[BRIEF NOTE] Ingria

[rfmcdonald]

Ingria is now the hinterland of St. Petersburg, what is now the west of Leningrad Oblast. Once, though, Ingria was almost a country, the nation-state of the Ingrian Finns. Settled in the far east of the dominions of Sweden in the 17th century, the Ingrian Finns survived Tsarist rule intact, even forming a briefly independent republic after the fall of Tsarism. Stalinist repressions--killings and deportations both--soon aborted this tentative national renaissance. Although 21st century Ingria claims membership in the Unrepresented Peoples Organization, little is left of the Ingrian heritage apart from old placenames and a new history of migration to Finland. But for the want of a nail, or two.