Internal political factors of Karelo-Finnish Soviet Socialist Republic abolition in 1956

Multiple postwar events, which occurred in the political life of Karelo-Finnish Soviet Socialist Republic, are analyzed in the article. They served as a direct prerequisite and one of the impelling causes for the subsequent decision to change the national and the state status of the republic. Numerous conflicts, which took place among republican representatives of the partisan and state elite, and the feedback response of the central party apparatus are studied. The present research was carried out with the help of archival materials obtained from the fund of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union of the Russian State Archive of Recent History. The archival documents are introduced into the scientific circulation for the first time. The conducted analysis demonstrates how the then existing among the circles of regional elite unhealthy environment and poor social and economic conditions were used by the Center to reorganize the state republic into the autonomous one. This case has become one of the most unprecedented events in the history of the Soviet national and state development.