The Truth about the Karelo-Finnish SSR Anthem

My Karelian-Finnish Land...

If we speak about the different anthems that were composed in the Soviet Union, we usually remember the Soviet National Anthem, the Ukrainian SSR Anthem, the Byelorussian SSR Anthem, or even the Moldovan SSR Anthem (due to its popularity in recent times). Many recordings of those State Anthems have been posted in YouTube, and we have a full collection of versions from the State Anthems of the Soviet Republics all the way from the Baltic States to Central Asia. However, one mysterious composition remains as unknown territory for people of the “Anthem Community”. The State Anthem of the Karelo-Finnish Soviet Socialist Republic has been forgotten in time, and this is its history.

The Karelo-Finnish Soviet Republic was founded in 1940 and it was located in the north-western part of the Soviet Union. The foundation of this Union Republic is the result of many years of conflicts, influences, and geopolitical strategies from the Soviet Government due to the key position that this territory represented. After the peace treaty between Finland and the USSR was signed, new territories were incorporated and Soviet authorities decided to merge them with the already established Karelian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, gaining a full Union Republic status in a law passed by the Supreme Council of the USSR (Posolʹstvo US, 1945).

On the 16^th of February of 1945, a letter was delivered to the Government of the Karelo-Finnish SSR which stated that a resolution of the central Government of the USSR had given the authorization to every Soviet Republic to adopt a State Anthem using the national language of each republic (All-Karelia, 2017). As stated before, the USSR Government knew about the strategic position of the KFSSR, and therefore thought convenient to create a strong Union Republic bordering Finland. As part of the plan to give the Karelian people a national identity, a commission was formed in order to study the requirements necessary for a pro-Soviet set of lyrics for the new State Anthem. The conclusions of the commission were delivered to the Karelian authorities and stated that the lyrics had to:

• Highlight the fact that the Karelo-Finnish SSR was an integral part of the USSR and that the Karelian people was happy and proud to live in a fraternal family of Soviet Republics.
• Praise the hard work of the Karelian-Finnish people and their struggle during ages using a reference to the Finnish mythology artifact “Sampo”.
• State that the Karelian-Finnish people, with the help of their military strength and guided by Lenin and Stalin, will not give up their land and wealth created by their own labour.
• Make clear that the KFSSR was a reliable outpost for the Soviet Union.
• Consist in a melody which should be melodic, solemn, simple, and uplifting.

At the same time, a letter was sent by the Secretary of the Presidium of the Supreme Council of the KFSSR T. F. Vakulkin to Armas Äikiä, who was living in Leningrad by that time, with a request to create a Finnish lyrics text that was going to be delivered to all the participants in the competition (Filatova, 2014). Äikiä, who was born on the 14^th of March of 1904, was a Finnish poet and communist politician who lived both in Russia and Finland. He wrote many poems during the 1920s and 1930s and had a participation in the Government of the Finnish Democratic Republic, which was a Soviet puppet state in the eastern territory of Finland (Liukkonen, 2018). After returning to the Soviet Union at the end of the Continuation War in 1944, he resumed his work as a poet and writer. Sources indicate that Ulyas Vikström and Otto Kuusinen could have also participated in the writing of the lyrics and the translation into the Russian language.

Armas Aïkiä, the writer of the lyrics in Moscow (1943).

If we take a look at the requirements made by the commission, we can observe several similarities with the history of other Soviet Republic State anthems. A common factor was that the anthems had to mention directly or not the pro-Soviet alliance of the Republic, the brotherhood with Russian people, and references to both Lenin and Stalin. Of course, some republics like the Georgian SSR and the Estonian SSR adopted lyrics that did not match exactly with some of these requirements. These requirements led to several difficulties for the authors in the KFSSR and the rest of the Soviet Republics because they had to create a melody to accommodate a certain text (All-Karelia, 2017).

The melody...

