Where did Ingrianland come from? Chairman of the public organization of Ingrian Finns - about the past, present and future Ingrian Finns currently live

And Estonia. The 2010 census in the Russian Federation counted 441 Ingrians, mainly in Karelia and St. Petersburg. Ingrians are the old-timers of Ingria (Russian Izhora, German Ingermanlandia; the southern coast of the Gulf of Finland and the Karelian Isthmus). In principle, they should be distinguished from the Finns themselves - later immigrants from various regions of Finland. But the Ingrians themselves have almost completely lost their ethnic identity and consider themselves Finns or assimilated by neighboring peoples. A number of slightly different dialects of the Ingrians belong to the eastern dialects of the Finnish language; Literary Finnish was also widespread. In the past, Ingrians divided themselves into two ethnic groups: Avramoiset and Savakot. The Finns call the Ingrians inkerilaiset - residents of Inkeri (the Finnish name for Ingria).

Ingrian believers are Lutherans; in the past, there was a small group of Orthodox Christians among the Eurymeiset. The Savakots had widespread sectarianism, including “jumpers,” as well as various movements in Lutheranism (Lestadianism). The Finns appeared on the territory of Ingria mainly after 1617, when these lands were ceded to Sweden under the terms of the Peace of Stolbovo. A certain number of Finnish settlers existed here earlier, from the 14th century, after the conclusion of the Shlisselburg (Orekhovets) Peace Treaty. The main influx of Finnish colonists occurred in the mid-17th century, when the Swedes began to force local residents to accept Lutheranism and closed Orthodox churches. This caused a mass exodus of the Orthodox (Izhorian, Votic, Russian and Karelian) population to Russia. The deserted lands were occupied by Finnish settlers.

Settlers from the immediate regions of Finland, in particular from the Euräpää parish, which occupied the northwestern part of the Karelian Isthmus, as well as from the neighboring parishes of Jäeski, Lapes, Rantasalmi and Käkisalmi (Kexholm), were called Eurämäset (people from Euräpää). Part of the Eurymeiset occupied the nearest lands of the Karelian Isthmus, the other settled on the southern coast of the Gulf of Finland between Strelnaya and the lower reaches of the Kovashi River. A significant group of Eurymeiset lived on the left bank of the Tosna River and near Dudergof.

A group of immigrants from Eastern Finland (the historical region of Savo) is known as Savakot. Numerically, it prevailed over the Eurymeset. In the mid-18th century, out of 72 thousand Ingrians, almost 44 thousand were Savakot. The number of immigrants from other parts of Finland was insignificant until the 19th century. During the 17th and 18th centuries, the formation of the Ingrian ethnic group took place. This process accelerated after Ingria became part of Russia and the severance of ties with Finland. After Finland joined Russia, the influx of Finns into the territory of Ingria resumed, but was no longer as significant as before and the Finns did not mix with the Ingrians. In addition, the main flow of immigrants from Finland was directed not to Ingermanland, but to other regions of the Russian Empire.

Despite their great similarity in language, religion, and customs, Savakot and Eurymeiset developed for a long time in isolation from each other. The Eurymeiset considered the rest of the Finns to be late newcomers and refrained from marrying them. Evrymeiset women, who went to the Savakot village after marriage, tried to wear their traditional clothes and preserve in the minds of their children the concept of their maternal origin. The Ingrians generally remained isolated from the neighboring population - the Vodi, Izhora, and Russians.

The main occupation of the Ingrians was agriculture, which, due to the lack of land and poor soil, was unprofitable. The limited area of ​​pasture land hampered the development of livestock farming. The forced three-field system persisted for a long time, which hampered the development of more intensive forms of crop rotation. Cereals were mainly rye, spring barley, oats, and industrial crops were flax and hemp, which were used for household needs (making nets, bags, ropes). In the 19th century, potatoes took an important place; in some villages it was grown for sale. Among the vegetable crops, cabbage went to the market, partly in pickled form.

On average, a peasant yard had 2-3 cows, 5-6 sheep, they usually kept a pig, and several chickens. Ingrians sold veal and pork at St. Petersburg markets and bred geese for sale. Among the St. Petersburg retailers, “Okhtenki” were typical, selling milk, butter, sour cream and cottage cheese (originally this name applied to the residents of the Ingrian villages near Okhten).

On the coast of the Gulf of Finland, the Ingrians had developed fishing (mainly winter fishing for herring); fishermen went out onto the ice with sleighs and board huts in which they lived. The Ingrians were engaged in various auxiliary work and waste trades - they were hired to cut wood, peeled bark for tanning leather, drove cabs, and in winter, cab drivers (“wakes”) worked part-time in St. Petersburg, especially during the Maslenitsa riding season. In the economy and traditional culture of the Ingrians, archaic features were combined with innovations that entered everyday life thanks to the proximity of the capital of the Russian Empire.

The Ingrians lived in villages; their layout had no specific features. The dwelling consisted of one living room and a cold entryway. Chicken stoves were preserved for a long time. The stoves were ovens (like a Russian stove), but they were placed on a stone stove, as in Eastern Finland. A hanging cauldron was fixed above the pole. With the improvement of the stove and the advent of the chimney, pyramidal caps over the hearth became characteristic, into which a stove with a firebox was built. In the hut they made fixed benches along the walls, on which they sat and slept. The baby's cradle was suspended. Subsequently, the dwelling developed into a three-chamber building. When the dwelling was placed facing the street, the front hut was a winter hut, and the back one served as a summer dwelling. The Ingrians maintained a large family for a long time; separate premises were built for married sons, which did not mean separating them from the family.

The men wore the same clothes as the surrounding Russian and Karelian population: cloth trousers, a linen shirt, a gray cloth caftan at the waist with wedges extending it from the waist. Festive high boots were also worn in the summer on major holidays - they served as a symbol of prosperity. Along with felt hats, city caps were also worn. Women's clothing differed between eurymeiset and savakot. Eurymeset clothing had local differences. The clothes of Ingrian women in Duderhof (Tuutari) were considered the most beautiful. Women's shirts had a chest slit on the side, on the left side, and in the middle of the chest there was a trapezoidal embroidered bib - recco. The incision was fastened with a round fibula. The sleeves of the shirt were long, with a cuff at the wrist. A sundress-type clothing was worn over the top - a blue skirt sewn to a bodice with armholes made of red cloth. The girl's head was tied with a cloth ribbon decorated with white beads and tin stripes. Women wore a junta on their heads - a small circle of white fabric, attached to their hair above the forehead at the parting. Hair was cut, girls usually wore short hairstyles with bangs. On the Karelian Isthmus, among the Orthodox Evrymeyset, married women wore magpie-type headdresses with a richly embroidered headband and a small “tail” at the back. Here, girls braided their hair in one braid, and after getting married - in two braids, which were placed on the crown of the head like a crown.

In Tyur (Peterhof - Oranienbaum), married eurymeiset women also wore long hair, twisting it into a tight cord (syukeret) under towel headdresses. In Western Ingria (Koporye - Soykinsky Peninsula) hair bundles were not made; hair was hidden under a white towel headdress. Here they wore simple white shirts (without a recco bib) and skirts. The evrymeyset's apron was striped wool, and on holidays it was white, decorated with red cross stitch and fringe. Warm clothing was a white or gray cloth caftan and sheepskin coats; in the summer they wore “kostoli” - a hip-length linen caftan. The wearing of leggings sewn from linen (red cloth in winter) to cover the shins was preserved for a long time.

Savakot women had shirts with wide sleeves that were pulled up to the elbow. The shirt had a slit in the middle of the chest and was fastened with a button. The waist-length clothing was colorful skirts, often checkered. On holidays, a woolen or calico one was worn over an everyday skirt. With a skirt they wore either a sleeveless bodice or jackets that were fastened at the waist and at the collar. A white apron was required. Head and shoulder scarves were widely used. In some villages of Western Ingria, Savakot switched to wearing Russian-style sundresses. At the end of the 19th century, in many localities, eurymeiset began to switch to the Savakot type of clothing.

The basis of nutrition was sour soft rye bread, cereal porridge and flour. It is typical to eat both salted mushrooms and mushroom soups, and use flaxseed oil.

