ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the Orthodox population in and originating from Karelia, and on other relevant Orthodox population movements, from a historical and contemporary Finnish perspective. It also focuses on the historical and contemporary dislocations, resettlements and migrations of Orthodox populations and the emergence of the Orthodox Church of Finland (OCF) as an outgrowth of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC). The chapter discusses changes in the social and organisational identities of Finland's Orthodox population and the OCF over the last century. Novgorodians adopted Orthodoxy from the Byzantines via Kiev around the end of the tenth century, and from the eleventh century onwards started to disseminate it in Karelia, where the pre-existing religion has been characterised as a form of shamanism. According to an 1809 imperial edict, basic Swedish laws remained in force in the conquered areas, now assigned as an autonomous Grand Duchy within the Russian Empire, headed by the Russian Tsar as the Grand Prince of Finland.
