Early history The territory of present-day Leningrad Oblast was populated shortly after the end of the
Weichselian glaciation and now hosts numerous archaeological remnants. The
Volga trade route and
trade route from the Varangians to the Greeks crossed the territory.
Staraya Ladoga, the first capital of legendary
Rurik, founded in the 8th-9th century, is situated in the east of the oblast, on the
Volkhov River. In the 12th-15th centuries, the territory was divided between the
Kingdom of Sweden and
Novgorod Republic (see
Swedish-Novgorodian Wars) and populated mostly by various
Baltic Finns people such as
Karelians (northwest),
Izhorians and
Votes (west),
Vepsians (east), as well as
Ilmen Slavs of Novgorod (south). During the
Russo-Swedish Wars of the 15th-17th centuries, the border moved back and forth over the land. The central part of the territory is known as the historical region of
Ingria (or the land of Izhora) and in the 17th century, after most of the present-day territory of Leningrad Oblast was captured by Sweden with the
Treaty of Stolbovo of 1617, became subject to substantial Finnish Lutheran population influx from
Finnish Karelia (which included
Karelian Isthmus, the northwestern part of present-day Leningrad Oblast) and
Savonia. Having faced religious pressure from Lutheran pastors and Swedish authorities, the local Orthodox population of Russian and Finnic ancestry massively fled from Ingria to neighbour Russian provinces, so
Ingrian Finns soon became the dominant ethnic group. During the
Great Northern War (1700–1721) the territory of what is now Leningrad Oblast was conquered from Sweden by Russia under
Peter the Great, who founded
Saint Petersburg amidst the land in 1703, which soon became the capital of the
Russian Empire. In 1708, most of the territory was organized into
Ingermanland Governorate under Governor General
Alexander Menshikov. It was renamed Saint Petersburg Governorate in 1710 (the borders of that governorate, however, differed very significantly from those of the present-day oblast and included much of the areas of current Novgorod, Pskov, and Vologda Oblasts). In 1721, the territorial concessions of Sweden were confirmed with the
Treaty of Nystad. The life of the countryside was greatly influenced by the vicinity of the imperial capital, which became a growing market for its agricultural production as well as the main consumer of its mineral and forest resources. In 1719–1810,
Ladoga Canal was dug between the
Svir River and the
Neva River as part of the Volga-Baltic waterway to bypass stormy waters of
Lake Ladoga. Since the advent of rail transport in the late 19th century, the areas in the vicinity of Saint Petersburg had been popular summer resort destinations (
dachas) for its residents. However, while Saint Petersburg itself was populated mostly by Russians from the very beginning, it was not until the 20th century that its surrounding population was Russified. In 1914, with the beginning of
World War I, Saint Petersburg was renamed Petrograd and the governorate was accordingly renamed Petrograd Governorate. After the
Russian Revolution, in 1918, the capital was transferred from Petrograd to
Moscow, farther from the borders of the country. In 1919, during the
Russian Civil War, the Northwestern
White Army advancing from Estonia and led by
Nikolai Yudenich tried to capture Petrograd and even managed to reach its southern outskirts, but the attack against the Red Army under
Leon Trotsky ultimately failed, and Yudenich retreated. The border with Estonia was established in the
Russian-Estonian Treaty of Tartu of 1920.
Finland-backed Ingrian Finns of
North Ingria attempted to secede in 1918–1920, but were incorporated back with the
Russian-Finnish Treaty of Tartu, which settled the border between Finland and Soviet Russia. In 1924, Petrograd was renamed Leningrad, and Petrograd Governorate was again renamed accordingly (Leningrad Governorate).
