Everything you wanted to know about Ingermanland, but didn’t dare ask. Indigenous peoples of the Leningrad region See what “Ingrians” are in other dictionaries
The multimedia project “Faces of Russia” has existed since 2006, telling about Russian civilization, the most important feature of which is the ability to live together while remaining different - this motto is especially relevant for countries throughout the post-Soviet space. From 2006 to 2012, as part of the project, we created 60 documentaries about representatives of different Russian ethnic groups. Also, 2 cycles of radio programs “Music and Songs of the Peoples of Russia” were created - more than 40 programs. Illustrated almanacs were published to support the first series of films. Now we are halfway to creating a unique multimedia encyclopedia of the peoples of our country, a snapshot that will allow the residents of Russia to recognize themselves and leave a legacy for posterity with a picture of what they were like.
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"Faces of Russia". Ingrians. 2011
General information
FINNS-INGERMANLANDANS, St. Petersburg Finns, people in the Russian Federation, subethnic group of Finns. The population in the Russian Federation is 47.1 thousand people, including in Karelia - 18.4 thousand people, in the Leningrad region (mainly Gatchina and Vsevolozhsk districts) - about 11.8 thousand people, in St. Petersburg - 5, 5 thousand people. They also live in Estonia (about 16.6 thousand people). The total number is about 67 thousand people. According to the 2002 Population Census, the number of Ingrian Finns living in Russia is 300 people.
The language (a number of slightly different dialects) belongs to the eastern dialects of the Finnish language. Literary Finnish is also widely spoken. Self-name - Finns (suomalayset), inkerilaiset, i.e. inhabitants of Inkeri (Finnish name for Izhora land, or Ingria - the southern coast Gulf of Finland and the Karelian Isthmus, Germanized name - Ingria).
Believing Ingrian Finns are Lutherans. In the past, there was a small group of Orthodox Christians among the Eurymeiset. The Savakots had widespread sectarianism (including “jumpers”), as well as various pietistic movements (Lestadianism).
The mass resettlement of Finns to the territory of Ingria began after 1617, when these lands, under the terms of the Stolbovo Treaty, were ceded to Sweden, which at that time included Finland. The main influx of Finnish colonists occurred in the mid-17th century, when the Swedish government began to force the conversion of local residents to Lutheranism and close Orthodox churches. This caused a mass exodus of the Orthodox (Izhorian, Votic, Russian and Karelian) population to the southern lands that belonged to Russia. The empty lands were quickly occupied by Finnish settlers. Settlers from the nearest regions of Finland, in particular from the parish of Euräpää and its neighboring parishes in the north-west of the Karelian Isthmus, were called eurymeiset, i.e. people from Euryapää. The Savakot ethnographic group, formed by settlers from Eastern Finland (the historical lands of Savonia), was more numerous: in the mid-18th century, out of 72 thousand Ingrian Finns, almost 44 thousand were Savakots. The influx of Finns into the territory of Ingria also occurred in the 19th century. The Ingrian Finns had little contact with the indigenous population of this region.
At the end of the 1920s and 30s, many Ingrian Finns were deported to other regions of the country. During the Great Patriotic War, about 2/3 of the Ingrian Finns ended up in the occupied territories and were evacuated to Finland (about 60 thousand people). After the conclusion of the peace treaty between the USSR and Finland, the evacuated population was returned to the USSR, but did not receive the right to settle in their previous places of residence. Since the late 1980s, a movement has developed among Ingrian Finns to restore cultural autonomy and return to their old habitats.
N.V. Shlygina
FINNS, suomalayset (self-name), people, the main population of Finland (4650 thousand people). They also live in the USA (305 thousand people), Canada (53 thousand people), Sweden (310 thousand people), Norway (22 thousand people), Russia (47.1 thousand people, see Ingrian Finns) and etc. The total number is 5430 thousand people. According to the 2002 Population Census, the number of Finns living in Russia is 34 thousand people.
Finnish is spoken by the Baltic-Finnish subgroup of the Finno-Ugric group of the Uralic family. Dialects are divided into Western and Eastern groups. The modern literary language is based on Western dialects with the inclusion of Eastern vocabulary. Writing based on Latin script.
The believers are mostly Lutherans. Various Pietist movements are widespread: Herrnhuters (from the 1730s), Prayerists (from the 1750s), Awakeners (from the 1830s), Laestadians (from the 1840s), Evangelists (from 1840 's), Free Church, Methodists, Baptists, Adventists, Pentecostals, Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses, etc. There is a small number (1.5%) of Orthodox Christians in the southeastern regions (and immigrants from there).
The ancestors of the Finns - the Baltic-Finnish tribes - penetrated into the territory of modern Finland in the 3rd millennium BC and by the 8th century they settled most of it, pushing the Sami population to the north and partially assimilating it. The Finnish people were formed in the process of merging the southwestern tribes of the Suomi (in the Old Russian chronicles - Sum), Hame (Old Russian Em), who lived in the central part of Finland, the eastern Savo tribe, as well as the western (Vyborg and Saima) groups of Karelians (see Karelians). The eastern regions of the country were characterized by contacts with the Ladoga region and the Upper Volga region, and the southwestern regions with Scandinavia and the Baltic states.
In the 12th and 13th centuries, Finnish lands were conquered by the Swedes. The long-term Swedish rule left a noticeable imprint on Finnish culture (agrarian relations, social institutions, etc.). The Swedish conquest was accompanied by the forced Christianization of the Finns. During the Reformation (16th century), Finnish writing was created. However, the Finnish language remained only a language of worship and everyday communication until the 2nd half of the 19th century, when it received formal equality with the Swedish language. In reality, it began to be implemented in independent Finland. Swedish remains the second official language of Finland.
From 1809 to 1917 Finland, with the status of an autonomous Grand Duchy, was part of the Russian Empire. In December 1917, the independence of Finland was proclaimed, and in July 1919 it became a republic.
Finnish folk culture shows differences between Western and Eastern Finland. The ethnographic border between them runs along the line of the modern cities of Kotka, Jyväskylä, then between Oulu and Raahe. In the West, the influence of Swedish culture is more noticeable. Until the end of the 19th century, agriculture was dominated by farming. In the east in the Middle Ages, the main form was slash-and-burn agriculture; in the southwest, a fallow arable system developed early; Since the end of the 19th century, multi-field crop rotation began to be introduced. At the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century, dairy farming became the leading industry. Traditional crafts are marine (fishing, seal hunting, sailing), forest (tar smoking), woodworking (including the manufacture of wooden utensils). More than 33% of modern Finns are employed in industry, about 9% in agriculture and forestry.
Peasant settlements in the southwest of the country until the 16th-17th centuries were cumulus villages; from the 18th century, with the spread of farmstead land use, a scattered village layout began to predominate. In the east, due to the slash-and-burn system of agriculture, small settlements predominated, often single-yard ones; villages arose only where there were large areas lands suitable for permanent cultivation. The traditional dwelling is a log house of elongated proportions with a gable roof covered with shingles. Since the 18th century, the south of Pohjanmaa has been characterized by a two-story house. The most important outbuildings were a barn, a bathhouse (sauna), and cages (in the southwest they were often two-story; the top floor was used for sleeping in the summer). In the southwest of Finland, a residential building and outbuildings formed a closed quadrangular courtyard; in the east, the courtyards have an open layout. Dwellings in the west and east of the country differed in the design of the stove: the west is characterized by a combination of a heating-bread stove and an open hearth for cooking food, and the early appearance of chimneys; In the East, an oven close to the so-called Russian oven is common. The interior of a Western peasant house is characterized by bunk and sliding beds, cradles on curved runners, and a variety of cabinet shapes. Polychrome painting and carvings were widespread, covering furniture and utensils (spinning wheels, rakes, clamp pliers, etc.). The living space was decorated with woven products (blankets, holiday bedspreads, curtains for bunk beds), and ruyu pile carpets. In the east, archaic forms of furniture were preserved for a long time - wall benches, fixed beds, hanging cradles, wall shelves, cabinets. Traditional architecture and decoration from the east of the country had a great influence on Finnish architecture and art during the so-called “national romanticism” period of the late 19th century.
Traditional women's clothing - a shirt, blouses of various cuts, a skirt (mostly striped), a woolen sleeveless bodice or jacket, an apron, for married women - a linen or silk headdress on a rigid basis with lace trim; girls wore open headdresses in the form of a crown or headband. Men's clothing - shirt, knee-length pants, vests, jackets, caftans. In the east, a women's shirt with embroidery and an oblique cut on the chest, a white homespun or linen semi-long sundress (viita), a towel headdress, and caps were preserved for a long time. Embroidery patterns reflected Karelian and North Russian influence. Folk forms of clothing disappear early, especially in the west of the country. Their revival and the formation of the so-called national costume occurs in the late 19th - early 20th centuries, during the period of the national movement. This costume still retains its festive and symbolic role today.
There were differences in the traditional food of Western and Eastern Finns: in the east, tall soft bread was regularly baked, in the west, bread was baked 2 times a year in the form of round flat dry cakes with a hole in the middle and stored on poles under the ceiling. In the east they made lumpy yogurt, in the west they made stretchy forms of fermented milk, and they also made homemade cheese. Only in the east were baked closed pies (including fishmongers) and “wicket” type pies, only in the extreme southeast was daily consumption of tea accepted. In the western regions it is traditional to make beer, in the east - malt or bread kvass.
Small family. Large families, both paternal and fraternal, survived until the 19th century in the northwest of the country in Pohjanmaa, in the northeast in Kainuu, in the southeast in Karjala, where they existed until the 20th century.
The wedding ritual in Western Finland was distinguished by Swedish influences and borrowings from church rites: wedding at home, “gate of honor”, “wedding pole” in the yard, wedding under the canopy (“himmeli”), bride’s wedding crown, etc. The eastern Finns retained the archaic a form of wedding, with a three-part ritual of the bride’s “leaving” from her father’s house, moving (wedding train) to the groom’s house and the actual wedding-hyayat in his house. Many rituals were aimed at protecting the bride from evil spirits (when moving to the groom’s house, her face was covered with a veil, a knife was taken into the cart, etc.) and ensuring the fertility of the marriage.
Of the calendar holidays, the most important are Christmas and Midsummer's Day (Juhannus, Mittumaarja). During their conduct, various pre-Christian rituals were preserved, for example, making bonfires on Midsummer's Day. There was a belief in guardian spirits, troll witches, various protective actions, etc.
Epic songs of runic meter occupy a special place in folklore. Based on runes collected in Karelia, Eastern Finland and Ingermanland, E. Lönnrot compiled the epic “Kalevala” (1835), which became a symbol of the Finnish national movement.
N.V. Shlygina
Essays
One's own land is strawberries, someone else's land is blueberries / Oma maa mansikka; muu maa mustikka
Finland is called the Land of a Thousand Lakes. In fact, there are much more of them: about 190 thousand! Lakes occupy almost 9% of the entire territory of the country.
What happened before the lakes? To the forests? Before, when there was no land at all?
Initially, there was only an endless ocean. A lone bird flew above him in search of a nest. Exactly which one is unknown. Ancient runes differ on this issue. It could be a duck, a goose, an eagle, or even a swallow. In a word, a bird.
It was the bird that saw the knee of the first human being, which stuck out of the water. This was the tribe of the wise old man Väinämöinen or (in another rune) his mother, the heavenly maiden Ilmatar.
The bird laid an egg right on his knee... From this primary material the creator bird created the world. In some runes, the world is created by the first man Väinämöinen, and the firmament is forged by the blacksmith Ilmarinen.
From the top half of the egg the sky was created. From the bottom - the earth, from the yolk - the sun. From the protein - the moon, from the shell - the stars.
So, the creation of the universe is more or less clear, but how did it happen that the Finns became exactly what they are today?
Finn relies only on himself
The question is difficult, but it can be answered. The Finnish national character, so to speak, was forged from confrontation with nature. This is where the primary characteristic of Finnish consciousness begins. Everything about him is determined by the desire to conquer nature. And what is most interesting (which commands respect): in the fight against the natural elements, the Finn relies only on himself. That is why he attaches such importance to himself, convincing himself of his abilities. In the Finn's mind, man is a truly powerful creature, called to conquer the elements. We see this in the epic “Kalevala”.
In fairy tales, this theme of knowing the secret codes of nature is also reflected, sometimes even slightly in a comic form. Here, for example, is “The Peasant’s Prediction.”
Once upon a time there lived a king and a peasant, and the peasant's meadows and fields were so close to the royal palace that the owner had to pass through the courtyard of the royal castle every time on the way to his lands. One day a peasant went on a horse to buy some vein. When he was returning from the meadows through the royal courtyard, the king happened to be in the courtyard of his castle, and he began to scold the peasant.
How dare you, you idiot, drive through my yard with your hay, aren’t you ashamed?!
Sorry, dear king,” replied the peasant. “But the fact is that there will soon be a thunderstorm, it will begin to rain, and if I drove along the long circular road, I would not make it before the rain began to pour down, and my hay would get wet.” That's why I hurried straight ahead with the hay.
Well,” said the king, “how do you know this?”
Great sovereign! - answered the peasant. - I know from my mare's tail. Look how the gadflies crawl under your tail. And this is a sure sign that there will be bad weather.
That’s how... - said the king and allowed the peasant to pass.
After this, the king went to the tower of the palace astrologer and asked the fortuneteller whether it would rain today. The astrologer took the telescope, looked at the sky and said:
No, Mr. King, there will not be a single tear, not a single drop, today, tomorrow, or even the day after tomorrow, but then, maybe, there will be.
“I see,” said the king and descended from the tower to go to his chambers. But on the way to the palace, the king was overtaken by such heavy rain and a terrible thunderstorm that the king was wet to the skin. Finally he got, all dirty, to his palace and immediately called the fortuneteller to him.
You, unfortunate astrologer, will have to make room, since you understand nothing about the weather, while a stupid and uncouth peasant, looking at the tail of his mare, sees when it will rain and when there will be a bucket, - the king told him and dismissed him with positions, sending him to the stable to remove manure.
And the king summoned the peasant to himself and gave him possession of the astrologer’s tower and the proper title, giving him the same salary as the previous fortuneteller received. Thus, thanks to horseflies and a gadfly, the peasant became the king’s friend, to the envy of all the courtiers.
Finns love themselves
Finns love themselves in a way that few nations love themselves. In general, there are few peoples who love themselves, and the Finns are one of them. In the consciousness of most peoples there is a certain ideal image of their own, or one attributed to the golden age in the past, and their own inconsistency with this image is acutely felt.
The Finns have almost no such dissatisfaction. Finn, in essence, does not need the highest sanction; he achieved his exceptional position in the world himself. This explains the Finns’ emphasized respect for themselves, which surprised many researchers. Finn behaves with dignity, never begs for tea, even avoids a hint of it, although he will not refuse to take an increase on occasion, he will not even mention it, and whether they add something to him at the time of payment or not, he will equally thank him when he receives the agreed upon fee.
Finn depends extremely little on the team. A Finnish peasant lives on a farm. He does not often communicate with his neighbors, is closed in the family circle and does not see any particular need to open this circle. After Sunday lunch the owner will not go to visit. And why would he run away from home? His wife is his best friend, his children respect him. Finn is almost entirely focused on himself. His eyes, sometimes beautiful and expressive, look somehow into themselves, he is closed and silent. Finn goes to fight nature one-on-one.
Even at the end of the 18th century, Finland was called the land of sorcerers. The sorcerers themselves firmly believed in their art and, as a rule, passed it on to their children, which is why it was considered the property of entire families.
Enchant nature to conquer
Since ancient times, the Finns considered the greatest wisdom to be knowledge of the hidden forces of nature, believing that a word can force nature to act as a person pleases. The wiser a person is, the stronger the influence of his words on the surrounding nature, the more it is subject to him. Since ancient times, the Finns were more famous than others for their sorcerers. The Finns tried to bewitch nature and thus conquer it. This is one of the adequate expressions of the content inherent in the Finn’s consciousness. A sorcerer is like a superman. He is lonely and proud. He is closed in and on himself. He can go out to duel with nature. His goal is to force the alien forces of nature to obey his word, his desire.
The Finns' relationship with God is almost contractual. They are ordered and extremely rationalized. Lutheranism is a purely individual religion. There is no conciliarity in it, everyone is on his own. There is no mysticism in it either. Its instructions are strict and simple. The liturgical rite is strict and simple. A person must work. Must be a respectable family man, raise children, help the poor. The Finn does all this with the greatest diligence. But in this very correctness and moderation passion shines through. This rationality itself takes on magical features.
The goal of conquering nature was and remains the main content of the Finn’s consciousness. Finn, even in our time, continues to recognize himself as a lone fighter, obliging everything to himself and counting on his own strengths or God, but not on God’s mercy and pity, but on God as a reliable collaborator with whom the Finn enters into a contract, pledging to lead a virtuous life in exchange for His protection.
Finn follows the contract to the letter. His religious life is very correct and orderly. It was considered an unforgivable crime for a Finn to miss a church service. Even at the post station there was a sign with the rule: “No one, except in extreme need, has the right to demand a horse and travel during worship on Sundays.”
The ability to read is considered a religious duty by Finns. After all, every Lutheran must know the text of Holy Scripture and be able to interpret it. Therefore, literacy in Finland was already 100% in the 20th century.
Finns read everywhere: in cafes and on trains. It is the Finnish character that can explain the Finns’ love for the harsh and uncompromising poetry of Joseph Brodsky. It is this poet who enjoys incredible success in the Land of Blue Lakes.
Laugh at yourself
This is another feature of the Finnish character. It turns out that Finns love jokes about themselves. And they willingly compose them themselves. And when they meet, they exchange new products. And this can also be seen as a healthy start. People who can laugh at themselves are truly capable of great things. Finns can even joke about their favorite sauna. “The sauna can be used by anyone who can reach it.”
Here are a few anecdotal stories that have become a kind of classic of the genre.
Three Finn brothers are sitting fishing on the Gulf of Finland. Morning, the sun begins to rise, the younger brother says: “Nah kluyett.”
Well, it’s already day, the sun is high...
The middle brother says: “Taa, it just won’t bite.”
Well, it’s already evening, the sun has already set, well, the older brother says:
You chat a lot and it gets bitten...
Raaime, are you married?
Naette, I'm not married.
But the guys have kaaltso on the paaltz!
ABOUT! Already married! How letitt frammyaya!
Toivo means hope
Finnish names... do they mean something? Finnish names adopted in the Lutheran Finnish calendar are heterogeneous in their origin. Ancient, pagan names occupy a significant place. These are names that still retain a connection with the words from which they originated.
For example: Ainikki (the only one), Armas (beloved), Arvo (dignity, honor), Ilma (air), Into (inspiration), Kauko (distance), Lempi (love), Onni (happiness), Orvokki (violet), Rauha (peace), Sikka (grasshopper), Sulo (lovely), Taimi (sprout), Taisto (struggle), Tarmo (energy, strength), Toivo (hope), Uljas (brave), Urho (hero, hero), Vuokko ( snowdrop).
Another part of the names was borrowed from Germanic and some other peoples. But these borrowed names have undergone such significant linguistic processing on Finnish soil that they are now perceived as originally Finnish, although they are not associated with any meaning.
With Finnish surnames the situation is different. All Finnish surnames are formed from native Finnish significant words. Surnames of foreign origin are recognized by native speakers as foreign.
Finnish given names are placed before the surname. Very often, a child is given two or even three names at birth. The names preceding the surname are not declined - only the surname changes. For example: Toivo Letinen (Toivo Lehtinen) - Toivo Lehtiselle (Toivo Lehtinen). The emphasis in names, as in Finnish in general, falls on the first syllable.
It is interesting to know which Finnish names correspond to Russian ones. In fact, there aren't that many of them. For example, names such as Akhti or Aimo have no correspondence in the Russian language. But the name Antti corresponds to the Russian name Andrey.