On the 14^th of July, the Government of the KFSSR announced a competition to choose the new anthem of the republic. Although Karelian composers could participate, direct orders were also given to other Soviet composers. By September of 1945, several authors had submitted their works to the Arts Department of the KFSSR, and thus, the competition was closed, and eight compositions were chosen for the final vote in October. The anthems composed by Abram Golland, Ruvim Pergament, Gelmer Sinisalo, Karl Rautio, Natalya Levy, Leonid Vishkarev, Lauri Jousinen, and Leopold Teplitsky advanced to the final round of voting. In the end, the commission formed by Jacob Genshaft, Lydia Grenlund, Mikhail Ladnov, as well as Lehmus, Nokolainen, Klimenko and Walter Suni (Filatova, 2014) published the results which stated that Pergament had won, followed by Rautio and Golland. Evidence suggests that the Karelo-Finnish authorities considered that the music composed by Pergament was too complicated to be performed and that the people could face difficulties trying to sing the lyrics with that melody. This is confirmed by the “Protocol of the meeting of the working commission to discuss the melody of the State Anthem of the KFSSR”, dated November 20^th, 1945 (available at the National Archive of the Republic of Karelia). This document also has notes about what the members of the commissions said about the characteristics of the submitted anthems:

• Pergament’s anthem: Very complex, difficult to execute, has a folk touch, and very subtle national feeling.
• Rautio’s anthem: The melody has power and sounds patriotic, but it has little problems with the lyrics.
• Teplitsky’s anthem: Lack of national feeling, which makes it sound like it was not a Karelian-Finnish song.
• Golland’s anthem: Easy to remember, but it lacks power and it is too monotonous.
• Vishkarev’s anthem: Fits with the lyrics but has little strength.

Perhaps, the fact that Pergament was one of the most prominent composers that lived in the KFSSR at  the time had a great impact in the decision of the members of the commission (Kraskovskaya, 2016). The man born on 1906 in Petrozavodsk, became Honored Artist of the KASSR and Chairman of the Board of the Union of Composers of the KFSSR.

According to Dina Filatova, from the Department of Art History of the European University at Saint Petersburg, the events that occurred after the competition had concluded are still a mystery and there is an important lack of evidence of what really happened. However, during her investigations, handwritten notes that Pergament and Rautio sent for the competition were found. Nevertheless, those notes are only drafts of the anthems that Pergament and Rautio composed. There is not any document with the original music sheets delivered to the commission. In fact, there is not evidence of any recorded version or any order issued by the KFSSR Government to start a campaign to teach the lyrics to the public. This leads us to the fact that the State Anthem of the Karelo-Finnish SSR was never officialised at all (Filatova, 2014). This is also mentioned in a monograph published by Natalia Grodnitskaya which states that several songs were dedicated to Karelo-Finnish SSR, but they were most likely not officially adopted. Nevertheless, drafts of the music sheets of the anthems of Rautio and Pergament are available at the National Library of Karelia.

A new life for Rautio's melody...

Years later, a document was sent to the Karelian National Song and Dance Ensemble "Kantele" which had the music created by Karl Rautio and the lyrics of Armas Äikiä (E. Zhdankova, et. al., 2014). The author of that melody, Rautio, was born in Finland on November 20, 1889 but moved to the United States in 1903 with his family. He grew up in American soil and graduated from the Faculty of Music of the University of California. In 1922 he moved to the USSR and, along with other people, created a chorus and an orchestra. Rautio became a prominent member among Karelian composers and wrote several notable pieces of music to accompany the verses of prestigious Karelian poets (Gov. Karelia, 2005). In 1945, Rautio decided to participate in the competition opened by Karelian authorities, so he reviewed the lyrics written by Armas Äikiä and started to work on a melody. As stated before, his melody took the second place in the competition.

It is not clear if Rautio himself or another person delivered the documents of the composition to the Kantele Ensemble. Perhaps, Jacob Genshaft, who was Chief Conductor of the Kantele Ensemble during that time and member of the previous commission, had something to do. Nevertheless, the document that was delivered did not say that it was the official State Anthem of the Karelo-Finnish SSR, even though it used the lyrics created by the Karelo-Finnish authorities. This song was also published in the Soviet magazine “Soviet Music”, issue Nº11 of 1951, under the name “My Karelian-Finnish Land” (Kraskovskaya, 2016).

This information led us to several questions such as: Why the Government of the KFSSR did not adopt an official State Anthem? Why Pergament’s anthem was chosen as the winner of the competition if it was too complex to execute? Why several sources cite Karl Rautio’s anthem as the official State Anthem of the Karelo-Finnish SSR?

