Culture of Oulu

Culture

The best known cultural exports of the city of Oulu are the Air Guitar World Championships held annually in August, Mieskuoro Huutajat (also known as Screaming Men), the now defunct metal band Sentenced, and one of the best ice hockey teams in Europe, Oulun Kärpät.

Many artists, writers, and musicians live in the city. A variety of concerts – rock, classical, and jazz – as well as other cultural events take place each year. Examples include the Oulu Music Video Festival, the Air Guitar World Championships, and the Musixine Music Film Competition, all in August. In July, the annual rock festival Qstock takes place. The Oulu Music Festival is held in winter and the Oulunsalo Music Festival in summer. The Irish Festival of Oulu takes place each October, and the International Children's Film Festival each November.

Museums in Oulu include the Northern Ostrobothnia museum, the Oulu Museum of Art (OMA), the Tietomaa science center, and the Turkansaari open-air museum.

Notable statues and sculptures in Oulu include a sculpture of Frans Michael Franzén and The Bobby at the Market Place statue.

Finlands' Eurovision representatives 2021 rock band Blind Channel are from Oulu. They placed 6th in the competition.

Kalmah is a melodic death metal-band from Oulu that formed in 1998.

Food

In the 1980s, rössypottu, salmon soup and sweet cheese (juhannusjuusto) were named Oulu's traditional parish dishes

Rössypottu

Rössypottu is a traditional Finnish dish which originates from the Oulu region yet is very much unknown in the southern parts of the country. Essentially a very simple dish, it is a stew made using potatoes (pottu, peruna), some pork and the main ingredient, so-called "rössy" i.e. blodpalt made of blood, beer, rye flour and some spices.

Rössy

Rössy, or blood clot, can be made from reindeer, beef or pig blood. Other ingredients are milk, kale, rye flour, onion, butter and syrup, and the spices are salt, white pepper, nutmeg and marjoram. The dough mixture is baked in a greased pan; it swells to about a third of its original size. Rössy is usually eaten warm with lingonberry jam or cold with a sandwich. Old-time rössy does not include white pepper, nutmeg or marjoram as spices. They weren't even available in Finland at that time. 

Nowadays, rössy is also available as a ready-made meal: Viskaalin from Muho and Lounastuote Oy from Oulunsalo sell and make rössy. Other names used are rössi, rössö, roppana, kisko and kampsu.

Oulu

• Culture of Oulu 
• Metropolitan of Oulu 

Oulu (Swedish: Uleåborg) is a city in Finland and the regional capital of North Ostrobothnia. It is located on the northwestern coast of the country at the mouth of the River Oulu. The population of Oulu is approximately 215,000, while the sub-region has a population of approximately 263,000. It is the 5th most populous municipality in Finland, and the fourth most populous urban area in the country. Oulu is also the most populous city in Northern Finland.

Notable people

• Nicolaus Nicolai Ulopolitanus (1605-1676)
• Zacharias Lithovius (1672-1743)
• Iivari Leiviskä (1876-1953)
• Arvi Järventaus (1883-1939)
• Martti Similä (1898-1958)
• Vilho Helanen (1899-1952)

Bengt Pohjanen: Author, Translator and Orthodox Priest

Bengt Erik Benedictus Pohjanen (born 26 June 1944 in Kassa in Pajala, Norrbotten, Sweden), is a Tornedalian author, translator and orthodox priest living in Överkalix.

Biography

Pohjanen grew up in the village of Kassa near the Finnish border and was originally Meänkieli-speaking. The father's family were atheists, while the mother's were Laestadians. Growing up was marked by the collisions between these lifestyles, but also by the family's storytelling talents.

After matriculation at the high school in Haparanda in 1965, and then studies at Uppsala University, Pohjanen became a candidate of theology in 1970 and was ordained a priest. In 1979, he became a doctor of philosophy in Finnish with a literary doctoral thesis on Antti Hyry's writing.

At the age of 39, Pohjanen, who had been writing since the age of thirteen, chose to become a writer instead of pursuing an academic career.

In 2004, Bengt Pohjanen was ordained an Orthodox Christian priest in Paris and then received the name Father Benedikt. Before Pohjanen converted to the Orthodox Church (Patriarchate of Constantinople) (1984), he was a priest in the Church of Sweden. As an Evangelical-Lutheran priest, he served in Malmberget, Muonionalusta and Överkalix parishes. He resigned the priesthood in the Church of Sweden after a conflict with the judicial chapter in Luleå diocese.[source needed]

Authorship

Bengt Pohjanen writes novels, plays, film scripts, songs, poems and librettos in Swedish, Meänkieli and Finnish. Several of his works touch on subjects of Laestadianism and the Korpela movement. Another consistent theme is smuggling. Pohjanen has also written about violence and crime in his novel Silvertorpeden (1993). The novel received the Swedish Deckarakademin's diploma in 1993.

Pohjanen has directed the film Fylla moppe, which is based on a text from his autobiographical novel series Smugglarkungens son (Norstedts 2007) and Tidens tvång (Norstedts 2009). The short film Barnavännen is also based on a text by Bengt Pohjanen.

Pohjanen has written several novels, theater plays and poems in Meänkieli and has translated, among other things, parts of the Bible into that language. He has taken the initiative to found the Meän academy - Academia Tornedaliensis. Together with Matti Kenttä, he has written a grammar for the language, Meänkielen kramatiikki, and together with the linguist Eeva Muli, he has prepared the first grammar in Swedish for Meänkieli. Bengt Pohjanen has, in connection with Smugglaroperan, taken the initiative to form the first cross-border theater, Meänmaan Teatteri, whose actors and members are recruited from both sides of the border. In 2009, he took the initiative for the first and only Meänkieli-language magazine Meänmaa, which is published with four issues per year.

Together with the composer and cathedral organist Fredrik Sixten, Pohjanen has created the work En svenska Markuspassion, the first Swedish passion music, for which Bengt Pohjanen has written eleven chorale texts and two chorale texts for the opening and closing choruses. The work was premiered in April 2004. In November 2007, Fredrik Sixtens and Bengt Pohjanen's Requiem was premiered in Maria Magdalena church in Stockholm with Ragnar Bohlin as conductor.

In 2010, Sweden's Radio P1 broadcast Pohjanen's autobiographical book Smugglarkungens son, whose action takes place along the Swedish-Finnish border.

Tidens twang (Norstedts 2009) is the continuation of Pohjanen's autobiography. In it, we get to follow Pänktti through elementary school in Pajala and high school in Haparanda. On 28 February 2010, Bengt Pohjanen received His Majesty the King's medal for "significant writing in several linguistic areas". In 2010, Pohjanen also received the Eyvind Johnson Prize and the Kalevala Society's prize for his work in creating a written language of Meänkieli, as well as for his contributions to Finnish culture.

Bengt Pohjanen has also written the poetry collection Flyende dikter - Karkaavia runoja (2012), in Meänkieli. The following year he translated the poems into Swedish. Some of the poems were translated into different languages. In 2024, Pohjanen's poem Born Without Language will be the first to be read on meänkieli, in Sveriges Radio's oldest radio program Dagens dikt.

Opera trilogy

Together with the Finnish composer Kaj Chydenius, Pohjanen has written and staged three opera performances. The first opera, Smugglaroperan, was staged in Finnish Pello in 2004 and in Swedish Övertorneå in 2005. The second part, Læstadiusoperan, was played at Kengi's farm in 2007 and 2008. The final and largest part, War Opera, was staged as an outdoor theater in Haparanda in the summer of 2009.

Grand Duchy of Finland (1809-1917)

The Grand Duchy of Finland, officially and also translated as the Grand Principality of Finland, was the predecessor state of modern Finland. It existed between 1809 and 1917 as an autonomous state ruled by the Russian Empire.

Aikia Aikianpoika: Sámi Shaman

Aikia Aikianpoika (Finnish) or Aike Aikesson (Swedish) (1591–1671), was a Sami Shaman (noaidi) from Kuusamo near the Finnish Lappland. He was sentenced to death for witchcraft in Kuolajärvi and accused of having caused the death by drowning of a client Tobias Mordula by a curse. The client didn't pay for his services as promised. Rumors tells that thereafter, Aikia, who was imprisoned in Kemi, was alleged to have killed himself with witchcraft in order to avoid execution of the sentence. Aikias case is one of the most famous trials and executions for witchcraft in Finland. This took place during the Christianization of the Sámi people.

He was from Kitka in Kemi. He was active as a noaidi, and as such used a Sámi drum. He was widely rumoured to be able to cause both good and evil by use of magic, and was engaged to do so by others.

In 1670, he was paid by a farmer to give him good salmon fishing luck. This succeeded, but the farmer did not pay sufficiently as promised. When the farmer died in 1671, Aike Aikesson was reported by a parish vicar for having caused the death of the farmer by witchcraft. Aike Aikesson, not being a Christian and thereby not associating magic with Satan, freely confessed that he could master magic to the Christian authorities, who sentenced him to death for sorcery.

He was taken to Piteå to be executed, but the execution never took place, because he died in the sleigh on the way, likely by a heart attack.