Let's list a few more Finnish names along with their Russian counterparts: Juhani - Ivan, Marty - Martyn, Matti - Matvey, Mikko - Mikhail, Niilo - Nikolay, Paavo - Pavel, Pauli - Pavel, Pekka - Peter, Pietari - Peter, Santeri - Alexander, Simo - Semyon, Vikhtori - Victor. The women's list will be as follows: Annie - Anna, Helena - Elena. Irene - Irina, Katri - Ekaterina, Leena - Elena, Liisa - Elizaveta, Marta - Martha.
The Russian language has close ties with Finnish, or more precisely, with the group of Finno-Ugric languages. It so happened historically that the lands of northern Rus' (and then Muscovy) were practically surrounded by peoples who spoke Finno-Ugric languages. This includes the Baltic region, and the northeastern forests, near the Arctic Circle, and the Urals, and many nomadic tribes that lived in the southern steppes.
To this day, linguists argue about which words passed from whom to whom. For example, there is a version that the word “tundra”, which passed into the Russian language, comes from the Finnish word “tunturi”. But with the rest of the words, everything is far from so simple. Did the Russian word “boots” come from the Finnish word “saappaat” or vice versa?
Aphorism boom in Finland
Of course, there are proverbs and sayings in Finland. Books are also published in which these proverbs are collected.
The sauna is a pharmacy for the poor. Sauna öä apteekki.
One's own land is strawberries, someone else's land is blueberries. Oma maa mansikka; muu maa mustikka.
The Finns honor not only folk wisdom, but also modern wisdom, that is, aphorisms. In Finland there is an association that unites authors working in the aphorism genre. They publish books and anthologies. They have their own website on the Internet (.aforismi.vuodatus.).
The 2011 anthology “Tiheiden ajatusten kirja” (Close to thoughts on paper) contains aphorisms from 107 authors. Every year in Finland there is a competition for the best author of aphorisms (the Samuli Paronen competition). Not only writers, poets, journalists, but also people of other professions take part in this competition. It can be said without any exaggeration that all of Finland is passionate about both reading aphorisms and composing them. It is with great pleasure that we introduce the works of modern authors of aphorisms.
Every person is the architect of his own happiness. And if someone wants to forge eternal chains for themselves, then this is their personal right. Paavo Haavikko
The most common type of classification: me and the rest. Torsti Lehtinen
When you become very old, you are not afraid to be young. Helena Anhava
Slowness (slowness) is the soul of pleasure. Markku Envall
Don't confuse God's sycophants with angels. Eero Suvilehto
It is very possible that some modern Finnish aphorisms will go among the people and become proverbs.
Statistics
Original taken from nord_ursus in The Shelter of the Poor Chukhonets: the history of the Finnish population in the vicinity of St. Petersburg
The second largest city in the country, St. Petersburg, is located at the northwestern borders, directly adjacent to the borders with Finland and Estonia. The history of this region, which is called the Izhora Land, Ingermanlandia, the Nevsky Territory, or simply the Leningrad Region, contains a valuable layer of cultural and historical heritage left by the Finno-Ugric peoples who lived here. And now, when traveling outside of St. Petersburg, every now and then you come across the names of villages and villages with seemingly Russian endings, but still not quite familiar to the Russian ear with roots - Vaskelovo, Pargolovo, Kuyvozi, Agalatovo, Yukki and so on. Here, among dense forests and swamps, the “Chukhons” have long lived - as the Russians called the Finno-Ugric peoples - Izhoras, Vods, Finns, Vepsians. This word, in turn, comes from the ethnonym Chud - the common name of the Baltic-Finnish peoples. Now there are few Chukhons left near St. Petersburg - some have left in recent years, some have simply Russified and assimilated, some are simply hiding their belonging to the Finno-Ugric people. In this article I will try to shed at least a little light on the fate of these small peoples in the vicinity of the Northern Capital.
Map of Ingria. 1727
Finno-Ugric tribes - such as Izhora, Vod, Ves, Korela - have since ancient times inhabited the territories along the shores of the Gulf of Finland, the Neva River and Lake Ladoga. These tribes were characterized by slash-and-burn agriculture; in the more northern area, hunting and cattle breeding were of greater importance, as well as fishing along the seashores. According to the currently available results of archaeological research, the settlement of these lands by the Slavs began in the 6th century, when the Krivichi tribes moved here, and continued in the 8th century, when the territories were inhabited by the Ilmen Slovenes. The prerequisites for the emergence of a state are taking shape. According to traditional Russian historiography, the founding date of Veliky Novgorod is considered to be 859, and 862, the date of the beginning of the reign of Rurik, is considered the date of the emergence of the Russian state. Novgorod was one of the most powerful centers of Ancient Rus'. The possessions of Novgorod during the period of its greatest prosperity occupied an area larger than the modern Northwestern Federal District - then the White Sea, the Kola Peninsula, Pomorie and even the Polar Urals were under its rule.
Thus, the Baltic-Finnish peoples living near the Gulf of Finland and Lake Ladoga also found themselves under the rule of a powerful northern state, through which the trade route “From the Varangians to the Greeks” passed. The Tale of Bygone Years mentions that the Kiev prince Oleg, during his campaign against Constantinople in 907, took with him, among other tribes, the Chud, that is, the Finno-Ugric tribes living close to the Baltic:
“In the year 6415 Oleg went against the Greeks, leaving Igor in Kyiv; he took with him many Varangians, and Slovens, and Chuds, and Krivichi, and Meryu, and Drevlyans, and Radimichi, and Polans, and Northerners, and Vyatichi, and Croats, and Dulebs, and Tivertsi, known as interpreters: these were all called Greeks "Great Scythia."
In the second half of the 12th century, in the bull of Pope Alexander III, sent to the Uppsala bishop Stephen, the first historical mention of the pagan Izhora people, who are called “Ingris” in the text, is found. At the same time, the territory of present-day Finland has been under the rule of the Swedes since 1155, after the Swedish king Eric IX carried out a crusade and conquered the Finnish tribes living in the north of the Baltic - em (in Russian pronunciation the name yam is more common (from the Finnish yaamit (jäämit) )), from it came the name of the city of Yamburg) and sum (suomi). In 1228, in Russian chronicles, the Izhorians are already mentioned as allies of Novgorod, who participated together with the Novgorodians in the defeat of the detachments of the Finnish tribe Em, who invaded the Novgorod land in alliance with the Swedes:
“The last remaining Izherians sent them running, and beat them up a lot, but to no avail they ran away, where anyone saw.”
Looking ahead, we can say that it was then that the civilizational division of the Finnish tribes began through belonging to different states. Izhora, Vod, Vse and Korela found themselves as part of Orthodox Rus' and themselves gradually accepted Orthodoxy, and sum and em became part of Catholic Sweden. Now Finnish tribes close in blood fought on opposite sides of the front - civilizational (including religious) division took precedence over blood affinity.
Meanwhile, in 1237, the Teutonic Order carried out a successful expansion into the Baltic states, capturing Livonia, and strengthened itself on the Russian borders, founding the Koporye fortress. Novgorod escaped the devastating Mongol invasion while a serious threat arose from the western side. From the very moment the Swedes consolidated their position in Finland, the Karelian Isthmus and the mouth of the Neva became the site of territorial disputes between Novgorod Rus and Sweden. And on July 15, 1240, the Swedes, under the leadership of Earl Birger Magnusson, attacked Rus'. A battle takes place at the confluence of the Izhora River (named after the tribe) into the Neva, known as the Battle of Neva, as a result of which the Novgorod army under the command of Prince Alexander Yaroslavich, who received the nickname Nevsky as a result of the battle, wins. Mentions of the help of the Finno-Ugrians to the Russian army can be seen here. The chronicles mention “a certain man named Pelgusy (Pelguy, Pelkonen), who was an elder in the Izhora land, and he was entrusted with the protection of the sea coast: and he received holy baptism and lived in the midst of his family, a filthy creature, and in holy baptism the name Philip was given to him ». In 1241, Alexander Nevsky began to liberate the western part of Novgorod land, and on April 5, 1242, his army defeated the Teutonic Order on the ice of Lake Peipsi (Battle of the Ice).
In the 13th century, most of the Izhorians, Vozhans (vod) and Karelians converted to Orthodoxy. In the administrative division of the Novgorod land, such a unit appears as the Vodskaya Pyatina, which was named after the Vod people. In 1280, Prince Dmitry Alexandrovich strengthened the western borders of the Novgorod Republic, when, by his decree, the stone fortress of Koporye (Finnish Caprio) was built - on the same place where the Germans built a wooden fortress in 1237. A little to the west the Yam fortress was built (formerly Yamburg, now the city of Kingisepp). In 1323, in the Novgorod fortress of Oreshek at the source of the Neva, the Orekhovets Peace Treaty was concluded between Novgorod and Sweden, establishing the first border between these two states. The Karelian Isthmus was divided in two. Its western part, where the Swedes founded the city of Vyborg in 1293, went to Sweden, and the eastern part with the Korela fortress and Lake Ladoga went to Novgorod. According to the terms of the agreement, Novgorod transferred to Sweden “for love, three churchyards of Sevilakshyu(Savolax, now part of Finland) , Jaski(Yaskis or Yaaski, - now the village of Lesogorsky, Vyborg region) , Ogrebu(Euryapää, now the village of Baryshevo, Vyborg district) - Korelsky churchyard". As a result, part of the Korela tribe began to live in Sweden and, being converted to Catholicism, took part in the ethnogenesis of the Finns.
Koporye fortress. Nowadays it is part of the Lomonosovsky district of the Leningrad region
Novgorod-Swedish border along the Orekhovetsky world. 1323
Thus, in the 14th century we observe the following picture of the settlement of the Baltic-Finnish peoples: Finns and Sami live in Sweden, Karelians, Vepsians, Vodians and Izhoras live in the Novgorod Republic, Estonians live in the Livonian Order. In 1478, the Novgorod land was conquered by the Moscow prince Ivan III and became part of the centralized Russian state. In 1492, by decree of the prince, the Ivangorod fortress was built on the western border, opposite the Livonian castle of Narva (Rugodiv). Under Ivan IV the Terrible, after the end of the Livonian War, Russia in 1583 concluded the Truce of Plyus with Sweden, which leads to changes in the state border - now the western part of the Izhora land with the fortresses of Koporye, Yam and Ivangorod, as well as the eastern part of the Karelian Isthmus with the Korela fortress go to Sweden, which in turn annexes Estland, that is, the northern part of the Livonian Order (Livonia itself goes to the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth). Now part of Izhora and Voda also comes under Swedish rule.
Change of borders according to the Plyus truce. 1583 Territories ceded to Sweden are shown in grey.
But only seven years have passed since Russia took revenge for the results of the Livonian War. As a result of the Russian-Swedish war of 1590-1593, Russia returns both the Karelian Isthmus and the western part of the Izhora land. In 1595, the return of the lands was secured by the signing of peace in the Izhora village of Tyavzino near Ivangorod.
However, a radical change in the history of the region soon occurred. In 1609, during the Time of Troubles, an agreement was concluded in Vyborg between the Russian government of Vasily Shuisky and Sweden, under the terms of which the Swedes undertook to provide military assistance to Russia in the fight against the Polish intervention, in exchange for Russia transferring the Korelsky district (that is, the eastern part of the Karelian isthmus) into Sweden. The Swedish army was commanded by commander Jacob Pontusson Delagardie, a nobleman of French origin. After the crushing defeat of the joint Russian-Swedish army in the battle near the village of Klushino, Delagardi, under the pretext of the Russians’ failure to fulfill the conditions for the transfer of Korela, stopped providing military assistance to Russia. Sweden now acted as an interventionist, first occupying the Izhora land, and then, in 1611, capturing Novgorod. As a pretext for these actions, the Swedes used the fact that the Moscow Seven Boyars elected the Polish prince Vladislav to the Russian throne, while Sweden was at war with Poland and considered this action as a rapprochement between Russia and Poland. For the same reason, speaking about the events of the Time of Troubles, Sweden can in no way be called an ally of Poland - it, like Poland, intervened in Russia, but not in alliance with Poland, but in parallel. After the capture of Novgorod, the Swedes unsuccessfully besieged Tikhvin in 1613, and in 1615 they equally unsuccessfully besieged Pskov and captured Gdov. On February 27, 1617, in the village of Stolbovo near Tikhvin, the Peace of Stolbovo was signed between Russia and Sweden, under the terms of which the entire Izhora land went to Sweden.
As a matter of fact, the turning point in the history of the Izhora land was precisely this. After the Treaty of Stolbovo, many Orthodox inhabitants of the lands ceded to Sweden - Russians, Karelians, Izhorians, Vozhans - not wanting to accept Lutheranism and remain under the Swedish crown, left their homes and went to Russia. Karelians settled in the vicinity of Tver, as a result of which the subethnic group of Tver Karelians was formed. The Swedes, in order not to leave the depopulated lands empty, began to populate them with Finns. On this land, a dominion was formed within Sweden (a dominion is an autonomous territory with a status higher than a province), called Ingria. According to one version, this name is a translation of the term Izhora land into Swedish. According to another version, it comes from the Old Finnish Inkeri maa - “beautiful land” and the Swedish land - “earth” (that is, the word “land” is repeated twice). Finns resettled in Ingermanland formed the subethnic group of Finns-Ingrians (Inkerilaiset). Most of the settlers came from the province of Savolaks in Central Finland - they formed the group of Finns-Savakots (Savakot), as well as from Euräpää county (Äyräpää), located on the Karelian Isthmus, in the middle reaches of the Vuoksa - they formed a group of Finnish Evremeis (Äyrämöiset). Of the Izhorians who remained to live in Ingria, some converted to Lutheranism and were assimilated by the Finns, and only a very small part was able to preserve Orthodoxy and their original culture. In general, Ingria remained a rather provincial region within Sweden - Swedish exiles were sent here, and the land itself was sparsely populated: even half a century after joining Sweden, the population of Ingria was only 15 thousand people. Since 1642, the administrative center of Ingria was the city of Nyen (Nyenschanz), founded in 1611, located at the confluence of the Okhta and the Neva. In 1656, a new war begins between Russia and Sweden. The root cause of the military conflict lay in the successes of Russian troops in the Russian-Polish War that began in 1654, when the Russians occupied the territory of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The Swedes, in order to prevent the capture of Poland by the Russians and, as a consequence, the strengthening of Russia in the Baltic, invade Poland and declare claims to the territories occupied by Russian troops. The Russian Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich used this circumstance as a reason to try to return Russia to the Baltic Sea, and Russian troops invaded the Baltic states, and then Ingria, where they met significant support from the Orthodox Izhorians and Karelians who remained there, who created for the purpose of fighting against the Swedes partisan detachments. According to the Truce of Valiesar in 1658, Russia retained the occupied lands, but in 1661 it was forced to conclude the Treaty of Kardis and remain within the borders of 1617 in order to avoid a war on two fronts - with Poland and Sweden at the same time. After the Peace of Kardis, there was another wave of departure of the Orthodox population from Ingria, along with the Russian troops leaving there, and, as a result, the process of migration of Finns from the central provinces of Finland intensified. Now the Finns already constituted the absolute majority of the population of Ingria.
Administrative divisions of Sweden in the 17th century
Coat of arms of Swedish Ingria. 1660
At the very beginning of the 18th century, Russian Tsar Peter I put an end to territorial disputes between Russia and Sweden over control of Karelia and Ingria. The Northern War began in 1700, at first unsuccessfully for Russia - with the defeat of Russian troops near Narva, but then the Russians developed a successful offensive deep into Swedish territories. In 1702, the Noteburg (Oreshek) fortress was taken, and in 1703 the Nuenschanz fortress was taken, and then followed the most important event in the history of Russia - the founding of St. Petersburg, which in 1712 became the new capital of Russia. Russian troops continued to advance on the Karelian Isthmus and took Vyborg in 1710. As in the previous Russian-Swedish war of 1656-1658, support for the Russian troops was provided by partisan detachments of Orthodox Karelian and Izhora peasants. Meanwhile, there were frequent cases of Ingrian Finns going over to the side of Russia; the majority of them preferred to remain on their lands after their annexation to Russia. In 1707, the Ingermanland province was formed, renamed St. Petersburg in 1710. The Northern War ended in 1721 with a brilliant victory for Russia, which, under the terms of the Nystadt Peace Treaty, received the Baltic states, Ingermanland and Karelia, and the status of an empire to boot.
It was the Ingrian Finns who left the Finnish names of villages and hamlets in the vicinity of St. Petersburg, which have survived to this day. St. Petersburg has become the most European Russian city. Not only because it was built according to the canons of European architecture, but also because a significant part of its inhabitants were visiting Western Europeans - architects, artisans, workers, mostly Germans. There were also Ingrian Finns - a kind of local Europeans. A significant part of St. Petersburg Finns worked as chimney sweeps, which created a certain stereotypical image of Finns in the eyes of Russians. Also common among them were the professions of railway workers and jewelers; women often worked as cooks and maids. The cultural and religious center of the St. Petersburg Finns was the Lutheran Finnish Church of St. Mary on Bolshaya Konyushennaya Street, built in 1803-1805 according to the design of the architect G. H. Paulsen.
And the outskirts of the City on the Neva still remained “the shelter of the wretched Chukhon.” And, strange as it might be to realize now, outside of St. Petersburg, without going far from it, Finnish speech in villages could sometimes be heard even more often than Russian! As of the second half of the 19th century, the population of Ingria (that is, St. Petersburg, Shlisselburg, Koporsky and Yamburg districts), excluding the population of St. Petersburg, was about 500 thousand people, of which about 150 thousand were Finns. Consequently, Finns made up approximately 30% of the population of Ingria. In St. Petersburg itself, according to the 1897 census, the Finns were the third largest nation after the Great Russians, Germans and Poles, accounting for 1.66% of the capital's population. At the same time, in the population censuses of the 19th century, Ingrian Finns and Suomi Finns were recorded separately, that is, those who moved to the St. Petersburg province from the Grand Duchy of Finland after the latter’s annexation to Russia (the annexation, let me remind you, took place in 1809, after the last Russian - Swedish war). In 1811, the Vyborg province, conquered by Russia back in the Northern War, was annexed to the Grand Duchy of Finland - an autonomous part of the Russian Empire, therefore those who moved from there after 1811 were also classified as Suomi Finns. According to the 1897 census, Izhora numbered 13,774 people, that is, 3% of the population of Ingria (again, excluding the population of St. Petersburg) - ten times less than the Finns.
Finnish Church of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul in the villageToksovo. 1887
Finnish Church of St. Mary in St. Petersburg
Map of Evangelical Lutheran parishes in Ingria. 1900
But in 1917 a revolution occurred, and a radical change occurred in the history of our entire country, and our region in particular. Russian-Finnish relations have also changed. On December 6, 1917, the Finnish Sejm proclaims the state independence of the Republic of Finland (Suomen tasavalta), which the Bolsheviks recognize after 12 days. A month later, a socialist revolution also breaks out in Finland, followed by a civil war that ends with the defeat of the Reds. After defeat in the civil war, Finnish communists and Red Guards fled to Soviet Russia. At the same time, the issue of the border between Soviet Russia and Finland remains unresolved. The commander-in-chief of the Finnish troops, Carl Gustav Emil Mannerheim, considers it necessary to “liberate” Karelia from the Bolsheviks, and in the spring of 1919, Finnish troops made unsuccessful attempts to capture Karelia.
The population of the northern part of Ingria was in territory controlled by the Bolsheviks. Ingria peasants were subjected to surplus appropriation and the Red Terror, which was carried out in response to the peasants' evasion of mobilization into the Red Army; many of them fled across the Finnish border to the Finnish border villages of Raasuli (now Orekhovo) and Rautu (now Sosnovo). In early June, Ingrian peasants from the village of Kiryasalo launched an anti-Bolshevik uprising. On June 11, rebels numbering about two hundred people took control of the village of Kirjasalo and nearby Autio, Pusanmäki, Tikanmäki, Uusikylä and Vanhakylä. On July 9, the independent Republic of Northern Ingria was proclaimed (Pohjois Inkerin Tasavalta). The territory of the republic occupied the so-called “Kiryasala salient” with an area of about 30 square kilometers. The village of Kirjasalo became the capital, and local resident Santeri Termonen became the leader. In a short time, the power acquired state symbols, a post office and an army, with the help of which it tried to expand its territory, but suffered failures in battles with the Red Army near the villages of Nikulyasy, Lembolovo and Gruzino. In September 1919, Finnish army officer Jurje Elfengren became the head of the republic.