The Ingrian wedding ceremony retained archaic features. Matchmaking had a multi-stage nature with repeated visits of matchmakers, a visit by the bride to the groom's house, and the exchange of collateral. After the agreement, the bride went around the surrounding villages, collecting “help” for her dowry: she was given flax, wool, ready-made towels, and mittens. This custom, which dates back to the ancient traditions of collective mutual assistance, was preserved at the end of the 19th century only on the outskirts of Finland. The wedding usually preceded the wedding ceremony, and from the church the married couple went to their homes. The wedding consisted of celebrations in the bride’s house - “leaving” (laksiaiset) and the actual wedding “haat”, which was celebrated in the groom’s house.

In Ingria, many Finnish fairy tales, legends, tales, sayings, songs, both runic and rhymed, are collected, laments and laments are recorded. However, from this heritage it is difficult to single out Ingrian folklore itself. The Ingrians are characterized by songs with rhymed verse, especially round dances and swing songs, close in form to Russian ditties. Dance songs are known, in particular for rentuske - a square dance type dance.

The Lutheran Church promoted early literacy. Gradually, secular primary schools emerged in Finnish-speaking parishes. At the end of the 19th century there were 38 Finnish schools in Ingria, including three in St. Petersburg. Rural libraries, which arose in parish centers from the mid-19th century, also contributed to maintaining knowledge of the Finnish language. In 1870, the first newspaper in Finnish, Pietarin Sanomat, was published in St. Petersburg.

The teaching of Finnish in schools was discontinued in 1937. In 1938, the activities of Lutheran church communities were banned. Back in the late 1920s, during dispossession, many Ingrians were deported to other regions of the country. In 1935-1936, a “cleansing” of the border areas of the Leningrad region from “suspicious elements” was carried out, during which a significant part of the Ingrians were evicted to the Vologda region and other regions of the USSR. During the Great Patriotic War, about two-thirds of Soviet Finns ended up in the occupied territories and, at the request of the Finnish authorities, were evacuated to Finland (about 60 thousand people). After the conclusion of the peace treaty between the USSR and Finland, the evacuated population was returned to the USSR, but did not receive the right to settle in their previous places of residence. As a result, over several decades, the Ingrians were almost completely assimilated into larger ethnic groups.

Faces of Russia. “Living together while remaining different”

The multimedia project “Faces of Russia” has existed since 2006, telling about Russian civilization, the most important feature of which is the ability to live together while remaining different - this motto is especially relevant for countries throughout the post-Soviet space. From 2006 to 2012, as part of the project, we created 60 documentaries about representatives of different Russian ethnic groups. Also, 2 cycles of radio programs “Music and Songs of the Peoples of Russia” were created - more than 40 programs. Illustrated almanacs were published to support the first series of films. Now we are halfway to creating a unique multimedia encyclopedia of the peoples of our country, a snapshot that will allow the residents of Russia to recognize themselves and leave a legacy for posterity with a picture of what they were like.

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"Faces of Russia". Ingrians. 2011

General information

FINNS-INGERMANLANDANS, St. Petersburg Finns, people in the Russian Federation, subethnic group of Finns. The population in the Russian Federation is 47.1 thousand people, including in Karelia - 18.4 thousand people, in the Leningrad region (mainly Gatchina and Vsevolozhsk districts) - about 11.8 thousand people, in St. Petersburg - 5, 5 thousand people. They also live in Estonia (about 16.6 thousand people). The total number is about 67 thousand people. According to the 2002 Population Census, the number of Ingrian Finns living in Russia is 300 people.

The language (a number of slightly different dialects) belongs to the eastern dialects of the Finnish language. Literary Finnish is also widely spoken. Self-name - Finns (suomalayset), inkerilaiset, i.e. residents of Inkeri (Finnish name for Izhora land, or Ingria - the southern coast of the Gulf of Finland and the Karelian Isthmus, Germanized name - Ingria).

Believing Ingrian Finns are Lutherans. In the past, there was a small group of Orthodox Christians among the Eurymeiset. The Savakots had widespread sectarianism (including “jumpers”), as well as various pietistic movements (Lestadianism).

The mass resettlement of Finns to the territory of Ingria began after 1617, when these lands, under the terms of the Stolbovo Treaty, were ceded to Sweden, which at that time included Finland. The main influx of Finnish colonists occurred in the mid-17th century, when the Swedish government began to force the conversion of local residents to Lutheranism and close Orthodox churches. This caused a mass exodus of the Orthodox (Izhorian, Votic, Russian and Karelian) population to the southern lands that belonged to Russia. The empty lands were quickly occupied by Finnish settlers. Settlers from the nearest regions of Finland, in particular from the parish of Euräpää and its neighboring parishes in the north-west of the Karelian Isthmus, were called eurymeiset, i.e. people from Euryapää. The Savakot ethnographic group, formed by settlers from Eastern Finland (the historical lands of Savonia), was more numerous: in the mid-18th century, out of 72 thousand Ingrian Finns, almost 44 thousand were Savakots. The influx of Finns into the territory of Ingria also occurred in the 19th century. The Ingrian Finns had little contact with the indigenous population of this region.

At the end of the 1920s and 30s, many Ingrian Finns were deported to other regions of the country. During the Great Patriotic War, about 2/3 of the Ingrian Finns ended up in the occupied territories and were evacuated to Finland (about 60 thousand people). After the conclusion of the peace treaty between the USSR and Finland, the evacuated population was returned to the USSR, but did not receive the right to settle in their previous places of residence. Since the late 1980s, a movement has developed among Ingrian Finns to restore cultural autonomy and return to their old habitats.

N.V. Shlygina

FINNS, suomalayset (self-name), people, the main population of Finland (4650 thousand people). They also live in the USA (305 thousand people), Canada (53 thousand people), Sweden (310 thousand people), Norway (22 thousand people), Russia (47.1 thousand people, see Ingrian Finns) and etc. The total number is 5430 thousand people. According to the 2002 Population Census, the number of Finns living in Russia is 34 thousand people.

Finnish is spoken by the Baltic-Finnish subgroup of the Finno-Ugric group of the Uralic family. Dialects are divided into Western and Eastern groups. The modern literary language is based on Western dialects with the inclusion of Eastern vocabulary. Writing based on Latin script.

The believers are mostly Lutherans. Various Pietist movements are widespread: Herrnhuters (from the 1730s), Prayerists (from the 1750s), Awakeners (from the 1830s), Laestadians (from the 1840s), Evangelists (from 1840 's), Free Church, Methodists, Baptists, Adventists, Pentecostals, Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses, etc. There is a small number (1.5%) of Orthodox Christians in the southeastern regions (and immigrants from there).

The ancestors of the Finns - the Baltic-Finnish tribes - penetrated into the territory of modern Finland in the 3rd millennium BC and by the 8th century they settled most of it, pushing the Sami population to the north and partially assimilating it. The Finnish people were formed in the process of merging the southwestern tribes of the Suomi (in the Old Russian chronicles - Sum), Hame (Old Russian Em), who lived in the central part of Finland, the eastern Savo tribe, as well as the western (Vyborg and Saima) groups of Karelians (see Karelians). The eastern regions of the country were characterized by contacts with the Ladoga region and the Upper Volga region, and the southwestern regions with Scandinavia and the Baltic states.

In the 12th and 13th centuries, Finnish lands were conquered by the Swedes. The long-term Swedish rule left a noticeable imprint on Finnish culture (agrarian relations, social institutions, etc.). The Swedish conquest was accompanied by the forced Christianization of the Finns. During the Reformation (16th century), Finnish writing was created. However, the Finnish language remained only a language of worship and everyday communication until the 2nd half of the 19th century, when it received formal equality with the Swedish language. In reality, it began to be implemented in independent Finland. Swedish remains the second official language of Finland.

From 1809 to 1917 Finland, with the status of an autonomous Grand Duchy, was part of the Russian Empire. In December 1917, the independence of Finland was proclaimed, and in July 1919 it became a republic.

Finnish folk culture shows differences between Western and Eastern Finland. The ethnographic border between them runs along the line of the modern cities of Kotka, Jyväskylä, then between Oulu and Raahe. In the West, the influence of Swedish culture is more noticeable. Until the end of the 19th century, agriculture was dominated by farming. In the east in the Middle Ages, the main form was slash-and-burn agriculture; in the southwest, a fallow arable system developed early; Since the end of the 19th century, multi-field crop rotation began to be introduced. At the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century, dairy farming became the leading industry. Traditional crafts are marine (fishing, seal hunting, sailing), forest (tar smoking), woodworking (including the manufacture of wooden utensils). More than 33% of modern Finns are employed in industry, about 9% in agriculture and forestry.