Sámi pagans

1500s

• Aikia Aikianpoika (1591-1671)

1600s

Pekka Vesainen: Warlord, Leader and Guerrilla Chief

Pekka Vesainen (or Juho Vesainen as a character in a historical novel by Santeri Ivalo) was a famous 16th century Finnish peasant leader and guerrilla chief during the "long wrath" or "pitkä viha".

The long restlessness of Russo-Swedish war was worst among settlements in Northern Ostrobothnia region, which was officially then beyond the Russian border of the Treaty of Nöteborg. The long and cruel guerrilla war without any outside help created eventually need of warlords to take care of the protection of the settlers. The most famous figure of this period is Pekka Vesainen.

A raiding party of peasants from Ii, led by Vesainen, destroyed and burned Kandalaksha (Kantalahti) and a small Russian settlement in Kem in summer 1589. They took a considerable loot with them back to Ii. According to oral tradition and historical speculation from later centuries, Vesainen would have also led another raid later on same year, on which the peasants destroyed the Pechenga Monastery and killed all the monks. This raid did actually take place, but Vesainen is not known to have anything to do with it.

In the 18th century, a parchment, which has since been lost, was kept in the church of Salo, or Saloinen, in which it was said that in 1588 or 1589 the ancients made a raid to Kantalahti, from which they brought a lot of booty. According to another legend recorded in the 18th century, 90 men participated in the trip, who went up the Iijoki to Maanselä and then descended the Koutajoki to Kantalahti, which was captured by a sudden attack on the night before St. Peter's Day at the beginning of June. After that, the group had continued their journey along the coast of Vienalahti, burning villages all the way to Viena Kemi, from where they returned to Finland by going up the Viena Kemijoki and possibly passing through Kuusamojärvi back to Iijoki. The Russian chronicle of the Solovetsk monastery mentions an extermination expedition from the Swedish side, in connection with which the entire town of Kantalahti and the monastery were burned on St. Peter's Day and 450 local residents were killed. The military expedition of the Iians was also intended as a revenge and a deterrent, as the Russian side had carried out several similar extermination expeditions in the previous years to the area of Northern Finland, including to Ii. The Russians and Karelians immediately retaliated by already in August 1589 making a new extermination expedition to the Ii region.

In the stories, Pekka Vesainen was mentioned as the leader of the guerilla expedition in the summer of 1589, and he was playfully referred to as "Vesan voivotta", which comes from the Russian word for warlord, voivode. There is only one document source about Vesainen's participation in the expedition, an entry made in the account books by the voud of Ostrobothnia in 1589, according to which Pekka Vesainen and some other participants in the Russian war expedition had been taxed for the booty they received: six marten skins, two wolf skins and one bear skin. The mention of Vesainen's name in this context has been considered as reliable evidence that he really led the said expedition. According to the same inscription, part of the booty of the ancients had been a fire tax, i.e. protection money collected from the inhabitants for not burning down their houses.

Russian sources also mention another extermination expedition by the Finns in 1589, which took place at the beginning of September. During that time, no less than 700 men would have destroyed the Kantalahti area, Viena Karelia and the southwest coast of the Kola peninsula. Finnish sources do not know about this second trip, so current historical research has doubted its authenticity, especially since making a new trip to an area that was just recently destroyed would have been quite pointless. Instead, it is known that during the year 1589 another large extermination expedition was made from Ostrobothnia to the coast of the Arctic Ocean. During that time, the people of Ostrobothnia destroyed the Petsamo monastery and killed its monks, captured the city of Kola and also tried to capture the fortress of Kola. In some later stories, Pekka Vesainen has been claimed to have led this trip as well, although the claim is not supported by any source. This trip was probably carried out by the peasants of Tornio and Kemi, and the ancient Vesainen was probably not involved in it.

Historian Yrjö-Sakari Yrjö-Koskinen, who lived in the 19th century, wrongly claimed that Pekka Vesainen also led the mentioned expedition to destroy the Petsamo monastery, but he actually confused the events with the war expedition of 1591 and at the same time used Pekka Vesainen's wrong name Juho Vesainen after confusing him with another person. Santeri Ivalo used Yrjö-Koskinen's works as a source when he published the historical novel Juho Vesainen in 1894, in which Vesainen was also presented as the leader of the Petsamo and Kuola expedition. Despite its fictionality, Ivalo's book had a much later influence on the perceptions of Vesai.

Vesainen in folk tales

Folktales tell that Vesainen was "lightning-quick in his movements; strong in body strength; large and agile; and brave, clever and fearless in mind". There is a folk tale about Vesainen's childhood, according to which his mother was washing the child when the Viennese extermination forces came. Everyone ran away from the persecutors, but the child was forgotten in the washing machine. When the people returned, the oval was frozen, but the child was still alive. The child who was saved in this way grew up to be a shepherd. According to one story, the Viennese exterminators who arrived in Ii in 1589 took Vesainen's wife prisoner and killed two of her children. In 1591, the enemies struck again and killed three of his children. Only his wife, son Antti and daughter survived.

In Santeri Ivalo's work Suomalais sankareiita, a version of Vesainen's death is described: in Tornio's Lapinvoud hut, a prisoner named Ahma, brought from Viena, managed to fire a musket at his enemy. The bullet hit Vesainen badly in the chest, and he lay with a fever until the next morning, until he died.

According to an unreliable memory, in 1590 Vesainen would have met the king of Sweden and received gifts from him.

Change

The Vesainen statue sculpted by Oskari Jauhiainen in 1936 in Vesala in Ylikiiming has been erected in memory of the guerrilla leader, and Pekka Vesainen's road on Aumaharju in Vesalankylä is also named after him. In 1950, the statue of Vesainen, sculpted by Kalervo Kallio in 1940, was erected there.

The Finnish folk metal band Korpiklaani has made the song Vesainen Sota. The song is based on folk tales told in Vesaien.

Hannu Krankka: Leader of the Cudgel War (1596-1597)

Hannu Krankka (birth year unknown - died c. 1630) was one of the leaders of Finnish peasants during the 1596-97 Cudgel War, the largest uprising (with about 3,000 casualties) in what is now the country of Finland when it was under Swedish rule. The peasants, including those in Krankka's home region of northern Ostrobothnia, rebelled against oppression, including often unbearable borgläger-type taxation.

In early 1597, midway into the war after the uprising's first leader Jaakko Ilkka had been executed, the bailiff Israel Laurinpoika with the help of Perttu Palo and Krankka recruited more than 3,000 men. Krankka, a veteran leader during war with Russia, was chosen to serve as commander over companies from Liminka, Kemi and Ii.

In February 1597 the leaders and peasants went to Ilmajoki. While preparing for a major battle here, Laurinpoika said he was going to leave to gather more men to fight but fled instead, causing disorganization. Additionally, the peasants had relatively primitive weapons, such as clubs and spears, to use against the well-equipped troops of Clas Fleming serving under Sweden's King Sigismund. The peasants were defeated at this, the final battle, with many casualties. Krankka was captured and imprisoned at Turku Castle. Later that year when Duke Charles (the future King Charles IX of Sweden), an enemy of Sigismund, took control of the castle, he was freed.

In more recent times Krankka and the other peasant leaders are remembered as being part of what some historians consider being the first movements toward Finland's independence. Krankka's uprising days are the subject of Kaarlo Kramsu's 1887 poem, "Hannu Krankka." In 2005, a bronze statue of Krankka by sculptor Niilo Rikula was erected near Liminka, Finland.

Pentti Pouttu: Landowner, Merchant and Rebellion Leader of the Cudgel War (1596-1597)

Pentti Pouttu, also known as Bengt Pouttu, died 1597 in Turku, Sweden (now Finland) was a Finnish/Swedish peasant rebellion leader, landowner and merchant with Swedish origin from Gammelgården (Old farm) in Karleby, Ostrobothnia. He was one of the leaders of the 1596/97 peasant uprising, the Cudgel War. The year of Pouttu's birth is unknown.

Biography

Pouttu was known as the "political leader" of the cudgel war, since he was one of the first peasant leader who organized the resistance in Storkyro and sailed to Stockholm to complain to Duke Charles (Hertig Karl). Since a peasant rebellion in Ostrobothnia would benefit his plan to take over the rule from Sigismund, (king of Poland and Sweden) he signed a letter giving the peasants right to stop the injustices. Although this didn't help much and a few years later in August 1596 they did another trip to Stockholm and was told by duke Charles to "Answer violence with violence, and chase away those unlawful residents". Then the cudgel war was a reality, a former soldier in the Swedish army and wealthy landowner Jaakko Ilkka took command of the peasant army. It is said that Pouttu should have complained since he had more experience leading the rebellion. Although he had no formal combat training and was of Swedish origin, which was a disadvantage since most of the peasant rebels were Finnish speaking.

After Jaakko Ilkka was chosen as the leader they agreed that Pouttu should take charge of the Swedish-speaking peasants along the coast, recruiting them along the way and marsh towards Turku castle where the two peasant armies should meet. Although only about 200 of the Swedish-speaking population joined the Cudgel war. This must have been expected, since they didn't suffer as much as for example the Finnish speaking population near the Russian border. Pouttu must also have known that an armed rebellion was a suicide mission, and he was promoting negotiation instead of violence. Although he had an early success in evicting some soldiers occupying his home in Pouttula near Storkyro.