Flag of the Republic of Northern Ingria Yrje Elfengren
Postage stamps of the Republic of Northern Ingria
Approximately shows the territory controlled by the Republic of Northern Ingria
But the struggle of Ingrian peasants for independence remained in history. On October 14, 1920, in the Estonian city of Tartu, a peace treaty was signed between Soviet Russia and Finland, under the terms of which Northern Ingria remained in the Soviet state. On December 6, 1920, on the second anniversary of the independence of the country of Suomi, a farewell parade was held in Kiryasalo, after which the flag of Northern Ingria was lowered, and the army and the population left for Finland.
North Ingrian Army in Kirjasalo
In the 1920s, the Soviet government pursued a policy of “indigenization,” that is, encouraging national autonomies. This policy was designed to reduce interethnic contradictions in the young Soviet state. It also extended to the Ingrian Finns. In 1927, there were 20 Finnish village councils in the northern part of the Leningrad region. In the same year, the Kuyvozovsky Finnish national district was formed (Kuivaisin suomalainen kansallinen piiri) , occupying the territory of the north of the current Vsevolozhsk district, with the administrative center in the village of Toksovo (the name of the district from the village of Kuyvozi), in 1936 the district was renamed Toksovo. According to the 1927 census, in the region there were: Finns - 16,370 people, Russians - 4,142 people, Estonians - 70 people. In 1933, there were 58 schools in the area, of which 54 were Finnish and 4 Russian. In 1926, the following people lived on the territory of Ingermanland: Finns - 125,884 people, Izhorians - 16,030 people, Vodians - 694 people. The Kirja publishing house operated in Leningrad, publishing communist literature in Finnish.
The 1930 guidebook “On skis around the outskirts of Leningrad” describes the Kuyvozovsky district as follows:
«
Kuyvazovsky district occupies most of the Karelian Isthmus; from the west and north it borders with Finland. It was formed during zoning in 1927 and assigned to the Leningrad region. Lake Ladoga adjoins the region to the east, and in general these places are rich in lakes. Kuyvazovsky district gravitates towards Leningrad both in terms of agriculture, vegetable gardening and dairy farming, and in terms of handicraft industry. As for factories and factories, the latter are represented only by the former Aganotovsky Sawmill. Shuvalov (in 1930 it employed 18 people) in the village of Vartemyaki. The area of the Kuyvazovsky district is estimated at 1611 square meters. km, its population is 30,700 people, the density per 1 km² is 19.1 people. The population is distributed by nationality as follows: Finns - 77.1%, Russians - 21.1%, out of 24 village councils, 23 are Finnish. Forest occupies 96,100 hectares, arable land 12,100 hectares. Natural hayfields - 17,600 hectares. The forests are dominated by coniferous species - 40% pine, 20% spruce and only 31% deciduous species. As for cattle breeding, we present several figures relating to the spring of 1930: horses - 3,733, cattle - 14,948, pigs 1,050, sheep and goats - 5,094. Of the total number of farms in the region (6,336), fell on kulak in April there were only 267. Now the region is completing complete collectivization. If on October 1, 1930 there were 26 collective farms with 11.4% of socialized poor and middle peasant farms, then today there are about 100 agricultural artels in the region (as of July - 96) and 74% of collectivized farms.
The region has made great progress in increasing the sown area: compared to 1930, the area of spring crops has increased by 35%, vegetables by 48%, root crops by 273%, and potatoes by 40%. The area is cut through by the Oktyabrskaya railway line. Leningrad - Toksovo - Vaskelovo for 37 km. In addition, there are 3 large highways and a number of small ones with a total length of 448 km (as of January 1, 1931).
In response to the speeches of white-fascist groups beyond the Finnish border with interventionist plans, the region responds with complete collectivization and an increase in the area under cultivation. The center of the district is located in the village of Toksovo»
However, soon the loyalty of the Soviet government to the Ingrian Finns almost disappeared. As a people living on the border with bourgeois Finland, and, moreover, representing the same nation that lives in this state, the Ingrians are considered a potential fifth column.
Collectivization began in 1930. The following year, as part of the “kulak expulsion”, about 18 thousand Ingrian Finns were evicted from the Leningrad region, who were sent to the Murmansk region, the Urals, the Krasnoyarsk Territory, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. In 1935, in the border areas of the Leningrad Region and the Karelian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, by decree of the People's Commissar of Internal Affairs G. G. Yagoda, the “kulak and anti-Soviet element” was expelled, while many exiles were warned of their eviction only the day before. Now, however, it is impossible to say unequivocally that this event was a purely ethnic deportation. After this action, many Finns ended up in the Omsk and Irkutsk regions, Khakassia, Altai Territory, Yakutia, and Taimyr.
The flags of Finland and Ingermanland are flown at half-mast in protest against
deportations of Ingrian Finns. Helsinki, 1934.
The next wave of deportations took place in 1936, when the civilian population was evicted from the rear of the Karelian fortified area under construction. Ingrian Finns were evicted to the Vologda region, but in fact this event was not exile in the full sense, since the exiles did not have the status of special settlers and could freely leave their new place of residence. After this, the national policy towards the Finns acquired a fundamentally opposite character than in the 1920s. In 1937, all Finnish-language publishing houses were closed, school education was translated into Russian, and all Lutheran parishes in Ingria were closed. In 1939, the Finnish national district was abolished, which was annexed to the Pargolovsky district. That same year, on November 30, the bloody Soviet-Finnish war began, which lasted until March 1940. After its completion, the entire Karelian Isthmus became Soviet, and the former places of residence of Ingrian Finns ceased to be border territory. The deserted Finnish villages were now gradually populated by Russians. There are very few Ingrian Finns left.
During the Great Patriotic War, Finland was an ally of Nazi Germany, and Finnish troops attacked Leningrad from the north. On August 26, 1941, the Military Council of the Leningrad Front decided to expel the German and Finnish population of Leningrad and its suburbs to the Arkhangelsk region and the Komi Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic in order to avoid cooperation with the enemy. Only a few were able to be taken out, however, it is worth noting that this saved them from the blockade. A second wave of evictions was carried out in the spring of 1942. The Finns were taken to the Vologda and Kirov regions, as well as to the Omsk and Irkutsk regions and the Krasnoyarsk Territory. Some of the Ingrian Finns remained in besieged Leningrad and in the occupied territory, having experienced all the horrors of war. The Nazis used Ingrians as labor and at the same time extradited them to Finland. In 1944, under the terms of the Soviet-Finnish truce, Ingrian Finns were to be returned to the USSR. At the same time, they now settled in Karelia, Novgorod and Pskov regions. In 1949, Ingrian Finns were generally allowed to return from places of exile, but a strict ban was imposed on their resettlement in their native lands. The returning Finns were settled in the Karelo-Finnish SSR - in order to increase the percentage of the titular nation of the republic. In 1956, the ban on living in the Leningrad region was lifted, as a result of which about 20 thousand Ingrian Finns returned to their places of residence.
In 1990, Ingrian Finns received the right to repatriate to Finland. Finnish President Mauno Koivisto began to actively pursue a corresponding policy, and over the past 20 years, about 40 thousand people left for Finland under a repatriation program that lasted until 2010. Purebred descendants of Ingrian Finns are sometimes still found in St. Petersburg, Ingria, Karelia and even in places of exile, but there are very few of them left.
Such is the difficult and in many ways difficult and tragic fate of this small people. If you trace the history of the Ingrian Finns, you will notice that their place of residence periodically changed due to the difficult geographical location of their lands. From the middle of the 17th century, they migrated from their original places of residence to Ingria, after the Northern War they remained there and lived side by side with the Russians for more than two centuries. In the 1930s, they began to be sent, some to the north, some to Siberia, some to Central Asia. Then many were deported during the war. Many were shot during the repressions. Some returned and lived in Karelia, and some in Leningrad. Finally, at the end of the 20th century, the Ingrian Finns received refuge in their historical homeland.
Izhora and Vod are currently extremely small peoples, since they are mainly assimilated by the Russians. There are several local history organizations of enthusiasts engaged in the study of the heritage and preservation of these peoples and their culture.
In general, one cannot help but say that the Ingrian Finns made a very significant contribution to the history of both St. Petersburg itself and its environs. This is expressed most strongly in local toponymy and, in some places, in architecture. Let's take care of what we inherited from the past!
And Estonia. The 2010 census in the Russian Federation counted 441 Ingrians, mainly in Karelia and St. Petersburg. Ingrians are the old-timers of Ingria (Russian Izhora, German Ingermanlandia; the southern coast of the Gulf of Finland and the Karelian Isthmus). In principle, they should be distinguished from the Finns themselves - later immigrants from various regions of Finland. But the Ingrians themselves have almost completely lost their ethnic identity and consider themselves Finns or assimilated by neighboring peoples. A number of slightly different dialects of the Ingrians belong to the eastern dialects of the Finnish language; Literary Finnish was also widespread. In the past, Ingrians divided themselves into two ethnic groups: Avramoiset and Savakot. The Finns call the Ingrians inkerilaiset - residents of Inkeri (the Finnish name for Ingria).
Ingrian believers are Lutherans; in the past, there was a small group of Orthodox Christians among the Eurymeiset. The Savakots had widespread sectarianism, including “jumpers,” as well as various movements in Lutheranism (Lestadianism). The Finns appeared on the territory of Ingria mainly after 1617, when these lands were ceded to Sweden under the terms of the Peace of Stolbovo. A certain number of Finnish settlers existed here earlier, from the 14th century, after the conclusion of the Shlisselburg (Orekhovets) Peace Treaty. The main influx of Finnish colonists occurred in the mid-17th century, when the Swedes began to force local residents to accept Lutheranism and closed Orthodox churches. This caused a mass exodus of the Orthodox (Izhorian, Votic, Russian and Karelian) population to Russia. The deserted lands were occupied by Finnish settlers.
Settlers from the immediate regions of Finland, in particular from the Euräpää parish, which occupied the northwestern part of the Karelian Isthmus, as well as from the neighboring parishes of Jäeski, Lapes, Rantasalmi and Käkisalmi (Kexholm), were called Eurämäset (people from Euräpää). Part of the Eurymeiset occupied the nearest lands of the Karelian Isthmus, the other settled on the southern coast of the Gulf of Finland between Strelnaya and the lower reaches of the Kovashi River. A significant group of Eurymeiset lived on the left bank of the Tosna River and near Dudergof.
A group of immigrants from Eastern Finland (the historical region of Savo) is known as Savakot. Numerically, it prevailed over the Eurymeset. In the mid-18th century, out of 72 thousand Ingrians, almost 44 thousand were Savakot. The number of immigrants from other parts of Finland was insignificant before the 19th century. During the 17th and 18th centuries, the formation of the Ingrian ethnic group took place. This process accelerated after Ingria became part of Russia and the severance of ties with Finland. After Finland joined Russia, the influx of Finns into the territory of Ingria resumed, but was no longer as significant as before and the Finns did not mix with the Ingrians. In addition, the main flow of immigrants from Finland was directed not to Ingermanland, but to other regions of the Russian Empire.
Despite their great similarity in language, religion, and customs, Savakot and Eurymeiset developed for a long time in isolation from each other. The Eurymeiset considered the rest of the Finns to be late newcomers and refrained from marrying them. Evrymeiset women, who went to the Savakot village after marriage, tried to wear their traditional clothes and preserve in the minds of their children the concept of their maternal origin. The Ingrians generally remained isolated from the neighboring population - the Vodi, Izhora, and Russians.
The main occupation of the Ingrians was agriculture, which, due to the lack of land and poor soil, was unprofitable. The limited area of pasture land hampered the development of livestock farming. The forced three-field system persisted for a long time, which hampered the development of more intensive forms of crop rotation. Cereals were mainly rye, spring barley, oats, and industrial crops were flax and hemp, which were used for household needs (making nets, bags, ropes). In the 19th century, potatoes took an important place; in some villages it was grown for sale. Among the vegetable crops, cabbage went to the market, partly in pickled form.
On average, a peasant yard had 2-3 cows, 5-6 sheep, they usually kept a pig, and several chickens. Ingrians sold veal and pork at St. Petersburg markets and bred geese for sale. Among the St. Petersburg retailers, “Okhtenki” were typical, selling milk, butter, sour cream and cottage cheese (originally this name applied to the residents of the Ingrian villages near Okhten).
On the coast of the Gulf of Finland, the Ingrians had developed fishing (mainly winter fishing for herring); fishermen went out onto the ice with sleighs and board huts in which they lived. The Ingrians were engaged in various auxiliary work and waste trades - they were hired to cut wood, peeled bark for tanning leather, drove cabs, and in winter, cab drivers (“wakes”) worked part-time in St. Petersburg, especially during the Maslenitsa riding season. In the economy and traditional culture of the Ingrians, archaic features were combined with innovations that entered everyday life thanks to the proximity of the capital of the Russian Empire.
The Ingrians lived in villages; their layout had no specific features. The dwelling consisted of one living room and a cold entryway. Chicken stoves were preserved for a long time. The stoves were ovens (like a Russian stove), but they were placed on a stone stove, as in Eastern Finland. A hanging cauldron was fixed above the pole. With the improvement of the stove and the advent of the chimney, pyramidal caps over the hearth became characteristic, into which a stove with a firebox was built. In the hut they made fixed benches along the walls, on which they sat and slept. The baby's cradle was suspended. Subsequently, the dwelling developed into a three-chamber building. When the dwelling was placed facing the street, the front hut was a winter hut, and the back one served as a summer dwelling. The Ingrians maintained a large family for a long time; separate premises were built for married sons, which did not mean separating them from the family.
The men wore the same clothes as the surrounding Russian and Karelian population: cloth trousers, a linen shirt, a gray cloth caftan at the waist with wedges extending it from the waist. Festive high boots were also worn in the summer on major holidays - they served as a symbol of prosperity. Along with felt hats, city caps were also worn. Women's clothing differed between eurymeiset and savakot. Eurymeset clothing had local differences. The clothes of Ingrian women in Dudergof (Tuutari) were considered the most beautiful. Women's shirts had a chest slit on the side, on the left side, and in the middle of the chest there was a trapezoidal embroidered bib - recco. The incision was fastened with a round fibula. The sleeves of the shirt were long, with a cuff at the wrist. A sundress-type clothing was worn over the top - a blue skirt sewn to a bodice with armholes made of red cloth. The girl's head was tied with a cloth ribbon decorated with white beads and tin stripes. Women wore a junta on their heads - a small circle of white fabric, attached to their hair above the forehead at the parting. Hair was cut, girls usually wore short hairstyles with bangs. On the Karelian Isthmus, among the Orthodox Evrymeyset, married women wore magpie-type headdresses with a richly embroidered headband and a small “tail” at the back. Here, girls braided their hair in one braid, and after getting married - in two braids, which were placed on the crown of the head like a crown.
In Tyur (Peterhof - Oranienbaum), married eurymeiset women also wore long hair, twisting it into a tight cord (syukeret) under towel headdresses. In Western Ingria (Koporye - Soykinsky Peninsula) hair bundles were not made; hair was hidden under a white towel headdress. Here they wore simple white shirts (without a recco bib) and skirts. The evrymeyset's apron was striped wool, and on holidays it was white, decorated with red cross stitch and fringe. Warm clothing was a white or gray cloth caftan and sheepskin coats; in the summer they wore “kostoli” - a hip-length linen caftan. The wearing of leggings sewn from linen (red cloth in winter) to cover the shins was preserved for a long time.
Savakot women had shirts with wide sleeves that were pulled up to the elbow. The shirt had a slit in the middle of the chest and was fastened with a button. The waist-length clothing was colorful skirts, often checkered. On holidays, a woolen or calico one was worn over an everyday skirt. With a skirt they wore either a sleeveless bodice or jackets that were fastened at the waist and at the collar. A white apron was required. Head and shoulder scarves were widely used. In some villages of Western Ingria, Savakot switched to wearing Russian-style sundresses. At the end of the 19th century, in many localities, eurymeiset began to switch to the Savakot type of clothing.
The basis of nutrition was sour soft rye bread, cereal porridge and flour. It is typical to eat both salted mushrooms and mushroom soups, and use flaxseed oil.
The Ingrian wedding ceremony retained archaic features. Matchmaking had a multi-stage nature with repeated visits of matchmakers, a visit by the bride to the groom's house, and the exchange of collateral. After the agreement, the bride went around the surrounding villages, collecting “help” for her dowry: she was given flax, wool, ready-made towels, and mittens. This custom, which dates back to the ancient traditions of collective mutual assistance, was preserved at the end of the 19th century only on the outskirts of Finland. The wedding usually preceded the wedding ceremony, and from the church the married couple went to their homes. The wedding consisted of celebrations in the bride’s house - “leaving” (laksiaiset) and the actual wedding “haat”, which was celebrated in the groom’s house.
In Ingria, many Finnish fairy tales, legends, tales, sayings, songs, both runic and rhymed, are collected, laments and laments are recorded. However, from this heritage it is difficult to single out Ingrian folklore itself. The Ingrians are characterized by songs with rhymed verse, especially round dances and swing songs, close in form to Russian ditties. Dance songs are known, in particular for rentuske - a square dance type dance.
The Lutheran Church promoted early literacy. Gradually, secular primary schools emerged in Finnish-speaking parishes. At the end of the 19th century there were 38 Finnish schools in Ingria, including three in St. Petersburg. Rural libraries, which arose in parish centers from the mid-19th century, also contributed to maintaining knowledge of the Finnish language. In 1870, the first newspaper in Finnish, Pietarin Sanomat, was published in St. Petersburg.
The teaching of Finnish in schools was discontinued in 1937. In 1938, the activities of Lutheran church communities were banned. Back in the late 1920s, during dispossession, many Ingrians were deported to other regions of the country. In 1935-1936, a “cleansing” of the border areas of the Leningrad region from “suspicious elements” was carried out, during which a significant part of the Ingrians were evicted to the Vologda region and other regions of the USSR. During the Great Patriotic War, about two-thirds of Soviet Finns ended up in the occupied territories and, at the request of the Finnish authorities, were evacuated to Finland (about 60 thousand people). After the conclusion of the peace treaty between the USSR and Finland, the evacuated population was returned to the USSR, but did not receive the right to settle in their previous places of residence. As a result, over several decades, the Ingrians were almost completely assimilated into larger ethnic groups.
Kazakhstan:
373 people (2009, Finns)
Belarus:
151 people (2009, Finns)
Ingrian Finns(fin. inkeriläiset, inkerinsuomalaiset, est. ingerlased, Swedish finskingermanlandare listen)) - a sub-ethnic group of Finns living in the territory of the historical region of Ingermanland. The Ingrian language belongs to the eastern dialects of the Finnish language. By religion, Ingrians traditionally belong to the Lutheran Church, but some of them adhere to Orthodoxy.
