The flag of the Karelo-Finnish SSR was adopted by the Karelo-Finnish SSR on 3 March 1953. This flag is similar to the flag of the Soviet Union but with the blue (1:6 width), and green (1:5 width) placed on the bottom. At the top of the flag at the flagpole placed golden hammer and sickle and the red star with a gold border. The green color symbolizes the forest resources, and blue represents the abundance of rivers and lakes.[1]
In 1940, the Karelo-Finnish SSR was created after the Winter War. This made Finnish the second official language of Karelia, while Karelian lost its official status. In April 1940, the flag was created, which was a red background with a gold hammer and sickle in the top-left corner, and the Latin characters Karjalais-Suomalainen SNT (Karjalais-Suomalainen Sosialistinen Neuvostotasavalta) with Карело-Финская ССР (Карело-Финская Советская Социалистическая Республика) below them in gold in a sans-serif font.[2]
A 1947 proposal featured exactly the same design as the flag adopted in 1953 except with the abbreviations K.-S.S.N.T. and К.-Ф.С.С.Р. in gold in a sans-serif font below the gold hammer and sickle. The proposal also featured a line of black stylized trees on the blue line which would have made it stand out among SSR flags.[3]
Proposed 1947 flag
On 13 March 1953, a new flag was adopted, it was a tricolour with a red stripe, a blue stripe, which made up 1:6 on the flag's height, and a green stripe, which made up 1:5 of the flag's height. On the red stripe, top left in the corner near the shaft there is a golden hammer and sickle and under them a red five-pointed star, framed by a golden border.[4]
In 1956, Karelia became an autonomous republic of the RSFSR again and had to change its flag, which was adopted on 10 October 1956. The flag had a red background with a blue stripe 1:8 of the flag's length on the left, in the upper left corner of the red background a golden sickle and a hammer and above them a red five-pointed a star framed by a golden border was depicted. Under them the words Karelian ASSR were written in Russian and Finnish.[5]
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