Peasant settlements in the southwest of the country until the 16th-17th centuries were cumulus villages; from the 18th century, with the spread of farmstead land use, a scattered village layout began to predominate. In the east, due to the slash-and-burn farming system, small settlements, often single-yard ones, predominated; villages arose only where there were large areas of land suitable for constant cultivation. The traditional dwelling is a log house of elongated proportions with a gable roof covered with shingles. Since the 18th century, the south of Pohjanmaa has been characterized by a two-story house. The most important outbuildings were a barn, a bathhouse (sauna), and cages (in the southwest they were often two-story; the top floor was used for sleeping in the summer). In the southwest of Finland, a residential building and outbuildings formed a closed quadrangular courtyard; in the east, the courtyards have an open layout. Dwellings in the west and east of the country differed in the design of the stove: the west is characterized by a combination of a heating-bread stove and an open hearth for cooking food, and the early appearance of chimneys; In the East, an oven close to the so-called Russian oven is common. The interior of a Western peasant house is characterized by bunk and sliding beds, cradles on curved runners, and a variety of cabinet shapes. Polychrome painting and carvings were widespread, covering furniture and utensils (spinning wheels, rakes, clamp pliers, etc.). The living space was decorated with woven products (blankets, holiday bedspreads, curtains for bunk beds), and ruyu pile carpets. In the east, archaic forms of furniture were preserved for a long time - wall benches, fixed beds, hanging cradles, wall shelves, cabinets. Traditional architecture and decoration from the east of the country had a great influence on Finnish architecture and art during the so-called “national romanticism” period of the late 19th century.

Traditional women's clothing - a shirt, blouses of various cuts, a skirt (mostly striped), a woolen sleeveless bodice or jacket, an apron, for married women - a linen or silk headdress on a rigid basis with lace trim; girls wore open headdresses in the form of a crown or headband. Men's clothing - shirt, knee-length pants, vests, jackets, caftans. In the east, a women's shirt with embroidery and an oblique cut on the chest, a white homespun or linen semi-long sundress (viita), a towel headdress, and caps were preserved for a long time. Embroidery patterns reflected Karelian and North Russian influence. Folk forms of clothing disappear early, especially in the west of the country. Their revival and the formation of the so-called national costume occurs in the late 19th - early 20th centuries, during the period of the national movement. This costume still retains its festive and symbolic role today.

There were differences in the traditional food of Western and Eastern Finns: in the east, tall soft bread was regularly baked, in the west, bread was baked 2 times a year in the form of round flat dry cakes with a hole in the middle and stored on poles under the ceiling. In the east they made lumpy yogurt, in the west they made stretchy forms of fermented milk, and they also made homemade cheese. Only in the east were baked closed pies (including fishmongers) and “wicket” type pies, only in the extreme southeast was daily consumption of tea accepted. In the western regions it is traditional to make beer, in the east - malt or bread kvass.

Small family. Large families, both paternal and fraternal, survived until the 19th century in the northwest of the country in Pohjanmaa, in the northeast in Kainuu, in the southeast in Karjala, where they existed until the 20th century.

The wedding ritual in Western Finland was distinguished by Swedish influences and borrowings from church rites: wedding at home, “gate of honor”, ​​“wedding pole” in the yard, wedding under the canopy (“himmeli”), bride’s wedding crown, etc. The eastern Finns retained the archaic a form of wedding, with a three-part ritual of the bride’s “leaving” from her father’s house, moving (wedding train) to the groom’s house and the actual wedding-hyayat in his house. Many rituals were aimed at protecting the bride from evil spirits (when moving to the groom’s house, her face was covered with a veil, a knife was taken into the cart, etc.) and ensuring the fertility of the marriage.

Of the calendar holidays, the most important are Christmas and Midsummer's Day (Juhannus, Mittumaarja). During their conduct, various pre-Christian rituals were preserved, for example, making bonfires on Midsummer's Day. There was a belief in guardian spirits, troll witches, various protective actions, etc.

Epic songs of runic meter occupy a special place in folklore. Based on runes collected in Karelia, Eastern Finland and Ingermanland, E. Lönnrot compiled the epic “Kalevala” (1835), which became a symbol of the Finnish national movement.

N.V. Shlygina

Essays

One's own land is strawberries, someone else's land is blueberries / Oma maa mansikka; muu maa mustikka

Finland is called the Land of a Thousand Lakes. In fact, there are much more of them: about 190 thousand! Lakes occupy almost 9% of the entire territory of the country.

What happened before the lakes? To the forests? Before, when there was no land at all?

Initially, there was only an endless ocean. A lone bird flew above him in search of a nest. Exactly which one is unknown. Ancient runes differ on this issue. It could be a duck, a goose, an eagle, or even a swallow. In a word, a bird.

It was the bird that saw the knee of the first human being, which stuck out of the water. This was the tribe of the wise old man Väinämöinen or (in another rune) his mother, the heavenly maiden Ilmatar.

The bird laid an egg right on his knee... From this primary material the creator bird created the world. In some runes, the world is created by the first man Väinämöinen, and the firmament is forged by the blacksmith Ilmarinen.

From the top half of the egg the sky was created. From the bottom - the earth, from the yolk - the sun. From the protein - the moon, from the shell - the stars.

So, the creation of the universe is more or less clear, but how did it happen that the Finns became exactly what they are today?

Finn relies only on himself

The question is difficult, but it can be answered. The Finnish national character, so to speak, was forged from confrontation with nature. This is where the primary characteristic of Finnish consciousness begins. Everything about him is determined by the desire to conquer nature. And what is most interesting (which commands respect): in the fight against the natural elements, the Finn relies only on himself. That is why he attaches such importance to himself, convincing himself of his abilities. In the Finn's mind, man is a truly powerful creature, called to conquer the elements. We see this in the epic “Kalevala”.

In fairy tales, this theme of knowing the secret codes of nature is also reflected, sometimes even slightly in a comic form. Here, for example, is “The Peasant’s Prediction.”

Once upon a time there lived a king and a peasant, and the peasant's meadows and fields were so close to the royal palace that the owner had to pass through the courtyard of the royal castle every time on the way to his lands. One day a peasant went on a horse to buy some vein. When he was returning from the meadows through the royal courtyard, the king happened to be in the courtyard of his castle, and he began to scold the peasant.

How dare you, you idiot, drive through my yard with your hay, aren’t you ashamed?!

Sorry, dear king,” replied the peasant. “But the fact is that there will soon be a thunderstorm, it will begin to rain, and if I drove along the long circular road, I would not make it before the rain began to pour down, and my hay would get wet.” That's why I hurried straight ahead with the hay.

Well,” said the king, “how do you know this?”

Great sovereign! - answered the peasant. - I know from my mare's tail. Look how the gadflies crawl under your tail. And this is a sure sign that there will be bad weather.

That’s how... - said the king and allowed the peasant to pass.

After this, the king went to the tower of the palace astrologer and asked the fortuneteller whether it would rain today. The astrologer took the telescope, looked at the sky and said:

No, Mr. King, there will not be a single tear, not a single drop, today, tomorrow, or even the day after tomorrow, but then, maybe, there will be.

“I see,” said the king and descended from the tower to go to his chambers. But on the way to the palace, the king was overtaken by such heavy rain and a terrible thunderstorm that the king was wet to the skin. Finally he got, all dirty, to his palace and immediately called the fortuneteller to him.

You, unfortunate astrologer, will have to make room, since you understand nothing about the weather, while a stupid and uncouth peasant, looking at the tail of his mare, sees when it will rain and when there will be a bucket, - the king told him and dismissed him with positions, sending him to the stable to remove manure.

And the king summoned the peasant to himself and gave him possession of the astrologer’s tower and the proper title, giving him the same salary as the previous fortuneteller received. Thus, thanks to horseflies and a gadfly, the peasant became the king’s friend, to the envy of all the courtiers.

Finns love themselves

Finns love themselves in a way that few nations love themselves. In general, there are few peoples who love themselves, and the Finns are one of them. In the consciousness of most peoples there is a certain ideal image of their own, or one attributed to the golden age in the past, and their own inconsistency with this image is acutely felt.