Story
The Ingrian sub-ethnos was formed as a result of the migration of part of the Evremeis Finns and Savakot Finns from the central regions of Finland to the Ingrian lands, which were transferred to Sweden under the Treaty of Stolbovo. The Finnishization of the Izhora land was largely facilitated by the heavy demographic losses it suffered during the Time of Troubles, especially in its eastern part.
| Lena | 1623 | 1641 | 1643 | 1650 | 1656 | 1661 | 1666 | 1671 | 1675 | 1695 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ivangorodsky | 5,2 | 24,4 | 26,7 | 31,8 | 26,3 | 38,5 | 38,7 | 29,6 | 31,4 | 46,7 |
| Yamsky | - | 15,1 | 15,2 | 16,0 | 17,2 | 44,9 | 41,7 | 42,9 | 50,2 | 62,4 |
| Koporsky | 5,0 | 17,9 | 19,2 | 29,4 | 30,3 | 34,9 | 39,9 | 45,7 | 46,8 | 60,2 |
| Noteburgsky | 14,7 | 58,5 | 66,2 | 62,5 | 63,1 | 81,0 | 88,5 | 86,0 | 87,8 | 92,5 |
| Total | 7,7 | 35,0 | 39,3 | 41,6 | 41,1 | 53,2 | 55,6 | 59,9 | 61,5 | 71,7 |
The territory was re-Russified after the founding of St. Petersburg. But even at the beginning of the 19th century, the St. Petersburg area was almost exclusively Finnish-speaking. By the beginning of the 20th century, there were two large areas with the highest proportion of Finnish population: the Ingrian part of the Karelian Isthmus (the northern part of the St. Petersburg and Shlisselburg districts) and the area southwest of St. Petersburg, approximately along the line Peterhof - Krasnoe Selo - Gatchina (the western part of Tsarskoye Selo and eastern part of Peterhof district).
There were also a number of smaller areas where the Finnish population completely predominated (Kurgal Peninsula, Koltushskaya Upland, etc.).
In the rest of Ingria, the Finns lived interspersed with the Russians, and in a number of places (Izhora Upland) with the Estonian population.
Until the 20th century, the Ingrian Finns had two main groups: Evremeysy (Finnishäyrämöiset) and Savakots (Finnish savokot). According to P.I. Köppen, who studied the geography of Finnish settlement in the mid-19th century, the Evremeis settled on the Karelian Isthmus (except for the southern part immediately adjacent to St. Petersburg and the Beloostrov region), in the parishes of Tuutari, Tyrö, Hietamäki, Kaprio, Soikkola, Liissilä , partially Serepetta, Koprina and Skvoritsa. In the remaining regions of Ingria (the parishes of Valkeasaari, Rääpüvä, Keltto north of the Neva, the vicinity of Kolpino, the Nazia and Mgi region, the Izhora Upland, etc.) the Savakots settled. A special group were the Lower Luga Finns-Lutherans (Kurgal Peninsula, Fedorovka village, Kallivere). Numerically, the Savakots also prevailed - according to P.I. Köppen, out of 72,354 Finns there were 29,375 Evremøiset and 42,979 Savokots. By the beginning of the 20th century, the differences between the Evremeis and the Savakots were gradually erased, and the group identity of the Ingrians was lost.
At the beginning of the 19th century, another territorial group of Ingrians arose - the Siberian Ingrians. Currently, the main area of their settlement is the village. Ryzhkovo in the Omsk region.
Of the 1,602,000 people arrested in 1937-1939 under political articles of the criminal code, 346,000 people were representatives of national minorities, and of these, 247,000 were shot as foreign spies. Of the arrested "nationals", Greeks (81%) and Finns (80%) were executed most often.
- During the Great Patriotic War, by decree of the Military Council of the Leningrad Front No. 196ss of August 26, 1941, the Finnish and German population of the suburban areas of Leningrad was subject to mandatory evacuation to the Komi Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic and the Arkhangelsk region. The results of this resettlement are currently unknown. It should be noted that the decree was issued only a few days before all communication routes connecting the outskirts of Leningrad with the outside world by land were cut by German troops. Ironically, those who managed to evacuate on barges through Ladoga were thus saved from the starvation of the blockade.
- Resolution of the Military Council of the Leningrad Front No. 00714-a of March 20, 1942 repeated the requirement for the mandatory evacuation of the Finnish and German population. The resolution was based on the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR dated June 22, 1941 “On Martial Law,” which granted military authorities the right to “prohibit the entry and exit into an area declared under martial law, or from certain points thereof, of persons recognized as socially dangerous due to their criminality.” activities and connections with the criminal environment." According to V.N. Zemskov, 44,737 Ingrians were evicted, of which 17,837 were placed in the Krasnoyarsk Territory, 8,267 in the Irkutsk Region, 3,602 in the Omsk Region, the rest in the Vologda and Kirov Regions. Upon arrival at the settlement site, the Finns were registered as special settlements. After the end of the Great Patriotic War on January 12, 1946, the special settlement regime was lifted, but the government prohibited Finns from returning to the territory of the Leningrad Region. By a resolution of the Council of Ministers of the USSR dated February 11, 1949, Finns were allowed entry only into the territory of Karelia, neighboring the Leningrad Region, where several tens of thousands of both former special settlers and (mostly) repatriates from Finland moved. As a result of the implementation of this resolution, Karelia became one of the three largest centers of settlement of Soviet Finns.
This decree was canceled by the new Resolution of the Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party (b) of the KFSSR “On partial changes in the resolution of the Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party (b) and the Council of Ministers of the KFSSR dated December 1, 1949,” on the basis of which even people who moved to Karelia began to be evicted from the border area. - After the signing of the Soviet-Finnish armistice agreement, the Ingrian population, previously resettled by the German occupation authorities in Finland, was returned to the USSR (see below). However, in accordance with the Decree of the State Defense Committee of the USSR No. 6973ss of November 19, 1944, those repatriated were sent not to the Leningrad region, but to five neighboring regions - Pskov, Novgorod, Kalinin, Velikoluksk and Yaroslavl. Decree of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR No. 13925рс dated September 19, 1945 allowed entry into the Leningrad region only for “Ingrian families of military personnel who participated in the Patriotic War,” as well as non-Finnish repatriates. The majority of Finnish repatriates chose to leave the areas allocated for them to settle. Some tried by hook or by crook to return to Ingria, others went to Estonia and Karelia.
- Despite the bans, a significant number of Finns returned to the Leningrad region after the war. According to official data, by May 1947, 13,958 Finns lived in the territory of Leningrad and the Leningrad region, who arrived both without permission and with official permission. In accordance with the resolution of the Council of Ministers of the USSR No. 5211ss of May 7, 1947 and the decision of the Leningrad Oblast Executive Committee No. 9ss of May 11, 1947, Finns who returned to the region without permission were subject to return to their places of previous residence. According to the order of the Council of Ministers of the USSR No. 10007рс dated July 28, 1947, the same fate befell the Finns who lived in the Leningrad region without leaving the entire period of occupation. Only the following categories of Ingrians were allowed to remain in the Leningrad region: A) participants of the Great Patriotic War who have government awards, and members of their families; b) family members of military personnel who died on the fronts of the Great Patriotic War; V) Labor Army members and other persons awarded orders and medals of the Soviet Union, and members of their families; d) members and candidate members of the CPSU (b) and their families; d) members of families whose heads are Russian and e) obviously disabled elderly people who have no relatives. In total, there were 5,669 people in this category in the Leningrad region and 520 in Leningrad.
The most important result of the repressive policy of the Soviet authorities towards the Ingrians was the split of the monolithic area of residence of the Finns into three large and many small spatially separated areas. Even at the level of small administrative units, Finns in the second half of the 20th century did not constitute not only a majority, but also a significant minority. This “dissolution” in the Russian environment largely stimulated the processes of genetic assimilation and acculturation of the Finnish population, which led to a rapid reduction in its numbers, which by now has become clearly irreversible. It is important to emphasize that these processes, in the context of a sharp increase in migration processes in the 20th century, especially relocations from rural areas to cities, would still have taken place. In addition, the events of the Great Patriotic War (the Leningrad blockade and long-term residence in the occupied territory) also caused heavy demographic damage to the Finns. However, the forced dismemberment of the Ingrian settlement area, which was never overcome in the post-war period, undoubtedly contributed to a sharp “acceleration” of assimilation processes in the Finnish environment.
The fate of the Finns who found themselves in occupied territory
The relocation of residents to Finland and Estonia was in accordance with the plans of the Reich. According to the Ost plan, 350 thousand German colonists were supposed to be resettled in the territory of the Leningrad region within 25 years. The indigenous population was supposed to be expelled or destroyed. When the labor shortage became obvious, and the Germans were already using Estonians and Ingrians, for example, in the military economy, the Finnish government decided to get 40 thousand people as labor. But Germany's position had also changed by this time. The Supreme Command of the Ground Forces (Wehrmacht) and the Ministry of Eastern Territories opposed the transportation of Ingrians. On January 23, 1943, the German Foreign Ministry announced its consent to transport a maximum of 12 thousand people. On February 5, 1943, the German government, based primarily on political interests, agreed to transport 8 thousand able-bodied men with their families. A Helanen commission was appointed for the move, which went to Tallinn on February 25, 1943.
The first volunteers moved on March 29, 1943 from the Klooga camp. The Aranda motor ship transported 302 people from the port of Paldiski. Transportation took place 2-3 days later to the Hanko camp. At the beginning of April, the motor ship Suomi was added, which could carry 450 passengers. In June, a third ship was added, the minesweeper Louhi, since mines were the main problem during the transition. In the fall, the transitions were moved to night time due to increased activity of Soviet aviation. The moves were voluntary and based on the Pelkonen Commission's proposals to resettle primarily from areas close to the front. A document on the resettlement was drawn up on October 17, 1943.
In anticipation of the expected Soviet offensive near Leningrad, the General Commissariat "Estonia", which was a division of the Reichskommissariat "Ostland" (German. Generalbezirk Estland) and the command of Army Group North began the forced evacuation of Ingrian territories, despite the previously agreed terms with Finland on voluntary resettlement. It was planned that the territories would be evacuated, but an agreement could be made later. Edwin Scott from the Estonian General Commissariat showed activity, moreover, independently of the Ministry of Eastern Territories and independently of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The evacuation was planned to be carried out in one month and began on October 15, 1943.
The operation, which had already begun, was approved on November 2, 1943, when the first part of 40 thousand people was transported to the port. The resettlement agreement was concluded on November 4, 1943. Later, it remained to agree on the resettlement of those in German service.
| Provinces | 15.07.1943 | 15.10.1943 | 15.11.1943 | 31.12.1943 | 30.01.1944 | 31.03.1944 | 30.04.1944 | 31.05.1944 | 30.06.1944 | 31.07.1944 | 31.08.1944 | 30.09.1944 | 31.10.1944 | 30.11.1944 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Uusimaa | 1861 | 3284 | 3726 | 5391 | 6617 | 7267 | 7596 | 8346 | 8519 | 8662 | 8778 | 8842 | 8897 | 8945 |
| Turku-Pori | 2541 | 6490 | 7038 | 8611 | 10 384 | 12 677 | 14 132 | 15 570 | 16 117 | 16 548 | 16 985 | 17 067 | 17 118 | 17 177 |
| Häme | 2891 | 5300 | 5780 | 7668 | 9961 | 10 836 | 11 732 | 12 589 | 12 932 | 13 241 | 13 403 | 13 424 | 13 589 | 13 690 |
| Vyborg | 259 | 491 | 591 | 886 | 1821 | 2379 | 2975 | 3685 | 3916 | 3904 | 3456 | 3285 | 3059 | 2910 |
| Mikkeli | 425 | 724 | 842 | 1780 | 2645 | 3402 | 3451 | 3837 | 3950 | 3970 | 4124 | 4186 | 4159 | 4156 |
| Kuopio | 488 | 824 | 921 | 2008 | 3036 | 4214 | 4842 | 4962 | 5059 | 5098 | 5043 | 5068 | 5060 | 5002 |
| Vaasa | 925 | 2056 | 2208 | 2567 | 4533 | 5636 | 6395 | 6804 | 7045 | 7146 | 7227 | 7160 | 7344 | 7429 |
| Oulu | 172 | 552 | 746 | 680 | 2154 | 2043 | 2422 | 2438 | 2530 | 2376 | 2488 | 2473 | 2474 | 2472 |
| Lappi | 5 | 10 | 14 | 94 | 385 | 1301 | 1365 | 1408 | 1395 | 1626 | 1626 | 1594 | 1527 | 1430 |
| Total | 9567 | 19 731 | 21 866 | 29 685 | 41 536 | 49 755 | 54 910 | 59 639 | 61 463 | 62 571 | 63 130 | 63 119 | 63 227 | 63 211 |
After the war
63,000 Ingrians were resettled in Finland during the war. But the Soviet Union demanded their return in 1944. After the Moscow Armistice in the fall of 1944, 55,000 people, believing the promises of Soviet officials, agreed to return to their homeland. At the same time, the authorities of the Leningrad region were selling empty houses and buildings left by the Ingrians to the Russians. Men who had previously served in the German military, identified during the verification of documents in Vyborg, were shot on the spot. Those returning from Finland were taken past their homeland to the Pskov, Kalinin, Novgorod, Yaroslavl regions and Velikiye Luki. Others ended up further away, for example in Kazakhstan, where back in the 1930s many Ingrian peasants who were, in the opinion of the authorities, unreliable were exiled.
Many tried to return to their native places later, and even received permission from higher authorities, but the new residents categorically resisted the return of the Ingrians and, with the help of local authorities, prevented them from settling in their homeland. In 1947, a secret order was issued that prohibited Ingrians from living in the suburbs of Leningrad. This meant the expulsion of everyone who managed to return.
Return became possible only after Stalin's death in 1953. For the next ten years, attempts to settle in Ingermanland were tried to be limited. Many have already managed to settle into new places. The largest communities of Ingrians formed in Estonia and the Republic of Karelia. Thus, the Ingrians almost everywhere in their homeland became a national minority among Russian settlers and former Russian residents. According to the 1926 census, about 115,000 Ingrian Finns lived in the St. Petersburg province, and in 1989 only about 16,000.
Rehabilitation and repatriation
In 1993, a resolution of the Supreme Council of the Russian Federation was issued on the rehabilitation of Russian Finns. Every repressed person, even a child born in an evicted family, receives a certificate of rehabilitation, which states “termination of the case.” In fact, this is where the rehabilitation ends - the decree does not contain a mechanism for its implementation, everything is entrusted to local authorities, moreover, there is an insoluble contradiction: “measures for the resettlement and settlement of Russian Finns who have returned to their places of traditional residence... should be carried out without infringing on the rights and legitimate interests of citizens, residing in the respective territories." There is no chance of returning your home or land.
Dynamics of the number of Ingrian Finns
* according to census data in the St. Petersburg province
** data on “Leningrad Finns”
*** data on numbers including all Finns of the USSR (after repression and exile)
**** total number of Finns in the post-Soviet space (in Russia - 34050)
According to the 2002 census, 34,000 Finns live and are registered in Russia, of which at least 95% are Ingrian Finns and their descendants.
and only reflects the census methodology, in which it is not necessary to indicate the clarification “Ingrian”.
Dynamics of the number of all Finns in the USSR/Russia
* - 2010 census data.
Modern settlement and numbers
Entire Russian Federation: 34,050
Outside the Russian Federation:
- Estonia: 10,767 (2009)
- Kazakhstan: 1,000 (1989)
- Ukraine: 768 (2001)
- Belarus: 245 (1999)
Public organizations of Ingrian Finns
The activities of the Lutheran Church of Ingria are historically connected with the Ingrian Finns.
The Ingrians are sometimes called the Izhoras, who, in fact, gave the name to the historical region of Ingria, but unlike the Lutheran Finns they traditionally profess Orthodoxy.
- Inkerin Liitto ("Ingrian Union") is a voluntary society of Ingrian Finns. The goals of the community are the development of culture and language and the protection of social and property rights of Ingrians. Operates on the territory of historical Ingermanland and in other regions of Russia, except Karelia. Website: http://www.inkeri.spb.ru
- Ingrian Finnish Union of Karelia - Created in 1989 to preserve the language and culture of ethnic Finns living in Karelia. Website: http://inkeri.karelia.ru
Personalities
- Vinonen, Robert - poet, member of the Russian Writers' Union
- Virolainen, Oleg Arvovich - from November 2003 to May 2006, Vice-Governor of St. Petersburg. From May 2006 to October 2009 - Chairman of the Committee for Improvement and Road Maintenance
- Ivanen, Anatoly Vilyamovich - poet
- Kayava, Maria - preacher, founder of the first Evangelical Lutheran community in the USSR after the war
- Kiuru, Ivan - poet, translator, member of the Union of Writers of the USSR
- Kiuru, Eino - Candidate of Philological Sciences, senior researcher at the folklore sector of the IYALI KSC RAS, member of the Writers' Union of Russia
- Kondulainen, Elena - actress, Honored Artist of the Russian Federation
- Konkka, Unelma - poetess
- Konkka, Juhani - writer
- Kugappi, Arri - Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Ingria, Doctor of Theology
- Kukkonen, Katri - preacher, founder of the first Evangelical Lutheran community in the USSR after the war
- Quarti, Aatami - priest, writer, author of many books about Ingria
- Laurikkala, Selim Yalmari - Provost of Northern Ingria
- Lemetti, Ivan Matveevich - Ingrian philosopher
- Mishin (Khiiri), Armas - Chairman of the Writers' Union of the Republic of Karelia. Together with folklorist Eino Kiuru, he translated the epic “Kalevala” into Russian.
- Mullonen, Anna-Maria - outstanding Vepsologist
- Mullonen, Irma - Director of the Institute of Linguistics, Literature and History of the Karelian Scientific Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences
- Mäki, Arthur - Russian politician
- Ojala, Ella - writer, author of books about northern Ingermanland
- Pappinen, Toivo - USSR champion in ski jumping
- Putro, Mooses - musician, composer, educator, author of the hymn “Nouse Inkeri”
- Rautanen, Martti - missionary of the Lutheran Church in Namibia
- Rongonen, Lyuli - writer, translator, professor of literature
- Ryannel, Toivo Vasilievich - People's Artist of the Russian Federation
- Survo, Arvo - Lutheran pastor, initiator of the creation of the Church of Ingria
- Tynni, Aale - poetess, translator, winner of the XIV Summer Olympic Games 1948 in London, in the art competition
- Uymanen, Felix - alpine skier, champion of the USSR
- Heiskanen, Kim - geologist, Doctor of Geological and Mineralogical Sciences, Honored Scientist of the Republic of Karelia, Director of the Institute of Geology of the Karelian Scientific Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences in 2000-2001.
- Khudilainen, Alexander Petrovich - politician
- Hypenen Anatoly - Colonel General, Doctor of Military Sciences, professor, participant in the Vietnam War
- Elfengren, Yrjo - white officer, chairman of the State Council of the self-proclaimed Republic of Northern Ingria
- Yakovlev, Vladimir Anatolyevich - Russian politician, governor of St. Petersburg in 1996-2003
Notes
- All-Russian Population Census 2002. Archived from the original on August 21, 2011. Retrieved December 24, 2009.
- Estonia Statistika 2001-2009
- Statistics Committee of Estonia National composition of the population Census 2000 ()
- All-Ukrainian Population Census 2001. Russian version. Results. Nationality and native language. Ukraine and regions
- Agency of the Republic of Kazakhstan on Statistics. Census 2009. (National composition of the population .rar)
- National composition of Belarus according to the 2009 census
- Map of the ratio of Lutheran and Orthodox farmsteads in the years 1623-43-75.
- Itämerensuomalaiset: heimokansojen historiaa jakohtaloita / toimittanut Mauno Jokipii; . - Jyväskylä: Atena, 1995 (Gummerus).
- Map of nationalities and language groups of Ingermanland
- Ethnographic map of the St. Petersburg province. 1849
- Carlo Curco “Ingrian Finns in the clutches of the GPU” Porvoo-Helsinki 1943, St. Petersburg 2010, p. 9 ISBN 978-5-904790-05-9
- Ingria Center (fin.)
- National minorities of the Leningrad region. P. M. Janson, L., 1929, p. 70
- Musaev V.I. Political history of Ingria at the end of the 19th-20th centuries. - 2nd ed. - St. Petersburg, 2003, p. 182-184.