Maybe, in the end, the Government of the KFSSR decided not to adopt any official anthem based on the complexity to sing Pergament’s anthem, and they did not want to spend any more resources in a new competition for a new anthem. Also, it is not clear the origin of this complexity to sing the lyrics with the melody. It is a possibility that Pergament did not know how to speak the language used in the lyrics written by Aïkiä and therefore could not accommodate the lyrics appropriately.

One other thing which is both relevant and important to the story, is the fact that Pergament had some troubles in those years. During WW2, many composers escaped into other Soviet Republics and others decided to stay. At that time, Pergament was the Chairman of the Union of Composers of Karelia, and he fleed to Kyrgyzstan leaving L. Vishkaryov on charge. When he came back on 1943, his return caused some discomfort in some members of the UCK, which disrupted the calm relations that prevailed before his departure to Kyrgyzstan (Grodnitskaya, 2020). These tensions were constant during those years but Pergament managed to remain as the chairman of the UCK. However, things changed on 1948 when Pergament was removed for unknown reasons from the position and his seat was taken by no other than Karl Rautio, who remained as chairman from 1948 to 1956 (PGC, 2012). Grodnitskaya (2020), remarks that some anti-Semitic policies taken secretly by the central Government on the selection and promotion of personnel in art could had something to do. Also, we must not discard that the second wave of the “Korenizatsiya” (the integration of non-Russian nationalities into the governments of their specific soviet republics) could had influenced this decision.

The mysteries that surround the State Anthem of the Karelo-Finnish SSR are bigger that anyone could thought. It is clear that further investigations are required to uncover the secret that this story, buried over decades of secrecy, has to offer to us.

If you want to read the lyrics of the KFSSR Anthem and see the first page of the music sheets of Pergament's and Rautio's anthems, click here or in the image.

Let us know in the comments what you think about this amazing story.

Did you ever think that the most unknown State Anthem of all Soviet Republics could have a story like this?

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REFERENCES:

All-Karelia. (2017). Гимн Карело-Финской ССР. Recuperado el 9 de Junio de 2020, de Отдых в Карелии: https://www.all-karelia.ru/section_19203.html

E. Zhdankova, et. al. (2014). Конструируя «советское»? Политическое сознание, повседневные практики, новые идентичности: материалы восьмой международной конференции студентов и аспирантов. Recuperado el 10 de Junio de 2020, de European University at Saint Petersburg: https://eupress.ru/uploads/ebooks/sovetskoe_2014.pdf

Filatova, D. (2014). Высоко на сопках твоих стою: конструирование смыслов в гимнах Карелии и КФССР. Studia Humanitatis Borealis, 69-79. Recuperado el 10 de Junio de 2020, de https://sthb.petrsu.ru/journal/article.php?id=2970
Gov. Karelia. (2005). Karl Rautio. The composer, one of the initiators of professional musical art in Karelia. Recuperado el 9 de Junio de 2020, de Goverment of Karelia: http://old.gov.karelia.ru/gov/Different/History/rautio_e.html
Grodnitskaya, N. (2020). Ruvim Pergament, pioneer of Karelian national music. Obtenido de Kantele: https://www.kantele.ru/istoria/stat-i-i-materialy/ruvim-pergament-pervoprohodec-karel-skoj-nacional-noj-muzyki/
Kraskovskaya, T. (2016). Биография композитора в фарватере политической стратегии советской власти. Recuperado el 10 de Junio de 2020, de Российская академия музыки имени Гнесиных: https://gnesin-academy.ru/wp-content/documents/nauka/muz_forum/9_Kraskovskaya_Forum2016.pdf
Kraskovskaya, T. (2016). Кантатно-Ораториальное Творчество Композиторов Советской Карелии (1920 — 1980-е годы). Recuperado el 10 de Junio de 2020, de Российская академия музыки имени Гнесиных: http://test.gnesin-academy.ru/sites/default/files/dissovet/KraskovskayaTV_diss.pdf
Liukkonen, P. (2018). Armas Äikiä (1904 - 1965). Recuperado el 9 de Junio de 2020, de Authors Calendar: http://authorscalendar.info/aikia.htm
PGC. (2012). Union of Composers of the Republic of Karelia. Obtenido de Petrozavodsk State Glazunov Conservatoire: http://glazunovcons.ru/conservatory/partners/soyuz_kompozitorov_rk
Posolʹstvo US. (1945). The Sixteen Soviet Republics. Washington DC: Information bulletin.