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| Ingria Izhora | |
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| Historical region | |
 Ingermanland (yellow) in St. Petersburg and the surrounding Leningrad region and Gatchina (red point), the administrative center of Leningrad region | |
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| Area | |
| • Coordinates | 59°38′N29°18′E / 59.633°N 29.300°E /59.633; 29.300 |
| Today part of |  Russia |
Ingria[a] is a historical region in what is now northwesternEuropean Russia. It lies along the southeastern shore of theGulf of Finland, bordered byLake Ladoga on theKarelian Isthmus in the north and by theRiver Narva on the border withEstonia in the west. The earliest known modern inhabitants of the region were indigenousFinnic ethnic groups, primarily theIzhorians andVotians, who converted toEastern Orthodoxy over several centuries during the lateMiddle Ages. They were later joined by theIngrian Finns, descendants of 17th centuryLutheranFinnish immigrants to the area. At that time, modernFinland proper and Ingria were both part of theSwedish Empire.
Ingria as a whole never formed a separate state; however,North Ingria was an independent state for just under two years in 1919–1920. The inhabitants of Ingria cannot be said to have comprised a distinct nation, since the population is made up of several different ethnic groups, despite theSoviet Union recognizing Ingrian as a nationality. The indigenous peoples of Ingria, like theVotians andIzhorians, are today close to extinction, together with theirlanguages. This notwithstanding, many people still recognize and attempt to preserve their Ingrianheritage.[1]
Historic Ingria covers approximately the same area as theGatchinsky,Kingiseppsky,Kirovsky,Lomonosovsky,Tosnensky,Volosovsky andVsevolozhsky districts of modernLeningrad Oblast as well as the city ofSaint Petersburg.
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In theViking era (lateIron Age), from the 750s onwards,Ladoga served as a bridgehead on theVarangian trade route to Eastern Europe. A mixed slavic-varangianaristocracy developed that would ultimately rule overNovgorod andKievan Rus'. In the 860s, the warringFinnic andSlavic tribes rebelled underVadim the Bold, but later asked the Varangians underRurik to return and to put an end to the recurring conflicts between them.[2]
The Swedes referred to the ancientNovgorodian land ofVod people asIngermanland, Latinized toIngria. The origin of the name is uncertain, but there are several possible explanations. One explanation is that the name comes from theRiver Inger, a southern tributary of theNeva River. Another explanation is based on the NorwegianEymund's saga, which tells the story of the Swedish princessIngegerd Olofsdotter, who marriedYaroslav the Wise, Grand Prince of Novgorod and Kiev in 1019. According to the saga, she received Ladoga and the surrounding lands as a wedding gift from Yaroslav, and the region came to be known asIngegerd's land, orIngermanland.[3] The lands were administered by Swedishjarls, such asRagnvald Ulfsson, under the sovereignty of theNovgorod Republic.
In the 12th century, Western Ingria was absorbed by the Novgorod Republic. There followed centuries offrequent wars, chiefly between Novgorod and Sweden, and occasionally involvingDenmark andTeutonic Knights as well. The Teutonic Knights established a stronghold in the town ofNarva, followed by the Russian castleIvangorod on the opposite side of the Narva River in 1492.
With the consolidation of theKievan Rus and the expansion of theRepublic of Novgorod north, the indigenous Ingrians becameEastern Orthodox. Ingria became a province of Sweden in theTreaty of Stolbovo in 1617 that ended theIngrian War, fought between Sweden and Russia. After the Swedish conquest of the area in 1617 theIngrian Finns, descendants of 17th-centuryLutheran emigrants from present-dayFinland, became the majority in Ingria.In 1710, following a Russian conquest, Ingria was designated as the Province of St. Petersburg.
In theTreaty of Nystad in 1721, Sweden formally ceded Ingria to Russia.
In 1927 the Soviet authorities designated the area as Leningrad Province.Deportations of the Ingrian Finns started in late 1920s, andRussification was nearly complete by the 1940s.
In the modern era, Ingria forms the northwestern anchor of Russia—its "window" on theBaltic Sea—withSaint Petersburg as its centre.