- (Finnish) Hannes Sihvo Inkerin Maalla. - Hämeenlinna: Karisto Oy, 1989. - P. 239. - 425 p. - ISBN 951-23-2757-0
- Inkerin Maalla; c 242
- Inkerin Maalla; c 244
- Inkerin Maalla; c 246
- Shashkov V. Ya. Special settlers in Murman: The role of special settlers in the development of productive forces on the Kola Peninsula (1930-1936). - Murmansk, 1993, p. 58.
- AKSSR: List of populated places: based on materials from the 1933 Census. - Petrozavodsk: Publishing house. UNHU AKSSR Soyuzorguchet, 1935, p. 12.
- Brief results of certification of districts of the Leningrad region. - [L.], Regional Executive Committee, 1st type. Publishing house Leningr. Regional Executive Committee and Council, 1931, p. 8-11.
- Ivanov V. A. Mission of the Order. The mechanism of mass repressions in Soviet Russia in the late 20s - 40s: (Based on materials from the North-West of the RSFSR). - St. Petersburg, 1997.
- Zemskov V.N. Special settlers in the USSR, 1930-1960. - M.: Nauka, 2005, p. 78.
- Chapter from the book “Stalin against the “cosmopolitans”” / G. V. Kostyrchenko, 2010. ISBN 978-5-8243-1103-7
- List of urban and rural settlements, of which there were in 1937-1938. Finns were taken away to be shot for their nationality
- Three decrees of one day
- Zemskov V.N. Special settlers in the USSR, 1930-1960. - M.: Nauka, 2005, p. 95.
- Musaev V.I. Political history of Ingria at the end of the 19th-20th centuries. - 2nd ed. - St. Petersburg, 2003, p. 336-337.
- Resolution of the Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party (b) of the KFSSR “On partial amendment of the resolution of the Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party (b) and the Council of Ministers of the KFSSR dated December 1, 1949”
- Gildi L.A. The fate of a “socially dangerous people”: (The secret genocide of Finns in Russia and its consequences. 1930-2002). - St. Petersburg, 2003, p. 32.
- Jatkosodan Kronikka: Inkeriläisiä Suomeen, s. 74, Gummerus,
INGERMANLADIAN FINNS
STORY
Ingrian Finns (self-name - suomalaisia)- one of the groups of Finnish-speaking population, which has long lived in the central, northern and western regions of the Leningrad region and in the territory of modern St. Petersburg.
Ingria Finns appeared on this land after the Treaty of Stolbovo in 1617, when the lands between the Narova and Lava rivers were transferred to the Swedes and received the name “Ingria”. Finnish peasants began to move to lands abandoned as a result of wars, epidemics and famine, first from the southwest of the Karelian Isthmus (mainly from the parish of Euryapää) - they received the name eurämöyset (äyrämöiset). After the war of 1656-1658. a significant influx of new Finnish settlers came from the eastern regions of Finland, from Uusimaa and more distant places - these peasants later became known as Savakot (savakot). As a result, by the end of the 17th century, the number of Finns in Ingria reached 45 thousand people - approximately 70% of the total population of the region.
The lands of Ingria were returned to Russia under the Treaty of Nystadt in 1721, but Finnish peasants did not leave for Finland and linked their future with Russia. The Finnish population of the region retained its Lutheran faith and Lutheran churches with services in Finnish operated in Ingria. By the beginning of the twentieth century, there were 32 rural Finnish parishes in the province. The church created schools with teaching in Finnish - by the beginning of the 20th century there were 229 of them. Teachers were trained by the Kolpan Pedagogical Seminary (1863-1919). And it was from school teachers and pastors that the Ingrian intelligentsia began to take shape. The first local Finnish newspaper was founded in 1870.
After the October Revolution of 1917, which split many Ingrian families, a period of “nation building” began. In the 1920-1930s, national Finnish village councils and the Kuyvazovsky national district existed on the territory of the Leningrad region. Newspapers were published in Finnish, there was a publishing house, a theater, a museum, and there was even radio broadcasting in Finnish in Leningrad. Finnish schools, technical schools, and departments of institutes operated.
The much-promised “Leninist national policy” turned out to be a disaster. “Kulak purges” in 1930-31 and “sanitization” of border villages in 1934-1936 led to the expulsion of tens of thousands of Finns from Ingermanland. In 1937-1938, mass repressions began: Finnish national village councils and the region were abolished, education in all Finnish schools in Ingermanland was translated into Russian, all centers of national culture and all Finnish Lutheran churches were closed. Finnish teachers, pastors, and cultural figures were arrested and most were shot.
The war brought new troubles to the Ingrian Finns. More than 62 thousand Finns remained in German-occupied territory and were deported to Finland as a labor force. More than 30 thousand Finns who found themselves in the blockade ring were taken to the coast of the Arctic Ocean in March 1942. In 1944, 55 thousand Ingrian Finns returned from Finland to the USSR, but they were forbidden to settle in their native places.
As a result, a small people scattered across the vast expanses of Eurasia from Kolyma to Sweden. Nowadays, Ingrian Finns live, in addition to Ingermanland, in Karelia, various regions of Russia, Estonia, and Sweden. Since 1990, approximately 20 thousand Ingrian Finns have emigrated to Finland.
If, according to the 1926 census, there were about 125 thousand Finns in Ingermanland, by 2002 their number in the Leningrad region had dropped to 8 thousand, and 4 thousand Ingermanland Finns now live in St. Petersburg.
ETHNOGRAPHIC GROUPS
Until the beginning of the 20th century, Ingria Finns remained subdivided into two groups: eurämöyset (ä yrä mö ise t, ä grä mö iset) And Savakot (savakot). The Eurämöset Finns are Karelians by origin and come from the ancient Finnish parish of Euräpää, which was located in the western part of the Karelian Isthmus (modern Vyborg district of the Leningrad region). The second group, the Savakot Finns, took their name from the eastern Finnish land of Savo. But the study of migration flows clearly showed that, although the resettlement came mainly from the eastern regions of Finland, residents from the vicinity of the river also moved. Kymi, which belongs to Uusimaa, and from more distant places. Thus, savakot is a collective concept that was used to describe all migrants who moved to Ingermanland from more distant parts of the country than the parish of Euryapää.
The differences between these two groups of Ingrian Finns were significant. Eurämöset, as immigrants from nearby areas of Finland, considered themselves indigenous local residents, and savakot - newcomers. The Eurämöyset recognized themselves as custodians of old traditions, believing that “what was inherited from the fathers is sacred: simple customs, language, clothing.” Therefore, they preserved ancient clothing longer, and archaic “Kalevalsky” folklore, and playing the traditional musical instrument “kantele,” customs and fortune-telling. In some areas where Eurämöyset lived, ancient huts heated with black heat were in existence for a particularly long time. Until the beginning of the twentieth century, the Eurämöset Finns adhered to ancient wedding rituals, moreover, they refrained from marrying Savakot. According to materials from the late 19th century, when a girl did marry a Sawakot man, she taught her children that they should look for a future mate among the Eurämöyset. Savakot, in their opinion, were too prone to accept innovations and, what was especially condemned, were unstable in matters of faith. Sometimes they said that savakot is “like young shoots that are swayed by all the winds.” In mixed Eurämös-Savak parishes, during church services, Eurämöset and Savakot sat on opposite sides of the central aisle.
The differences between Eurämöyset and Sawakot persisted especially long in folk clothes and dialects. However, by now these differences have disappeared almost completely.
Particular mention should be made of the westernmost group of Finns living on the Kurgal Peninsula and further south, between the Luga and Rossony rivers, in the Finnish parish of Narvusi-Kosemkina. The ancestors of local Finns sailed here through the Gulf of Finland from the vicinity of the lower reaches of the Kymi River, although there is information about more western areas of emigration. According to local legends, the bulk of the local Finnish population consists of “robbers” who fled Finland in the 17th century. Previously, this population was classified as Savakot.
HOUSEKEEPING AND TRADITIONAL ACTIVITIES
The main occupation of the Ingrian Finns was agriculture, and it has long been noted that “the more Finns in a given area, the more arable land.” Back in the 18th century. They grew rye, barley, oats, buckwheat and peas, flax and hemp. By the end of the 19th century. local Finns (especially in Oranienbaum and St. Petersburg districts) began to expand oat crops, because oats required less labor and yielded a larger harvest, while “in the capital city, Koporye oats are preferred to everyone and are paid more.”
The soils in the St. Petersburg province are generally of low quality; they had to be constantly fertilized: in some villages, peasants brought manure to their arable land even from the St. Petersburg horse barracks and from Kronstadt. But still, the harvest was usually three times and very rarely four times what was sown. In addition, the local peasantry suffered from a lack of land: in the immediate vicinity of St. Petersburg, per capita plots amounted to about 4 dessiatines, on the Karelian Isthmus they were approximately twice as much, but in some areas they were completely insignificant - 2.5 dessiatines. In Ingermanland, a two-field crop rotation was maintained for a long time, and back in the 1840s, in many places forest areas were burned for arable land.
The Finns grew cabbage, rutabaga, and onions, and sowed turnips in forest burns. On the sandy soils of some northeastern regions, as well as in the vicinity of Volosovo, potatoes grew well, and by the middle of the 19th century. it has become a truly “Finnish” vegetable. The Finns began to transport potatoes to St. Petersburg markets, and in areas north of the river. The Neva (in Koltushi, Toksovo, etc.) supplied it to local distilleries, where they distilled alcohol from it, made potato flour and molasses, and it was because of this that the local Finns were the wealthiest in Ingermanland.
And yet the most important thing for the Ingrian Finns was the dairy industry. Although it brought in a lot of money, delivering milk to the city created many difficulties. Back in the middle of the 19th century. milk had to be transported to the city on carts, and if the farm was located more than 20 miles from the city, it was difficult to protect the milk from souring, although the peasants lined the cans with ice and moss. Therefore, Finns from suburban villages brought whole milk to the capital, and those who lived more than 50 miles from St. Petersburg delivered only cream, sour cream and cottage cheese. In addition, it was very difficult to export milk from some areas: for example, although in the northern Ingrian villages the owners kept 2-3 cows, the Finnish railway (St. Petersburg - Helsingfors) ran far away - along the shores of the Gulf of Finland, and the northern Finns were deprived of the opportunity to trade in city markets. The situation soon improved for some Finnish regions: the Baltic Railway connected Tsarskoye Selo and Yamburg districts with the capital, and peasants loaded their cans of milk and cream onto the “milk” train that left Revel early in the morning. North of the Neva, milk was transported along the Irinovskaya Railway. But until the end of the 1930s. As before, Finnish milkmaids - “ohtenki” - walked on foot from the immediate vicinity of the city, carrying several cans of milk on a yoke and delivering it home.
The development of dairy farming caused changes in the economy. The Finns began to create peasant partnerships, agricultural societies, and economic supply and marketing cooperatives. The first society of farmers appeared in 1896 in Lembolovo ( Lempaala), and in 1912 there were already 12 of them. These associations jointly bought agricultural machines, conducted consultations, organized exhibitions and training courses.
Significantly more income than all others, except dairy, came from the nursery industry, which was mainly carried out in the province by the Finns. Peasants took in children from the Orphanage and from private individuals in St. Petersburg, receiving a certain amount of money for this. Such ruunulupset(“government children”) were brought up in Finnish traditions, knew only the Finnish language, but at the same time retained Russian surnames and the Orthodox religion.
Next to the sale of dairy products, you can put mushroom and berry farming - peasants sold berries (lingonberries, cranberries, cloudberries, blueberries, strawberries) and mushrooms directly to St. Petersburg. In 1882, more detailed information on berry picking was collected in the Matoksky volost. So, in 12 villages of this volost, 191 families were engaged in fishing; they collected a total of 1,485 quadruples (1 quadruple - 26.239 l) of forest berries worth 2,970 rubles. And, for example, in the village of Voloyarvi, Matoksky volost, one yard sold up to 5 carts of mushrooms. In particularly fruitful years, according to peasants, picking mushrooms turned out to be even more profitable than arable farming.
Finnish peasants were engaged in fishing in all counties. The Finns of the Kurgolovsky and Soykinsky peninsulas caught sea fish, and residents of the Ladoga coast - lake and river fish for sale in the city. The most significant fishing took place in winter using ice seines. In the r. In Luga they caught lamprey, which was very readily sold both in Narva and St. Petersburg. On rivers and lakes they caught fish mainly for themselves. Crayfish were caught in rivers and lakes from the end of April until Peter's Day (June 29, old style). Then the fishing stopped, as the crayfish at this time climbed into holes to molt. And from Ilyin’s day (July 20, old style) the fishing for large crayfish began and continued until August 20. They fished with a net, with or without bait, and with a good catch, one person could catch up to 300 fish a day. In coastal areas, ship fishing was also developed (ownership of a ship and work on it, work on a ship for hire, horse-drawn vessels along the canal).
Ingrian Finns also brought meat for sale, and in the fall - poultry. It was profitable to breed and sell geese; they were driven to the city “at their own pace”, after covering their feet with tar and sand so that the birds would not wear out their membranes along the way. Many Finns brought garden berries, honey, firewood, brooms, hay and straw to city markets.
In Ingermanland there was a well-developed network of resellers who brought products from the western parts of the province and the nearest regions of Finland. It is known that Finnish peasants brought their goods to Garbolovo, Kuivozi, Oselki, Toksovo, and there they handed them over to local Finns who knew Russian, and they were already sent to the capital's markets.
Ingrian Finns were also engaged in transporting goods on carts and sleighs, and in the summer, fishermen who had sailboats delivered timber, stone, gravel and sand to St. Petersburg for the needs of capital construction. Many Ingrian Finns were engaged in cab driving, sometimes leaving for a long time to St. Petersburg to work as city cab drivers. Most worked only in winter, especially during Maslenitsa week, when the main entertainment of St. Petersburg residents was sleigh rides, and for five kopecks you could rush through the entire city on Finnish “wakes” ( veikko- "brother").
There were more than 100 types of crafts and handicrafts in Ingermanland. But still, craft activities, even on their own farms, were only slightly developed among the Ingrian Finns, although in many villages there were good blacksmiths who could make everything: from a hook on which a child’s cradle was attached to a forged iron grave cross. In the lower reaches of the river. Lugi worked as Finnish carpenters who made boats and sailboats. In many villages, willow bark was usually peeled in the spring or summer for 2-3 weeks before haymaking, then it was dried and crushed, and in crushed form it was delivered to St. Petersburg to tanneries. This trade was very unprofitable.
In some areas, quite rare crafts existed: for example, in the north of Ingria, panicle fishing was practiced exclusively in the Toksovskaya volost, where 285 families prepared 330,100 pieces of panicles per year. And the production of bath brooms was concentrated in the Murinsky volost (Malye Lavriki). In some places wheel and cooper fishing was common. In some villages, the production of shafts was underway (they were sold to dray drivers in St. Petersburg at 3 rubles per cart), sticks (they were used for hoops on barrels and for fishing gear). In many places, plucking splinters also brought in a small income. In some villages, peasants collected ant eggs - they were used to feed birds and goldfish, sold in St. Petersburg, and from there they were resold even abroad.
In general, the standard of living of many Ingrian Finns at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries. was so high that hired workers were hired to work on the farm. In almost every village one could meet people from Finland: some were farm laborers, some were shepherds in the herd, some were herdsmen, many were engaged in digging ditches. There were especially many farm laborers from the eastern Finnish province of Savo: “poor people from there rush here, since they pay many times more here.”
VILLAGES AND HOUSING
Initially and until the 1930s of the 20th century. Ingrian Finns were almost exclusively rural inhabitants. From the very beginning of their resettlement to Ingermanland, single-yard Finnish settlements began to appear in “wastelands” (i.e., on the sites of deserted villages), and in “free places” (i.e., in fields left without owners after the departure of the Russians and Izhoras ). Thus, in the Orekhovsky Pogost in the second half of the 17th century, single-yard villages accounted for approximately a third of all villages. Subsequently, such settlements became small villages of several households. The Finns also settled in larger settlements, where the Izhorians, Russians, and Vods already lived.
In the first half of the 18th century, after the return of Ingria to Russian rule, many Russian villages arose, the inhabitants of which were resettled here, mainly from the Moscow, Yaroslavl and Arkhangelsk provinces. Sometimes Russian villages were founded on the sites of villages burned down during the Northern War (Putilovo, Krasnoye Selo), in other cases, to build a Russian village, the Finns living there were resettled to another place (Murino, Lampovo). At times, Finnish peasants were even driven to uncultivated forest and wetlands. In the 18th century Russian and Finnish villages differed sharply in appearance: according to surviving evidence, Russian villages had regular buildings, were populous and relatively more prosperous than Finnish ones - small, scattered and very poor, giving the impression of decline.
In 1727, during an audit in the St. Petersburg province, it was decided to concentrate the entire Finnish population not only in individual villages, but also in single territorial groups. This is probably how many Finnish villages developed with a typical Russian street and row layout. Such villages were characterized by a fairly high building density, with a distance between neighboring houses of 10-15 m, and in some villages even 3-5 m.
Only on the Karelian Isthmus the ancient Finnish layout was preserved everywhere - free, bush and cumulus. The most characteristic feature of the Finnish countryside was “free development”, reflecting the individualism of the Finnish peasant. At the same time, the houses were not located uniformly, like the Russians (facing the road or along the road), but completely randomly. The distance between houses was usually more than 30 m. In addition, in northern Ingria, the landscape played an important role: houses were, as a rule, carefully “inscribed” into the terrain, i.e. are confined to favorable uneven terrain - to dry, elevated places, to the slopes of hills and the hollows between them. Such villages had little resemblance to a village in the Russian sense, and were perceived (including by cartographers) as a group of farmsteads or a group of villages. Such a layout has already been encountered in other places in Ingria as a relic.
According to rough estimates, by 1919 there were 758 purely Finnish villages in Ingermanland, 187 villages with a Russian and Finnish population, and 44 villages where Finns and Izhorians lived. At the same time, there were practically no villages where the Eurämøiset Finns lived together with the Russians, and the Savakot Finns lived with the Izhorians. On the contrary, quite often the Eurämöyset lived side by side with the Izhorians, and the Savakot lived side by side with the Russians. In some villages there lived both Finns and Vods, Izhoras and Russians. Then sometimes different ends appeared in the village - “Russian end”, “Izhora end”, etc. There was no interstrip settlement in northern Ingermanland.
In the 19th century in central and western Ingria the main version of Finnish housing was the so-called “Western Russian complex” (a long house and a covered courtyard connected to it), and in northern Ingria the ancient tradition was preserved when large stone or wooden courtyards were placed separately from the house. Only in the parish of Keltto and, partly, in the parish of Rääpüvä there were houses of the “Russian type”.
Finnish huts in the past were single-chamber and double-chamber, when the living quarters (pirtti) cold canopy was built (porstua). And even when at the beginning of the 19th century the buildings became three-chamber, often only one half was residential, and the room on the other side of the hallway served as a cage (romuhuone) . Over time, the second half became a summer hut, and sometimes the “clean” half of the home. In the parishes of Keltto and Rääpüvä, multi-chamber dwellings were also common, which was associated with the preservation of large families of 20-30 people. There, even after the abolition of serfdom, large families remained, and a new log house was added to the hut for married sons.
Even before the middle of the 19th century. Finnish houses were mostly huts (heated in black), with low ceilings and high thresholds; many such huts were built even at the end of the 19th century. Instead of windows, light holes were cut, closed with wooden bolts; only rich peasants had mica windows in their huts. The roofing material was straw, and later wood chips. Black-heated huts remained even in the immediate vicinity of St. Petersburg, so that sometimes “from the portico window you can see the golden domes of the capital’s churches.” Especially for a long time, until the beginning of the twentieth century. Such huts were common among the Eurämöset Finns. Chicken stoves were of the wind type; they were built on a wooden or stone stove. A place was left on the pole for a hanging boiler, which was hung on a special hook (haahla). To heat food on a pole, they also used a tripod taganka. With the advent of chimneys, pyramid-shaped exhaust hoods began to be made above the stove hearth. Dutch ovens were installed on the clean half.
