Edvard Gylling, the First Leader of Soviet Karelia

The authors of the book: Prof. Yuri Kilin, Doctor of Historical Sciences, Director of the Institute of Northern European Studies of PetrSU, Head of the Department of World History, Political Studies and International Relations; Veronika Kilina, specialist of the Institute of History, Political and Social Science; supported by the employees of the National Archive of the Republic of Karelia – Nadezhda Basova, Ekaterina Evseeva, Varvara Markova and Elena Usacheva.

The book has been published for the 100th anniversary of the Republic of Karelia at the expense of the budget of the Republic of Karelia with the support of the Ministry for National and Regional Policy of the Republic of Karelia and with the financial support of Petrozavodsk State University.

The book was recommended to be published by the Academic Board of the Institute of Northern European Studies of PetrSU.

The collection of documents Edvard Gylling - the first leader of Soviet Karelia is dedicated to the ambitious personality of the era of changes in the Soviet state and society in the first half of the 20^th century. This book is the first major scientific publication in Russian about an eminent figure in the Finnish and Northern European Social Democracy, the author of the idea of establishing a national autonomy, the Karelian Labor Commune (KLC), in the Northwest of the RSFSR, the leader of the KLC and Karelian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (AKSSR) for 15 years, since 1923 – a chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the AKSSR.

The book contains 392 documents from 4 central archives: the State Archive of the Russian Federation, the Russian State Archive of Socio-Political History, Russian State Military Archive, Archive of Foreign Policy of the Russian Federation, and the National Archive of the Republic of Karelia. Almost all of the documents are published for the first time and enable the readers to form their own view on ​​politics that laid the foundations of the modern Republic of Karelia. The book also contains a biographical article about Edvard Gylling, written by Prof. Markku Kangaspuro, Doctor of Philosophy, Director of the Aleksanteri Institute of Helsinki University, Doctor Honoris Causa of PetrSU and a preface prepared by Prof. Yuri Kilin, Doctor of Historical Sciences, Director of the Institute of Northern European Studies of PetrSU. 

Among the speakers at the presentation were Sergey Kiselev, Minister of National and Regional Policy of the Republic of Karelia, Prof. Sergey Verigin, Doctor of Historical Sciences, Director of the Institute of History, Political and Social Sciences, Prof. Yuri Kilin, Doctor of  Historical Sciences, Director of the Institute of Northern European Studies of PetrSU, Head of the Department of World History, Political Studies and International Relations, Valery Shlyamin, Doctor of Economic Sciences, Advisor to the Rector, academic director of the Institute of Northern European Studies of PetrSU, Marina Otlivanchik, Director of the Scientific Library of  PetrSU, Elena Usacheva, Head of the Department of the National Archive of the Republic of Karelia.

According to Prof. Yuri Kilin, the idea of a book devoted to Edvard Gyulling and timed to the 100th anniversary of the Republic of Karelia originated in February 2019 and belonged to Valery Shlyamin, Doctor of Economic Sciences, Advisor to the Rector, academic director of the Institute of Northern European Studies of PetrSU. The Rector of PetrSU Anatoly Voronin supported the initiative and made a financial contribution to this scientific project. To implement the initiative, the research group was established under the leadership of Prof. Yury Kilin.

«The research was carried out from March to December 2019 with the aim to detect and copy documents from the central archives of the Russian Federation and National Archive of the Republic of Karelia. The entire work in the archives of Moscow was сonducted by Veronika Kilina, a specialist of Research and Educational Center for World War II Issues in PetrSU; the employees of the National Archive of the Republic of Karelia Nadezhda Basova, Ekaterina Evseeva, Elena Usacheva detected the documents whereas Y. Kilin was responsible for the selection of the documents. Valery Shlyamin made a request to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, thus, provided great assistance in gaining access to the documents of the Foreign Policy Archive of the Russian Federation.

In November 2019, Prof. Yuri Kilin and Veronika Kilina began to digitize the archival documents, prepare a preface, index of names and geographical index, references, and abbreviations. As a result of the current cooperation between the Institute of Northern European Studies (PetrSU) and the Aleksanteri Institute (University of Helsinki) Prof. Yuri Kilin and Prof. Markku Kangaspuro, Doctor of Philosophy, Director of the Aleksanteri Institute, reached an agreement to prepare a biographical article about Edvard Gylling.

Funding was provided by virtue of negotiations held by Valery Shlyamin in the Government of the Republic of Karelia and supervised by the Ministry of National and Regional Policy of the Republic of Karelia, in particular, minister Sergey Kiselev. After completion of the book on May 5, 2020, the Periodika Publishing House set up editorial preparation led by Liudmila Talya. Evgeniya Tihonova, the art editor of the Publishing House of PetrSU, created the book design and the computer layout. The book was published by Color-Print LLC, Ulyanovsk», said Yuri Kilin.

The book is available in the Scientific Library of Petrozavodsk State University.