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 indigenous European peoples of the region are the now mostly Eastern Orthodox Izhorians and Votians, as well as the Ingrian Finns who descend from the Lutheran Finnish immigrants who settled in the area in the 17th century, when Finland proper and Ingria were both parts of the Swedish Empire.
The Izhorians, are a Finnic indigenous people native to Ingria. Small numbers can still be found in the western part of Ingria, between the Narva and Neva rivers in northwestern Russia. Although in English oftentimes sharing a common name with the Ingrian Finns, these two groups are distinct from one another.
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.
Korela Fortress is a medieval fortress in the town of Priozersk, Leningrad Oblast, Russia.
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.
Swedish Ingria was a dominion of the Swedish Empire from 1583 to 1595 and then again from 1617 to 1721 in what is now the territory of Russia. At the latter date, it was ceded to the Russian Empire in the Treaty of Nystad, at the end of the Great Northern War between the two empires.
Ingrian, also called Izhorian, is a Finnic language spoken by the Izhorians of Ingria. It has approximately 70 native speakers left, all of whom are elderly.
Greater Finland, was an irredentist and nationalist idea that was a subset of Pan-Finnicism which emphasized the territorial expansion of Finland. The most common concept of Greater Finland 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 proponents also included the Torne Valley, Ingria, and Estonia.
Lakhta-Olgino Municipal Okrug is a municipal okrug of Primorsky District of the federal city of St. Petersburg, Russia, comprising that city's historical areas of Lakhta and Olgino. It is located just north of the Gulf of Finland. Population: 3,903 (2010 Census); 2,901 (2002 Census).
Kirjasalo is an abandoned village in Vsevolozhsky District of Leningrad Oblast, Russia. It was located between the Volchya and the Smorodinka rivers. Its population was largely composed of Ingrian Finns.
The Finnish military administration in Eastern Karelia was an interim administrative system established in those areas of the Karelo-Finnish Soviet Socialist Republic (KFSSR) of the Soviet Union which were occupied by the Finnish army during the Continuation War. The military administration was set up on 15 July 1941 and it ended during the summer of 1944. The goal of the administration was to prepare the region for eventual annexation by Finland.
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 Ingrian revolt was a secessionist rebellion in the region of Ingria during the Russian Civil War. It aimed to be integrated into Finland, but no such arrangements were made and it collapsed less than a year after its formation. It only ever controlled a small northern part of the region, which gave it its name of the Republic of North Ingria.
The genocide of the Ingrian Finns was a series of events triggered by the Russian Revolution in the 20th century, in which the Soviet Union deported, imprisoned and killed Ingrians and destroyed their culture. In the process, Ingria, in the historical sense of the word, ceased to exist. Before the persecution there were 140,000 to 160,000 Ingrians in Russia and today approximately 19,000
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”.