The Finns have almost no such dissatisfaction. Finn, in essence, does not need the highest sanction; he achieved his exceptional position in the world himself. This explains the Finns’ emphasized respect for themselves, which surprised many researchers. Finn behaves with dignity, never begs for tea, even avoids a hint of it, although he will not refuse to take an increase on occasion, he will not even mention it, and whether they add something to him at the time of payment or not, he will equally thank him when he receives the agreed upon fee.

Finn depends extremely little on the team. A Finnish peasant lives on a farm. He does not often communicate with his neighbors, is closed in the family circle and does not see any particular need to open this circle. After Sunday lunch the owner will not go to visit. And why would he run away from home? His wife is his best friend, his children respect him. Finn is almost entirely focused on himself. His eyes, sometimes beautiful and expressive, look somehow into themselves, he is closed and silent. Finn goes to fight nature one-on-one.

Even at the end of the 18th century, Finland was called the land of sorcerers. The sorcerers themselves firmly believed in their art and, as a rule, passed it on to their children, which is why it was considered the property of entire families.

Enchant nature to conquer

Since ancient times, the Finns considered the greatest wisdom to be knowledge of the hidden forces of nature, believing that a word can force nature to act as a person pleases. The wiser a person is, the stronger the influence of his words on the surrounding nature, the more it is subject to him. Since ancient times, the Finns were more famous than others for their sorcerers. The Finns tried to bewitch nature and thus conquer it. This is one of the adequate expressions of the content inherent in the Finn’s consciousness. A sorcerer is like a superman. He is lonely and proud. He is closed in and on himself. He can go out to duel with nature. His goal is to force the alien forces of nature to obey his word, his desire.

The Finns' relationship with God is almost contractual. They are ordered and extremely rationalized. Lutheranism is a purely individual religion. There is no conciliarity in it, everyone is on his own. There is no mysticism in it either. Its instructions are strict and simple. The liturgical rite is strict and simple. A person must work. Must be a respectable family man, raise children, help the poor. The Finn does all this with the greatest diligence. But in this very correctness and moderation passion shines through. This rationality itself takes on magical features.

The goal of conquering nature was and remains the main content of the Finn’s consciousness. Finn, even in our time, continues to recognize himself as a lone fighter, obliging everything to himself and counting on his own strengths or God, but not on God’s mercy and pity, but on God as a reliable collaborator with whom the Finn enters into a contract, pledging to lead a virtuous life in exchange for His protection.

Finn follows the contract to the letter. His religious life is very correct and orderly. It was considered an unforgivable crime for a Finn to miss a church service. Even at the post station there was a sign with the rule: “No one, except in extreme need, has the right to demand a horse and travel during worship on Sundays.”

The ability to read is considered a religious duty by Finns. After all, every Lutheran must know the text of Holy Scripture and be able to interpret it. Therefore, literacy in Finland was already 100% in the 20th century.

Finns read everywhere: in cafes and on trains. It is the Finnish character that can explain the Finns’ love for the harsh and uncompromising poetry of Joseph Brodsky. It is this poet who enjoys incredible success in the Land of Blue Lakes.

Laugh at yourself

This is another feature of the Finnish character. It turns out that Finns love jokes about themselves. And they willingly compose them themselves. And when they meet, they exchange new products. And this can also be seen as a healthy start. People who can laugh at themselves are truly capable of great things. Finns can even joke about their favorite sauna. “The sauna can be used by anyone who can reach it.”

Here are a few anecdotal stories that have become a kind of classic of the genre.

Three Finn brothers are sitting fishing on the Gulf of Finland. Morning, the sun begins to rise, the younger brother says: “Nah kluyett.”

Well, it’s already day, the sun is high...

The middle brother says: “Taa, it just won’t bite.”

Well, it’s already evening, the sun has already set, well, the older brother says:

You chat a lot and it gets bitten...

Raaime, are you married?

Naette, I'm not married.

But the guys have kaaltso on the paaltz!

ABOUT! Already married! How letitt frammyaya!

Toivo means hope

Finnish names... do they mean something? Finnish names adopted in the Lutheran Finnish calendar are heterogeneous in their origin. Ancient, pagan names occupy a significant place. These are names that still retain a connection with the words from which they originated.

For example: Ainikki (the only one), Armas (beloved), Arvo (dignity, honor), Ilma (air), Into (inspiration), Kauko (distance), Lempi (love), Onni (happiness), Orvokki (violet), Rauha (peace), Sikka (grasshopper), Sulo (lovely), Taimi (sprout), Taisto (struggle), Tarmo (energy, strength), Toivo (hope), Uljas (brave), Urho (hero, hero), Vuokko ( snowdrop).

Another part of the names was borrowed from Germanic and some other peoples. But these borrowed names have undergone such significant linguistic processing on Finnish soil that they are now perceived as originally Finnish, although they are not associated with any meaning.

With Finnish surnames the situation is different. All Finnish surnames are formed from native Finnish significant words. Surnames of foreign origin are recognized by native speakers as foreign.

Finnish given names are placed before the surname. Very often, a child is given two or even three names at birth. The names preceding the surname are not declined - only the surname changes. For example: Toivo Letinen (Toivo Lehtinen) - Toivo Lehtiselle (Toivo Lehtinen). The emphasis in names, as in Finnish in general, falls on the first syllable.

It is interesting to know which Finnish names correspond to Russian ones. In fact, there aren't that many of them. For example, names such as Akhti or Aimo have no correspondence in the Russian language. But the name Antti corresponds to the Russian name Andrey.

Let's list a few more Finnish names along with their Russian counterparts: Juhani - Ivan, Marty - Martyn, Matti - Matvey, Mikko - Mikhail, Niilo - Nikolay, Paavo - Pavel, Pauli - Pavel, Pekka - Peter, Pietari - Peter, Santeri - Alexander, Simo - Semyon, Vikhtori - Victor. The women's list will be as follows: Annie - Anna, Helena - Elena. Irene - Irina, Katri - Ekaterina, Leena - Elena, Liisa - Elizaveta, Marta - Martha.

The Russian language has close ties with Finnish, or more precisely, with the group of Finno-Ugric languages. It so happened historically that the lands of northern Rus' (and then Muscovy) were practically surrounded by peoples who spoke Finno-Ugric languages. This includes the Baltic region, and the northeastern forests, near the Arctic Circle, and the Urals, and many nomadic tribes that lived in the southern steppes.

To this day, linguists argue about which words passed from whom to whom. For example, there is a version that the word “tundra”, which passed into the Russian language, comes from the Finnish word “tunturi”. But with the rest of the words, everything is far from so simple. Did the Russian word “boots” come from the Finnish word “saappaat” or vice versa?

Aphorism boom in Finland

Of course, there are proverbs and sayings in Finland. Books are also published in which these proverbs are collected.

The sauna is a pharmacy for the poor. Sauna öä apteekki.

One's own land is strawberries, someone else's land is blueberries. Oma maa mansikka; muu maa mustikka.

The Finns honor not only folk wisdom, but also modern wisdom, that is, aphorisms. In Finland there is an association that unites authors working in the aphorism genre. They publish books and anthologies. They have their own website on the Internet (.aforismi.vuodatus.).

The 2011 anthology “Tiheiden ajatusten kirja” (Close to thoughts on paper) contains aphorisms from 107 authors. Every year in Finland there is a competition for the best author of aphorisms (the Samuli Paronen competition). Not only writers, poets, journalists, but also people of other professions take part in this competition. It can be said without any exaggeration that all of Finland is passionate about both reading aphorisms and composing them. It is with great pleasure that we introduce the works of modern authors of aphorisms.

Every person is the architect of his own happiness. And if someone wants to forge eternal chains for themselves, then this is their personal right. Paavo Haavikko

The most common type of classification: me and the rest. Torsti Lehtinen

When you become very old, you are not afraid to be young. Helena Anhava

Slowness (slowness) is the soul of pleasure. Markku Envall

Don't confuse God's sycophants with angels. Eero Suvilehto

It is very possible that some modern Finnish aphorisms will go among the people and become proverbs.

Statistics

I have several views on the Finns. Firstly, I was born in the Finnish city of Sortavala. Follow this tag in my magazine - you will learn a lot of interesting things.

Secondly, as a teenager, I had a friend, Zhenya Krivoshey, on his mother’s side, Tkhura, thanks to whom I learned a lot, from about the 8th grade, that people can live, very close to us, a much more normal life than they lived We.