The decoration in the house was simple: one or more tables, stools, benches and cabinets. They slept on benches and on the stove, and later on bunks attached to the back wall of the hut - vomits (rovatit < rus. bed). Children slept on straw pallets on the floor, and there were hanging cradles for newborns. The hut was illuminated by a torch.
At the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th centuries. Finnish houses have changed: they were already built on a foundation, with large windows cut out. In many villages, the outside windows began to be decorated with beautiful carved frames (they were usually made by Russian carvers) and shutters . Only in northern Ingria did carving not spread .
FOOD
The cuisine of the Ingrian Finns combines ancient Finnish, rural Russian and St. Petersburg city traditions.
By the end of the XIX - XX centuries. The usual meal schedule in an Ingrian family was as follows:
1. Early in the morning, immediately after getting up, we usually drank coffee ( kohvi), prepared at home from your own grain, using pure milk or adding it.
2. Around 8-9 o’clock in the morning (and sometimes earlier) we ate breakfast cooked on the stove ( murkina).
3. Between breakfast and lunch they drank tea (but not in all villages).
4. Around 1-2 o’clock in the afternoon we had lunch ( lounat, pä ivä llinen). Usually they ate soup, porridge, and finished lunch with tea (although in some houses they drank tea first, and then ate lunch!).
5. Around 4 o'clock in the afternoon, many Finns drank tea again, and on Sundays almost everywhere they drank store-bought coffee.
6. After 7 pm we had dinner. For dinner ( iltainen, iltain) usually ate warmed up lunch food or cooked new food with milk.
The whole family usually gathered at the table, and the father, sitting at the head of the table, read a prayer and cut bread for everyone. It was forbidden to talk while eating; children were told: “Shut your mouth like an egg,” otherwise the child could get hit in the forehead with a spoon! Food was removed from the table at night (only a crust of bread and the Bible could be left); it was especially dangerous to forget a knife on the table - because then an “evil spirit” could come.
The main food of Ingrian Finns by the end of the 19th century. became potatoes (they were called differently in different villages: karttol, kartoffelkartuska,omena, potatti, tarttu, muna, maamuna, maaomena,pulkka, peruna) and cabbage - they were considered even more important than bread. On Mondays they usually baked black bread for the whole week ( leipä ) made from sour rye dough, in the form of tall loaves. Flatbreads were often made from rye or barley flour ( leposka, ruiskakkara, hä tä kakkara), they were usually eaten with egg butter. There were different stews, but the most common was sauerkraut cabbage soup ( haapakual), less often cooked pea soup ( hernerokka), potato soup with meat ( lihakeitti), wow. Porridge ( putrokuassa) were most often made from barley (pearl barley), also from millet, buckwheat, semolina, and rarely from rice. Sauerkraut was stewed in the oven, rutabaga, turnips, and potatoes were baked. They also ate sauerkraut, pickled mushrooms, salted and dried fish. There were a lot of dairy products: milk, yogurt, cottage cheese, although most of them were taken to markets. Oatmeal jelly was especially popular ( kaurakiisseli), it was eaten both warm and cold, with milk, and with cream, and with vegetable oil, and with berries, with jam, and with fried pork cracklings. They usually drank tea ( tsaaju), coffee beans ( kohvi), in summer - kvass ( taari).
The holiday food was different: they baked wheat bread ( pulkat), a variety of pies - open ( vatruskat) and closed ( piirakat), stuffed with rice with egg, cabbage, berries, jam, fish and meat with rice. Cooked jelly ( syltty), made a roast of meat and potatoes ( lihaperunat, perunapaisti). We bought city sausages for the holiday table ( kalpassi, vorsti), salted herring ( seltti), cheese ( siiru). On holidays they made cranberry jelly and homemade beer ( olut) (especially before the summer holiday Yuhannus), drank store-bought coffee (often brewed in samovars), and brought wine from the city.
CLOTH
The folk clothing of the Ingrian Finns is one of the most striking and diverse features of their culture. In addition to the main division of women's costume into the clothing of the Eurämøiset Finns and the Savakot Finns, almost every parish had its own differences, color preferences, and embroidery patterns.
Finnish clothing - Eurämöset has preserved many ancient features of the costume of the Karelian Isthmus. Women's Eurameis clothing from Central Ingria was considered the most beautiful. It consisted of a shirt and a sundress. The shirt was especially remarkable: its upper part was made of thin linen, and was decorated on the chest recco (rekko) - trapezoidal embroidery, where geometric patterns were embroidered with woolen threads of red, orange, yellow, brown, green and blue colors in a horizontal stitch or cross stitch (and the oldest recco embroidered with golden yellow wool). Both the edges of the wide sleeves and their shoulder part were decorated with embroidery. Often the sleeves ended with cuffs. There was a slit on the shirt on the left side recco, it was fastened with a small round fibula salki (solki). The lower part of the shirt, which was not visible, was made of coarse flax.
Over the shirt they wore a shoulder garment such as a sundress or skirt, which reached at the top to the armpits and was sewn to a narrow embroidered cloth trim with straps - a mantle (hartiukset). On holidays, these clothes were made of blue cloth, and the outer trim was made of red. On weekdays they wore red clothes, often made from homespun linen. An apron was tied over the skirt (peredniekka), for the young it is often embroidered with multi-colored wool, and for the elderly it is decorated with black lace. The weekend suit was complemented with white knitted patterned gloves. The girls' headdress was a very beautiful crown - "syappali" (säppäli) made of red cloth, decorated with metal “spikes”, beads and mother-of-pearl. Married women wore white linen caps with lace around the edge, gathered and tied at the back with a ribbon, or white headdresses similar to the Russian “kichka” without a rigid frame.
This costume had differences in different areas. It was believed that in the parish of Tyure (the vicinity of Peterhof) the clothes were “simpler”, in Hietamäki (near Tsarskoye Selo) they were “more elegant”, and the most beautiful were in Tuutari (Duderhof).
In Northern Ingria, the Eurämeiset Finns wore a similar shirt with embroidered recco, and on top they put on a long skirt made of blue, black or brown wool, along the hem of which there was a flounce made of red purchased fabric or a colored hem woven on a reed. This skirt had more than 40 folds, and a thin stitched belt was fastened with a button. Local Finnish women attached it to their heads junta (huntu) - a small corrugated linen circle that was attached to the hair above the upper part of the forehead. WITH junta on the forehead, a married woman could walk with her head uncovered.
In the western regions of Ingermanland, the Euryam'yset Finns wore a simple linen shirt and a skirt made of plain or striped wool or wool mixture, and covered their heads with white caps with knitted lace around the edge.
In cool weather and on holidays, Eurämöset Finns wore a short white linen caftan costoli (kostoli) , sewn at the waist and nik-euryameyset adyvalya skirt made of ryamyset wore the same shirt decorated with embroidery, the Russian Academy of Sciences. in the Russian language). heavily flared . In this outfit they went to church for the first time of the year in the summer, on Ascension, and therefore the holiday was popularly called “kostolny” (kostolipyhä). Shili costoli most often from a white purchased diagonal, and along the shelves to the waist there were narrow strips of magnificent fine embroidery with woolen threads.
On cold days, the Eurämöyset Finns wore short or long cloth caftans flared from the waist ( viitta). They were sewn from white, brown or blue homemade cloth, decorated with suede, red and green silk and wool threads. In winter, they wore sheepskin coats, needle-knitted mittens or patterned woolen gloves, and warm headscarves.
They wore white, red or black leggings on their feet, and in the summer, homemade leather shoes were fastened on top of their feet with ruffles (lipokkat), bast shoes (virsut), in winter - leather boots or felt boots . The Eurämöyset retained their special costume for a very long time, but at the end of the 19th century. it began to disappear, and in many villages girls began to walk around dressed like savakot.
Finnish-savakot clothing was simpler - they wore shirts and long wide skirts. The shirts were made of white linen with a slit in the middle of the chest, fastened with a button, and with wide sleeves. Often the cuffs, trimmed with lace, were tied at the elbow, so that the lower part of the arm was exposed. Gathered skirts were made from plain, striped or checkered wool or wool blend fabric. Sometimes on holidays they wore two skirts, and then the top one could be cotton. A sleeveless bodice was worn over the shirt (liiv) or a sweater (tankki) from cloth or purchased fabric. Aprons were most often made of white linen or fabric with red stripes, the bottom was decorated with white or black lace, complex multi-color embroidery, and a knitted fringe was often placed along the edge.
The girls braided their hair and tied a wide silk ribbon on their heads. Married women wore soft caps lucky (lakki), edged with fine linen lace.
The clothes of the Savakot women from among the so-called “real state” women looked different. (varsinaisetvallanomat), from the Finnish parishes of Keltto, Rääpüvä and Toksova, located north of the Neva River. They considered themselves to be of higher status than the surrounding population, and their clothes stood out with their colors. It was in red tones: the woolen fabric for skirts was woven in red and yellow squares or, less commonly, stripes, and bodices and sweaters were also made from red fabric, trimmed along the edges with green or blue braid, and aprons were also made from red “checking”. Red checkered silk was often specially brought from the city, and the owners of silk clothes at village dances did not allow girls in calico skirts to participate in their round dances. On holidays, both women and girls wore several bodices, so that the edge of the lower bodice was visible from under the upper one, and it was clear how many were worn and how rich their owner was. The shoulder scarves were also red. Girls wore crowns of red ribbon on their heads, with long ends going down the back, or red scarves. Women covered their heads with a white cap. On holidays they wore “master's shoes” - good high-heeled shoes purchased from stores.
Men wore shirts, always white, with a straight slit on the chest; in summer - linen, in winter - cloth pants. The outerwear of the Finns was white, gray, brown or blue long cloth caftans (viitta) , sewn at the waist, with wedges extending them from the waist. Warm clothing was a jacket (rottiekka) and a sheepskin coat. Especially the Eurämöset Finns for a long time preserved ancient wide-brimmed black, gray or brown felt hats with a low crown, similar to the hats of St. Petersburg cab drivers. And the Savakot Finns have been living since the end of the 19th century. began to wear city caps and caps. Shoes were usually homemade leather, but they also wore high, store-bought boots. This was considered a sign of wealth, and often on Ingrian roads one could meet a barefoot Finn carrying boots on his back and putting them on only when entering a village or town.
FAMILY RITES
Finnish families had many children. In addition, the Finns often took in children from St. Petersburg orphanages, which was well paid for by the treasury. These adopted children were called riipiplapset(“government children”), and over time they grew up to be Orthodox peasants with Russian names and surnames, but who spoke only Finnish.
Birth of a child
Children were usually given birth in a bathhouse with the help of a local midwife or one of the older women of the court. After giving birth, married village women went to the “bride” with food and gifts ( rotinat < рус. «родины») и по традиции дарили деньги «на зубок» (hammasraha). In the first days of life, before baptism, the child was defenseless: he could be “replaced”, various “evil forces” were dangerous to him, therefore, during the first bath, salt was added to the water or a silver coin was placed, and a knife or scissors was hidden in the bed. They tried to baptize the child as quickly as possible. And a week later the godfather and mother carried the child to church. The importance of godparents in Finnish families was very great.
Wedding ceremonies
Young people were considered adults when they mastered certain work skills. But to obtain permission to get married, they had to undergo confirmation (a rite of conscious entry into the church community), and all young people aged 17-18 studied for two weeks at the confirmation school at the parish church (therefore, the literacy level of Ingrian Finns was very high ).
Ingria girls usually got married at 18-20 years old, and guys at 20-23 years old. Daughters were to be married off according to seniority. If the younger sister got married first, it was an insult to the older one and she was awarded the nickname Rasi (rasi) (Russian “forest felled, but not yet burned for burning”). After 23-24 years old, a girl could only count on marriage to a widower, although a guy at 30-35 years old was not yet considered an “old bachelor.”
As a rule, the bride was chosen by the guy's parents, and first of all they paid attention to whether she was a good worker, whether she had a rich dowry, and what reputation her family had. At the same time, the girl’s beauty was not so important. It was possible to look after the bride at joint village work, and on trips to distant mowings, and on walks near the church on church holidays. In winter, young people met in the evenings at get-togethers, where the girls did handicrafts and the boys came to visit them. At the end of the 19th century. Among the Finns of Northern Ingermanland, the ancient Finnish custom of “night” matchmaking was still preserved - they called it “night running” or “night walking” (yöjuoksu, yöjalankäynti). In the summer, girls slept not in the house, but in a cage, they lay down on the bed dressed, and the guys had the right to visit them at night, they could sit on the edge of the bed, even lie next to them, but the norms of chastity should not be violated. Guys who violated these rules could be expelled from the village boys' partnership. In the past, night crawling of courtyards was carried out in groups, but at the end of the 19th century. The guys were already walking alone. Such nightly visits by parents to girls were not encouraged and usually did not lead to marriage.
Matchmaking among the Ingrian Finns for a long time retained ancient features: it was multi-stage, with repeated visits by matchmakers, and visits by the bride to the groom’s house. This gave both sides time to think. Even the first visit of matchmakers was often preceded by a secret request whether the matchmakers would be accepted. They went to get married on horseback, even if the bride lived in the same village. During this ritual, which was called “payment” (rahomine) or “long bast shoes” (pitkätvirsut), the bride was left a deposit, money or a ring. In response, the bride gave the guy a neckerchief or handkerchief . The handkerchief was elegant; it was used as a decoration for a suit: it was placed behind the ribbon of a hat when going to church. A few days later, the girl, accompanied by an older woman, went to the groom’s house to “look at the place for the spinning wheel” and returned the deposit she had received to the guy. But this did not mean her refusal, but allowed the guy to refuse the proposal. Usually the guy would soon return the deposit, confirming his offer. Then the engagement was announced in the church. The bride and groom arrived separately for the announcement, and then the groom and the matchmaker went to the bride’s house, where they agreed on the wedding day, the number of guests, and, most importantly, discussed the size of the dowry.
The bride's dowry consisted of three parts: first, her parents gave her a heifer cow, several sheep and chickens. In addition, the bride took a chest with supplies of linen, her shirts, skirts, winter clothes, her spinning wheel, sickle and rake. The third part of the dowry was a box with gifts for new relatives and important guests at the wedding: shirts, belts, towels, mittens, caps. To collect the required number of gifts, the bride often went around neighboring villages with an elderly relative, receiving as a gift either raw wool and flax, or yarn, or ready-made items, or just money. This ancient custom of mutual aid was called “walking by wolves.” (susimipep).
The wedding ceremony itself was divided into two parts: “departures” (läksiäiset) were held in the bride's house, and the actual wedding (häät) was celebrated in the groom's house, and guests were invited to both houses separately. Both the “departure” and the wedding were accompanied by ancient rituals, lamentations of the bride and numerous songs.
Funeral
According to the popular beliefs of the Ingrian Finns, life in the next world differed little from earthly life, so the deceased was buried at the end of the 19th century. supplied with the necessary food supplies, work equipment and even money. The deceased was treated with both respect and fear, since it was believed that at the moment of death only the spirit left the person’s body (henki), while the soul (sielu) She remained near the body for some time and could hear the words of the living.
The deceased were usually buried on the third day in parish Lutheran cemeteries in the presence of a pastor. The basic principle of a Lutheran burial is its anonymity, because a grave is the burial place of a bodily shell that has lost its soul with its personal manifestations, and the only grave sign should be a four-pointed cross without indicating names and dates. But at the turn of the XIX-XX centuries. In Ingria, amazingly beautiful forged iron crosses of various shapes began to spread; they can still be seen in the ancient Finnish parish cemeteries in Kelto, Tuutari, and Järvisaari. At the same time, in Western Ingria, in the parish of Narvusi, traditional wooden crosses were given individual characteristics with the help of “house signs” (graphic signs of ownership) and the indication of the date of death. And in Central Ingria (especially in the Kupanitsa parish) sometimes unusual crosses made from tree trunks and branches were placed over the graves.
CALENDAR AND POPULAR HOLIDAYS
In the folk calendar of the Ingrian Finns one can find ancient magical pagan features, echoes of the Catholic calendar that was once in use in Finland, and the strict norms of the Lutheran faith, which swept the northern countries in the 16th century. The influences of Orthodox neighbors - Russians, Izhoras and Vodians - are also visible in it.
Time was counted by months and weeks, but the main “supporting points” in the annual life of the Ingrian Finn were holidays. The beginning of field and household work was tied to them; future weather and even life were determined by them. Holidays divided the year into certain periods, giving clarity, clarity and regularity to existence.
It was easy to remember the annual order, connecting holidays and counting by month, as they once did in the Gubanitsa parish:
Joulust kuu Puavalii,
Puavalist kuu Mattii,
Matist kuu Muarujaa,
Muarijast kuu Jyrkii,
Jurist kuu juhanuksee,
Juhanuksest kuu Iiliaa,
Iiliast kuu Juakoppii…
From Christmas month until Paul,
From Paul a month to Matthew,
From Matthew a month to Mary,
From Mary a month to St. George's Day,
From Yuryev a month to Yuhannus,
From Yuhannus a month to Ilya,
From Ilya a month to Jacob...
We will briefly talk only about the main holidays of the Ingrian Finns in calendar order.
January
January is also known in Ingria under the usual Finnish name "axial month" ( tammikuu), it was also called the “first core month” ( ensimmä inen sydä nkuu) and “winter holiday” ( talvipyhä inkuu) .
New Year (1.01)
The Finns have a long-standing church tradition to count the beginning of the year from the first of January. New Year celebrations began in Finnish churches back in 1224. But in the villages of Ingria, ancient pagan beliefs were integrated into this church holiday. Thus, it was believed that the first actions in the new year determine the year and the first New Year's day is a model for the entire subsequent year. Every movement, every word of this day cuts off other possibilities, reduces choice and creates a stable order. Therefore, it was important to strictly observe the order of household work, to be restrained in words and friendly to household members and neighbors.
And of course, as before all important holidays, on New Year's Eve the girls always made fortunes. As in Russian houses, Finnish women poured tin and recognized their future by the resulting figures, and the bravest ones looked for the groom in the mirror in a dark room by candlelight. If a girl hoped to see her groom in a dream, then she made a well frame out of matches, which she hid under her pillow: in the dream, the future groom would certainly appear at the well to water the horse.
There were also “terrible” fortune-telling: people went to “listen” at crossroads - after all, it was there that spirits gathered during New Year’s and Easter and on the eve of the summer holiday of Yuhannus. But before that, they made sure to draw a circle around themselves so that evil forces would not touch the person. Standing in such a circle, they listened for a long time to the signs of an approaching event. If a cart's crack or rumble was heard, it meant a good harvest year, and the sound of a scythe being sharpened was a sign of a bad harvest. Music foreshadowed a wedding, the sound of boards meant death.
Evil spirits were active and strong, especially from Christmas to Epiphany, but they could not penetrate through the “baptized” windows and doors. Therefore, the owners made cross marks on the doors and windows, usually with charcoal or chalk. And in Western Ingria, on every holiday, the house was “baptized” in different ways: on Christmas - with chalk, on New Year- with coal, and on Epiphany - with a knife. The yard and barn were also protected with cross signs.
Everyone was waiting for the morning of the New Year to arrive and peered at the door, because if a male guest entered the house first, then there would be a large offspring of livestock, but the arrival of a woman always brought misfortune.
On New Year's morning we had to go to church, and on the way back home we would ride horses for a race so that this year all the work would be completed on time. They believed that the fastest rider would be first in everything for a whole year.
New Year's Day was usually spent with the family. On this day, all the best was put on the table: roast meat and herring salad, jelly, meat or mushroom soup, various types of fish, berry compote and cranberry jelly. They baked cabbage, mushroom, carrot and berry pies; they loved pies with eggs and rice and cheesecakes with jam. These days there should have been a lot of treats, because if the food on the table ran out before the end of the holidays, this meant that poverty would come to the house. In the evening, the young people gathered to dance and play, especially preferring the game of bail (forfeits), blind man's buff and round dances.