They were marching from Ostrobothnia to the province of Satakunta. On 20 December 1596, Pouttu and his men reached the Anola mansion in Ulvila. Their intention was to persuade the colonel Axel Kurck to join the rebellions, but he stayed loyal to the king Sigismund III. The peasants were beaten by Kurck's cavalry and Pouttu was captured. He was held at the Turku castle, where Pouttu is said to have been "eaten by fleas" and probably died in 1597.

Pouttu was the only peasant leader not publicly executed but was held as a prisoner of war at Turku castle, and the exact time of death is unknown, but probably in 1597 considering his old age. At the time of his death, he was approximately 50–60 years old.

Jaakko Ilkka: Ostrobothnian Landowner and Leader of the Cudgel War (1596-1597)

Jaakko Pentinpoika Ilkka (1550s, Ilmajoki – late January, 1597, Isokyrö) was a wealthy Ostrobothnian landowner and leader of the Cudgel War, a 16th-century Finnish peasant revolt against Swedish rule.

Early years

Ilkka's father, Pentti, was the second largest landowner in Ilmajoki, South Ostrobothnia, Finland. After his father's death, Ilkka, an accomplished horseman among his many other talents, took over the family business in 1585. He moved around the country making land deals for some years. Ilkka was also the owner of a ship, and visited Tallinn and Stockholm upon it. He was twice married, and had three sons. He was a soldier in the Swedish army during the Russian war of 1591—94, but joined the peasant rebellion and Cudgel War soon thereafter.

The Cudgel War

In 1595, the whole of Ostrobothnia was in revolt, with peasants refusing to pay crippling taxes owed to the Swedish crown. Ilkka led the peasants' resistance movement. The name "The Cudgel War" came from the fact that the rebels armed themselves with various blunt weapons, such as cudgels, flails and maces, which were considered the most efficient weapons against their heavily armored enemies. The wealthier rebels also had swords, some firearms and two cannons at their disposal. Their opponents, the troops of the Swedish nobleman Klaus Fleming, were professional, heavily armed and outnumbered the peasants.

Ilkka--who, like most educated Finns, was bilingual in Swedish (spoken by the nobility) and Finnish (spoken by the peasants)--rose to prominence after being elected to lead the peasant army. The Cudgel War began on Christmas Eve 1595 and was initially successful, with the rebels winning some infantry battles, forcing Fleming into peace negotiations. On December 31, 1596, Fleming's troops attacked Ilkka's land at his Nokia manor stronghold in Pirkkala. After the fortress had been set ablaze by the Swedes, Fleming called on the rebels to surrender Ilkka to him to avoid being killed en masse. However, Ilkka escaped with his wife and some of his men back to Ilmajoki. Fleming's cavalry killed a number of the fleeing rebels in the forests around Nokia.

Ilkka and his wife were eventually captured and imprisoned in Turku Castle. The couple managed an audacious escape, in the autumn of 1596, helped by peasant allies. According to some reports, Ilkka got out of the castle from a privy by crawling through the opening used for the removal of slops. Historian Santeri Ivalo describes this in his book Finnish heroes. Nevertheless, Ilkka was captured again and was executed with five other rebel leaders on January 27, 1597, by Swedish army officer Abraham Melkiorsson. A letter written by Fleming on January 27, 1597, ordering his troops to capture Ilkka alive, did not reach Melkiorsson before he had already killed the rebel leader. Eventually, Ilkka's body was taken to the Ilmajoki church, where the current Ilmajoki Museum is situated. At least 1,500 rebels were killed during the war.

Historical criticism

The author and historian Heikki Ylikangas has pointed out that there is a bias towards depicting Jaakko Ilkka as "the great Finnish leader of the Cudgel War," although he took command of the biggest peasant horde during the end of the Cudgel War in the winter of 1596. He says that the heroic portrayal of Ilkka is an oversimplification of the actual history driven by nationalist ideology by early Finnish historians, who were targeting the Finnish-speaking population. Ilkka was not, for example, one of the original rebel leaders who sailed to Stockholm with the Finnish peasants’ letter of complaint to Duke Charles in Stockholm. He also points out that the conflict was between the poor peasant population who supported Duke Charles, and the educated upper class who benefited from King Sigismund's rule, not a conflict between Swedes and Finns. It is therefore likely that Jaakko Ilkka and his family would have been targeted by the peasant army if Ilkka had not joined the rebellion.

Commemoration

A statue of Ilkka was erected at Ilmajoki in 1924.

The main newspaper of South Ostrobothnia and Coastal Ostrobothnia, Ilkka-Pohjalainen, is also named after Jaakko Ilkka.

Ilkka is said to have inspired more Finnish composers and librettists than any other figure in Finnish history. As many as three operas have been dedicated to him. One of them, the eponymous Jaakko Ilkka by Jorma Panula, was composed between 1977 and 1978, and was well-known through its performance at the Ilmajoki Music Festival in 1978, directed by the major Finnish director Edvin Laine.

A school in Ilmajoki is named after Ilkka.

Cudgel War (1596-1597)

The Cudgel War (also Club War, Finnish: Nuijasota, Swedish: Klubbekriget) was a 1596–1597 peasant uprising in Finland, which was then part of the Kingdom of Sweden. The name of the uprising derives from the fact that the peasants armed themselves with various blunt weapons, such as cudgels, flails, and maces, since they were seen as the most efficient weapons against their heavily-armoured enemies. The yeomen also had swords, some firearms, and two cannons at their disposal. Their opponents, the troops of Clas Eriksson Fleming, were professional, heavily-armed and armoured men-at-arms.

Modern Finnish historiography sees the uprising in the context of the conflict between Duke Charles and Sigismund, King of Sweden and Poland (War against Sigismund). Charles agitated the peasants to revolt against the nobility of Finland, which supported Sigismund during the conflict.

Finnish Commanders and leaders

• Jaakko Ilkka 
• Pentti Pouttu
• Hannu Krankka
• Yrjö Kontsas
• Israel Larsson

Swedish Commanders and leaders

• Clas Fleming
• Gödik Fincke
• Ivar Tavast
• Abraham Melkiorsson
• Axel Kurck

Background

The 25-year war between the Kingdom of Sweden and the Tsardom of Russia had increased the tax burden, the most hated of which was the "castle camp", i.e. the accommodation, subsistence and payment of wages at the expense of the peasants. The peasants found it intolerable, in particular, that noble and inferior squires who equipped cavalry soldiers for the army were allowed to collect castle camp dues even when the soldiers were not at war, and that Klaus Fleming kept the army in the castle camp for many years after the war to keep it available for his use. There were many abuses and illegalities towards the peasants committed by the nobles and their armies in collecting castle camp dues. Other key explanations for the outbreak of cudgel warfare have included "the burdens of wartime and severe failed harvests, the chaos caused by war fatigue, political provocations, and the exploitation of peasants by a nobility who grew in number and wealth".

War

An uprising began on Christmas Eve 1595 and was initially successful, but shortly thereafter was crushed by cavalry. Officially, the Cudgel War began in Ostrobothnia with an attack by peasants on Isokyrö's church on November 25, 1596. The peasants won a number of encounters with infantry. Klaus Fleming began negotiating a truce that required the surrender of peasant leader Jaakko Ilkka. Ilkka fled to avoid being handed over and the peasant army scattered, pursued by the soldiers. At least 1500 were killed within the next two months. Along with Ilkka, five other rebellion leaders were executed on January 27, 1597.

Israel Larsson was named as the new governor of central and northern Ostrobothnia, and planned to support the rebellion until he fled, rather than face Fleming. Leaderless, the peasants attacked on February 24, 1597, and fought their last battle on the Santavuori Hill in Ilmajoki. Over 1,000 were killed and 500 captured.

The insurgents were mostly Finnish peasants from Ostrobothnia, Northern Tavastia, and Savo. The events can also be seen as a part of a larger power struggle between King Sigismund and Duke Charles.

Legacy

In his work Nuijasota, sen syyt ja tapaukset (1857–1859) (English: Cudgel War, its reasons and causes), historian and fennoman Yrjö Koskinen (né Forsman) saw the peasants as fighting for freedom and justice. Fredrika Runeberg's Sigrid Liljeholm (1862), one of the first Finnish historical novels, depicts women's fates during the war. Albert Edelfelt's painting Burned Village (1879) depicts a woman, a child, and an old man hiding behind a rock as a village burns in the background. The poet Kaarlo Kramsu praised the insurgents and lamented their defeat in patriotic poems such as Ilkka, Hannu Krankka, and Santavuoren tappelu, published in Runoelmia (1887). After the Finnish Civil War, the debate has centered on an interpretation that emphasizes Duke Charles's role in inciting the revolt, as found in Pentti Renvall's Kuninkaanmiehiä ja kapinoitsijoita Vaasa-kauden Suomessa (1949); and an explanation that stresses the roots of the rebellion in social injustice and class conflict, as argued by Heikki Ylikangas in Nuijasota (1977). A historical reenactment of the Cudgel War is conducted yearly in the Kavalahti scout camp. Jaakko Ilkka took the 75th place in the Great Finns TV show. A commemorative silver coin was also minted to mark the occasion.

