Wikipedia
The Karelians, sometimes also Karels, East Karelians or Russian Karelians are a Baltic-Finnic ethnic group living mostly in the Republic of Karelia and in other north-western parts of the Russian Federation. The historic homeland of the Karelians includes also parts of present-day Eastern Finland ( North Karelia) and the formerly Finnish territory of Ladoga Karelia. In a process starting during the 17th century and culminating after the Second World War, the ethnic Karelians in Finland have been linguistically and ethnically assimilated with the closely related Finnish people and are included in the wider group of Finnish Karelians, who are considered to form a sub-group of the ethnic Finns.
The separation between the Finnish Karelians and the East or Russian Karelians has been created and maintained by different religions, dialects and historical experiences. The Karelians in Russia have lived for centuries under the Slavic cultural influence, adopted the Russian Orthodox religion and have been to some extent assimilated by Russians.
Over the centuries the Karelians living in Russia have become dispersed in several distinct subgroups. The largest groups are North Karelians living in the Republic of Karelia and the South Karelians in the Tver, Novgorod and in the Leningrad Oblast of Russian federation. The subgroups of South Karelians, the Tikhvin Karels and Valdai Karels numbered between 90,000-100,000 are considered assimilated and speak Russian as their first language. The North Karelians include the Olonets and the Ludes, speakers of Olonets Karelian language and Ludic language live in the Russian Republic of Karelia. According to 2010 census there were 60,815 Karelians in Russia.