Karelian

The Karelians are a Baltic Finnic people between Lake Ladoga and the White Sea. They emerged as settlers from western Finland mixed with the local population. Scandinavian tradition credits them with the sack of Sigtuna in 1187; they gradually fell under Novgorod's power.

The Third Swedish Crusade of 1293 brought western Karelia under Sweden, and the Treaty of Nöteborg in 1323 split the people, western Karelians turning Catholic and later Lutheran while their eastern kin became Orthodox under Novgorod. The Treaty of Stolbovo in 1617 placed most Karelians under Sweden, but Lutheran pressure drove an Orthodox exodus, with many migrating after 1658.

The Treaty of Nystad in 1721 returned the Karelian Isthmus to Russia, and in 1812 the western lands joined the Grand Duchy of Finland. Karelian folklore collected by Elias Lönnrot became the Kalevala, published in 1835.