Leningrad Oblast Leningrad Oblast was established on 1 August 1927, by the resolutions of the
All-Russian Central Executive Committee "On the Establishment of Leningrad Oblast" and "On the Borders and Composition of the Okrugs of Leningrad Oblast" by merging
Cherepovets, Leningrad,
Murmansk,
Novgorod, and
Pskov Governorates. The territory of the oblast corresponded to the modern territories of the present-day Leningrad Oblast (with the exception of the
Karelian Isthmus and the territories along the border with Estonia),
Novgorod Oblast,
Pskov Oblast, parts of
Vologda Oblast, most of
Murmansk Oblast, and the federal city of Saint Petersburg. The total area of the oblast was ; more than four times larger than the modern entity. Administratively, the oblast was divided into nine
okrugs (
Borovichi,
Cherepovets,
Leningrad,
Lodeynoye Pole,
Luga,
Murmansk,
Novgorod,
Pskov, and
Velikiye Luki), each of which was in turn subdivided into
districts. In 1929,
Velikiye Luki Okrug was transferred to newly formed
Western Oblast. Leningrad was administratively separated from Leningrad Oblast in December 1931. In 1935 five southernmost districts were made part of
Kalinin Oblast. In 1936 some parts of the territory of
Leningrad Suburban District of Leningrad was returned to Leningrad Oblast and divided into
Vsevolozhsky District,
Krasnoselsky District,
Pargolovsky District and
Slutsky District (renamed Pavlovsky District in 1944).
Vologda Oblast, which has included the easternmost districts of Leningrad Oblast (former Cherepovets Governorate), was created in 1937.
Murmansk Oblast was split from Leningrad Oblast in 1938. In the autumn of 1934, the
Forbidden Border Zone along the western border of the Soviet Union was established, where nobody could appear without special permission issued by the
NKVD. It was officially only 7.5 km deep initially, but along the Estonian border it extended to as much as 90 km. The zone was to be cleansed of Finnic and other peoples who were considered "politically unreliable" by the regime. Starting from the 1929, the Soviet authorities carried out
mass deportations of the
Ingrian Finnish population of the oblast, which constituted the majority in many rural localities as late as in the beginning of the 20th century, to the east, replacing them with people from other parts of the Soviet Union. On 30 November 1939, the Soviet Union waged the
Winter War against neighbouring Finland and with the
Moscow Peace Treaty in 1940 gained some territories, including the
Karelian Isthmus. Their Karelian population was
hastily evacuated to inner Finland and later replaced with people from other parts of the Soviet Union. A small part of the territory (the municipalities of
Kanneljärvi,
Koivisto and
Rautu) was incorporated into Leningrad Oblast, the rest being included within the
Karelo-Finnish Soviet Socialist Republic. occupation of Leningrad Oblast by the end of 1941 In 1941, Germany invaded the Soviet Union in
Operation Barbarossa, and shortly thereafter the territory became the site of the
Battle of Leningrad. The Wehrmacht captured the southwestern part of the oblast and reached
Tikhvin in the east, while Finnish troops
quickly recaptured the ceded territories in the
Continuation War, encircling Leningrad from the land. In 1944 Soviet offensives managed to expel the Wehrmacht and
put military pressure on Finland, which ceded the
Karelian Isthmus again in the
Moscow Armistice of September 19, 1944. This time the newly acquired territories on the isthmus were incorporated into the Leningrad Oblast (
Vyborgsky and
Priozersky Districts). In 1947 the territorial gains were confirmed with the
Paris Peace Treaty.
Novgorod and
Pskov Oblasts were formed out of the southern parts of Leningrad Oblast in 1944. In January 1945 a small part of the
Estonian SSR to the east of the
River Narva with the town of
Jaanilinn (now Ivangorod) was transferred to the
Russian SFSR and incorporated into Leningrad Oblast. Since then, the territory of Leningrad Oblast has not changed significantly, although some suburbs of Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg) have been excluded from the oblast and incorporated into the city. In October 1946 Leningrad gained from the oblast some former Finnish territories along the northern coast of the
Gulf of Finland divided into
Sestroretsky District and
Kurortny District, including the town of
Terijoki. In 1953,
Pavlovsky District of the oblast was abolished, and parts of its territory including Pavlovsk were made subordinate to Leningrad. In 1954 the settlements
Levashovo,
Pargolovo and
Pesochny were also transferred to Leningrad. In 1956
Boksitogorsky District of Leningrad Oblast gained a small territory of
Novgorod Oblast.
Uritsk was transferred from the oblast to the city of Leningrad in 1963,
Krasnoye Selo and several settlements nearby—in 1973,
Lomonosov—in 1978. After a referendum in 1991, the city of Leningrad was renamed back to Saint Petersburg, but Leningrad Oblast retained its name. On 13 June 1996, Leningrad Oblast, alongside
Tver Oblast and
Saint Petersburg, signed a power-sharing agreement with the federal government, granting it autonomy. This agreement was later abolished on 18 April 2002. ==Demographics==