Övertorneå (Ylitornio)

Övertorneå (Finnish: Ylitornio) is a municipality in the province of Lapland in Finland. Övertorneå has 3,830 inhabitants (2021) and an area of 2,212.49 km², of which 183.75 km² is water. The municipality borders the municipality of Pello in the north, the municipality of Rovaniemi in the east, the municipality of Tervola in the southeast, the municipality of Torneå in the south and the Swedish municipality of Övertorneå in the west.

Notable people

• Anders Nicolai Tornensis (1625-1705)
• Johannes Nicolai Tornberg (1640-1717)

Erik Ångerman: Farmer and Progenitor of over 2,000 large families across the world

Erik Ångerman (c. 1480 - 1552), is a historical figure recognized as the progenitor of over 2,000 large families across the Nordics, Germany, France, and America. Notable descendants include figures such as Zacharias Topelius, Jean Sibelius, C. G. Mannerheim, and Olof Palme.

Early Life and Background

Originating from Ångermanland, Erik Ångerman's name reflects the common practice of the time to adopt the name of one's province as a personal name. 

Military Contract and Surname Origin

During the wars of 1521-1523, Erik entered into a contract with Lieutenant Lars Olsson Björnram to deliver large quantities of food to the army. He supplied herring, also referred to as "surströmming." Misunderstandings regarding the food's quality led to a dispute with King Gustav Vasa, resulting in Erik adopting the surname Sursill.

Genealogia Sursilliana

The "Genealogia Sursilliana" is a seminal genealogical work published by Elias Robert Alcenius in 1850. Alcenius, an Ostrobothnian priest, dedicated 20 years to researching the descendants of Erik Sursill. His work built upon a list compiled in the 1660s by Bishop Johan Terserus, who discovered that many Ostrobothnian priests were interrelated, tracing back to Erik Sursill and his five daughters.

Alcenius's research was later published in a facsimile edition, with a Finnish edition titled "Sursillin Suku" released by Eero Kojonen in 1971. This edition aimed to address gaps and inaccuracies in the original work, though it is noted that some names may have been distorted or falsified over time.

Legacy and Influence

Erik Ångerman's legacy continues to be a subject of interest and research, contributing significantly to the understanding of genealogical connections in the region.

Jakobstad

Jakobstad (Finland Swedish; Finnish: Pietarsaari, Finnish:) is a town in Finland, located on the west coast of the country. Jakobstad is situated in Ostrobothnia, along the Gulf of Bothnia. The population of Jakobstad is approximately 19,000, while the sub-region has a population of approximately 50,000. It is the 60th most populous municipality in Finland.

Notable people

• Ericus Johannis Tenalensis (1520-1600)

Ostrobothnia (region)

Ostrobothnia (Swedish: Österbotten; Finnish: Pohjanmaa) is a region in western Finland. It borders the regions of Central Ostrobothnia, South Ostrobothnia, and Satakunta. It is one of four regions considered modern-day Ostrobothnia, hence it is also referred to as Coastal Ostrobothnia to avoid confusion.

Municipalities

• Jakobstad (Pietarsaari): 19 097

Ericus Johannis Tenalensis: Chaplain of Jakobstad (1556)

Ericus Johannis Tenalensis (c. 1520 – 24 May 1600), served as the Chaplain of Jakobstad (Pietarsaari) starting in 1556. He was later appointed as vicar by King John III in the spring of 1569.

Life

Ericus Johannis Tenalensis was born in Jakobstad (Pietarsaari ) around 1520 to Johan Tenalensis. Ericus Johannis served as the Chaplain of Jakobstad starting in 1556.

On May 5, 1569, King John III ordered that Ericus be provided with three bushels of rye and three bushels of barley for his sustenance. This decree was part of the king's efforts to ensure the welfare of clergy under his rule.

Ericus Johannis was a signatory to the decision of the Uppsala meeting held in Turku on June 19, 1593. His signature is recorded as "Ericus Johannis Pedersöösä." in the 1693 printed translation of the Confessio Fide.

A royal letter dated July 21, 1569, mentions that Ericus Johannis attended the king's speeches and agreed to receive the same salary as his predecessor. However, due to the substantial expenses incurred by the ongoing war, his salary was later reduced to three loads of grain in the autumn of 1571.

Despite the salary reduction, Ericus Johannis was tasked with supporting the subjects of His Royal Majesty traveling to and from Sweden. He was granted certain tax exemptions by Count Axel Leijonhufvud on February 26, 1589, due to the high costs of living along the highway. Nonetheless, he was ordered to pay 30 thalers in monetary aid for the military's salary on December 9, 1589.

On February 19, 1572, Ericus Johannis participated in a laman court session with five other priests. The session addressed accusations made against Martinus Matthaei Brennerus, vicar of Mustasaari, which were later proven false.

Later Life and Reprimand

During the 1597 Nuija War, Ericus Johannis Tenalensis, along with the vicars of Vöyr and Kokkola, faced reprimands from marshal Klas Fleming for their actions. 

Ericus Johannis died on 24 May 1600 in Jakobstad, Finland.

Family

Ericus Johannis married Magdalena Eriksdotter Sursill, the daughter of Erik Ångerman. Together they had 2 children: Isaac Ericsson Sursill (c. 1550 - c. 1626) and Anna Ericsdotter Tenalensis (c. 1565 - 28 August 1608).

Isaac Lithovius: Author, Vicar of Lapua (1757) and Chairman of Lapua's Board of Trustees (1769-1770)

Isak (Isaac) Lithovius (January 1709 in Liminka – October 2, 1788 in Lapua) was a Finnish vicar and author

Early life

Lithovius' parents were Lapua vicar Mikael Lithovius (d. 1738) and Klara Lithovius. He graduated in Turku in 1728 and then studied at Turku Academy and Uppsala University.

Lithovius was in Lapua as a keeper's assistant in 1735 and worked as a chaplain from 1735 and as a vicar from 1757. He received the rank of deputy pastor in 1751 and the rank of deacon in 1776. Lithovius was a respondent to the synodal argument at the priest's meeting in Kokkola in 1751.

Poetry

Lithovius wrote a wedding poem in Swedish for his sister Katarina's wedding in 1730, and in 1735 he published the funeral sermon of his future father-in-law, Lapua chaplain Johan Bäckman. In 1765 and 1778, he published the question books intended to question the knowledge of the catechism of the seminarians and those attending the kincers.

Lithovius started in the 1740s in Lapua as a chaplain, running a seminary school and kinkers. In 1773, he started catechism sermons and interrogations there. He also served as chairman of Lapua's board of trustees, and under his leadership, in 1769–1770, Lapua's first village ordinance concerning the villages of Alakylä, Liuhtari and Alanurmo was drawn up.

Family

Lithovius was married from 1737–1765 to Katarina Bäckman (d. 1765), daughter of Lapua chaplain Johan Bäckman, and from 1766–1772 to Klara Maria Aejmelaeus (d. 1772), daughter of Isonkyrö vicar Nils Aejmelaeus (d. 1772), in her third marriage. His son from his first marriage was Samuel Lithovius (1742–1798) from Lapua. In total, Lithovius had 16 children, four of whom lived to adulthood.

Gustaf Lithou: Captain and Poet

Gustaf Lithou (25 March 1692 Liminka - 21 December 1753 Stockholm) was a Finnish poet. 

In his time, Lithou was one of Sweden's most prominent poets who published in Latin. His production includes a large number of poems as well as requests for help in the form of poetry to those in power and private patrons. The most notable of Lithou's poems is probably the over 1,500-stanza hexameter poem Panegyris exsequialis from 1720, made for the death of Charles XII. The collection Poëmata heroico-miscellaneorum pars I was published in 1734.

His poems won attention and fame even in Germany, and so a publisher could dare to publish in 1734 his Poématum heroico-miscellancorum pars I, which were praised and highlighted by contemporary witters as extraordinary models.

Early Life 

Lithou came from the Lithovius family, which held the post of vicar in Limingo in Ostrobothnia since the end of the 16th century. Lithou's father was Liminga vicar Gustaf Lithovius and mother Margareta Brenner. At the age of 14, he was enrolled as an informant in Uppsala. 

Studies and military service

Lithou studied from 1706 in Turku and Uppsala, but due to the events of the war and the death of the father in 1715, support from home ceased. Lithou went into military service and took part in the siege of Fredriksten in 1718. He became an ensign in 1718 but was dismissed during the major withdrawals a year later and probably resumed his studies in Uppsala for some time.

Poetry

In 1731, for unclear reasons, Lithou's state support was withdrawn. Before the Riksdag in 1734, Lithou increased his poetic activity. Applications for a fixed salary were met with some response, and a decision was made to give him 150 dlr smt a year, in return for him working out something "for the honor of the kingdom". In connection with Lithou also trying to persuade the estates to give him some compensation for the years he lacked support, subscription lists for Lithou's collected Latin poems circulated. At private expense, the Poëmatum heroico-miscellaneorum pars I was published "with infinite difficulty at last in 1734 at the end of the year" according to Lithou; however, the last poem in the over 300-page collection is dated February 1735. Most copies of the book were unsold in 1738.