Epiphany (6.01)
Finnish Lutherans have Baptism ( loppiainen) was a church holiday. But almost all Finnish villages had their own folk customs associated with this day. The Orthodox in Ingria had the blessing of water on this day, and Finns could often be seen in religious processions.
In the villages of Western Ingria, where ancient customs were preserved for a long time, young girls on Epiphany tried in various ways to find out their fate. On Epiphany night, girls shouted at the crossroads: “Sound, sound the voice of your dear one, bark, bark, father-in-law’s dog!” From whichever direction the voice sounds or the dog barks, the girl will be taken in marriage. They also guessed this way: on Epiphany evening the girls took grain and poured it on the ground. There were so many girls, they made so many piles of grain, and then they brought a rooster. Whose bunch the rooster pecks first, that girl will get married first.
One could guess like this: sweep the floor in the evening on the eve of Epiphany, collect garbage in the hem, run with bare feet to the crossroads, and if there is no crossroads, then to the beginning of the road. Then you had to put the rubbish on the ground, stand on it and listen: from where the dogs will bark, from where the matchmakers will come, from which side the bells will ring, they will take you in marriage.
February
This month had different names: “pearl month” ( helmikuu), "second core month" ( toinen sydä nkuu), "candle month" ( kyynelkuu- this name is believed to have been borrowed from the Estonian folk calendar). Usually the celebration of Maslenitsa fell in February.
Maslenitsa
This holiday did not have a strict date, and was celebrated 40 days before Easter. The Finnish name for this holiday is laskiainen) comes from the word laskea- “to go down.” According to Finnish researchers, this is connected with the idea of “lowering” “immersion” into fasting (after all, during the times of Finnish Catholicism, the pre-Easter fast began on this day), and Easter received the Finnish name pää siä inen, which means “exit” (from fasting).
In the folk calendar, Maslenitsa is associated with women’s work, and the holiday was considered “women’s.” During the first half of the day, everyone worked, but the use of threads and spinning was prohibited, otherwise, they said, a lot of bad things would happen in the summer: either the sheep would get sick, or the cows would hurt their legs, snakes and flies would bother them, and maybe there would be a thunderstorm.
On this day, the floor was swept many times, and the garbage was carried far away, because they believed that then the fields would be clear of weeds. They tried to finish household chores early - “then summer work will go quickly and on time.” Then everyone went to the bathhouse and sat down to an early dinner. It was forbidden to talk while eating, otherwise “the insects will torture you in the summer.” On Maslenitsa they always ate meat food in accordance with the saying: “You should drink at Christmas, but eat meat on Maslenitsa.” There had to be a lot of food, so that the table would not be empty all day, and they said: “Let the tables be full all year, like today!” And the treats themselves had to be fatty: “the more the fat shines on the fingers and mouths, the more meat the pigs will fatten in the summer, the cows will milk better, and the more butter the housewives will lather.” One of the main treats on the table was boiled pork legs, but the bones left after the meal were necessarily taken into the forest and buried under the trees, believing that then the flax would grow well. Perhaps this custom reveals features of ancient tree worship and sacrifices to them.
The main entertainment on Maslenitsa was skiing from the mountains in the afternoon. Rolling, a rich harvest and the growth of “especially tall” flax - everything was intertwined in the celebration of Maslenitsa in Ingermanland. When riding in the parish of Keltto they shouted: “Hey, hey, hey, long, white, strong flax and strong linen, such high flax as this mountain!” (101). And the Finns from the western village of Kallivieri shouted: “Roll, roll, Maslenitsa!” Tall flax rolling, short flax sleeping, small flax sitting on a bench! Whoever doesn’t come for a ride, his flax will get wet and bend to the ground!” They also went sledding and froze water in an old sieve, so they could quickly and cheerfully go down the mountain.
Archaic female fertility magic was strong these days. In Northern Ingria, in the parish of Miikkulaisi, Maslenitsa was celebrated according to ancient customs, riding down the mountains “with bare bottoms” to convey the “birthing power” to flax. And in Central Ingria, women, after visiting the bathhouse, went down naked from the mountain with a broom on their heads if they wanted good tall flax.
While descending from the mountain, they wished the house another rich harvest: “Let the rye grow big, like ram’s horns!” And barley is like fir cones! And the sheep will be as woolly as tow feathers! And let the cows milk in flow!”
Where there were no hills (and even where they were!), they went horseback riding to neighboring villages, paying for the horse and the work of the driver. And that’s why in many places this day was called the “great riding day.” The horse's harness was decorated with colored paper and straw, and a large straw doll "suutari" was tied on top of the saddle, as if it were driving the horse. In the vicinity of Gatchina, throughout Maslenitsa they carried with them a straw “Maslenitsa grandfather” and a poker with painted ribbons. Many sleds were tied behind the horse, one after another, where older people also sat, but usually girls and boys gathered in different sleds. While riding, the girls sang skating songs in which they glorified the cabman, the horse, all the young people and their native places. It is no coincidence that in Western Ingria they said: “Whoever does not sing at Maslenitsa will not sing in the summer.”
In winter, especially during Orthodox Maslenitsa week, Ingrian Finns went to the cities to work as cab drivers, where they were known under the name "veika" (from the Finnish veikko- brother). The horse was harnessed to a festive sleigh, bells were put on its neck, the harness was decorated with beautiful paper, and a doll made of straw like a “suutari” was attached to the bow or saddle. They sang about such straw “suutari”:
“The Lord sits on the arc, the beloved on the shafts, rides in city ribbons...”
For five kopecks one could rush not only through the streets of St. Petersburg, but also along the ice of the Neva, and go to Tsarskoe Selo, Gatchina and Peterhof. Wake riding ended at the beginning of the First World War, when both men and horses were taken to war.
March
Main name March ( maaliskuu- earth month) received because at this time the earth appears from under the snow: “March opens the earth”, “March shows the earth and fills the streams”) (137).. Other names of the month in Ingermanland - hankikuu(month of the present) (135) and pä lvikuu(month thawed) (1360.
Mary's Day (25.03)
Annunciation ( Marian pä ivä ) in Finnish Ingria was called Red Mary ( Puna-Maaria). At the same time, they always paid attention to the weather: “If the earth does not appear on Mary, then summer will not come on St. George’s Day.” In the Skvoritsa parish they believed that “as on Mary on the roof, then on St. George’s Day on the ground,” and in the parish of Narvusi on the Luga River they said: “If there is a thaw on Red Mary, then the year will be berry-filled.” On Mary, girls took care of their beauty and ate cranberries and other red berries collected on the previous autumn Mary, so that their cheeks would remain red all year.
Easter
In Finnish the name of the holiday is pää siä inen comes from the word pää stä , which means the act of leaving or liberation from fasting, sin and death. Easter does not have a strict date and is usually celebrated in April. The Easter period lasted 8 days and began on Palm or Palm Saturday, followed by Holy Week ( piinaviikko- a week of torment), when you couldn’t do anything noisy or use sharp objects. It was believed that at this time the souls of the dead move around people, taking food offered to them and giving signs about future events.
The first day was Palm Sunday ( palmusunnuntai). Willow branches with red bark were collected in advance and placed in water so that the leaves appeared. Multi-colored scraps of fabric, paper flowers and caramel wrappers were attached to the branches; lingonberry stems and juniper branches were added (“for greenery”). Associated with “recruitment” is the idea of purification and expulsion of evil spirits, so first they recruited themselves, then family members and animals. It was important to recruit early, before dawn, when evil forces began to move, so often the recruiters caught the sleepers by surprise.
In Ingermanland there was a custom of giving a bouquet of palm trees, and the owners put such “gifts” behind the door frame or between the shutters. It was believed that these willows gave health to livestock and protected the farm, so on St. George’s Day (the day of the first pasture of livestock) they were used to drive animals out to pasture. After this, the branches were thrown into the water or taken to the field and planted to “grow”, which improved the growth of flax.
During recruitment, they sang songs in which they wished for health and wealth, prosperity for livestock and a good harvest:
Kui monta urpaa,
Nii monta uuttii,
Kui monta varpaa,
Nii monta vasikkaa,
Kui monta lehteä,
Nii monta lehmää,
Kui monta oksaa,
Nii onta onnea!
Kuin monta oksaa,
Niin mont orrii.
How many willows
So many lambs
How many twigs
So many calves.
So many leaves.
So many cows.
So many branches.
So much happiness.
How many branches
So many stallions.
As a return gift they asked kuostia(gifts) - a piece of pie, a spoonful of butter, sometimes money. And a week later, on Easter Sunday, children went from house to house, where they recruited and collected treats.
Easter Thursday ( kiiratorstai) was a day of cleansing from sin and everything bad. According to the Finns , kiira- some evil force, a creature living in the yard, and it should have been driven out into the forest that day. But researchers believe that this word comes from the old Swedish name for this day - skirslapoordagher(cleansing, clean Thursday). Finnish peasants rethought this holiday and its incomprehensible name. “Kiira” was taken around the house three times, and a circle was made on all the doors of the rooms with chalk or clay, and a cross in the center. They believed that after such actions were completed, the evil forces would go away and snakes would not appear in the yard in the summer. On this Thursday, it was impossible to do any work related to torsion - it was impossible to spin and knit brooms.
On Easter Friday ( pitkä perjantai) any work was prohibited. We went to church, but we couldn’t visit. It was believed that this was Friday and Saturday ( lankalauantai) - the worst days of the year, when all the evil forces are in motion, and Jesus is still sleeping in the grave and cannot protect anyone. In addition, witches and evil spirits begin to walk and fly around the world, causing harm. Just like during Christmas and New Year, doors and window openings were protected from them by placing cross signs and blessing buildings, animals and residents. These days, housewives themselves could resort to magical actions to increase their wealth, especially in cattle breeding, so they most often cast spells on neighboring cows and sheep. And on the morning of the next day, careless owners could find traces of someone else's witchcraft in their barn - shaved wool from sheep, cut out or burnt pieces of skin from cows (the witching neighbors then nailed them to the bottom of their churns to take over someone else's luck).
On Easter Saturday, Ingrian housewives had pre-holiday chores. At this time, supplies were already running out, and the festive table required rich treats. Covered wheat pies with rice cereal, cottage cheese or “strong milk” (sour milk baked in the oven) were especially tasty for Easter. This “strong milk” was often eaten with milk and sugar. Salted milk was also prepared for the Easter table, mixed with sour cream and salt - it was eaten instead of butter and cheese with bread, potatoes or pancakes. Egg butter and colored chicken eggs were also obligatory Easter food in Ingrian villages. Eggs were most often painted with either onion skins or broom leaves.
And then, finally, Easter Sunday arrived. Clear weather in the morning spoke of a future good harvest of grain and berries. If the sun was in the clouds, then they expected that frost would destroy flowers and berries, and the summer would be rainy. And if it rained, then everyone expected a cold summer. For a long time in Ingria, an ancient custom was preserved when on Easter morning people gathered to watch the sunrise, and they said that “it dances with joy.” Then everyone necessarily went to church for the festive service, and the church on that day could barely accommodate the residents of all the nearby villages.
On Easter morning after church, the children went to receive gifts. Entering the hut, they greeted each other, wished them a good Easter and announced: “We have come to pick up gifts.”
Everything was already prepared in the houses, and it was a matter of honor to give what the recruiters had asked for a week ago: eggs, pastries, sweets, fruits or money.
On Easter they lit bonfires and started swinging on the swings. Bonfires ( kokko, pyhä valkea) - an old pre-Christian tradition. They were usually built on the eve of Easter on high places near fields, pastures for livestock and the usual swing places. They believed that lighting fires drives out bad forces and protects people. Ingermanland had its own "wheel" fires, where an old tarred cart wheel (sometimes a tar barrel) was attached to a high pole and lit, and it burned for a long time like the "night sun".
Swinging has long been common in Ingrian villages. It began precisely on Easter, and the swing ( keinuja, liekkuja)became a meeting place for young people throughout the spring and summer. On a large swing, made of thick logs and large strong boards, up to 20 girls could sit and 4-6 guys would swing them while standing.
Swing songs were usually sung by girls, and one of them was the lead singer ( eissä lauluja), while others sang along, picking up the last word and repeating the stanza. This way new songs could be learned. In Ingermanland there are about 60 swing songs sung on Easter swings. The usual topics of such songs were the origin of the swing, made either by a brother or a guest, the quality of the swing and advice to those swinging. Those young people who did not manage to get on the swing sang “circle songs” (rinkivirsiä ) , twirling in round dances and waiting for their turn.
Since the beginning of the 20th century, pole swings began to disappear, although in some places they were installed in the 1940s.
April
Finnish name for April ( huhtikuu) comes from an ancient word huhta(coniferous fire). In Ingria this month is also known as mahlakuu (mahla- tree sap).
Jyrki (23.04)
In Ingria, St. George was credited with success in spring planting and was worshiped as the protector of domestic animals. On St. George's Day ( Jurki, Yrjö n pä ivä ) for the first time after winter, the cattle were driven out to pasture. They believed that the protection of the saint, as the owner of the forest, who shuts the mouths of wolves and the guardian of livestock, extends throughout the summer grazing until the day of Mikkeli or Martin.
Even before the start of grazing, the housewives and the shepherd performed various magical actions that were supposed to protect the herd from accidents and wild animals.
Iron objects provided the strongest protection. To do this, axes, shovels, pokers, knives and other iron objects were placed on top or below the gates and doors through which the animals went out to the run. “Sacred” villages could also protect animals, and magic helped increase the herd. At the beginning of the 19th century they wrote: “When cows are driven out into the street in the morning on St. George’s Day, first, during the run, the owner takes a knife between her teeth and walks around the animals 3 times. Then he takes another rowan tree, cuts off the top of it, puts it together, puts it on top of the gate or door, breaks the rowan branches, and drives the animals out under them. Some housewives themselves climb over gates or doors and drive animals out into the street between their legs.”
They believed that resin could protect animals. So, in the parish of Türö, before pasturing a cow for the first time in the spring, they smeared it with resin at the base of the horns, at the base of the udder and under the tail and said: “Be as bitter as the resin is bitter!” It was believed that wild animals would not touch such a “bitter beast.”
Back in the fall, large “sowing bread” was baked from the previous year’s harvest, with an image of a cross, which was stored all winter. And on St. George’s Day, all the wealth of the previous harvest and the protective power of the cross could be transferred to domestic animals. To do this, housewives put bread in a sieve, salt and incense on top of it, and then gave a piece of bread to the cows.
Yuryevsky customs among the Ingrian Finns also included dousing the shepherd before driving out the cattle or during the return of the herd home. But most often, a bucket of water was poured on anyone they met, believing that it would bring good luck and prosperity.
May
In Ingria this month was also called the sowing month ( toukokuu), and the month of foliage (lehtikuu), and the month of lightning ( salamakuu). Usually the Ascension was celebrated in May.
Ascension
Ascension ( helatorstai) among the Ingrian Finns is considered one of the most important church holidays. It is celebrated 40 days after Easter. The name of this day comes from the Old Swedish language and means “Holy Thursday”.
The days between Ascension and Peter's Day (June 29) were the most important in the peasant year. This is the time when cereals begin to bloom, and everyone was extremely afraid of all sorts of destructive phenomena, not only from the weather, but also from the dead. In general, in Ingria they paid great attention to the veneration of the dead. But at this time, they were not only, as usual, appeased by sacrificing food and drink, they were also threatened with festive bonfires, believing that the dead were afraid of fire. In addition to fire, iron and water, the color red and a strong cry could be used as a talisman. And the closer the time of flowering approached, the more the tension increased. Therefore, from the Ascension, girls began to walk in red skirts and with red scarves on their shoulders along village streets and fields, singing loud songs.
Trinity
Trinity ( helluntai) is carried out 50 days after Easter between May 10 and June 14. Trinity in Ingermanland is a significant church and folk holiday. He is also known by the name neljätpyhä t(fourth holidays) because its celebration lasted 4 days.
On the eve of Trinity, all houses were thoroughly cleaned and after that they went to the bathhouse. It is no coincidence that Finnish folklore collectors noted: “Cleaning and cleansing rooms and people is more important here than in Finland in general. As soon as any holiday comes, for example, Trinity, then the women rush to clean and wash the huts. They scrape the walls of black huts white with knives or other iron objects.”
After the church service, the main common event in the village was the lighting of the “holy” bonfires helavalkia. The ancient origin of these fires is proven by the fact that they were lit not in the usual way, but by rubbing thick dry splinters against each other. All the village girls had to come to the Trinity bonfire, and no one dared to leave, even if they wanted to. In Koprin’s parish they gathered around the fire to the following song:
Lä htekää t tytö t kokoille,
Vanhat ämmät valkialle!
Tuokaa tulta tullessanne,
Kekäleitä kengissänne!
Kuka ei tule tulelle
Eikä vaarra valkialle,
Sille tyttö tehtäköön,
Rikinä ksi ristiköö n!
Gather girls to the fires,
Old money to the fires!
Bring fire when you come,
Firebrands in your shoes!
Who won't come to the lights
Will not risk (approach) the fires,
So let them make a girl,
Let them christen the broken one!
The threat could sound like this: “Let him have a boy and become a potter!” - after all, the work of a potter in the villages was considered dirty and hard.
When the guys finished building the fire, the girls gathered on the village street, preparing for the festive festivities. They took each other's hands and formed a "long circle" » and they sang long “Kalevala” songs, when the singer sang the initial stanza, and the whole choir repeated either the entire stanza, or only the last words. The singer said: “Come, girls, to the night fires, hoy!” And the choir picked up: “Ay, lo-lee, to the night fires, ho-oh!”
It was a mesmerizing sight: hundreds of brightly dressed girls moving, a uniform, muffled stomp of feet, a sharp, joyful voice of the lead singer and a powerful polyphonic choir! It is no coincidence that Finnish researchers wrote that only after hearing the Trinity songs in Ingria, one can imagine what the original meaning of the festive “holy cry” is.
When the girls arrived at the campfire field, the guys lit the fire. At the Trinity bonfires, tarred wheels, barrels, and tree stumps were burned, and there it was necessary to burn straw “suutari”, which were not burned at other holiday bonfires. When the fire flared up, the girls stopped their round dances and stopped singing, and all eyes were glued to the fire, waiting for the suutari to break out. And when, finally, the flames engulfed the suutari, everyone screamed so loudly “that their lungs could burst”!
June
June was called differently in Ingria: and kesä kuu(fallow month), and suvikuu(summer month), and kylvö kuu(month of sowing). Finns from Gubanitsa spoke about the usual June chores: “Three rushes in the summer: the first rush is the sowing of spring crops, the second is the sonorous haymaking, the third is the usual rye business.” But the most important event in June has always been the ancient holiday of Yuhannus - the day of the summer solstice.
Yuhannus (24.06)
Although the holiday was officially considered a church holiday - a day in honor of John the Baptist, it completely retained its pre-Christian appearance, and the influence of the church appears only in its name juhannus (Juhana- John). In Western Ingria this holiday was called Jaani.
During Yuhannus, everything was important: high holiday bonfires, songs until the morning, fortune telling about the future, protection from witches and supernatural creatures, and one’s own secret witchcraft.
The main village activity these days was a fire. On the eve of the holiday, a tar barrel or an old cart wheel was raised onto a high pole in the “bonfire” fields, where the “holy” Ascension bonfires had recently burned. In coastal villages, old boats were set on fire. But very special “foot fires” (sää ri kokko) bonfires were built in Northern Ingria. There, a week before Yuhannus, the boys and village shepherds drove 4 long poles into the ground, which formed a square at the base of the fire. Dry stumps and other waste trees were placed inside these “legs”, which formed a tall tower tapering upward. The fire was always lit from the top, but not with matches, but with coals, birch bark or splinters that they brought with them.
When the fire burned down, they continued to celebrate, sang, swung on swings, and danced.
