Geographical Inkeri and the indigenous peoples of the Inkeri nation.
Inkeri-land is the geographical area, located at the eastern end of the Gulf of Finland, and Lake Ladoga (Karelian Isthmus) along the Neva River, the Narva River and Lake Peipus. The area historically lived by the Inkeri ethnic group of the Baltic Finns from around 2000 BC. Until the 1920s. The name Inkeri is in Finnish. Izora is Russian. Ingria in Latin and Ingermanland in German. There are many theories as to where / how the name originated, and it probably had many applications: it is derived from the name of the Finnish Baltic tribe (Izora), which was probably adopted from an Inkeren (Izora) river that flows from Lake Ladoga to Neva. and the Gulf of Finland.
The other explanation is that the daughter of the King of Sweden, given in marriage to Prince Jaroslav of Kiova (Ingregardin Kiovan), his gift in exchange from the King of Sweden was the City of Straja Ladogan with its surrounding lands. Most likely, if this were true, the mansion would have had a name change and official documentation. The earlier theory of the name of the river Izora is more convincing. (Saressalo 2000)
In the historical record, the name Inkeri-land people begins in 859 AD, when the Finns of the Baltic Sea, especially in the Gulf of Finland and the east side of Lake Ladoga, there are groups of people with ethnological names. The public record of the Chuds (Tsuudit) appears in the Russian Chronicles, and the Vows (Vatjalaiset), first entered the pages of history in 1069. The Izora (Izortsy) in 1228, also in the Russian Chronicles. The Ingria-land community once comprised about 55,000 square kilometers, an area from present-day Estonia to Lake Ladoga. Ingria’s land covered the land bridge between Lake Ladoga and the Gulf of Finland, an area more than 200 kilometers long, and stretches up to the Isthmus on the river to the border.
Evidently, the Finns of the Baltic Sea had and kept their Finnish language stock together, speaking their own unique Finnish language. It was sometime during the first 1000 AD that groups of Finnish-speaking people began to subdivide into Finnish groups and separate both in spoken language and politically.
The area was already populated in the first centuries AD by the Vows and later colonized by the Karelians, who were named in the Russian chronicles, as well as the Izhorians of Karelia. Voters and Ingrians were already in the sphere of influence from 1300 in Novgorod and Moscow under the auspices since 1478. At the same time, they were also linked to the Greek-Catholic Church. The Orthodox Church services were held in the old Slavic Orthodox Church, the Slavic religion and language influenced some of the Finns over time to become more Russian in church tradition and customs. Today’s Vows are practically extinct nations, the Ingrians living in western Ingria, are only in a few hundred.
The Finnish-speaking community was intact and strong in Ingria until the late 1920s. In 1926, according to the census of the Leningrad region, there were an estimated 115,000 Ingrian Finns and 15,500 Finnish Finns (Suomensuomalaista). Ingrian Finns lived mainly in villages, which in the 1920s numbered around 900 in total, only about 7,000 Ingrian lived in cities.
For the Ingrians, Finnish was their mother tongue. Most of the people in Ingria did not speak Russian at all. Women and children were in the villages of Ingria, Finnish ethnic communities until well into the 1930s. For almost 300 years, the closely knit Ingria villages had managed to preserve their mother tongue, national customs and their own identity. . With the Russian population constantly increasing, that came with trade and commerce. There was also pressure from the Russian government for minority groups to integrate and Russify. Ingria’s men relied on their abilities in the Russian language, to communicate and to secure their employment and income.
A map of the land of Inkeri, with all municipalities in the early 1900s, can be found on the Internet by the following source and author.
(J. Niemenmaa)
There are at least five main phases in the struggles that affected the Inkeri people and weakened their identity and community as a minority group. After about 3000 years, the increasing migration of foreigners and how they coexisted and grew as a community of people with their own unique language:
The language lived with the new generations and the education of the culture / tradition of the Inkeri people, despite the following list of influence, integration and hostilities.
A. Initially an indigenous group of pioneers, when they settled on the shores of the Gulf of Finland and grew / developed as a peace-loving rural community.
B. Followed by the changes that took place when integration occurred with the Battle ax tribes who arrived in the Inkeri-land region along the sea route from the west.
CY, thirdly, how the other people of the eastern Slavic groups arrived centuries later, migrating to the land of Ingria from the south and the east.
D. Regional politics and wars between East and West. 800-1900AD.
E. World War I and World War II had a significant impact on the Inkeri community and culture. The totalitarian regime of the Soviet Union, its objective was to prepare the Soviet soil for greater communism and to eliminate any resistance to its doctrine.
The war in the region for the land of Ingria began around 1200 AD, in the west were Sweden, Denmark and Germany. In the east, there was the alliance of Novgorod and Russia, who wanted to establish their commercial and political presence in the region, as well as further north in Karelia and western Finland. There was also a fight for the souls of the people between the Byzantine and the Catholic Church.
War and fighting continued almost unabated until 1600 AD. C. Denmark lost to the German knights, who also had to give in to Sweden. In the west actively fighting for territory were also Poland and Latvia. Two centuries earlier, in the east, Russians from Moscow settled in the Novgorod area in 1400 AD. In the 15th century, Russia came to the Inkeri region.
New churches were being built in the Ingria region.
The Nava River was also a natural border between the Byzantine and Roman churches. Churches were built in the Ingria region. In 1500 AD, there were 50 points of ecclesiastical activity, with a population of 70,000. The population of Ingria and the Vows, and later the Russians, were initially Orthodox at the time. It should be noted that the Church in the East was more tolerant than the Church in the West. There were wars and also fighting for the souls of the people between the Byzantine and the Catholic Church.
The war and conflict continued despite the construction of churches.
There was still no peace in Ingria. Swedish expansionary foreign policy threatened Russian interests in the Baltic region. The land of Ingria was often in the path of warring troops. During these regional wars, there were also intimidation and partisan movements, which were fought against the Russian occupation policy in Ingria, as well as in the Karelia region. It was during these events that the first record of the first evacuation to escape the troops at war was recorded. They evacuated to Karelia and further north to Finland.
Sources:
Saressalo, L. (2000). Inkeri, kertomus Inkerin Kansoista ja kulttuurista. Tampere: Museum of Tampere.
Inkeri.com. (2006). Who are the Ingria, where is Ingria? Retrieved November 11, 2011 from Inkeri.com:
J. Niemenmaa. (North Dakota). Wiki / File: Inkeri-2.png. Retrieved November 11, 2011, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Inkeri-2.png