The state maintenance was not enough to manage Lithou's finances, and in a letter to the KM in November 1736 he asked for help to pay his debts. When the matter came up in the council in January 1737, J. Cronstedt, through a powerful and literary-politically interesting opinion — he emphasized that poets "should not be tormented with worries for every day's food" — decided on retroactive support and an increase in the pension to 300 dlr smt per year. Lithou now grew increasingly into the role of semi-official "national poet". His "comments on national holidays became famous" (E Wrangel). It was not only for the young A Reuterholm that Lithou behaved as the greatest Swedish poet of the time. Lithou received support from the Latin lovers and poet brothers H A Löfvenskjöld and G Palmfelt. He helped the latter with the proofreading of his translation of Virgil's Eclogues (1740); in return, Lithou was given a number of copies of the book to sell. Financially, the situation improved in 1747 by doubling Lithou's pension. His works were regularly printed in learned journals. Poems by Lithou were also translated into Swedish; Among other things, Hedvig Charlotta Nordenflycht signed an interpretation of his tribute to Stockholm.

Lithou is the first Swedish poet to receive a regular state "poet's salary". In return for the support, poetry was recommended. Lithou's production consists exclusively of Latin-language poetry and follows the traditional tracks of Renaissance humanism in terms of function and genre. After a couple of youth poems, a dirge about the father, where the melody and rhyme scheme are taken from Runius, and a similarly rhymed and therefore unclassical poem about Samson's awakening, the diction becomes completely classical. With the commemoration of Charles XII, Lithou passed the master's test as a Latin poet. Panegyris exsequialis was approved by J Upmarck Rosenadier, censor librorum and prominent Latinist, who placed Lithou's "foster of happy genius" on a par with the works of antiquity. Acta literaria Sueciæ followed in 1721 with a highly laudatory notice, where the poet's erudition was highlighted in a humanist spirit. "With a magnificent rhetoric that the Swedish-language poets could never match" (O Westerlund), Lithou painted most of the motifs and features that would later characterize the mythical image of the hero king. His next most extensive work came in 1723, an epitaph for Bishop G Wallin of about 750 hexameter lines.

Lithou's verse technique and concern for his maintenance are shown by submissions in e.g. Sapphian stanzas to the state office in 1721; applications for financial support are accompanied by supplications in hexameter or disticon to the king, council or estates. Of the larger epic works he announced, however, few came to be. A representation of Ulrika Eleonora's life, which he worked on in the late 1730s, was transformed by the queen's death into a funeral poem, printed in 1742 with state support. Mainly, Lithou devoted himself to pure occasional poetry. The addressee list is dominated by the royal house and high nobility with offices and influence. In addition, you will find some poems for family and friends. Outside the field of opportunity lies the series of moral two-line poems for the school youth Lithou published in 1732. In total, about seventy poems by Lithou were printed during his lifetime.

When Lithou invoked in a verse request that Latin poets had previously received support from the Swedish state, he mentioned, among others, Narssius, Barlaeus and Heinsius. These were also among his poetic models, where late Roman poetry is another clear element. "He especially loved Lucanus, Statius, Claudianus and Barlaeus" (Gezelius after S Alf). There is also reason to emphasize Virgil's pattern-forming role. Lithou's erudition is manifested in the extensive, mainly linguistic commentary with which he provided his poems, when the overlooked and edited ones were published in book form. However, he did not indicate the direct borrowings from older poetry that were found, among other things, in the Panegyris exsequialis.

Literary battle

Involuntarily, Lithou became the central figure in an attention-grabbing literary battle. In the autumn of 1738, the periodical "Thet swenske nitet" contained a critical review in verse of Swedish skald art. The sharpest attack was directed by the anonymous critic (O Celsius dy) against Lithou, who was branded a plagiarist; as proof, comparative page references were given to Lithou's poetry collection and poems by Barlaeus (from his tomb poem on Gustavus II Adolphus). In a counterscript, A. Sahlstedt tried to defend Lithou by referring to Latin humanist poetics: a verse loan could raise the value of a poem. Lithou himself dictated a fierce rebuttal, which remained unprinted. The battle testifies to a turning point in literary aesthetics. For Lithou and contemporary academic tradition, the principle of imitation was self-evident, as was the inability to see any value in public criticism. Celsius heralded a more modern view of literature, with an emphasis on originality and critical evaluation. It should be noted, however, that Lithou's borrowings from his publisher were sometimes greater than would normally occur other than in school exercises.

Lithou's poetry is characterized by high-pitched rhetoric, classic imagery and an excellent sense of metric. However, innovative ability is lacking. His immersion in the classical and neo-Latin world of poetry is dominant: to it is transposed the sw contemporary Lithou panegyrized.

Later life and death

He received the captain's credentials in 1751. The following year he died. His sister has to borrow to cover the funeral expenses, as he left no property behind. Little is known about Lithou's personality; "a pious and honest man, under his poverty always happy and content, but with a safe and serious supervision" reads Gezelius's stereotyped characterization.

Zacharias Lithovius: Poet, Vicar of Nevanlinna (1702), Vicar of Oulu (1713) and Member of Parliament (1719-1720)

Zacharias Gabriel Lithovius (17 February 1672 Oulu – 17 September 1743 Oulu) was a Finnish poet and priest. He was an early poet who wrote in Finnish, best known for the lament poem "The Death of Charles XII".

Personal history

Zacharias Lithovius was born into a bourgeois family from Oulu in 1672. His parents were the bourgeois Gabriel Gabrielsson Limingius and Margareta Limingius (née Uhlbrandt). The boy was allowed to go to school and graduated as a high school student in Turku in 1692. He immediately enrolled in the Turku Academy and completed his master's degree in 1700.

Lithovius received the office of vicar of Nevanlinna in 1702 and, according to the custom of the time, married his predecessor's widow, Maria Hinnel. However, the very next year, they had to flee the battles of big hatred to Porvoo. From there, Lithovius and his wife moved to Stockholm, where they lived in poverty.

Finally, in 1713, Lithovius became vicar of Oulu, although he didn't start the actual administration until 1721. In between, he served in 1719 and 1720 as a member of parliament in a priestly capacity.

After the position was established, Lithovius started writing poems in Finnish. As far as we know, his first poem in Finnish is "Suomalaiten onnen toivotus", written for the royal wedding in 1715. In 1718, another poem appeared, "Suomalaiten sucucunna, Ojolaiten peräcunna, valituxet vaikummim", which expresses sadness over the death of Bishop Johannes Gezelius the Younger.

Lithovius's most famous poem is "Kaarle XII's death" (1719), which aims to express the feelings of Finns due to the death of King Charles XII. Lithovius also wrote the poem "Sangen suuret suomilaiten, Pohja pérest pacolainen, totisimma toiwotuxet" (1719) for Ulriika Eleonora and the poem "Suomalaiten suosio sanat" (1720) in honor of Fredrik I's coronation. In the latter, you can already see the joy of the approaching peace. All three poems were written not only in Finnish but also in Swedish and Latin.

Lithovius was widowed in his old age and married Susanna Cajanus, who had already been widowed for the second time, in 1727. Lithovius died in Oulu in the fall of 1743.

Lithovius family

Lithovius is a Finnish family originally from the village of Littoinen in Kaarina. Its founder, Henricus Laurentii Lithovius, became the vicar of Liminga in 1583. He is known to have signed the decision of the Uppsala meeting in 1593 and he died in 1615. The Ahlholm and Hoffrén families and the later Toppelius family from the female side are also descended from him. Among the members of the family, the following have become known in the literary field:

• Zacharias Lithovius (1672-1743)
• Gustaf Lithou (1692-1753)
• Isaac Lithovius (1709-1788)

Komi Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (1936-1991)

The Komi Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (Russian: Коми Автономная Советская Социалистическая Республика; Komi: Коми Автономнӧй Сӧветскӧй Социалистическӧй Республика), abbreviated as Komi ASSR (Komi and Russian: Коми АССР), was an autonomous republic of the Russian SFSR within the Soviet Union, established in 1936 as successor of Komi-Zyryan Autonomous Oblast.

In 1991, it became the Komi Republic, a federal subject of Russia.

History of Komi

• Komi Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (1936-1991)

The Komi people first feature in the records of the Novgorod Republic in the 12th century, when East Slavic traders from Novgorod traveled to the Perm region in search of furs and animal hides. The Komi territories came under the influence of Muscovy in the late Middle Ages (late 15th to early 16th centuries). The site of Syktyvkar, settled from the 16th century, was known as Sysolskoye (Сысольскoe). In 1780, under Catherine the Great, it was renamed to Ust-Sysolsk (Усть-Сысольск) and used as a penal colony.

Russians explored the Komi territory most extensively in the 19th and early 20th centuries, starting with the expedition led by Alexander von Keyserling in 1843. They found ample reservoirs of various minerals, as well as timber, to exploit. After the founding of the Soviet Union in 1922, the Komi-Zyryan Autonomous Oblast was established on August 22, 1921, and on December 5, 1936, it was reorganized into the Komi Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic with its administrative center located at the town of Syktyvkar.