According to pre-Christian beliefs, evil spirits and witches became active on the night before Johannus. They believed that witches were capable of taking away material objects and profiting at the expense of their neighbors. Therefore, all harrows and other tools had to be placed upside down to the ground so that the witches would not take away the grain luck. And the housewives placed a grip in the window of the barn so that bad housewives would not come to milk the milk, and they said: “Milk my grip, not my cows.” On this night, one could also remember the ancient witchcraft: you had to secretly, strip naked and let your hair down, sit on top of a butter churn and “whip” invisible butter in it - then the cows would give good milk all year and the butter would turn out good.
“Couples” became active on the night of Johannus. “Para” was one of the most common mythological creatures in Ingria. She was seen in various forms: a fiery wheel or a flaming ball with a long thin burning tail, and similar to a red barrel, and in the form of a pitch-black cat. She came to take away luck, wealth, grain from the fields and from barns, milk, butter, etc., and therefore they distinguished between money, grain and milk “pairs”. The one who baptized objects avoided her comings. But every housewife could create a “pair” for herself. It was necessary to go to a bathhouse or barn on the night of Yuhannus, taking with him birch bark and four spindles. The “head” and “body” were made from birch bark, and “legs” were made from spindles. Then the hostess, having completely undressed, imitated “birth”, saying three times:
Synny, synny, Parasein, Born, born, Para,
Voita, maitoo kantamaan! Bring butter and milk!
Fortune telling was especially important for Yuhannus and they tried to achieve happiness for themselves and prosperity for the household. Fortune telling had already begun on the eve of the holiday. In Western Ingria they also wondered about future events when going to the bathhouse before the holiday: “When they go to wash in the evening in Jaani, they put flowers around a broom and put it in water, and they wash their eyes with this water. When they leave after washing, they throw a broom over their heads onto the roof. When you end up on the roof with the butt up, they say, then you will die, and if the top is up, then you will continue to live, and when it turns out sideways, then you will get sick. And if you throw it into the river and it goes to the bottom, then you will die, but what remains on top of the water, then you will live.”
And the girls determined where they would get married by the position of the broom: where the broom’s top lay, that’s where they would get married.
The girls also collected bouquets of 8 types of flowers, put them under the pillow and waited for the future groom to appear in a dream. And those who wanted to get married could lie naked in a rye field belonging to the guy's house until the night dew washed their skin. The goal was to ignite a loving desire in the beloved as he later ate the bread of that field. They also believed that the dew of Yuhannus cured skin diseases and made the face beautiful. At crossroads, where souls were believed to gather, people went to listen for foreshadowing signs. Whichever direction the bells were ringing from, the girl will get married there. And when lighting the “leg” bonfire, each girl chose one of the bonfire “legs” for herself: whichever leg falls first after burning, that girl will be the first to get married, and if the “leg” remains standing, then the girl will remain unmarried that year .
July August
July was called heinä kuu(month of haymaking), and August - elokuu(month of life) or mä tä kuu(rotten month). The main concerns at this time were haymaking and harvesting and sowing winter rye. Therefore, no holidays were celebrated; only in mixed villages did Lutheran Finns join the Orthodox and celebrate Elijah (July 20).
September
This month in Ingermanland was called the same as throughout Finland syyskuu(autumn month) and sä nkikuu(the month of stubble), because in this month the entire crop was harvested from the fields, and only stubble remained in the fields. Field work ended and the Finns said: “The turnips go to the pits, the women go to the house...”.
Mikkelinp ä iv ä (29.9)
Mikkeli was a common and especially revered holiday throughout Ingria. In the celebration of Mikkeli, traces of previous autumn sacrifices have been preserved. We are talking about special “Mikkel” rams - they were chosen in the spring, not shorn, and eaten at a festival, boiled directly in the wool (that’s why such a ram was also called “wool lamb”).
In many Finnish villages, Mikkeli was the end of grazing, and on this day the shepherds celebrated the end of their work. This is how this holiday was described in Northern Ingria: “The Mikkeli holiday was widely celebrated in the native village. They baked pies and brewed beer. Relatives came from near and far. The young people were shepherds on the day of Mikkeli. It was such an ancient custom that the shepherd received a free day when concluding a payment agreement, and his place was taken by the village youth. In the evening, when the cows were brought from the pasture and returned to the village, the boys' best holiday began. Then they went from house to house, bringing many buckets of beer and pies.”
October
October was also known in Ingria under the name lokakuu(month of dirt), and ruojakuu(month of food).
Katarinan p ä iv ä (24.10)
Once upon a time this day was one of the most important holidays in Ingria related to the well-being of pets. For the holiday, beer was made from especially carefully selected ingredients, and if the chickens managed to taste at least one grain from the malt for Catarina beer, then it was believed that it would bring bad luck. In the morning they cooked a special “Katarina” porridge, the water for which had to be taken from the well first in the morning. The porridge was taken to the barn and given, along with beer, first to the cattle, and only then to the people. Before the meal they always said: “Good Katarina, beautiful Katarina, give me a white calf, it would be nice to have a black one, and a motley one would be useful.” To get good luck in cattle, they also prayed like this: “Good Katarina, beautiful Katarina, eat butter, jelly, do not kill our cows.”
Since the cause of Saint Catherine’s death was the martyr’s wheel, on this day it was forbidden to spin or grind flour on hand millstones.
November
MARRASKUU- KUURAKUU
The common Finnish name for this month ( marraskuu) comes from the word "dead (earth)" or with the meaning "month of the dead". In Ingria they also knew the name kuurakuu(month of frost).
Sielujenp ä iv ä- Pyh ä inp ä iv ä (01.11)
Under this name they celebrated the day of all holy martyrs, and the next day - the day of all souls. In Ingria, the cult of the dead persisted for a long time among Lutheran Finns. It was believed that in autumn, during the dark season, it was possible for the dead to return to their former homes, and that the dead could move especially at night on the eve of All Saints' Day. Therefore, this time was spent in silence, and on the eve of the holiday, straw was placed on the floor so that “when walking, your feet would not knock.”
Jakoaika
The ancient Finnish year ended at the end of November. The next month, the winter month, modern December, began the new year. There was a special period between them - jakoaika(“time of division”), which was carried out in different places at different times, connecting it either to the end of the harvest or to the autumn slaughter of livestock. In Ingria, the time of division lasted from All Saints' Day (11/01) to St. Martin's Day (11/10). Based on the weather at this time, they guessed about the weather for the entire next year: the weather on the first day corresponded to the weather in January, on the second day - in February, etc. . The time of partition was considered dangerous - “diseases fly in all directions.” And this was a favorable time for fortune telling about future events. The girls went secretly to “listen” under the windows of the huts: which man’s name you hear three times, with that name you will get yourself a groom. If swearing was heard from the room, then subsequent life would consist of quarrels, but if songs or good words were heard, then a harmonious family life would follow. The girls made a “well” out of matches and placed it under their pillow, hoping that the real groom would appear in a dream to water his horse. The boys also wondered: in the evenings they locked the well, assuming that the real bride would come at night in a dream to “take the keys.”
The time of partition was an old holiday time when many hard daily jobs were prohibited. It was forbidden to wash clothes, shear sheep, spin or slaughter animals - it was believed that violating the prohibitions would lead to diseases in domestic animals. This was a time of relaxation, when visiting relatives or doing light work inside the house. In these days, men were good at mending and knitting nets, and women were good at knitting socks. They didn’t ask the neighbors for anything, but they didn’t give anything from the house either, because they believed that something new wouldn’t come to replace what was given. Later, these concerns about taking property or losing luck carried over to Christmas and New Year's Eve, as did many other customs and prohibitions.
Martin p ä iv ä (10.11)
For a long time in Ingria, Martti was considered as big a holiday as Christmas or Epiphany, because earlier on these days serfs were given free time.
In Ingria, children walked in torn clothes as “beggars Marti” from house to house caroling - singing Martin songs, dancing in circles, and asking for food. The eldest singer had sand in a box, which she scattered on the floor, wishing the house good luck in bread and livestock. Often, each family member was wished for something: the owner - “10 good horses so that everyone can walk in the cart”, the hostess - “knead bread with your hands, knead butter with your fingers, and full barns”, for the owner’s sons: “from below - a walking horse, on top is a reference helmet,” and for the daughters, “barns full of sheep, fingers full of rings.” If the carolers did not receive the desired gifts, they could wish the owners misfortunes in the family, in agriculture and cattle breeding, or even a fire in the house!
December
And then the last month of the year came, and along with its new name joulukuu(month of Christmas), he retained his ancient name in Ingria talvikuu ( month of winter). The main winter holiday for Ingrian Finns in the 19th century was Christmas.
Joulu (25.12)
Among Lutherans, Christmas was considered the biggest holiday of the year and was expected both as a church and as a family holiday: “Come, holiday, come, Christmas, the huts have already been cleaned, and the clothes have been stocked up.” Preparations for Christmas began in advance, and the holiday itself lasted 4 days.
On Christmas Eve, the bathhouse was heated and Christmas straw was brought into the hut, on which they slept on Christmas night. Christmas Eve was very dangerous: many supernatural beings, evil spirits and the souls of the dead were in motion. There were various means of protection against them. Iron or sharp objects could be placed above (or under) the door. You could light candles or a fire in the stove and watch all night so that they did not go out. But the best remedy was protective magical signs that were drawn on places that needed to be protected. The most common sign was the cross, which was made with resin, chalk or coal on the doors of almost all houses in Ingermanland and on Yuhannus, and on the “long Friday” before Easter, and especially on Christmas. On the eve of the holiday, the owner, tucking an ax into his belt, went to make cross signs on all four sides of the doors and windows of the hut, on the gates and windows of the yard and stable. At the end of the round, the ax was placed under the table.
With darkness, they lit candles, read Christmas texts from the gospel, and sang psalms. Then came dinner. The Christmas food had to be very plentiful, if it ran out in the middle of the holidays, it meant that poverty would come to the house. The preparation of traditional Christmas food most often began with the slaughter of livestock. Usually at Christmas they slaughtered a pig, sometimes a calf or a ram. Christmas beer and kvass were brewed in advance, jelly was made and Christmas ham was baked. The Christmas table included meat or mushroom soup, roast meat, jelly, salted herring and other fish supplies, sausage, cheese, pickles and mushrooms, cranberry jelly and berry or fruit compote. They also baked pies - carrot, cabbage, rice with egg, berry and jam.
All the time of Christmas, there was a special “cross” bread on the table, on which the sign of a cross was applied. The owner cut off only a piece from such bread for food, and the bread itself was taken to the barn for baptism, where it was stored until in the spring the shepherd and livestock received part of it on the day of the first drive of the cattle to pasture and the sower on the first day of sowing.
After dinner, games with a straw doll began olkasuutari. The word translates to “straw cobbler,” but researchers believe it comes from the Russian word for “sir.” Each Finnish parish in Ingria had its own traditions of making suutari. Most often, they took a large armful of rye straw, bent it in half, making a “head” at the bend, and tied the “neck” tightly with wet straw. Then the “hands” were separated and tied in the middle, in place of the belt. There were usually three “legs” so that the suutari could stand. But there were also suutari who had no legs at all or two legs. Sometimes they made as many suutari as there were men in the house. And in the parish of Venyoki, every woman had her own straw suutari.
One of the most common ways to play with suutari was this: the players stood with their backs to each other, holding a long stick between their legs. At the same time, one of the players, with his back to the suutari, tried to knock it over with a stick, and standing facing the straw doll, tried to protect it from falling.
They tried to find out from the Suutari any important things related to the house: the local Suutari made a crown of ears of corn on their heads, for which they grabbed a handful of ears at random from a straw sheaf. If the number of ears taken was even, then this year one could expect a new daughter-in-law to come to the house. With the help of suutari, the girls guessed about the events of the next year in this way: “Girls of marriageable age sat around the table, and the suutari was placed upright in the middle. Some girl would say: “Now we’ll tell you fortune!” At the same time, they began to shake the table with their hands, and the suutari began to jump until he fell into the arms of some girl, which foreshadowed that girl’s imminent marriage.” Then the suutari was seated either in the corner of the table, or raised onto the mat, where it was kept until Yuhannus.
In Ingria, the traditions of parish have been preserved for a long time joulupukki ( Christmas goat). Joulupukki usually dressed in a sheepskin coat worn inside out and a fur hat. His artificial tow beard resembled that of a goat. In his hands was a knobby staff. Such a joulupukki must have looked rather terrifying in the eyes of small children, but fear was overcome by the anticipation of gifts: toys, sweets, clothes, knitted items.
Even at the end of the 19th century, the Christmas tree was a rare thing, it was placed only in priests' houses and public schools.
On Christmas morning we got up early because... the service began at 6 o'clock. The parish churches on this day could not accommodate all those who came. From church we drove home in a race, because... They believed that the fastest person would do the best work. They tried to spend Christmas at home, did not go to visit and were not happy about guests who came by by chance; the arrival of a woman as the first guest was especially frightening - then a bad lean year was expected.
Tapanin p ä iv ä (26.12)
In Ingria, the second Christmas day was celebrated - the day of Tapani, who was revered as the patron saint of horses. Early in the morning, the owners put on clean clothes and went to the stable to water the animals, putting a silver ring or brooch in the drink beforehand - they believed that silver could bring good luck in raising livestock.
But the main holiday of Tapani was for the young - from this day village festivities began. Older people spent time in prayer, and young people walked from house to house kiletoimassa(carols) - sang songs of praise in honor of the owners, who in return gave beer and vodka. This custom was borrowed from the Russians. In western Ingrian villages, boys and girls also walked igrissoil(from the Russian word for “game”), which were held in village houses. Masks were made from birch bark in advance, faces were painted with charcoal or chalk, caftans were put on, “humps” were attached to the back, staffs were taken in hands.. They dressed as wolves and bears, boys could dress as girls, and vice versa. It was noisy fun: they beat drums, sang loudly, danced tirelessly. There were mummers in other places too, and to this day in the parish of Tuutari, older people remember how important it was to dress so that no one would recognize you - then you could get a good treat as a reward.
VOLKLER
Having come to the new lands of Ingria, the inhabitants of the Karelian Isthmus did not lose their ancient epic songs. And even at the beginning of the twentieth century one could hear the ancient myth about the origin of the world from a bird’s egg.
Is it a daytime swallow?
Becoming a night bat
Everything flew on a summer night
And on autumn nights.
I was looking for a place for a nest,
To lay an egg in it.
The copper socket is cast -
It contains a golden egg.
And the white of that egg turned into a clear moon,
From the yolk of that egg
The stars are created in the sky.
People often went out
Look at the clear month
Admire the firmament.
(Recorded by Maria Vaskelainen from the Lempaala parish in 1917).
Local Finns had folklorists in the late 19th - early 20th centuries. recorded ancient runic songs about the creation of an island with a girl to whom various heroes woo and about the forging of a golden maiden and various objects. To the sounds of an ancient musical instrument kantele you could hear a story about a wonderful game played on it. Ancient songs were sung in Ingrian villages about a competition between shamans in magical singing and about the transformation of a killed squirrel into a girl. All listeners were frightened by the runes about the matchmaking of the treacherous son Koenen and his terrible murder of his bride, and were delighted by the songs about the girl Helena, who chose her husband from the edge of the sun. Only in Ingria they sang so much about the enmity of the families of two brothers - Kalervo and Untamo - and about the revenge of Kullervo - Kalervo's son. Numerous wars that passed through the Ingrian lands left their mark on folklore: in many villages they sang songs about wheels rolling in blood under the walls of fortresses, about a horse bringing news of the death of its owner in war.
And yet, among the Ingrian Finns, the traditional Kalevala epics and ritual songs traditional for the Baltic-Finnish peoples have been preserved little. The Finnish Lutheran Church showed intolerance towards other branches of Christianity and cruelty in the persecution of paganism, persistently expelling pre-Christian folk customs. Thus, in 1667, a special code was approved, according to which it was allowed to invite no more than 2-3 people to a wedding dinner, and the church “Protocol” of 1872 ordered “to abandon all superstitious and inappropriate games” at weddings. But by the beginning of the twentieth century, “new” ballads were heard everywhere in the Finnish villages of Ingermanland - songs with rhymed verse, one-strophe round dance songs pirileikki, Ingrian ditties liekululut(they sang about village morals and customs, swinging 10-12 people on a large Easter swing). But the most original were the dance songs Rentuska, which accompanied dances such as quadrilles. They were “played” only in the north of Ingria - in the parishes of Toksova, Lempaala, Haapakangas and Vuole. Lyrical songs from Finland were also in circulation in Ingrian villages - they were distributed through popular prints and songbooks. Finnish songs were also taught in Finnish parish schools.
The folklore wealth of the Ingrian Finns consists of thousands of apt proverbs and sayings, hundreds of fairy tales, tales and legends.
MODERNITY
The revival of Finnish culture in Ingria began with the creation in 1975 of Finnish Lutheran communities in Koltushi and Pushkin. In 1978, a Finnish Lutheran church opened in Pushkin, and currently there are 15 Finnish Lutheran parishes in St. Petersburg and the Leningrad region.
In 1988, a public organization of Ingrian Finns “Inkerin Liitto” (“Ingermanlan Union”) was established, which now has branches throughout the Leningrad region - from Kingisepp to Tosno and from Priozersk to the Gatchina region. Independent public organizations of Ingrian Finns are leading national work and in many regions of Russia from Pskov to Irkutsk. “Inkerin Liitto” in St. Petersburg and the Leningrad region has been conducting Finnish language courses for many years in various places in the city and region. The problem of training Finnish language teachers remains acute in the region, and Inkerin Liitto organizes advanced training courses for teachers. The society has an Employment Center that helps hundreds of Finns find work; you can get advice from a lawyer.
The closest attention is paid to the preservation and maintenance of Ingrian folk culture. For 10 years, a group worked under Inkerin Liitto to revive the traditional costumes of the peoples of Ingria. Through her work, costumes from different parishes were recreated using ancient technology. Creative photo exhibitions were created based on old and new photographs; many works took part in international competitions and exhibitions. There is an association of Ingrian poets. Finnish song and music groups have been created and actively perform in the region and St. Petersburg: choirs at parishes, the Ingrian ensemble "Rentushki" (village of Rappolovo, Vsevolozhsk district of the Leningrad Region), the ensemble "Kotikontu" and the folk group "Talomerkit" (St. Petersburg "Inkerin Liitto") . The groups revive and support the traditions of ancient folk singing in Ingria, performing at prestigious international competitions and rural festivals. In 2006, through the efforts of Inkerin Liitto, a mobile museum “Indigenous Peoples of the St. Petersburg Land” was created in St. Petersburg, which was exhibited for a long time at the Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography. Peter the Great - the famous Kunstkamera. This unique traveling museum tells the history of the culture of the Ingrian Finns, Vodi and Izhora. With the support of Inkerin Liitto activists, the Ethnos film studio created magnificent films about the history and current situation of the Ingrian Finns, Izhoras and Vodians.
Hundreds, and sometimes thousands of people are united by national holidays. In Ingermanland, Inkerin Liitto also organizes traditional folk festivals - such as Finnish Maslenitsa with mountain skiing and songs around the festive fire. At Christmas, “Christmas workshops” are organized, where everyone is taught how to celebrate the holiday in Finnish and how to make their own Christmas tree decorations. On “Kalevala Day” (February 28), concerts and children's competitions dedicated to Finnish culture are held. In many villages where Finns still live, local village holidays and days of Ingrian culture are held.
New holidays are also being created - “Inkeri Day” (October 5), where competitions in the ancient Finnish sport of “boot throwing” are interspersed with folk games, dances and songs. But the main holiday of the year is still “Juhannus,” which is now celebrated on Saturday, Midsummer’s Day. This summer song festival “Inkerin Liitto” was revived in 1989 in Koltushi (Keltto). Yuhannus always takes place with a large crowd of people in different places in the open air.
A lot of work is being done to study and preserve the folk traditions of the Ingrian Finns, to study the history of Ingrian villages and their inhabitants.
Konkova O.I., 2014