Ingrian Finns

From Freepedia

Image:Ingria flag large.png The Ingrian Finns (inkeriläinen or inkerinsuomalainen) are an ethnic group who speak a dialect of Finnish language and have traditionally inhabited the area called Ingria (or Ingermanland, in Finnish: Inkeri) situated between what is now Saint Petersburg and the northeastern border of Estonia. According to some records, some 25,000 Ingrian Finns 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 which was approved by the Swedish authorities.

After the Russian reconquest and the foundation of Saint Petersburg (1703), the flow of migration was reversed. Russians 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 in great 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.