The Karelian Isthmus is the approximately 45–110-kilometre-wide (30–70 mi) stretch of land situated between the Gulf of Finland and Lake Ladoga in northwestern Russia, to the north of the River Neva. Its northwestern boundary is a line from the Bay of Vyborg to the westernmost point of Lake Ladoga, Pekonlahti. If the Karelian Isthmus is defined as the entire territory of present-day Saint Petersburg and Leningrad Oblast to the north of the Neva and also a tiny part of the Republic of Karelia, the area of the isthmus is about 15,000 km2 (5,800 sq mi).
Ingria is a historical region in what is now northwestern European Russia. It lies along the southeastern shore of the Gulf of Finland, bordered by Lake Ladoga on the Karelian Isthmus in the north and by the River Narva on the border with Estonia in the west. The earliest known modern inhabitants of the region were indigenous Finnic ethnic groups, primarily the Izhorians and Votians, who were forcibly converted to Eastern Orthodoxy over several centuries during the late Middle Ages. They were later joined by the Ingrian Finns, descendants of 17th century Lutheran Finnish immigrants to the area. At that time, modern Finland proper and Ingria were both part of the Swedish Empire.
Votians, also referred to as Votes, Vots and Vods are a Finnic ethnic group native to historical Ingria, the part of modern-day northwestern Russia that is roughly southwest of Saint Petersburg and east of the Estonian border-town of Narva. The Finnic Votic language spoken by Votians is close to extinction. The language is still spoken in three villages of historical Votia and by an unknown number of speakers in the countryside. The villages are Jõgõperä (Krakolye), Liivcülä (Peski), and Luuditsa (Luzhitsy). In the Russian 2020 census, 99 people identified as Votian.
Karelia is an area in Northern Europe of historical significance for Russia, Finland, and Sweden. It is currently divided between northwestern Russia and Finland.
The Ingrians, sometimes called Ingrian Finns, are the Finnish population of Ingria, descending from Lutheran Finnish immigrants introduced into the area in the 17th century, when Finland and Ingria were both parts of the Swedish Empire. In the forced deportations before and after World War II, and during the genocide of Ingrian Finns, most of them were relocated to other parts of the Soviet Union, or killed. Today the Ingrian Finns constitute the largest part of the Finnish population of the Russian Federation. According to some records, some 25,000 Ingrian Finns have returned or still reside in the region of Saint Petersburg.
Nikolai Nikolayevich Yudenich was a commander of the Russian Imperial Army during World War I. He was a leader of the anti-communist White movement in northwestern Russia during the Civil War.
Greater Finland is an irredentist and nationalist idea which aims for the territorial expansion of Finland. It is associated with Pan-Finnicism. The most common concept saw the country as defined by natural borders encompassing the territories inhabited by Finns and Karelians, ranging from the White Sea to Lake Onega and along the Svir River and Neva River—or, more modestly, the Sestra River—to the Gulf of Finland. Some extremist proponents also included the Kola Peninsula, Finnmark, the Torne Valley, Ingria, and Estonia.
The Finnish term Heimosodat refers to a series of armed conflicts and private military expeditions in 1918–1922 into areas of the former Russian Empire that bordered on Finland and were inhabited in large part by other Finnic peoples.
The White Army or White Guard, also referred to as the Whites or White Guardsmen, was a common collective name for the armed formations of the White movement and anti-Bolshevik governments during the Russian Civil War. They fought against the Red Army of Soviet Russia.
Yrjö Elfvengren was a Finnish nobleman and white officer who was Chairman of the Provisional Committee of the unrecognized state of the Republic of North Ingria.
The East Karelian Uprising and the Soviet–Finnish conflict 1921–1922 were an attempt by a group of East Karelian separatists to gain independence from the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic. They were aided by a number of Finnish volunteers, starting from 6 November 1921. The conflict ended on 21 March 1922 with the Agreements between the governments of Soviet Russia and Finland about the measures of maintenance of the inviolability of the Soviet–Finnish border. The conflict is regarded in Finland as one of the heimosodat – "Kinship Wars".
Kirjasalo is an abandoned village in Vsevolozhsky District of Leningrad Oblast, Russia. It was located between the Volchya River and the Tunteljoki on the Karelian Isthmus. Its population was largely composed of Lutheran Ingrian Finns, and the region belonged to the Parish of Lempaala of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Ingria.
The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Ingria is a Lutheran church of the Scandinavian tradition in Russia. It is the second largest Lutheran church in Russia, with 90 congregations and 15,000 members, and is active mostly in Ingria and Karelia.
Deportations of the Ingrian Finns were a series of mass deportations of the Ingrian Finnish population by Soviet authorities. Deportations took place from the late 1920s to the end of World War II. They were part of the genocide of the Ingrian Finns. Approximately over 100 000 Ingrian Finns were deported in the 1930s and 1940s.
The Republic of North Ingria was a short-lived state of Ingrian Finns in 1919–1920, which seceded from Soviet Russia after the October Revolution. Its postal system was operated by the local government in co-operation with the Ministry of Transport and Public Works of Finland and the Finnish postal service.
The Revolt of the Ingrian Finns was an uprising of Ingrian Finns in Ingria during the Russian Civil War and Heimosodat, the uprising began as small pockets of resistance in 1918, with organized resistance efforts beginning in January 1919 with the establishment of both the Temporary Caretaker Committee of Northern and Western Ingria, and lasting until the collapse of the Kirjasalo Republic on 5 December 1920.
Pohjan Pojat was a Finnish military brigade in 1918–1919, the second group of Finnish volunteers to enlist to take part in the Estonian War of Independence and sometimes the Latvian War of Independence, closely following behind the 1st Finnish Volunteer Corps regiment led by Colonel Martin Ekström.
Juhani Konkka was an Ingrian Finnish writer, translator, screenwriter and politician.
Ingrian dialects are the Finnish dialects spoken by Ingrian Finns around Ingria in Russia. Today, the Ingrian dialects are still spoken in Russia, Finland and Sweden. In 2010 there were only 20 300 Ingrian Finns left in Russia. The Ingrian dialects are gradually dying out, as primarily elderly people speak them anymore, and unlike Standard Finnish, the dialects are not taught in schools.
Free Ingria is a Saint-Petersburg based informal social movement of regionalists and separatists, also called political Ingrians or practicing local historians”.