Many of the "settlers" who arrived in the early 20th century were prisoners of the Gulag – sent by the hundreds of thousands to perform forced labor in the Arctic regions of the USSR. Towns sprang up around labor-camp sites, which gangs of prisoners initially carved out of the untouched tundra and taiga. The first mine, "Rudnik No. 1", became the city of Vorkuta, and other towns of the region have similar origins: "Prisoners planned and built all of the republic's major cities, not just Ukhta but also Syktyvkar, Pechora, Vorkuta, and Inta. Prisoners built Komi's railways and roads, as well as its original industrial infrastructure." On 21 March 1996, the Komi Republic signed a power-sharing agreement with the government of Russia, granting it autonomy. The agreement was abolished on 20 May 2002.

Komi Republic

• History of Komi 

The Komi Republic (Russian: Республика Коми; Komi: Коми Республика), sometimes simply referred to as Komi, is a republic of Russia. Its capital is the city of Syktyvkar. The population of the republic as of the 2010 Census was 901,189, while the 2021 Census showed a decline to 737,853, a loss of 163,336 people.

Geography

The republic is situated to the west of the Ural mountains, in the north-east of the East European Plain. The Polar Urals rise in the northeastern part. Forests cover over 70% of the territory, and swamps cover approximately 15%. The Komi Republic is the second-largest federal region by area in European Russia after Arkhangelsk Oblast.

Natural resources

The republic's natural resources include coal, oil, natural gas, gold, diamonds, and timber. Native reindeer are in abundance and have been intentionally bred for human usage by the indigenous population.

Around 32,800 km2 of mostly boreal forest (as well as some alpine tundra and meadows) in the Republic's Northern Ural Mountains have been recognized in 1995 as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, Virgin Komi Forests. It is the first natural UNESCO World Heritage Site in Russia and the largest expanse of virgin forests in Europe. The site includes two pre-existing protected areas: Pechora-Ilych Nature Reserve (created in 1930) and Yugyd Va National Park (created in 1994).

Religion

According to a 2012 survey, 30.2% of the population of Komi adheres to the Russian Orthodox Church, 4% are unaffiliated generic Christians, 1% are Rodnovers or Komi native religious believers, 1% are Muslims, 1% are Orthodox Christians not belonging to churches or members of non-Russian Orthodox churches, 1% are Old Believers, and 0.4% are members of the Catholic Church. In addition, 41% of the population declared to be "spiritual but not religious", 14% is atheist, and 6.4% follows other religions or failed to answer the question.

Education

There are over 450 secondary schools in the republic (with ~180,000 students). The most important higher education facilities include Komi Republican Academy of State Service and Administration, Syktyvkar State University and Ukhta State Technical University.

Politics

The head of government in the Komi Republic is the Head of the Republic. As of 2021, the current Head is Vladimir Uyba who took office after his predecessor Sergey Gaplikov resigned.

The State Council is the legislature.

Economy

The Komi Republic's major industries include oil processing, timber, woodworking, paper, natural gas and electric power industries. Major industrial centers are Syktyvkar, Inta, Pechora, Sosnogorsk, Ukhta, and Vorkuta.

Komigaz conducts natural gas transportation and distribution.

The petroleum, wood and paper industries made up 94.5% of the Republic’s exports in 2021.

Free Ingria (1998)

Free Ingria (Russian: Свободная Ингрия) is a Saint-Petersburg based informal social movement of regionalists and separatists, also called political Ingrians or practicing local historians”.

It has existed since 1998. The movement declares as its goal either broad autonomy or complete independence of St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Oblast. It is in confrontation with the national movement of ethnic Ingrians, according to whose activists the political Ingrians “shamelessly used the historical word Ingrians for their own political purposes, and have nothing to do with the present Ingrians”.

History

The first who began to propagate the idea of the revival of Ingria was the ideologist of Peterburgian vedism Viktor Bezverkhy. In the mid-1990s, the “Movement for the Autonomy of St. Petersburg” and the group “Independent Petersburg” began their activities too.

Supporters of autonomy defended the city's right to a special status within Russia and criticized regionalists for unrealistic goals. While the separatists appealed to the Republic of Northern Ingria, which existed in 1919–1920. Discussions died down in the early 2000s, when it became clear that the disputants had no real opportunity to fight for either autonomy or independence. At the same time, in the early 2000s, the society of practicing local historians “Ingria”, which arose in 1998, existed mainly in a virtual format, was reformatted into the informal social movement “Ingria”, which later changed its name to “Free Ingria”.

The political activity of the movement during these years remained in line with federal protest activity. On May 1, 2016, “political Ingrians” took part in various protests with slogans like: “It’s time to return this land to ourselves!”, “Ingria is our history!” and “Give me the archaeological museum on Cape Okhtinsky!” That is, all the demands were purely cultural and historical, and not political in nature. Supporters of the movement did not take part in election campaigns and did not try to get in touch with current politicians on the issue of unifying St. Petersburg and the Leningrad region into a single subject of the federation. The movement was focused on educational and ethnocultural events.

In 2016, FSB officers detained Artem Chebotarev, the administrator of the “Free Ingria” public page on the VKontakte social network. In the summer of 2017 access to the now defunct Free Ingria website was blocked in Russia. In November 2017, the police detained movement activist Mikhail Voitenkov, accusing him of illegal possession of weapons.

With the start of Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the rhetoric of the movement's speakers has become more radical. Representatives of “Free Ingria” openly declared their support for Ukraine and became one of the founding members of the Free Nations of Post-Russia Forum.

In 2023, movement coordinators Pavel Mezerin and Maxim Kuzakhmetov were declared to be foreign agents.

In January 2024 one of the members of the organization, Denis Ugyumov, registred a pro-independnce NGO in Lithuania under the name "New Age of Democracy Foundation".

"Free Ingria" platoon

in July 2023, it was announced the creation of a volunteer armed formation as part of the International Legion of the Armed Forces of Ukraine - the “Free Ingria” platoon. It was assumed that movement coordinators Pavel Mezerin and Denis Ugryumov would go to the front, however, only one person joined the armed group. On November 1, 2023, that person left the front line due to a conflict with representatives of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, who did not want to consider Free Ingria as a separate unit.

Conflict with Ingrian Finns

Members of the organizations cause serious discontent among ethnic Ingrians. Local residents are very worried because in the eyes of the public they are considered shocking and eccentric ideologists of separatism, although in reality they have nothing to do with the activities of Free Ingria.

In 2022, in accordance with the order of the prosecutor's office, the national flag of the Ingrians was removed from a Finnish school in St. Petersburg. In 2023, for the first time since 1989, during the celebration of Juhannus, the administration of Leningrad Oblast banned the raising of the national flag of the Ingrians. According to Ingrian activist and journalist Pjukkenen: “Over the past few years, an alarming trend has emerged - the flag began to be used by political radicals (not related to Ingrian Finns) in combination with dubious political slogans. The result was disastrous: during meetings with Inkerin Liitto activists, government officials more than once reproached the Finns for the fact that society is using an allegedly “separatist flag,” and sometimes even advised to create some new version of the flag.”

The position of the Ingrian Finns is also supported by the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Ingria.

Goals

The goal of the public movement “Free Ingria” is the declared unification of St. Petersburg and the Leningrad region into a single subject of the federation, giving the new region the name Ingria or Ingria. Some activists are calling for the creation of an independent Ingria as the fourth Baltic republic if Moscow refuses the real federalization of Russia, and this statement became more common after 2022. The process during which the construction of a new regional Ingrian identity should be carried out was called “practicing local history” by supporters of the movement.

Despite the fact that the borders of the historical Ingria regions are 3 times smaller than Leningrad Oblast, the founders of this organization, for unstated reasons, extend “the borders of “their” Ingria to the entire territory of the Leningrad region and consider St. Petersburg as part of it”. This predetermines “the political superficiality and marginal format of the Ingrian movement as a whole”. According to the Russian historian Daniel Kotsiubinsky, the Ingrian idea of the network movement is to replace the image of St. Petersburg as a city with a certain “country” of Finno-Ugric-Scandinavian ethnicity, culture and history.

History of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Ingria

• Evangelical Lutheran Church of Ingria

Russian Imperial era

By the time that the Russians had retaken Ingria in 1721 following the Great Northern War, 28 Lutheran parishes had been established. In 1734, Empress Anna Ioannovna presented the Scandinavian-Lutheran community with a plot of land in Nevsky Prospekt, where a wooden church dedicated to Saint Anna was built. In 1767, the Church of Saint Mary in Saint Petersburg was constructed, and it became the central church for Finns in Russia. On July 20, 1819, Emperor Alexander I issued a decree for the creation of an official Evangelical-Lutheran see, to which all Lutheran parishes of the Russian Empire would be subordinate. And in January 1820, at the invitation of Alexander I, a Finnish bishop named Zacarias Signeus from the city of Porvoo had arrived in St. Petersburg. With the help of Archbishop Jakob Tengström of Finland, the bishop began to reorganize the church life of both St. Petersburg and throughout Russia. However, the death of Alexander I prevented the goal of reorganizing the Lutheran Church from being accomplished. In a law signed by Nicholas I on December 28, 1832, there was no mention of the historical episcopate. The Narva Synod was abolished and the role of management in the Lutheran church was occupied primarily by the Germans.