Thirdly, in our family from approximately 1962 to 1972 (I may be slightly wrong in the dates) there lived a Finnish woman - Maria Osipovna Kekkonen. How she settled with us and why, I will tell you when I put my mother’s memories in order.

Well, my friend in life and in LiveJournal, Sasha Izotov, despite his Russian (paternal) surname, is also half Finnish, although we met and became friends a considerable time after our mutual departures abroad.

It’s not that I don’t like, but I avoid the word immigrant (emigrant) for the simple reason that I am formally listed as “temporarily staying abroad.” The time of my stay was quite extended, on May 23, 2015 I will be 17 years old, but nevertheless I did not have permanent residence and still do not have it.

I am always interested in this country, and this gives me endless respect for people of few words for their quality that cannot be translated into Russian. sisu. Any Finn will understand what it is and may even smile. if you mention this word.

Therefore, when I saw this material on the Yle website, I could not resist re-posting it. I think I even knew Victor Kiura, about whom you will read below.
In any case, I definitely met him on the streets of Petrozavodsk or in the editorial office of the Northern Courier. Only events and faces are forgotten...

So, stories about destinies.

Kokkonen

Thank you for being alive...

Once in my childhood I asked my grandmother: “Are you happy?” After thinking a little, she replied: “Probably, yes, she’s happy, because all the children remained alive, only the youngest baby died of hunger on the way to Siberia.”

Over the years, bit by bit, from the memories of relatives, a chronology of events and stages in the lives of my loved ones has been built, starting from pre-war times.

On the Karelian Isthmus, five kilometers from the pre-war border, in the village of Rokosaari, the Kokkonens lived, and almost half of the village had the same surname. No one remembered which territories of Suomi they moved there from; married people from neighboring villages.

In the family of my grandmother Anna and Ivan Kokkonen there were six children: Victor, Aino, Emma, ​​Arvo, Edi and the youngest, whose name has not been preserved.

Before the start of hostilities (Winter War of 1939 - editor's note), units of the Red Army entered the village, residents were ordered to leave their homes. Some of the male population managed to escape across the border, while the rest were sent to labor camps. My grandfather’s two brothers called Ivan to go to Finland, but he could not leave his wife and children. Subsequently, he ended up in labor camps, and of the brothers, one lived in Finland, the other in Sweden. But where? All connections were lost and remain unknown to this day. Grandfather met his children only in the sixties, and he already had another family.

Women and children were ordered to take a ferry across Lake Ladoga, but some of the residents hid in the forest and lived in dwellings dug into the ground - “dugouts”. Among them was my grandmother and her children. Residents later said that the ferry was bombed by planes with red stars on them. Until her last days, my grandmother kept this a secret.

The Kokkonen family, 1940.

Photo:
Natalia Blizniouk.

Later, the remaining residents were transported along the Road of Life across Lake Ladoga, put into freight cars and taken somewhere far away and for a long time. There was no food, the grandmother had no milk to feed the little one... He was buried somewhere at a little station in a field, now no one knows where.

There were many such trains, the residents of the villages they passed knew where the freight trains were being taken. The trains stopped in the taiga in winter, everyone was disembarked and left to die from cold and hunger.

The train stopped at the station: the city of Omsk. People went out to get water and find some food. A woman approached the grandmother (many thanks to her) and said: “If you want to save the children, do this: leave two of them at the station, and when the train starts to move, start screaming that you have lost children, they have fallen behind the train and you need to get them.” return. And then you can all take the next train together.” My grandmother did just that: she left the elders Victor and Aino (my mother) at the station, was able to get off the train at the next stop, return back to Omsk with the remaining children and find Victor and Aino.

Another kind person (many thanks to him) advised my grandmother to hide the documents that indicated her last name and nationality, and go to a distant collective farm, say that the documents were lost or that they were stolen along the way - this would be an opportunity to stay alive. The grandmother did just that: she buried all the documents somewhere in the forest, got with the children to an educational farm (a training livestock farm) in the Omsk region and worked there as a calf shepherd, raising small calves. And the children remained alive. Thank you grandma for staying alive!

In the 1960s, N. Khrushchev was at the head of the country, and repressed peoples were allowed to return to their native lands. Son Arvo, daughters Edie, Emma and Aino with their children returned from Siberia with their grandmother (it was me, Natalya, and brother Andrei). The eldest grandmother's son Victor already had four children, all of them had to be registered under the changed surname - Kokonya. And only in the eighties they were able to regain their real surname Kokkonen.

Emma returned without children, they remained to live with her mother-in-law in Omsk, after which she became very ill and died, and the children died at the age of thirty.

By the time of the possible move to Finland, all of the grandmother’s children had passed away, and of the thirteen grandchildren, four remained in Siberia, four died at the age of 30-40, and only four were able to move. Now there are only three of us, my brother, unfortunately, only managed to live in Suomi for one year and a week: his bad heart stopped.

The thirteenth grandson, Oleg, Emma's youngest son, may live in Finland or Estonia (his father was Estonian), there is no information, and I would like to find him.

My family and I moved to Finland in 2000. We accidentally learned from a woman who already lived in Suomi that there is a law according to which people with Finnish roots can move to their historical homeland.

Bliznyuk family, 2014.

Photo:
Natalia Blizniouk.

By this time, after several crises in the Russian economy and politics, fears arose for the lives and future of children. Thanks to my husband Alexander for insisting on completing the documents to move to Finland. We moved and began... “a completely different life.” I had the feeling that I had always lived here, that I had returned to “childhood.” The people were friendly, spoke the same language as my grandmother, and looked very much like her. The flowers growing are the same as in our garden when I was little. And the Finnish language “naturally” appeared in my head; I almost didn’t have to learn it.

When communicating with Finns, they take stories about our past very warmly and to heart. In Russia, I always felt like “not Russian,” because you couldn’t say what nationality your relatives were, whether you had relatives abroad, you had to keep your family history secret.

In Suomi I feel “at home”, I feel like a Finnish woman who was born in Siberia and lived for some time outside of Finland.

Regarding the future of the Ingrian people: in Russia there is not even such a question and nationality, but in Finland, I think that this is a history common to the entire Finnish population without any differences.

Natalya Bliznyuk (born 1958)
(descendant of the Kokkonens)

P.S. I often think about the story of my relatives and sometimes I think that it is worthy of being published and could even be made into a film; it is quite consonant with S. Oksanen’s novel “Purification”, only our story is about the Finns who found themselves “on the other side” of the front.

Kiuru

My name is Victor Kiuru, I am 77 years old. I was born in Southern Kazakhstan, on the Pakhta-Aral cotton-growing state farm, where in 1935 the Stalinist regime exiled my parents and children. Soon their children, my brothers, died from climate change. Later, in 1940, my father managed to move to Eastern Kazakhstan with a more favorable climate, where I improved my poor health at that time.

Victor Kiuru with his mother

In 1942, Father Ivan Danilovich went into the labor army, and in 1945 I went to school and gradually forgot words in Finnish and spoke only Russian. In 1956, after Stalin’s death, my father found my brother, and we moved to Petrozavodsk. In Toksovo, where my parents lived before the evacuation, entry was prohibited. After this there was study, three years in the army, work in various positions, marriage - in general, the ordinary life of a Soviet person with social work in the Federation of Chess and Ski Racing of Karelia.

Agricultural Technical School, first year, 1951

In 1973, my father’s cousin, Danil Kiuru from Tampere, came from Finland on a tour package. This is how I first met a real Finn from capital country. By chance, in 1991, the sports committee of Karelia, at the invitation of a farmer from Rantasalmi Seppo, sent me and two young skiers (champions of Karelia) to competitions in Finland. Seppo and I became friends and began to meet on Finnish soil and in Petrozavodsk. They began to study Finnish and Russian together, and even corresponded.

Later, the editors of the Northern Courier, where I worked as a sports columnist, sent me many times as a special correspondent to the ski championships in Lahti and Kontiolahti, and the World Cup stages in Kuopio and Lahti. There I met outstanding athletes from Russia, Finland and my native Kazakhstan, whom I interviewed.

Victor Kiuru, 1954.

At the same time, he became acquainted with the life, work and leisure of Finnish friends, who by that time were living in different provinces of Finland. In the summer he came to them on vacation, worked in the forest and fields, and picked berries. I bought a car here, and Seppo’s neighbor Jussi gave me my first Opel. He simply stunned me - he submitted the documents and said: “Now she is yours! For free!" You can imagine how shocked I was.

