in 1991, Karelia became an autonomous republic in the Russian Federation, and shortly thereafter adopted its own anthem. During its days as an SSR, Karelia had a high concentration of Finnish-speaking people, but now the population is majority Russian.
Parts of the Karelian anthem (the second and fourth stanzas of the enclosed lyrics) closely resemble a Finnish Karelian folk song “Karjalan kunnailla” (On the Karelian Hills).
Special thanks to: Pavel Zinovatny for the sheet music and Keith Terrett for the music file.