Soviet era

In the early years of soviet rule, the attitude of the Bolsheviks towards the Finnish Church was one of tolerance. The Finns were allowed not only to organize their own church, but also to begin preaching in Russian. In January 1919, representatives from Finnish parishes gathered in Petrograd and formed the Committee of Finnish-Ingrian Evangelical Lutheran Communities, and by the end September of the same year the committee decided to declare the Finnish Church of Ingermanland independent because the German committee no longer existed.

On March 3, 1921, the Russian Evangelical Lutheran Episcopal Council officially proclaimed that from now on the parishes of the Church of Ingria would form an independent synodal district with a consistory. A General Synod was organized in Moscow, which existed until 1935, after which a bishop's council was later formed. Its chairman was Probst Felix Fridolf Relander, a Finnish pastor who was consecrated bishop of the Finnish Lutheran parishes in 1921.

In 1925, Relander died and his duties passed to a consistory of three pastors and four laymen. One of these pastors, Selim Yalmari Laurikkala, who had previously served as the rector of the Church of Saint Regina in Vsevolozhsk, became chairman of the consistory, but was not named bishop. Under him, the parishes were led by the Ingermanland Evangelical Lutheran Main Church Council, which was organized according to a charter of two clergy and five other persons elected for three year terms.

However, this situation did not last long. On April 8, 1929, by decree of the Presidium of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, parochial education, youth groups, and all types of social services were prohibited. From 1928 to 1935, over 18,000 Ingrians were deported to Kazakhstan, Siberia, East Karelia, and the Kola Peninsula as a part of Joseph Stalin's Five Year Plan. In the spring of 1935, the NKVD was tasked with "the cleaning of the twenty-two kilometer border strip of kulak and anti-Soviet element". As a result, the Kuivozovsky Finnish National District ceased to exist and more than 1936 thousand people were expelled from it. In 1930, Ingrians were resettled in Vologda. By the 1940s, all Ingrian parishes had been closed, pastors and the most active parishioners either had emigrated or been repressed, and churches had their properties confiscated. About 68,000 Ingrians lived in the territories occupied by the Wehrmacht during World War II. In order to investigate the living conditions of the local population, a commission was created that visited Gatchina, Pushkin, Krasnoye Selo, Tosno, and Volosovo. Taking into account the opinion of the commission, in order to satisfy the spiritual hunger of the locals, in August 1942 the military chaplain Lieutenant Juhani Jaskeläinen was sent from Finland. In the spring of 1943, he was joined by pastors Jussi Tenkku and Reino Jylönen. About 20 communities began to operate again, confirmation classes were conducted, and the sacraments were performed. However, by 1943, in connection with the deportation of Ingrians to the Klooga concentration camp, the revival ended abruptly. The last service was performed by Pastor Reynaud Jylönen at St. Catherine's Church in Petrovo.

Up until the 1950s, there were secret assemblies of believers among the Ingrians, mostly led by women. In May 1949, Matti Kukkonen, a former member of the church council in Koltushskoye, returned from exile to Petrozavodsk. Having settled in a private house on the outskirts of the city, he began on his own initiative to conduct divine services, perform the sacraments, and confirm those who wished.

In 1953, two surviving pastors, Juhani Vassel and Paavo Jaime, carried out, as best they could, the spiritual care of a small group that had returned to their native places. They settled in Petrozavodsk. Upon their return, the spiritual life of the community of Karelia was revived. People were again able to receive the Lord's supper and participate in confirmation training. In the summer, pastors held spiritual meetings in cemeteries because of the large number of people. Often such meetings were reported and dispersed by the police.

In 1958, the community in Petrozavodsk was visited by the Estonian Archbishop Jan Kiyvit, who gave advice on how to register the community. However, the application of the Ingrian Lutheran church to the Council for Religious Affairs under the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union, which had 703 signatures, was rejected.

As a part of the Estonian Church (1960s–1992)

In the late 1960s, Ingrians became part of the Estonian Lutheran Church and the first service was held in the old church in Narva. It was conducted by an Estonian pastor named Elmer Kuhl, who did not speak Finnish and therefore served via transcription, but the church, designed to seat 250, gathered 800 people for the first service. Further development of the church is associated with Arvo Survo, originally a deacon at the Church of the Resurrection in Pushkin. In the late 1980s, he and his associates began the restoration of church buildings in Finnish villages, beginning with a church in the village of Gubanitsa, Volosovsky District. A total of five new churches were built and sixteen old ones were restored. In December 1987, Archbishop Kuno Pajula of Estonia ordained Arvo Survo to the priesthood. In 1989, Survo raised the issue of creating an independent Ingermanland presbytery within the Church of Estonia, but was initially denied.

On May 4, 1989, representatives of five Ingrian parishes signed a declaration in Gubanice for the re-establishment of the Finnish Evangelical Lutheran Church of Ingria, "completely independent in internal life", although "recognizing the authority" of the Estonian Archbishop, and formed a Board headed by A. Kuortti and A. Survo. On July 19, 1989, the parish in Koltushi was registered, and on February 22, 1990, parishes in Kuzemkino, Toksovo, Skvoritsy, and Gatchina were registered. In 1990, the Church of Estonia allocated the newly established parishes to the Ingermanland presbytery, headed by Pastor Leino Hassinen, who was invited from Finland. On May 19, 1991, Archbishop Pajula ordained four more pastors in Gubanice to serve in the Ingermanland provostship. On July 10, 1991, the Council of the Ingermanland provostship decided to establish an independent Church of Ingria. And in August 1991,the independence from the Estonian Church was proclaimed, and on January 1, 1992, with the consent of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Estonia, the Ingermanland Provostship was transformed into an independent Evangelical Lutheran Church of Ingria. The Russian authorities registered the new church on September 14, 1992. The primate of the church was Leino Hassinen, who was consecrated a bishop in 1993.

1992–present

On November 5, 1991, a parish in Saransk was registered — the first missionary parish in the Russian province. In October 1992, the Church of St. George in Kolbino, the first Ingrian church building built on the historical lands of Ingermanland after 1917, was consecrated.

In 1995, the rector of the Koltush community, Arri Kugappi, became the new bishop of the Church of Ingria. The consecration was performed by bishops Leino Hassinen, Matti Sihvonen, Vernet, Henrik Svenungsson, and Georg Kretschmar, as well as Archbishop Jaan Kiyvit.

On May 10, 2019, Kugappi informed the Synodal Council of the Church of his desire to retire by age within the period established by the charter. On October 19, 2019, at the XXX Synod of the ELCI, Ivan Sergeevich Laptev, the rector of the Theological Institute of the Church of Ingria and of the Gubanitsky parish, was elected the new bishop.

On February 9, 2020, at a solemn divine service in the Church of St. Mary, Pastor Ivan Sergeyevich Laptev was ordained a bishop. The ordination was performed by Bishop Emeritus Kugappi, Archbishop Jānis Vanags , Vsevolod Lytkin, Tiit Salumäe, and Seppo Häkkinen.

Evangelical Lutheran Church of Ingria

• History of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Ingria

The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Ingria (Russian: Евангелическо-лютеранская церковь Ингрии, Yevangelichesko-lyuteranskaya tserkov Ingriyi; Finnish: Inkerin evankelis-luterilainen kirkko; also the Church of Ingria) is a Lutheran church of the Scandinavian tradition in Russia. It is the second largest Lutheran church in Russia, with 90 congregations and 15,000 members, and is active mostly in Ingria and Karelia.

Administrative structure

Administratively, the Church of Ingria is one diocese, cared for by a bishop. The parishes are united into seven provosts on a territorial basis.

The cathedral of the Church of Ingria is the Church of St. Maria in St. Petersburg, on Bolshaya Konyushennaya Street. The Central Office of the church is also located there. A church educational institution, the Theological Institute of the Church of Ingria, which trains clergy and church workers, is located in the village of Kolbino, Vsevolozhsk district, Leningrad Oblast.

The main structural unit of the church is the parish, headed by a parson in the rank of pastor or, if necessary, in the rank of deacon (temporarily, for a period of up to 2 years). The highest governing body of the parish is the general meeting of the parish. During the period between general meetings, the temporal affairs of the parish are managed on its behalf by an elected board of commissioners, headed by a chairman from among the parishioners. To implement decisions made and manage the current affairs of the parish, the board of commissioners elects a parish council, the chairman of which is the parson.

Publishing activities

The Church of Ingria is the founder of the publishing house "Verbum" LLC.

The Church of Ingria publishes the magazines “Church of Ingria” in Russian and “Inkerin Kirkko” in Finnish.

Territorial division

The Church of Ingria is territorially divided into nine probations: St. Petersburg, Moscow, Karelian, Volga, Ural, Siberian, West Ingermanland, Northern and Southern.

West Ingermanland Probation

• Church of St. Lazarus in Kingisepp
• Church of St. Nicholas in Gatchina
• Church of St. Peter in Gatchina
• Church of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul in Yalgelevo
• Church of St. Andrew in Bolshoye Kuzyomkino
• Church of St. John the Baptist in Gubanitsy
• Church of St. Catherine in Petrovo
• Church of St. Mary Magdalene in Luga
• Parish in Volosovo

History of Ingria

• Swedish Ingria (1617-1721)
• Republic of North Ingria (1919-1920)

Religion

• History of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Ingria

History

In the Viking era (late Iron Age), from the 750s onwards, Ladoga served as a bridgehead on the Varangian trade route to Eastern Europe. A Varangian aristocracy developed that would ultimately rule over Novgorod and Kievan Rus'. In the 860s, the warring Finnic and Slavic tribes rebelled under Vadim the Bold, but later asked the Varangians under Rurik to return and to put an end to the recurring conflicts between them.

