Karelia

Karelia is a region on the border of Finland and Russia. Historically, it was a province of Finland, but that region is now split between the two current countries.

1922

 * Despite the failure to support the earlier Aunus expedition, in November 1921, Russian eastern Karelia rose in revolt against Soviet control with help from Finnish volunteers. The arms stamps were issued 31 January 1922. They were only used in eastern Karelia until February 3 or so when the Red Army re-took control. The stamps were apparently valid until February 16 in Finnish Karelia. As expected, used stamps are very scarce.

Forgeries of the 1922 issue
There are far more forgeries than genuine stamps. The forgeries are all credited to Italian N. Imperato that at first glance, are close to the genuine. The genuine has a J upturned slightly at left. The genuine does not have the large margins typical of the forgery. There are other points as well; these are the most obvious.

The Continuation War
 File:Karelia lion.jpg|1941 50p value. File:Karelia Mannerheim.jpg|1942 50p Mannerheim stamp. 
 * In 1941, Finland attacked Russia in order to gain and/or regain territory lost in the Winter War of 1940. Russian Karelia was then occupied for about three years. In 1941, Finnish stamps were overprinted ITÄ-KARJALA / Sot. Hallinto in both black and green.
 * In 1942, Finnish Mannerheim and Rysti issues were similarly overprinted.
 * In 1943, a semipostal with the Karelian arms was released.
 * In 1944, an armistice was signed and eastern Karelia was returned to the Soviet Union.

Modern bogus issues
Russian Karelia uses stamps of Russia today. Since the mid-1990s, bogus stamps for it have appeared, inscribed Karelia, КАРЕЛИЯ or together, etc. They are in popular topical subjects in minisheets and souvenir sheets but never as single design sheet stamps.