Although Sweden and Novgorod had fought for the Ingrian lands more or less sincethe Great Schism of 1054, the first actual attempt to establish Swedish dominion in Ingria appears to date from the early 14th century, when Sweden first founded the settlement ofViborg inKarelia[4] and then the fortressLandskrona (built in 1299 or 1300) at the confluence of theOhta andNeva rivers. However, Novgorod re-conquered Landskrona in 1301 and destroyed it. Ingria eventually became aSwedish dominion in the 1580s, but theTreaty of Teusina (1595) returned it toRussia in 1595. Russia in its turn ceded Ingria to Sweden in theTreaty of Stolbova (1617) after theIngrian War of 1610–1617. Sweden's interest in the territory was mainly strategic: the area served as abuffer zone against Russian attacks on theKarelian Isthmus and on present-day Finland, then the eastern half of the Swedish realm; and Russian Baltic trade had to pass through Swedish territory. The townships ofIvangorod, Jama (nowKingisepp), Caporie (nowKoporye) and Nöteborg (nowShlisselburg) became the centres of the four Ingrian counties (slottslän), and consisted of citadels, in the vicinity of which were small boroughs calledhakelverk – before the wars of the 1650s mainly inhabited by Russian townspeople. The degree to which Ingria became the destination for Swedish deportees has often been exaggerated.[by whom?]
Ingria remained sparsely populated. In 1664 the total population amounted to 15,000. Swedish attempts to introduceLutheranism, which accelerated after an initial period of relativereligious tolerance,[5]met with repugnance on the part of the majority of theOrthodox peasantry, who were obliged to attend Lutheran services; converts were promised grants and tax reductions, but Lutheran gains were mostly due to voluntary resettlements byFinns fromSavonia andFinnish Karelia (mostly fromÄyräpää).[1][6]The proportion of Lutheran Finns in Ingria (Ingrian Finns) comprised 41.1% in 1656, 53.2% in 1661, 55.2% in 1666, 56.9% in 1671 and 73.8% in 1695, the remainder being Russians,[6]Izhorians andVotes.[7] Ingermanland was to a considerable extent enfiefed tonoble military and state officials, who brought their own Lutheran servants and workmen. However, a small number of Russian Orthodox churches remained in use until the very end of the Swedish dominion, and the forceful conversion of ethnic Russian Orthodox forbidden by law.[8]
Nyen became the main trading centre of Ingria, especially after Ivangorod dwindled, and in 1642 it was made the administrative centre of the province. In 1656 a Russian attack badly damaged the town, and the administrative centre moved toNarva.[1]
In the early 18th century the area was reconquered by Russia in theGreat Northern War after having been in Swedish possession for about 100 years. Near the location of the Swedish townNyen, close to the Neva river's estuary at the Gulf of Finland, the new Russian capitalSaint Petersburg was founded in 1703.
Peter the Great raised Ingria to the status of a duchy withPrince Menshikov as its first (and last) duke. In 1708, Ingria was designated a governorate (Ingermanland Governorate in 1708–1710,Saint Petersburg Governorate in 1710–1914,Petrograd Governorate in 1914–1924,Leningrad Governorate in 1924–1927).
In 1870, printing started of the first Finnish-language newspaper in Ingria,Pietarin Sanomat. Before that Ingria received newspapers mostly from Viborg. The first public library was opened in 1850 in Tyrö. The largest of the libraries, situated in Skuoritsa, had more than 2,000 volumes in the second half of the 19th century. In 1899 the first song festival in Ingria was held in Puutosti (Skuoritsa).[1]
By 1897 (year of theRussian Empire Census) the number ofIngrian Finns had grown to 130,413, and by 1917 it had exceeded 140,000 (45,000 in Northern Ingria, 52,000 in Central (Eastern) Ingria and 30,000 in Western Ingria, the rest inPetrograd).
From 1868Estonians began to migrate to Ingria as well. In 1897 the number ofEstonians inhabiting theSaint Petersburg Governorate reached 64,116 (12,238 of them inSaint Petersburg itself); by 1926 it had increased to 66,333 (15,847 of them in Leningrad).
As toIzhorians, in 1834 there were 17,800 of them, in 1897—21,000, in 1926—26,137. About 1000 Ingrians lived in the area ceded to Estonia under thePeace Treaty of Tartu (1920).[1]
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Under the Russian-EstonianPeace Treaty of Tartu of 1920, a small part of West Ingria became part of theRepublic of Estonia. In contrast to other parts of Ingria, Finnish culture blossomed in this area, known asEstonian Ingria [ru;et]. This was to a large extent due to the work ofLeander Reijo (also Reijonen or Reiju) fromKullankylä [fi] on the new border between Estonia and the Soviet Union, who was called "The King of Ingria" by the Finnish press. Finnish schools and a Finnish newspaper were started. A church was built inKallivieri [fi] in 1920 and by 1928 the parish had 1,300 people.[9][10]
In 1945, after theSecond World War, Estonian Ingria, then in theSoviet Union, was transferred to theRussian SFSR and incorporated into theLeningrad Oblast. Since Estonia reclaimed its independence in 1991, this territory has been disputed. As Russia does not recognize the Treaty of Tartu, the area currently remains under Russian control.[citation needed]
After the 1917Bolshevik revolution in Russia, theRepublic of North Ingria (Finnish:Pohjois-Inkerin tasavalta) declared its independence from Russia with the support of Finland and with the aim of incorporation into Finland. It ruled parts of Ingria from 1919 until 1920. With the Russian-FinnishPeace Treaty of Tartu it was re-integrated into Russia, but enjoyed a certain degree of autonomy.
At its height in the 1920s, there were about 300 Finnish language schools and 10 Finnish language newspapers in Ingria.[11]
TheFirst All-Union Census of the Soviet Union in 1926 recorded 114,831 Leningrad Finns, as Ingrian Finns were called.[1] The 1926 census also showed that the Russian population of central Ingria outnumbered theFinnic peoples living there, but Ingrian Finns formed the majority in the districts along the Finnish border.[6]
In the early 1930s theIzhorian language was taught in the schools of theSoikinsky Peninsula and the area around the mouth of theLuga River.[1]
In 1928collectivization of agriculture started in Ingria. To facilitate it, in 1929–1931, 18,000 people (4320 families),kulaks (independent peasants) from North Ingria, were deported toEast Karelia, theKola Peninsula as well asKazakhstan and Central Asia.
The situation for the Ingrian Finns deteriorated further when in the fall of 1934 theForbidden Border Zone along the western border of the Soviet Union was established, where entrance was forbidden without special permission issued by theNKVD. It was officially only 7.5 km (5 miles) deep initially, but along the Estonian border it extended to as much as 90 km (60 miles). The zone was to be free of Finnic and some other peoples, who were considered politically unreliable.[6][12] On 25 March 1935,Genrikh Yagoda authorized a large-scale deportation targeting Estonian,Latvian and Finnishkulaks andlishentsy residing in the border regions near Leningrad. About 7,000 people (2,000 families) were deported from Ingria to Kazakhstan, Central Asia and theUral region. In May and June 1936 the entire Finnish population of the parishes ofValkeasaari,Lempaala,Vuole andMiikkulainen near the Finnish border, 20,000 people, were resettled to the areas aroundCherepovets and Siberia in the next wave of deportations. In Ingria they were replaced with people from other parts of theSoviet Union, mostlyRussians but alsoUkrainians andTatars.[1][6]
In 1937 Lutheran churches and Finnish and Izhorian schools in Ingria were closed down and publications and radio broadcasting in Finnish and Izhorian were suspended.
Both Ingrian Finnish and Izhorian populations all but disappeared from Ingria during the Soviet period. 63,000 fled to Finland during World War II, and were required back byStalin after the war. Most became victims ofSoviet population transfers and many were executed as "enemies of the people".[1][6][12] The remainder, including some post-Stalin returnees (it was not until 1956 that some of the deported were allowed to return to their villages), were outnumbered by Russian immigration.
The 1959 census recorded 1,062 Izhorians; in 1979 that number had fallen to 748, only 315 of them around the mouth of theLuga River and on theSoikinsky Peninsula. According to theSoviet census of 1989, there were 829 Izhorians, 449 of them in Russia (including other parts of the country) and 228 in Estonia.[1]
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