During the putsch I was in Rantasalmi and was very worried, following what was happening in Russia. But everything ended well, and I calmly returned to Petrozavodsk. By this time, many Ingrian people began to move to Finland, my father’s sister, my cousin, and many acquaintances left, but I was in no hurry, still hoping that a fresh wind would bring positive changes to the lives of ordinary Russian citizens.

Retirement approached, and soon the famous decree of Tarja Halonen about the last opportunity for Ingrian people to return to Finland, in my case, to move. By this time, my daughter was living in Finland on a work visa. After working for five years, she received the right to permanent residence, and then received Finnish citizenship. She lives in Turku, and in Seinäjoki her eldest granddaughter, Evgeniya, lives in her own house with her family.

My wife Nina and I moved there in 2012 to help the young people. They have five-year-old Sveta and three-year-old Sava. Zhenya works with her husband Sergei in Kurikka at a small electrical engineering company. Following the Russian habit, we developed a vegetable garden on their plot, installed a greenhouse, and now in the summer we have something to do: potatoes and vegetables, berries and herbs are now on the table, and we are busy too. In the fall, we collected, salted and froze mushrooms.

Victor Kiuru with his great-grandchildren.

And I got a three-room apartment on the third day! It’s incredible, in Petrozavodsk I lived in a one-room apartment, and then immediately had my own office, where there was always an easel and chess - these are my hobbies. I paint the surrounding landscapes and enjoy life, which has changed so much for the better after moving. In a word, I am happy and understand perfectly well that I have never lived so well before.

I fully feel the help of the social service from its representative Lena Kallio, the medical center and the attending physician Olga Korobova, who speaks excellent Russian, which makes communication easier for us. I go skiing, there is a beautiful illuminated track nearby, I have been involved in sports all my life, I ran the Murmansk marathon three times and told my readers about the holiday of the North in Karelia. And, of course, I don’t stop following all sporting events in Finland and the world. I’m looking forward to the biathlon championship in Kontiolahti, where I visited back in 1999. Petrozavodsk residents Vladimir Drachev and Vadim Sashurin performed successfully there, the first for the Russian national team, the second for Belarus. Well, now I will follow the races on TV and root for two countries - Russia and Finland.

Victor Kiuru (born 1937)

So

My name is Andrey Stol, I am 32 years old. I was born in the city of Osinniki, near Novokuznetsk, in the Kemerovo region of Western Siberia. Our region is known for its beauty, rich deposits of coal and iron ore, as well as large factories.

Stoli in 1970.

I moved to Finland a year and a half ago with my wife and child. My moving story begins in 2011. My namesake Mikhail found me on Skype, for which I thank him very much. At that time, a guy from the Moscow region was studying in Mikkeli in his first year. We met him and began to look for common roots. As it turned out later, his roots were German, however, when the war began, his grandmother said that she was from the Baltic states. Now, having safely moved with his family, he lives in Riga.

During the conversation, he said that in Finland there is a repatriation program under which Ingrian Finns can move to Finland. I started collecting information and documents to get in line for repatriation. My father was able to tell me a little about my grandfather Oscar, since my grandfather died while my father was in the army.

My grandfather Stol Oscar Ivanovich was born on February 16, 1921 at the Lakhta station in the Leningrad region. During the war he was exiled to Siberia to work in a mine. There he met my grandmother, a German by nationality, Sofia Alexandrovna, and my uncle Valery and my father Victor were born there. They say that Oscar was a good hunter, fisherman and mushroom picker. He spoke Finnish only once, when his sister came to visit him. The family spoke only Russian.

Oscar Stol.

So, I quickly collected my documents and flew to Moscow to get on the waiting list a week before it closed (July 1, 2011). Luckily, I ended up in line at number twenty-two thousand or something. My birth certificate was enough. I was told that I needed to pass an exam in the Finnish language, and then if the result was positive, I would be able to submit documents to move to Finland, provided that I rented an apartment. I said that I don’t know where to start learning, since we don’t have any Finnish language courses in Siberia. The embassy gave me several books and told me that I had to return them and take an exam within a year. Time has passed.

Since September 2011, I began to seriously study the Finnish language. Combining two jobs, I found the time and energy to look at textbooks purchased via the Internet for at least an hour, and listened to Finnish radio. In May 2012, I took the exam and waited about a month for the result. Finally they called me and said that you can prepare documents for the move. It was difficult to find an apartment remotely. Fortunately, one wonderful woman, Anastasia Kamenskaya, helped us, for which we thank her very much!

So, we moved in the summer of 2013 to the city of Lahti. Recently, work in Novokuznetsk, where I lived with my family, has not been good. Moreover, I didn’t want to stay in the fifth most polluted city in Russia; besides, my wife was pregnant with her second child. We were the only relatives who moved. At one time in the 90s, my parents had the opportunity to move to Germany based on my grandmother’s roots, but my grandfather, my mother’s father, a veteran of the Great Patriotic War, who went all the way to Berlin, strictly ordered me to stay in my homeland.

My wife and I don’t regret moving one bit. We are currently renting a three-room apartment. The eldest Timofey goes to kindergarten. His wife Ksenia is currently staying at home with their one-year-old Oscar, who was born in Lahti. I completed Finnish language courses and entered Ammattikoula for a profession that I had only dreamed of. No stress, no rush, good-natured and honest people, clean air, tasty tap water, children will have a real childhood and one of the best education in the world! I am grateful to Finland for all this!

Of course, I would like to find relatives in Finland. Perhaps someone will read this article, remember my grandfather and want to answer me.

Thank you for your attention!

Andrey Stol (born in 1982)

Suikanen

History of the Suikanen family

My mother, on my father’s side - Nina Andreevna Suikanen, was born in the village of Chernyshovo near Kolpino (Leningrad region) into an Ingrian family. My grandfather, Suikanen Andrey Andreevich, worked as a forester in a forestry enterprise, he had five daughters and one son, a small farm - a horse, cows, chickens and ducks. In his free time, he participated in the volunteer fire department and played in an amateur brass band.

Nina Andreevna Suikanen in Helsinki, 1944

In 1937, my grandfather was dispossessed and later convicted under Article 58 as an enemy of the people. In 1939, he died of pneumonia in a camp in the northern Urals in the city of Solikamsk. My mother went through the Klooga concentration camp during the war, and later the Finns took her and her sisters to Finland. The sisters worked at a military factory in the city of Lohja, and the mother looked after the children of a wealthy family.

In 1944, my mother and sisters were sent back to the USSR, to the Yaroslavl region. And two years later they moved to the Estonian SSR to the city of Jõhvi, and my mother began working at a cement factory. All the sisters somehow settled into life, worked and lived in Estonia. At the end of the 60s, my mother moved to live in Leningrad with my father.

We learned about the existence of a program for the resettlement of Ingrian Finns in the Lutheran church in the city of Pushkin, where my mother went to services. The first time I came to Finland was in ninety-two, we stayed with my mother’s cousins ​​in Helsinki, but there was no talk of staying forever. I didn’t know the language (my father did not approve of learning Finnish), and I had a good job in Leningrad. My wife and daughter and I moved to Suomi for good only at the end of 1993. During this time, I learned a little language, and the unresolved issue with my own housing also pushed me to move.

Baptism of Mark's second daughter in Kouvola, 1994.

The small town of Kouvola was not at all ready for our arrival, although this is the only place out of six where I wrote to the labor exchange and sent a resume and from where I received an answer: I was invited to personally participate in the job search on the spot. When I arrived with my family, of course, there was no work for me. There were no adaptation programs at all. Thank you, casual acquaintances, fellow Ingrians, who helped me rent a house, open a bank account and complete other formalities.

The work situation was difficult, and already in the spring of ninety-four I went back to Russia to work, while the family remained to live in Kouvola. Gradually everything got better: my wife took language courses, the family grew - I had two more daughters. My wife found a job, the older children grew up and got a profession, now they live separately and work not far from us.

The Solovyovs' dacha in the village of Siikakoski

In 1996, my mother and my sister and their family came to live in Finland, everything turned out well for everyone. I myself moved to Suomi permanently in 2008. Work in Russia has ended, and I have not yet been able to find a permanent job here, but I still hope. Although my Finnish language, age and lack of jobs make this hope illusory. And everything is not bad: your home, nature, forest. Over time, everyone received Finnish citizenship, got used to it, and now we connect our lives only with Suomi, thanks to President Koivisto and the Finnish state.

