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Ingria (Russia)

Inkeri

by António Martins, 03 Jun 1999

Description of the flag
Presentation of Ingria

See also:

Description of the flag

The colours were taken from the Ingrian arms of Swedish times: Yellow-red-blue. The proportions were 22:36 (8-1-4-1-8:10-1-4-1-20), acording to Anderson (1992 and 1994). There are still a few Ingrians left in Russia (829 in the 1989 Soviet census), and active emigré communities in Finland, so the flag might still be in use.
Jan Oskar Engene, 20 Mar 1996

Presentation of Ingria

Ingria is the area southwest of St. Petersburg in Russia. The area belonged to Sweden between 1617 and 1721, and was populated by “good Swedes” moved in from Finland (Karelia). Consequently, the area had a Finnish speaking population. Most of them fled to Finland after the wars between Finland and the USSR. After the first World War, however, the area gained limited self rule within Russia, and a flag was adopted.
Jan Oskar Engene, 20 Mar 1996

Ingermanland is the Swedish name for the former province. The Ingrians themselves call the place Inkeri. The language is very close to Finnish, but is I believe categorised separately rather than as a dialect. So far as I know there are only about 400 native speakers left so that puts them in the same category as the Livs (another Finno-Ugric nation).
James Oates, 13 Aug 1999

Ingria is not the same area as the parts of Finnish Karelia ceded in 1940. Rather it was the coastal strip between Estonia and Finland (pre-1940 boundary), roughly contiguous to the St. Petersburg / Leningrad province but not quite as extensive into the hinterland. I also recall once reading in a reference book (possibly an old copy of the Encyclopedia Brittanica) that as late as the 1890s some 90% of the rural population of St. Petersburg government [meaning "province"] was Finnish-speaking, as was some 10% of the city's population. From that point though, rapid industrialisation appears to have cemented the Russification of the area. As I understand it, Stalin had the remaining Ingrians deported during the 30s. Have they now returned in sufficient numbers to agitate for changes? I also recall reading that at the end of the Winter War, when the Finnish population in the ceded areas was given a week to decide whether to decamp to the remainder of Finland or stay and become Soviet citizens, all but a handful left.
Roy Stilling, 18 Sep 1995

The only active Ingrian group I'm aware of is an emigré group operating in Finland itself. But my information of them dates from before the collapse of the USSR, so things may have changed.
Stuart Notholt, 19 Sep 1995