Geography:
Ingermanland or Ingria lies along the southern shore of the Gulf of Finland and both banks of the river Neva. In the west it borders Estonia, in the south and in the east its borders run along the rivers Luga, Oredezh, Tosno, Mga and Lovat.
Area: 15, 000 km².

People:

The flag of Ingermanland strongly resembles the Swedish flag, since it belonged to Sweden till 1719, and was settled by Fins during the Swedish reign. To accent the Finnish identity of the inhabitants of Ingermanland the narrow red separating stripes were inserted. Red is the scutcheon colour and the national colour of Finland.)

Population:

The Votes, along with the Izhorians (Ingrians proper), are the indigenous people of historical Ingria (Inkeri in Finnish). Another people of the area are the "Ingrian Finns", descendants from Lutheran emigrants from present-day Finland of the 17th century. These populations were all wiped out of Ingria during the Soviet period. 63,000 fled to Finland during World War II, and were summoned back by Stalin after the war.

Most were executed as unreliable or became victims of population transfers. The remainder, including some post-Stalin returnees, were outnumbered by a numerous Russian immigration. After the fall of Communism in 1991, surviving Ingrian Finns have been allowed to immigrate to Finland.

6 million people live within Ingermanland or Ingria, most of who live in St. Petersburg (5.2 million). The Ingrian Finns population consists of 90,000 persons, many live in Carelia, in the central region of Russian, in Central Asia, in Finland and in Estonia, in Sweden, in Canada, in the USA and in Australia. 20,000 live in Ingermanland, accounting for 0,3 % of the total population of St.Petersburg and the region

Language:

Ingrian Finns are part of the Finno-Ugric peoples. Their literary language is the same as that of Suomi Finns, and is complemented with many local dialects. Until 1995 Finnish was not taught in local schools and the official language was Russian.

Culture and religion:

Religion:

The first Lutheran congregation was founded in Ingria in the late 16th century. At the time when the Lutheran faith established its roots in Scandinavia and Finland, it became a major religion south and east of the Gulf of Finland. As early as 1655, there were 58 parishes, 36 churches and 42 pastors. Before the Russian revolution of 1917, there were 32 Ingrian parishes in St. Petersburg and the surrounding area from the Estonian to the Finnish border. During the Soviet regime the churches were destroyed or closed. Since 1989, 15 church congregations have been restored (in 1918 there were approximately 100) and national cultural societies have been established in Finland, Leningrad Province, Karelia, Estonia, Sweden and elsewhere.

Culture:

Due to Lutheranism the Ingrians' education has been good. There are records of a school in 1632, and from 1643 every county town had its own school. Tests in reading skills and Sunday schools for children already existed during the Swedish period and continued later throughout the Russian dominion. A great national revival occurred in the 1990s, which marked a revival of the Ingrian culture. Since then the situation of the Ingrian Finns has changed a great deal.

There is a large network of church parishes, there are 7 old people’s homes, hundreds of adults and children are studying Finnish in the groups organized by Inkerin Liitto. Still Ingrian Finnish is considered a ‘seriously endangered’ language and its future is uncertain even though the Ingrian Finns are allowed to publish their own newspapers in many regions.
The Ingrians are allowed to organize their own festival such as the Uhannes – St.John’s day.
Economy:

Traditional forms of agriculture are partly preserved, although most Ingrian Finns now work at the industrial enterprises of St.Petersburg and the region.

The Leningrad region has many mineral resources. The most commercially important ones are bauxite, oil shale, and phosphorite. Peat reserves are estimated at 1.8 billion tonnes and oil shale reserves, at 5 billion tonnes. There are granite beds in the northern part of the region, and manganese ores have been discovered in the Gulf of Finland not far from St. Petersburg.

The region’s main industries are engineering, forestry, woodworking, pulp and paper, chemicals, fuel, nonferrous metallurgy, and power.

The unique landscape and the many remarkably preserved historical and architectural
monuments, numerous recreational areas have been established and there is a well-organized tourist infrastructure.

Environment:

In 2001, the government of the Russian Federation approved a list of new federal level protected areas to be established by 2010. One of these areas is the Ingermanland Strict Nature Reserve in the Leningrad region. Due to its location, the Leningrad region has a moist temperate continental climate.
The region lies within the southern taiga zone and was once covered with thick forests and bogs. Even today, despite centuries of development of these lands, forests cover nearly 40% of the region’s territory and bogs, about 12%.

History:

Ingria fell to Sweden in the 1580s, was returned to Russia by the Treaty of Teusina (1595), and again ceded to Sweden in the Treaty of Stolbovo (1617) until 1719, when it was ceded again to Russia in the Treaty of Nystad during the Great Northern War. The destiny of the Ingrian Finns has been seriously affected by the location of the Russian-Swedish border on the Isthmus of Karelia after that war, which separated them from the rest of the Finns.

Yet 300 years of life and work passed before the Ingrian Finns were labeled strangers and their territory claimed as having been historically Russian.

The Soviet regime started implementing resolute measures:
1928 – Collectivization started: the first mass deportation to Siberia, Central Asia and the Kola Peninsula. The territory was resettled by newcomers from Russia;
1932 – Religious practices are forbidden;
1937 – Cultural activities in Finnish are forbidden;
1939 – At least 13,000 Finns are murdered and another 37,000 are taken to concentration camps;
1942 – Almost 30,000 people are deported to Siberia;
1944/45– 55,000 Finns who were evacuated and return home are dispersed in the provinces in Central Russia.

Within only 20 years, 110,000 people or 97% of the population of Ingria were removed. School instruction in Finnish, Lutheran church, newspapers and magazines, societies, Finnish-language literature, etc., were either eliminated or prohibited, as was living in one’s native community. Since 1956 approximately 1/7 of the population has returned to their native settlement area by special permission.

1993 The Ingrians were rehabilitated by the Russian government but they still did not receive the right to return to their homelands.

1995 Three homes for the elderly were opened, built by Inkeri Liitto with the help from Finnish government and social organizations. The first Finnish school was opened in St. Petersburg.

2002 The government of Finland restricted the remigration of Ingrians to give precedence to those who can speak Finnish.

Although the situation has improved since 1993 the Inkeri still have a long and difficult road ahead in order to preserve their language and their culture. One of the biggest dangers is the ethnic dispersion of the Ingrian Finns, which makes their survival as a nation very dubious. The decrease in the numbers of people in their homeland who can still speak their mother tongue, demonstrates the difficulty of retaining the language in a foreign environment. Among the Ingrian Finns the language shift is already well under way.
The Finnish Ministry of Labor and the European Union are financing a four-year project to rebuild the destroyed lives of the Ingrian people. The project attempts to give the Ingrian people the hope of an alternative to emigrating to Finland, which is what many younger Ingrians hope for, despite their inability to speak the language (13,000 Ingrian Finns have already migrated to Finland, with another 7,000 expecting to follow).

The objective of the project is to provide employment in the Ingrians own lands with the perspective that it is better to stay on Ingrian home grounds and be employed than move to Finland and be unemployed. Another project, Villa Inkeri, has received funding for the
purpose of upgrading and repairing Ingerian homes.



Organizations:
The Ingerian Finns are represented in UNPO by Inkeri Liitto. Its purpose is to preserve Ingrian Finns as a people.

Statistics: