Ingrian Finns
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Ingrians | |
|---|---|
 The Ingrian flag |
|
| Total population | |
| Regions with significant populations | Russia, Finland |
| Language | Russian, Finnish |
| Religion | Lutheranism |
| Related ethnic groups | other Finnic peoples |
The Ingrian Finns (inkeriläinen or inkerinsuomalainen) were the Finnish rural peasant population of Ingria, (now the central part of Leningrad Oblast). In the forced population transfers before and after World War II they were relocated to other parts of the Soviet Union. The Ingrian Finns still constitute the largest part of the Finnish population of the Russian Federation. According to some records, some 25,000 Ingrian Finns have returned or still reside in the Saint Petersburg region.
The Ingrian Finns originate mainly from the Lutheran resettlers and work-migrants who resettled to Ingria during the period of Swedish rule 1617–1703 from present-day Finland, then an integral part of the Swedish realm; and to lesser extent from more or less voluntary conversion among the indigenous Finnic speaking Votes and Izhorians were was approved by the Swedish authorities.
After the Russian reconquest and the foundation of Saint Petersburg (1703), the flow of migration was reversed. Russians nobles were granted land in Ingria and Lutheran Ingrian Finns left Ingria, where they were in minority, for Old Finland, i.e. Russia's 18th century gains north of the Gulf of Finland, where Lutherans were a large majority. There they assimilated with the Karelian Finns.
The 20th century Soviet rule, and the German occupation (1941–1944) during the World War II were as disastrous for the Ingrian Finns as for other small ethnic groups. Many Ingrian Finns were either executed, deported to Siberia, or forced to relocate to other parts of the Soviet Union. After the war many Ingrian Finns settled in Soviet-controlled Estonia. After the collapse of the Soviet Union a significant number of them have moved to Finland, where they are eligible for automatic naturalization in the Finnish Law of Return.
As many Ingrian Finns, including mixed families, who moved to Finland did not speak another language than Russian and in many cases identify themselves as Russians, mostly the younger generation, there are social integration problems similar to those of any other migrant groups in Europe, to such an extent that there is a political debate in Finland as to the maintenance of the Finnish Law of Return.
