Northern Russia wants to return to Finland… ARMED separatists

Youtube ^ | Nov 10, 2026 2:20 p.m. | RFU News — Strategic Geopolitics

[UMCRevMom@aol.com]

Today, there are important updates from the Russian Federation.

Here, Russia is facing a new separatist challenge from within, as armed Karelian activists have declared their intention to fight Moscow and pursue independence for Karelia, the northern region bordering Finland. Calling themselves the Northern Brotherhood, masked men carrying weapons have appeared in videos announcing preparations for partisan resistance against Russian authorities. The organization claims to defend people of Finnic origin and is recruiting supporters for information campaigns, underground activities, and armed operations. Although its membership and capabilities inside Russia remain unverified, its emergence highlights a vulnerability for the Russian government, as ethnic minorities increasingly question Moscow’s authority during the war against Ukraine.

One major motivation is Russia’s military recruitment policies, because for smaller ethnic communities, conscription threatens more than individual lives. Every young man killed in Ukraine represents another demographic loss for populations already struggling with assimilation and declining numbers. Separatist activists maintain resentment toward Moscow’s military demands, demanding independence as protection against being sacrificed in Russia’s war.

Karelia’s historical relationship with Finland makes this movement particularly significant because it is a historically divided region containing territories belonging to both Finland and Russia. During the Soviet invasion of Finland in the previous century, Moscow attempted to seize Finnish territory, triggering the Winter War. Finland surrendered substantial parts of western Karelia under the peace agreement the following year, and even though Finnish forces temporarily recovered these territories in during World War two, they were finally relinquished again at the end. Approximately four-hundred-thousand Finnish residents were forcibly relocated into Siberia from the ceded territories, permanently transforming the region’s demographic composition.

The region’s indigenous Karelians are closely related linguistically and culturally to Finns, constituting a Finnic ethnic group, and according to Russia’s two-thousands-twenty-one census, approximately twenty-six-thousand ethnic Karelians and three-thousand-four-hundred ethnic Finns remained in the republic. Some activists advocate independence or closer relations with Finland, while Finland itself maintains no territorial claims against Russia. Separatist organizations have periodically emerged, particularly following the Soviet Union’s collapse, with the Karelian National Movement being one example, advocating for greater self-determination before Russian authorities banned it in two-thousand-twenty-four. Some activists have subsequently connected their struggle directly to Ukraine’s resistance, with Karelian volunteers establishing a battalion named after Vasily Levonen, a leader of a past uprising against Soviet Russia. The Nord combat group, associated with Ukrainian military intelligence, has likewise attracted Finnic volunteers opposing Moscow’s rule.

Notably, Ukraine’s First Azov Corps commander Denys Prokopenko has Karelian ancestry and has connected his family’s history of resistance to Soviet expansion with his own fight against Russia. For these activists, Ukraine’s war represents an opportunity to weaken the Russian state, and their calculation is that sustained battlefield casualties, economic pressure, and political instability will eventually undermine Moscow’s control over its peripheral republics.

Overall, the Northern Brotherhood’s actual strength remains unknown, but even small underground movements can force authorities to devote intelligence, police, and security resources to internal threats. Potential sabotage campaigns could create additional pressure, and for Putin, the broader danger is cumulative. Russia’s prolonged war risks deepening resentment among ethnic minorities who believe Moscow disproportionately demands their sacrifices while restricting cultural and political autonomy. If similar movements expand across multiple regions, Moscow will confront growing internal security challenges precisely when its military resources remain committed to Ukraine. The Northern Brotherhood’s declaration therefore represents another warning that Russia’s war abroad may be generating new political vulnerabilities at home.

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[UMCRevMom@aol.com]

NOTICE SIMILARITIES BETWEEN UKRAINE AND KARELIA?

Karelia is a cultural region and area in northern Europe of historical significance to Russia, Finland and Sweden. The Winter War was a war between the Soviet Union and Finland that began with a Soviet invasion of Finland on 30 November 1939, three months after the outbreak of World War II, and ended three and a half months later with the Moscow Peace Treaty on 13 March 1940.
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KARELIA HISTORY

Russia made several demands, including that Finland cede substantial border territories in exchange for land elsewhere, claiming security reasons — primarily the protection of Leningrad, 32 km (20 mi) from the Finnish border. When Finland refused, the Soviets invaded. Most sources conclude that the Soviet Union had intended to conquer all of Finland, and cite the establishment of the puppet Finnish Communist government and the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact’s secret protocols as evidence of this. Finland repelled Soviet attacks for more than two months and inflicted substantial losses on the invaders in temperatures as low as −43 °C (−45 °F).

Despite superior military strength, especially in tanks and aircraft, the
Soviet Union suffered severe losses and initially made little headway. The League of Nations deemed the attack illegal and expelled the Soviet Union from its organization.
On 1 December 1939, the Soviet Union formed a puppet government, named the Finnish Democratic Republic, to govern Finland after Soviet conquest.

A declaration delivered via TASS stated:
“The People’s Government in its present composition regards itself as a provisional government. Immediately upon arrival in Helsinki, capital of the country, it will be re-organized and its composition enlarged by the inclusion of representatives of the various parties and groups participating in the people’s front of toilers.”

Soviet leaflets dropped over Helsinki on the first day of the war stated: “Finnish Comrades! We come to you not as conquerors, but as liberators of the Finnish people from the oppression of the capitalists and the landlords”.

Following the initial setbacks, the Soviets reduced their strategic objectives and put an end to the puppet Finnish communist government in late January 1940, and informed the legitimate Finnish government that they were willing to negotiate peace.

After the Soviet military reorganized and adopted different tactics, they renewed their offensive in February 1940 and overcame the Finnish defenses on the Karelian Isthmus. This left the Finnish Army in the main theatre of war near the breaking point, with a retreat seeming inevitable. Consequently, Finnish commander-in-chief Carl Gustaf Rmil Mannerheim urged a peace deal with the Soviets, while the Finns still retained bargaining power.

Hostilities ceased in March 1940 with the signing of the Moscow Peace Treaty in which Finland ceded 9% of its territory to the Soviet Union. Soviet losses were heavy, and the country’s international reputation suffered.[41] Their gains exceeded their pre-war demands, and the Soviets received substantial territories along Lake Ladoga and further north. Finland retained its sovereignty.

The Karelian National Movement wishes for the restoration of Karelian independence. Karelia also claims the territories lost by Finland after the Winter War, including the city of Vyborg to be Kandalaksha, the southeast of the Kola peninsula and the towns of Onega, Tikhvin and Vytegra and Kirishi.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winter_War
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karelian_National_Movement

[DIRTYSECRET]

Interesting. If they’re more ethnic Finlanders there they should go with the west. It’s unlike Ukraine Russians. They’ll stick with Russia but if they were smart they’d go with the EU. Where do we fit in?

I watched the two Sisu movies. I’d put my money on the Fins-from a distance.

[UMCRevMom@aol.com]

Map shows areas ceded by Finland to the Soviet Union;

[Equine1952]

“ARMED separatists”

What WTF they call us after the red states fight to rejoin our Constitutionual Republic in a year people.

[Flaming Conservative]

There is an excellent book available on gutenburg about the very early history of Russia, by Mary Platt Parmele, called A Short History of Russia. Unfortunately, it was written before the Revolution, but it really gets into the psyche of the early cultures that came together to form Russia. The last chapter is entitled, The Russification of Finland.