Finns of Ingermanlandia

Subject / Ethnic culture/Ethnic communities
Subject / Ethnic culture/Ethnic communities/
Subject / Ethnic culture//
Finns of Ingermanlandia (Finns-Inkeri, Finns of Leningrad; old use - Chukhonets, Maimists; their own native names - Soumalaiset, Inkerin Suomolaiset) are an ethnic community. They speak local accents of the eastern dialects (the Baltic-Finnic subgroup of the Finno-Ugric branch of the Uralic language family. The religious Finns of Ingermanlandia profess Lutheranism (see the Evangelical Luteran Church in Igria). They live dispersedly in the western districts of the Leningrad Oblast (so-called Ingermanlandia). In 1897 in the S.Petersburg Gubernia there were 107 thousand Finns (country people); in 2002 in the Leningrad Oblast there were about 8 thousand Finns, in S.Petersburg there were 4 thousand Finns. The community was formed as a result of migration of Finns from the Karelian Isthmus and the regions of present East Finland to Ingermanlandia annexed to Sweden in 1617 and neglected after the Time of Troubles. In the 19th the ethnic groups such as Savakot and Evremeiset were stood out. The particular group (without a native name) is the Finns of the Kurgalsky Peninsula. The group differences disappeared at the turn of the 19th-20th centuries when the consolidation processes began to develop actively. The national intelligentsia connected to the Lutheran Church (see the Seminary for Teachers and Kusters of Kolpani Maliye Village, Putro Mooses) was of importance at that time. Finns of Ingermanlandia occupied themselves with farming, animal husbandry; since the 19th century some seasonal works have been developing. The main type of their settlements is a village. Finnish villages, which were on the south from the Neva River, had a street planning and the ones on the Karelian Isthmus (Vsevolozhsk District) consisted of some groups of houses ("settlements") located on the tops of the next hills ("a scattered planning"). Settling in the zone of contact with Izhora, Votes, Russians caused forming some cultural differences from the Finns-Suomi (the population of Finland). The Finnish knife (pukko) was a specific element of men's clothes. In the 19th - the beginning of the 20th century Finnish women wore mainly red and blue sarafans. National traditions were kept in the rites of celebrating Yegory's Day (St.George's Day) (the first sending the cattle out to pasture), Ivan's Day (John the Baptist) (see Juhannus), wedding rites (the rite of "smoking" during asking in marriage) etc. In the 1920-30s on the territory of the Leningrad Oblast there were national Finnish village soviets and Kuvaizovo (Toksovo) national district (the northern part of the present Vsevolozhsk District). Acts of repression and deprtation of the 1930-40s led to forming the Ingermanlandian diaspora in Karelia (in 2002 there were 14,3 thousand people) and Estonia. In the 1990s a part of Finns of Ingermanlandia emigrated to Finland. In 1988 the voluntary organization "Inkerin Liitto" ("Ingermanlandsky soyuz" ("Ingermanlandia Union") was founded , which occupies itself with keeping and developing the culture of this ethnic community. Chistyakov, Anton Yuryevich
Putro, Mooses
Neighbouring Territories/Estonia
Neighbouring Territories/Finland
Historical Toponyms/Ingermanlandia (Ingria)
Topographical landmarks/Karelian Isthmus, the
Neighbouring Territories/Karelian Republic
Topographical landmarks/Kurgalsky Peninsula, the
Historical Toponyms/Kuyvazi National District, the
Topographical landmarks/Neva River, the
Historical Toponyms/Saint Petersburg Gubernia, the
Leningrad Oblast, the/Vsevolozhsk District
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Смирнова Т.М. Национальность – питерские: Национальные меньшинства Петербурга и Ленинградской области в XX веке.-СПб.: Изд-во «Сударыня», 2002.-584 с.: ил., С. 402-431
"Inkerin Liito", a Finnish Public Society
Kolpany Teacher-Kuester Seminary