The Swedes referred to the ancient Novgorodian land of Vod people as "Ingermanland", Latinized to "Ingria". Folk etymology traces its name to Ingegerd Olofsdotter, the daughter of the Swedish king Olof Skötkonung (995–1022). Upon her marriage to Yaroslav I the Wise, Grand Prince of Novgorod and Kiev, in 1019, she received the lands around Ladoga as a marriage gift. They were administered by Swedish jarls, such as Ragnvald Ulfsson, under the sovereignty of the Novgorod Republic.

In the 12th century, Western Ingria was absorbed by the Novgorod Republic. There followed centuries of frequent wars, chiefly between Novgorod and Sweden, and occasionally involving Denmark and Teutonic Knights as well. The Teutonic Knights established a stronghold in the town of Narva, followed by the Russian castle Ivangorod on the opposite side of the Narva River in 1492.

Swedish Ingria

In 1617 Russia ceded Ingria and the County of Kexholm to Sweden under the Treaty of Stolbovo. This area was along the basin of the Neva River, between the Gulf of Finland, the Narva River, and Lake Peipus to the southwest, and Lake Ladoga to the northeast. Kexholm and Swedish Karelia were bordered by the Sestra (Rajajoki/Systerbäck) river to the northwest.

Ingria had fallen to Sweden in the 1580s, was returned to Russia by the Treaty of Teusina (1595), and again ceded to Sweden in the Treaty of Stolbovo (1617). Sweden's interest in the territory was strategic: as a buffer zone against Russian attacks on the Karelian Isthmus and present-day Finland; and Russian trade was to pass through Swedish territory. In addition, Ingria was used as a destination for Swedish deportees.

Ingria remained sparsely populated. In 1664 the population was counted as 15,000. Swedish attempts to introduce Lutheranism were met with repugnance by the Orthodox peasantry obliged to attend Lutheran services. Although converts were promised grants and tax reductions, Lutheran gains were chiefly due to voluntary resettlements from Savonia and Karelia. Ingria was enfeoffed to noble military and state officials, who brought their own Lutheran servants and workmen to the area. The indigenous inhabitants of Ingria have always been Finnic with Finnic culture and language.

Nyen became the trading centre of Ingria, and in 1642 was made its administrative centre. In 1656 a Russian attack badly damaged the town, and the administrative centre was moved to Narva in neighbouring Swedish Estonia.

In the early 18th century the area was reconquered by Russia in the Great Northern War after a century under Swedish possession. The new Russian capital, Saint Petersburg, was founded in 1703 on the site of the Swedish town Nyen (Finnish Nevanlinna, meaning Castle of Neva). This territory, close to the Neva river's estuary at the Gulf of Finland, is now part of Leningrad Oblast, Russia.

Russian Ingria

In the early 18th century the area was reconquered by Russia in the Great Northern War after having been in Swedish possession for about 100 years. Near the location of the Swedish town Nyen, close to the Neva river's estuary at the Gulf of Finland, the new Russian capital Saint Petersburg was founded in 1703.

Peter the Great raised Ingria to the status of a duchy with Prince Menshikov as its first (and last) duke. In 1708, Ingria was designated a governorate (Ingermanland Governorate in 1708–1710, Saint Petersburg Governorate in 1710–1914, Petrograd Governorate in 1914–1924, Leningrad Governorate in 1924–1927).

In 1870, printing started of the first Finnish-language newspaper in Ingria, Pietarin Sanomat. Before that Ingria received newspapers mostly from Viborg. The first public library was opened in 1850 in Tyrö. The largest of the libraries, situated in Skuoritsa, had more than 2,000 volumes in the second half of the 19th century. In 1899 the first song festival in Ingria was held in Puutosti (Skuoritsa).

By 1897 (year of the Russian Empire Census) the number of Ingrian Finns had grown to 130,413, and by 1917 it had exceeded 140,000 (45,000 in Northern Ingria, 52,000 in Central (Eastern) Ingria and 30,000 in Western Ingria, the rest in Petrograd).

From 1868 Estonians began to migrate to Ingria as well. In 1897 the number of Estonians inhabiting the Saint Petersburg Governorate reached 64,116 (12,238 of them in Saint Petersburg itself); by 1926 it had increased to 66,333 (15,847 of them in Leningrad).

As to Izhorians, in 1834 there were 17,800 of them, in 1897—21,000, in 1926—26,137. About 1000 Ingrians lived in the area ceded to Estonia under the Peace Treaty of Tartu (1920).

Estonian Ingria

Under the Russian-Estonian Peace Treaty of Tartu of 1920, a small part of West Ingria became part of the Republic of Estonia. In contrast to other parts of Ingria, Finnish culture blossomed in this area, known as Estonian Ingria. This was to a large extent due to the work of Leander Reijo (also Reijonen or Reiju) from Kullankylä on the new border between Estonia and the Soviet Union, who was called "The King of Ingria" by the Finnish press. Finnish schools and a Finnish newspaper were started. A church was built in Kallivieri  in 1920 and by 1928 the parish had 1,300 people.

In 1945, after the Second World War, Estonian Ingria, then in the Soviet Union, was transferred to the Russian SFSR and incorporated into the Leningrad Oblast. Since Estonia reclaimed its independence in 1991, this territory has been disputed. As Russia does not recognize the Treaty of Tartu, the area currently remains under Russian control.

Soviet Ingria

After the 1917 Bolshevik revolution in Russia, the Republic of North Ingria (Finnish: Pohjois-Inkerin tasavalta) declared its independence from Russia with the support of Finland and with the aim of incorporation into Finland. It ruled parts of Ingria from 1919 until 1920. With the Russian-Finnish Peace Treaty of Tartu it was re-integrated into Russia, but enjoyed a certain degree of autonomy.

At its height in the 1920s, there were about 300 Finnish language schools and 10 Finnish language newspapers in Ingria.

The First All-Union Census of the Soviet Union in 1926 recorded 114,831 Leningrad Finns, as Ingrian Finns were called. The 1926 census also showed that the Russian population of central Ingria outnumbered the Finnic peoples living there, but Ingrian Finns formed the majority in the districts along the Finnish border.

In the early 1930s the Izhorian language was taught in the schools of the Soikinsky Peninsula and the area around the mouth of the Luga River.

In 1928 collectivization of agriculture started in Ingria. To facilitate it, in 1929–1931, 18,000 people (4320 families), kulaks (independent peasants) from North Ingria, were deported to East Karelia, the Kola Peninsula as well as Kazakhstan and Central Asia.

The situation for the Ingrian Finns deteriorated further when in the fall of 1934 the Forbidden Border Zone along the western border of the Soviet Union was established, where entrance was forbidden without special permission issued by the NKVD. It was officially only 7.5 km (5 miles) deep initially, but along the Estonian border it extended to as much as 90 km (60 miles). The zone was to be free of Finnic and some other peoples, who were considered politically unreliable. On 25 March 1935, Genrikh Yagoda authorized a large-scale deportation targeting Estonian, Latvian and Finnish kulaks and lishentsy residing in the border regions near Leningrad. About 7,000 people (2,000 families) were deported from Ingria to Kazakhstan, Central Asia and the Ural region. In May and June 1936 the entire Finnish population of the parishes of Valkeasaari, Lempaala, Vuole and Miikkulainen near the Finnish border, 20,000 people, were resettled to the areas around Cherepovets and Siberia in the next wave of deportations. In Ingria they were replaced with people from other parts of the Soviet Union, mostly Russians but also Ukrainians and Tatars.

In 1937 Lutheran churches and Finnish and Izhorian schools in Ingria were closed down and publications and radio broadcasting in Finnish and Izhorian were suspended.

Both Ingrian Finnish and Izhorian populations all but disappeared from Ingria during the Soviet period. 63,000 fled to Finland during World War II, and were required back by Stalin after the war. Most became victims of Soviet population transfers and many were executed as "enemies of the people". The remainder, including some post-Stalin returnees (it was not until 1956 that some of the deported were allowed to return to their villages), were outnumbered by Russian immigration.

The 1959 census recorded 1,062 Izhorians; in 1979 that number had fallen to 748, only 315 of them around the mouth of the Luga River and on the Soikinsky Peninsula. According to the Soviet census of 1989, there were 829 Izhorians, 449 of them in Russia (including other parts of the country) and 228 in Estonia.

After the dissolution of the Soviet Union

Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, surviving Ingrian Finns and their Russified descendants have been allowed to emigrate to Finland. This has led to the birth of a sizable Russophone minority in Finland.

After the Russian invasion of Ukraine many inhabitants of Ingria region, including Russians from Saint-Petersburg, started referring to their home region as Ingria instead of Leningrad Oblast. There has also seen surge in usage of the term Ingria in local culture. A popular Russian rapper Oxxxymiron wrote and posted on his youtube channel a song which features such phrases as "Ingria will be free" and "There are white snow and blue river on our flag".