Ingermanland

Categories / City Topography/Historical Geography/Historical Districts, Localities, Tracts, Municipal Establishments
INGERMANLAND (Swedish variant, Ingermanland; Russian variant, Izhorskaya Zemlya, or Ingria), a historic-cultural region including the Neva region, the Gulf of Finland shore, and the southwestern of Ladoga Region. Ingermanland was bound on the west by the River Narva, on the east by the River Lava, on the north by the River Sestra; the south boundary did not have a distinct reference points. The name Ingermanland originates from the Finnish word Inkerinmaa (Inkeri referring to the Izhorians ethnicity or the River Izhora, the word maa meaning land). Located within the Russian plain, and for the most part consists of flat country. Hilly districts are located on the outskirts of Duderhof (Duderhofskie Heights), and also north of St. Petersburg (Lembolovsky, Pargolovsky Heights, Koltushskaya Heights). Many rivers flow throughout the region, the biggest of them being the Neva. From the 12th century, Ingermanland was a domain controlled by Great Novgorod (part of the Votic and Shelon fifths); from the middle of the 15th century, it was included within the structure of the Russian State. It was here that several Russian fortresses were built, including Oreshek, Koporye, Yam, and Ivangorod. According to the Treaty of Stolbovo Treaty (1617), Ingermanland passed to Sweden and received the status of a conquered province, with its centre in Narva. The town Nyen founded at the meeting of the River Okhta and the Neva (see Nyenschanz) and the Noteborg (Nut-fortress) Fortress (the former Russian Oreshek) became important trade and military centres for Ingermanland. At the beginning of the 18th century, through victories in the Northern war, Russia won back the Ingermanland territory, which in 1708 was part of the Ingermanland Province (from 1710, the St. Petersburg Province). The population of Ingermanland was formed over a long course of contact between similar Baltic-Finnish ethnicities, indigenous the Votes and Ingrians, Finns who migrated from Eastern Finland, and the Slavs who began to enter the region in the 8th century. From the middle of the 18th century, German colonists settled in Ingermanland; from the 19th century, there were also Estonians. At the present, Russians make up the majority of the population of Ingermanland, most of them originating from an influx of Russian peasants from other regions, who came in the 18th - 20th centuries, through assimilation of Finnish-speaking inhabitants, and through ethnic deportations in the 20th century. The construction of St. Petersburg contributed to Ingermanland's growing economy and transport lines; at present it is a strongly-developed agricultural and industrial part of the Leningrad Region. Large machine-building factories, metal-works, wood-works, and chemical factories, as well as the Leningrad Nuclear Power-station (in the town Sosnovy Bor), are all located in the region; new sea ports at the mouth of the Luga River and at Batareinaya Bay are currently being constructed.

Reference: Мы живем на родной земле: Население Петербурга и Ленингр. обл. / Сост. и науч. ред. К. В. Чистов. СПб., 1992; Исаченко Г. А. "Окно в Европу": История и ландшафты. СПб., 1998; Мусаев В. И. Политическая история Ингерманландии конца XIX-ХХ в. СПб., 2001; Amburger E. Ingermanland., Wien, 1980.

A. Y. Chistyakov. Мы живем на одной земле: Население Петербурга и Ленингр. обл. / Сост. и науч. ред. К. В. Чистов. СПб., 1992
Мусаев В. И. Политическая история Ингерманландии конца XIX-ХХ в. СПб., 2001
Исаченко Г. А. "Окно в Европу": История и ландшафты. СПб., 1998
Amburger E. Ingermanland. Koln; Wien, 1980 Shlisselburg Fortress.
Great Northern War of 1700-21