Mark Solovyov (born in 1966)

Reginya

Regina family history

My name is Lyudmila Gouk, nee Voinova. I was born, raised and lived for many years in the small Karelian town of Medvezhyegorsk. My paternal ancestors are from the Medvezhyegorsk region. My mother is the daughter of a Swede and a Finnish woman who lived in the Murmansk region before the repressions. Grandma's first family lived in the village of Vaida-Guba, the second - in the village of Ozerki.

Maria Regina, 1918.

But in 1937, the grandmother was arrested and six months later shot. The grandfather, apparently, was scared (we know nothing about him), and the mother (she was 4 years old) ended up in an orphanage in the Arkhangelsk region. She learned her mother's surname - Regina - only at the age of 15, when she had to go to school. She had a wonderful life in the future: she became a Russian language teacher, worked at school for 42 years, she is an honored teacher of Karelia.

My sister and I knew from birth that my mother was Finnish. Brother Olavi sometimes came to see her. He spoke Russian poorly, but sang songs in Swedish and Norwegian. Often during conversations they suddenly fell silent and sat silently for quite a long time. Arriving in Finland, I learned that these are traditional Finnish pauses. Of course, we felt some kind of specialness. Let's say we were different from our peers, as if we knew something that they didn't know.

In the 80s, I wrote to the Murmansk FSB. They sent us a letter indicating the date of arrest, date of execution, date of rehabilitation, and that the place of death had not been established. As I remember now: I walk in, and my mother is sitting with a large envelope and crying.

I learned about the re-emigration program in the early 90s. Then I got married, and, as it turned out, my husband was also from a family of repressed Finns. His mother Pelkonen (Russunen) Alina was born in 1947 in Yakutia, where her entire family was exiled in 1942. In 1953, her father was lucky to receive documents, and they went to Karelia, to the village of Salmi, Pitkyaranta region of Karelia. They arrived in Leningrad, but they were not allowed to settle there, and they bought a ticket to the station to which they had enough money.

The fate of Alina and her sisters was not so successful. All their lives they lived in fear. For example, I learned that my mother-in-law is Finnish many years later. And the fact that she speaks Finnish well only came when she came to visit us in Helsinki. According to her stories, she seemed to be ashamed of it, unlike my mother, who was always proud of it. The mother-in-law remembered how her older sisters went to report to the police, how her mother, who did not speak Russian, practically did not leave the house. My mother also has terrible memories: how they walked to school, and local children threw stones at them and shouted: White Finns!

When we found out that we could come, the decision came immediately. Of course, we didn’t know what difficulties we would face (we were a little naive), but we were sure that we would be better off in Finland. No matter how much we tried to persuade our relatives, they did not come with us. Maybe they regret it now, but that was their decision.

The Gouk family in Helsinki.

Upon arrival, everything went very well: we got a wonderful apartment, my husband quickly began to learn the language, I gave birth to a son. Later I opened my own small business and have been working for 9 years now. My husband also works at his favorite job, we have two children, 11 and 16 years old.

I was bored for a very long time, but when I stopped, I felt at home. And no matter how sinful it may sound, I consider Finland to be my homeland. I feel very good here both mentally and physically. Now about the difficulties. The first is a kindergarten and school. We studied at a completely different school, and when our daughter went to school, for the first two years we could not understand anything at all, how it all worked and how it all worked. It’s easier now, my daughter has already finished school, now we’re mastering Lukio.

The second difficulty (only for me) is the Finnish language. I didn’t go to many courses; at work I mostly remain silent, speaking Russian with employees. In the evening I come home, tired, children and household chores - in the end I speak poorly. There are very few evening courses for working people. All short-term, I tried to get in a couple of times, all unsuccessfully. But this, of course, is only my fault. We have lived in Helsinki for 13 years, and I have never once felt discrimination towards myself or my loved ones. At work, everyone is very respectful and even, let’s say, extremely attentive. We are happy here and we think that everything will continue to be fine.

Lyudmila Gouk (born 1961)

Savolainen

For a long time I did not attach importance to my ethnic origin. Although I noticed differences in mentality from ethnic Russians, I had not previously connected this with nationality, I thought that it was more of a family thing.

Andrey with his daughter Orvokki in Jokipii.

Starting approximately from the middle of the first decade of the 21st century, many of my acquaintances, one after another, began to periodically travel abroad, including to Finland. They told me that I really have a Finnish character. In addition, I dated for some time a girl who had lived in Norway for a long time. And according to her, I had a typical Scandinavian mentality (by Scandinavians she meant both Norwegians and Finns; from her point of view, there are no significant national differences between them).

I liked what my friends told me about Finland and the Finns. Although many responded negatively, I, on the contrary, considered the features that they did not like to be positive qualities. I became interested and read materials about Finland. He also became more interested in the history of the Ingrian Finns than before. Unfortunately, by that time none of the grandparents’ generation was alive. I searched for information on the Internet, and later also sometimes participated in events organized by the Inkerin liitto society.

I know that the ancestors of the Ingrians moved to Ingria in the 17th century, having moved there from Karelia and Savo. Judging by my grandmother’s maiden name, Savolainen, my distant ancestors were from Savo. During World War II, Ingrian people, including all my paternal relatives living at that time (my mother is ethnically half-Estonian, half-Russian), were exiled to Siberia. Their houses and all property were confiscated, and they themselves were sent to the Omsk region.

Khilya Korosteleva. Photo from the site http://pln-pskov.ru

Just over 300 Ingrian Finns currently live in the Pskov region, reported live on the radio station "Echo of Moscow in Pskov"Chairman of the Pskov city public organization of Finns-Ingrians "Pikku Inkeri" Hilja Korosteleva, reports the Pskov news feed.

She said that before the revolution of 1917, there were about 120 thousand Ingrian Finns in the Leningrad region. Among them were both settled Finns who had lived here since the 17th century, and workers who came to build the railway and work in factories.

“After the war, there was practically not a single Finn left on the territory of Ingria, because when the Germans occupied the Soviet homeland, half ended up under German occupation, and the other in the blockade ring. In 1943, the Finnish government decides to take 62 thousand Finns to their historical homeland, and they left through Estonia to Finland. The remaining half of the Ingrians were taken to Yakutia by the NKVD," said Khilya Korosteleva.

Of these, at most 30% made it to the destination - the moving conditions were harsh. In 1944, when the Soviet government already saw the victorious outcome of the war, it appealed to the Finnish government to return the Finns to their historical homeland, and out of 62 thousand, 55 thousand Ingrians agreed to return, were loaded onto trains and successfully returned.

Currently, Ingrians live mainly in Russia (St. Petersburg, Leningrad and Pskov regions, Karelia, Western Siberia), Estonia, some other former republics of the USSR, as well as Finland and Sweden.

According to the 2010 census, there were about 20 thousand Ingrians in Russia. Only a little over 300 representatives of this ethnic group live in the Pskov region. Such a small number is due to natural decline: many Finns living in the Pskov region are already of advanced age.

According to Hilja Korosteleva, the “Pskov” Finns have practically not gathered together in recent years, with the exception of national holidays. This is largely due to the lack of a platform on which to gather. On rare occasions, the national society meets in the Catholic Church.

“I don’t paint the future of Ingrian Finns in rosy colors, because there are very few of us left,” PLN quotes Korosteleva as saying. In addition to natural population decline, sisu is lost over time. "This is one of the main Finnish words, which has no translation in other languages. Its meaning is a sense of oneself, the inner self. And By assimilating, this feeling is lost. I even see it in my children."

According to her, Finland allocates a lot of money to preserve the language and culture of Ingrian Finns living in Russia, including in the Leningrad region, where more than 12 thousand representatives of this ethnic group live compactly. “But it’s still a slow process,” concluded the studio guest.

Where did Ingria come from?

We talk with local historian and publisher Mikhail Markovich Braudze about forgotten and unknown pages of the history of the present-day Leningrad region, and even more broadly of the North-West.

– Let's start, as they say, “from the stove.” What is Ingria, or Ingria, about which many seem to have heard a lot, but still have a rather vague idea of ​​what it is?

