Finns

Subject / Ethnic culture/Ethnic communities
Subject / Ethnic culture/Ethnic communities/
Subject / Ethnic culture//
Finns (old use - Chukhnas, their native name is Suomalaiset) is an ethnic community which is a part of the population of the Leningrad Oblast. In the world there are more than 5 million Finns. They are the main population of Finland (4,6 million people). Finns also live in Sweden (300 thousand), in the USA (300 thousand). In Russia (the Leningrad Oblast, Karelia, Saint Petersburg, the Murmansk Oblast) there are 34364 people; in the Leningrad Oblast there are 7965 people (for 2002, including the Finns of Ingermanlandia). Finns were formed as a result of merging the tribes Sum, Yem (Tavastas), Karelians of Vyborg and Prisaiminskye Karelians. The Finnish language is related to the Finno-Ugric group of the Uralic language family. The religious Finns profess Lutheranism. On the territory of the Leningrad Oblast proper Finns or Finns-Suomi Lived (former Vyborg Gubernia of Finland, now they're Vyborg and Priozersk districts) and Finns of Ingermanlandia lived. The Finns of the Vyborg Gubernia, in contrast to the population of the rest part of the Grand Duchy of Finland, were lessees of independent farms; only about 3% of them were related to the category of torppari (landless peasants-farm labourers or those having little land). In the 19th century the individual farm system was formed. Migrants from the Vyborg Gubernia lived in Saint Petersburg, the Saint Petersburg, Olonetsk gubernias.Their traditional home is a wooden log house having a gable roof. For the Finnish men's clothes waistcoats,jackets, caftan's are typical; women wore skirts, sleeveless bodices or jackets, married women wore caps (the colours of clothes differ according to the parishes). In the food ration bread, milk dishes, fish predominated. Their traditions have been kept in the calendar rites (see Juhannus), the rites of the life cycle. Finns of the Vyborg Gubernia had lots of folk works written down (see Singers of Runes, T.Schwindt, D.Europeus). Finns, who lived on the territory passed to the USSR in 1940 after the Winter War, were evacuated to Finland and finally left their native land after a short-term return in 1941-44. The Finnish population of the Leningrad Oblast are mainly the Finns of Ingermanlandia. Chistyakov, Anton Yuryevich
Europeus, Daniel
Schwindt, Theodor
Neighbouring Territories/Finland
Historical Toponyms/Grand Principality of Finland
Neighbouring Territories/Karelian Republic
Historical Toponyms/Olonets Gubernia (Province)
Leningrad Oblast, the/Priozersk District
Historical Toponyms/Saint Petersburg Gubernia, the
Saint-Petersburg City
Leningrad Oblast, the/Vyborg District
Historical Toponyms/Grand Principality of Finland/Vyborg Province
Высек пламя Илмаринен. Антология финского фольклора. М., 2000.
Энгман М. Финляндцы в Петербурге. СПб., 2005
Финны в России. Петрозаводск, 1998
Talve I. Finnish folk culture. Helsinki, 1997 (Studia Fennica Ethnologica. Vol. 5).
Finns of Ingermanlandia
Karelians
Singers of runes
Uhannus, a festival