Genocide of the Ingrian Finns

Lutheran Finns had lived in Ingria for over 400 years, since the period of Swedish rule. They had immigrated there from Finland and the Karelian Isthmus and eventually started referring to themselves as Ingrian Finns. In 1919 the population of the Ingrian Finns was 132,000 in Ingria and an additional 10,000 in Petrograd. The Finnish-Soviet peace treaty of 1920 had granted Ingrian Finns a degree of national autonomy. A national district was formed in 1928 and Finnish was used in schools, radio and administration. The Ingrian Finns were mainly independent small farmers in the 1920s and still in the early 1930s with relatively high literacy. They were predominantly Lutheran. Ingria was located in the vicinity of Leningrad, where they formed the second largest ethnic group after Russians in the 1930s. Ingrians were targeted from 1930 onwards. Red refugees who lost the Finnish Civil War took charge in the area. They forced propaganda for collectivization of the agriculture, reported the priests, helped arrest people and harassed Ingrian Finns and "Kulaks". == Genocide ==

, Finland, and East-Karelia at half-mast as a protest against deportations at the Old Student House, Helsinki in 1934. In 1926 Leningrad Oblast had a population of 115,000 Ingrians, alongside 15,500 Finnish Finns. The deported became, in practice, forced settlers and laborers. Deportations were carried out hastily, and the housing, tools, and access to food and healthcare were extremely inadequate, leading to high mortality. The Soviet regime also targeted the Ingrian intelligentsia and religious leadership. Lutheran pastors and church workers were imprisoned, deported, or executed, while churches were converted into clubs and warehouses. In 1937 all Finnish-language schools, publications, and broadcasts were closed down, and Ingrian village councils and cultural institutions were abolished. Ingrian Finns were terrorized and coerced in ways that would now be described by the terms "genocide" and "ethnic cleansing". During the 1937–1938 Finnish Operation of the NKVD, 4,000 Ingrian Finns were shot and over 10,000 deported to prison camps. By 1939 the Ingrian Finnish population had decreased to about 50,000, which was about 43% of 1928 population figures, and the Ingrian Finn national district was abolished. Following the German invasion of the Soviet Union and the beginning of the Leningrad Blockade, in early 1942 all 20,000 Ingrian Finns remaining in Soviet-controlled territory were deported to Siberia. Most of the Ingrian Finns living in German-occupied territory were forcibly evacuated to Finland in 1943–1944. After Finland sued for peace, it was forced to return the evacuees. Soviet authorities did not allow the 55,733 people who had been handed over to settle back in Ingria, and instead deported them to central regions of Russia. The main regions of Ingrian Finns forced settlement were the interior areas of Siberia, Central Russia, and Tajikistan. == Aftermath ==

During World War II, Ingria fell within combat areas and the Ingrian people were once again forcibly deported from their homeland for ethnic reasons by German and Finnish authorities. After the war, Soviet authorities did not allow the 55,000 people who had evacuated to Finland to settle back in Ingria, and instead resettled them in regions of central Russia. According to non-fiction writer Anni Reuter, Stalin's persecution of Finns became a topic of discussion and research in Finland only recently. She believes that the history of various Finnish groups in the Soviet Union is relatively poorly known in Finland. Reuter states that the issue seems to have been taboo for a long time, and was seldom addressed either in homes or schools. In Reuter's view, this may have been influenced by Finlandization, maintaining good relations with the Soviet Union, and the Cold War. She has emphasized the need to bring the large-scale mass deportations and persecutions experienced by Finns into school teaching and public awareness. == See also ==