– The name originates from the Izhora River (in Finnish and Izhora - Inkeri, Inkerinjoki) and the Izhora - the oldest inhabitants of this land. Maa is Finnish for land. Hence the Finnish-Izhorian name of the land - Inkerinmaa. The Swedes, apparently who did not understand Finnish well, added the word “land” to the toponym, which also means “land”. Finally, in the 17th–18th centuries, the Russian ending “iya” was added to the word “Ingermanland”, which is characteristic of concepts denoting a region or country. Thus, the word “land” appears in three languages ​​in the word Ingria.

Ingria has well-defined historical boundaries. It is bounded on the west by the Narva River and on the east by the Lava River. Its northern limit roughly coincides with the old border with Finland. That is, this is a significant part of the Leningrad region together with St. Petersburg. The capital of Ingria was the city of Nyen (Nyen, Nyenschanz), from which St. Petersburg actually grew, and although many deny their relationship, it is still one city that changed names, but remained the European capital, bearing alternate names: Nyen, Schlottburg , St. Petersburg, Petrograd, Leningrad.

– What is the reason for your interest in this topic in the history of our region? Maybe one of your ancestors belonged to the Ingrian Finns?

– Like many, I became interested in my roots and ran into a problem. It turns out that in St. Petersburg and around it they do not know where they live. Few people imagine what Ingria is, everyone perceives this land according to Pushkin “...on the shore of desert waves...”, the more advanced have also heard about the struggle of Rus' with the Germans, some are aware of the Swedes. But almost no one knows about the Vodians, the Izhoras, or the Finns and Germans in our area.

In the early 1990s, I was shocked by the story of my mother, who in 1940 went to visit her cousins ​​in the village of Korabselki, Vsevolozhsk region. Almost no one there spoke Russian. Later I remembered that in Pargolovo in the late 1960s, many old women spoke to my mother in a language I did not understand. And most importantly, I have an aunt Elvira Pavlovna Avdeenko (nee Suokas): her stories revealed for me a previously unknown layer of our culture - the existence close to the metropolis of the foreign-language life of the Ingrian Finns, Izhoras, Vodi, Karelians, who were woven into close relations with the Russians , Germans, Estonians and other peoples living in the Leningrad region.

– Let's look at the historical facts with an open mind. Officially, the name “Ingria” was assigned to our region after, according to the Stolbovo Peace Treaty of 1617, these lands became part of Sweden. These times were very difficult for our region: the Swedes spread their faith, the local population fled, the territory was depopulated, and natives from Finland were resettled here. The Swedes colonized the land they captured. Moreover, Ingria, in fact, was a remote province of Sweden, where criminals were even exiled. In other words, the very word “Ingria” may recall a sad period in the history of our region. Is it worth raising it to the shield?

– It is not entirely correct to talk about the connection of the name specifically with the Swedish period. Obviously, the Swedish period was also controversial. Both in tsarist and Soviet times, to please a certain political situation, he was often depicted in gloomy colors. Meanwhile, in the first half of the 17th century there was no pressure on the Orthodox inhabitants of the region. It began after the Russian-Swedish War of 1656–1658, when Moscow troops treacherously violated the treaty, and stopped after Charles XII came to power.

In the formation of a new sub-ethnic group - the Ingrian Finns - along with settlers from Eastern Finland, thousands of Izhorians who accepted Lutheranism also took part, and many Russians changed their faith (Orthodox Izhorians have also survived to this day). Many military and administrative posts were occupied by “bayors” - descendants of Russian noble families who remained here and were included in the Swedish knighthood. And the last commandant of Nyenskans was Iogan Apolov (Opolyev), and Colonel of the Swedish Army Peresvetov-Murat walked to Peter’s troops under a white flag.

Another fact, almost unknown to most: in Swedish Ingria, many Old Believers, followers of the “ancient faith” persecuted in Rus', found shelter. And several hundred of them, together with the Swedes, took part in the defense of Narva!

At the same time, I do not at all want to prove that “the Swedes were right” when they conquered this region. They just were – that’s all. After all, Estonians do not have a complex about the fact that old Tallinn was built by various “conquerors” - Danes, Livonian knights, Swedes. And the Swedish period was a bizarre time of meeting on the banks of the Neva of different cultures, East and West. What's wrong if the Swedes also wrote their page in the history of the region?

By the way, during the imperial period the toponym “Ingria” did not evoke negative emotions in anyone. At different times, the Russian fleet included four battleships called Ingria. Two regiments of the Russian army were called “Ingrianland”. For some time, their chevrons featured a revised version of the Ingrian coat of arms. And virtually all somewhat educated people knew this name. And now the words “Ingria” and “Ingria” are used by many public organizations and commercial structures. I believe that those who use these toponyms no longer think about the Finns and Swedes - the names live their own independent life, becoming an integral part of the history of the region.

– When talking about Ingermanland, whether you like it or not, you focus on the history of the Finnish-speaking population of our region. But doesn’t this position run counter to the cornerstone thesis that the North-West is the original Russian land, the possessions of Veliky Novgorod, seized by Sweden and forever, by the right of history, returned by Peter the Great during the Northern War?

– The fact that the ancient inhabitants of this land were Finno-Ugrians and Izhorians does not in any way contradict another historical fact: these lands from ancient times were part of Veliky Novgorod, and then of the unified Russian state. And if we are talking about the Swedish conquest, how should we view the attack of the Moscow “Khanate” on the Novgorod Republic, and what period in the history of the region should be considered more difficult? After all, it is known that Novgorod was more oriented towards Europe than towards Moscow. So the question of the seizure of lands by Sweden is ambiguous. Ingria has always been in the area of ​​interests of several states.

– How many people today need the memory of Ingermanland in the territory of what is now the Leningrad region? Maybe this is only interesting to those with family roots?

– I am alarmed by the very fact that such a question, unfortunately, still arises in our society. We live in a multinational country, whose citizens can coexist only in conditions of respect for the mentality of the people around them and the preservation of their culture. Having lost the diversity of cultural traditions represented on our territory, we will lose our own identity.

I think that the “Ingrian” layer is an integral part of the history of our land. Without getting to know him, it is impossible, for example, to understand a significant part of the toponymy of the Leningrad region. Ingrian Finns made their contribution to Russian history, providing St. Petersburg with meat, milk, vegetables for centuries, serving in the Russian and Soviet armies. In general, Ingrian Finns (or people with Finnish roots) are found in almost all areas of activity. Among them were the captains of the icebreakers “Litke” and “Krasin” (the Koivunen brothers), the hero of the Soviet Union Pietari Tikiläinen, the famous Finnish writer Juhani Konkka, a native of Toksovo. The list goes on.

– In 2011, the 400th anniversary of the Church of Ingria was celebrated...

– The first parish of the Church of Ingria in our area was founded in Swedish times, in 1590, for the needs of the garrison of the Koporye fortress (Kaprio). And for residents, the first parish was opened in Lembolovo (Lempaala) in 1611, and by 1642 there were 13 parishes, by the end of the Swedish period - 28. With the beginning of the “Great Malice” - the so-called Northern War in Finland (1700-1721). ) the number of parishes naturally decreased. By 1917, there were 30 independent parishes plus 5 non-independent, drip ones. During Soviet times, the number of parishes was constantly decreasing, the last church was closed on October 10, 1939 in Yucca.

Today there are 26 parishes in the Leningrad region, of which 12 are old (revived) and 14 are new. Now the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Ingria has become all-Russian and has 77 parishes throughout the country.

– Do you think Ingria is a “historical substance” that already completely belongs to history, or is there still a continuation of it in the present day?

– Currently, according to various estimates, from 15 to 30 thousand Ingrian Finns live in the Leningrad region and St. Petersburg. Since 1988, the society of Ingrian Finns “Inkerin Liitto” has been operating, it organizes Finnish language courses, holds national holidays - Juhannus, Maslenitsa, Inkeri Day, and publishes the newspaper “Inkeri”. There are also folklore groups. Societies of Ingrian Finns exist in Finland, Estonia, Sweden, as well as in Siberia and Karelia, wherever representatives of a small people were thrown by the harsh winds of the 20th century. A small but very informative museum has been opened in Narva.

It’s hard to say what will happen next to the Ingrian Finns, what forms the national movement will take. Personally, I am interested in their history and culture, and I strive, as far as possible, to tell about it to everyone who is interested in it. This will help people with Finnish roots get in touch with the history of their ancestors. And representatives of other nationalities will enrich their knowledge of the history of their native land.

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