Finns

Categories / Population/Ethnic Groups
FINNS, an ethnic community forming a part of the St. Petersburg population. The Finnish language is related to the Finno-Ugrian group of Uralic languages. Their faith is Lutheran. A Finnish settlement arose on the banks of the Neva at the late 16th to 17th centuries. In the 18th to the early 20th centuries immigrants from Finland - artisans, labourers, traders settled in St. Petersburg. The Finns lived mainly in the centre of St. Petersburg and on the Vyborgskaya Side, where till the present day Finsky (Finnish) Lane exists. Finnish peasants came to the city for work from Ingermanland (Ingria, Inkeri). In 1745 the Finnish arrivals were separated from the Swedish, in 1805 the St. Maria Finnish Lutheran Church was consecrated, which also ran a school. Burials took place at the Mitrofanyevskoe Cemetery. In 1870 the first Finnish paper in St. Petersburg was published Pietarin Sanomat (Petersburg Gazette). In St. Petersburg various Finnish ethnic organizations existed, including the society of sobriety Alku (Beginnings, founded in 1885), the educational society Soihtu (Torch, founded in 1909). From 1899-1918 beyond the city the Finnish Celebration of the Song took place. In the 1920s-30s in Leningrad the Finnish House of Education operated and the Finnish Pedagogical Technical School, Finnish department of the Pedagogical Institute by the name of A.I. Herzen, the Workers' Faculty at Leningrad State University, the publishing company Kiria and other ethnic organizations, liquidated in 1937-38. In 1935-42 Leningrad Finns were deported to remote regions of the USSR (see also the article Deportations ethnic). In 1897 there were approximately 18,000 Finns living in St. Petersburg, in 1989 - 5,500. Since 1989 the society The Ingermanland Union (Inkerin Liitto) has been active, involved in reviving the culture of the Ingermanland Finns. Since 1989 around St. Petersburg the celebration of St. John has occurred annually (June 24) with the participation of folk groups from all over Russia and Finland. In the 1990s some of the Finnish population has immigrated to Finland. In 1998 the City National-Cultural Autonomy of Ingrian Finns (Inkeri) was founded.

References: Мы живем на одной земле: Население Петербурга и Ленингр. обл. СПб., 1992. С. 24-28, 130-148; Заднепровская А. Ю. Ингерманландские финны // Многонациональный Петербург: История. Религия. Народы. СПб., 2002. С. 528-541; Ниронен Я. Финский Петербург. СПб., 2003; Гильди Л. А. Судьба "социально-опасного" народа: (Засекреченный геноцид финнов в России и его последствия, 1930-2002 гг.). СПб., 2003.

A. Y. Chistyakov. Herzen Alexander Ivanovich
Finsky Lane/Saint Petersburg, city
Выборгская сторона
Мы живем на одной земле: Население Петербурга и Ленингр. обл. / Сост. и науч. ред. К. В. Чистов. СПб., 1992
Ниронен Я. Финский Петербург. СПб., 2003
Заднепровская А. Ю. Ингерманландские финны // Многонациональный Петербург: История. Религия. Народы. СПб., 2002 Handicraft (overview)
Labourers
St. Maria Finnish Lutheran Church
Pedagogical University
State University, St. Petersburg
Deportations, ethnic