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Originally Posted by gaius valerius  Not really, genocide is not equal to deportation or deaths due to forced collectivisation of the agricultural sector. |
Deportations and collectivisation were just part of the ethnic cleansing of Ingermanland. Mass killings (executions) also took place, many send to "work camps", many simply disappeared. Deportations btw were ongoing process, it took allmost 15 years to empty Ingermanland/Ingria from Finns. Finns were absolute majority (and most important ethnic group) of Ingermandland prior 1930's.
Opression got harder year by year: Finally 1937 Finnish language was declared illegal "nationalist bourguese", all Finnish schools, newspapers and institutions closed. People deported to Central Asia and Siberia as "special settlers". All national intelligentsia liquidated. It is still not clear how many were murdered (ie. shot, executed at Ingria, not at "work camps" or during deportations) but we are talking about thousends. At Levashovo massgrave alone there is over 9.000 executed Finns, some sources indicate nearly 15.000.
Even Ingrian soldiers of Soviet Army were picked up and sended to "work camps", no Finn was safe.
After Stalins death those deported were not allowed to return their homeland. Some tried and were deported again.
Their farms and homes were overtaken by Russian newcomers. Ingrians lived where they could and how they could. Most had to hide their Finnish ethnicity. They could not travel abroad because they could not get passports. Scattered into small groups and deported faraway from homeland their Russification was inevitable.
Ingrians number today not even 30% what they used to be, before "gentlemen" Genrikh Yagoda& Nikolai Yezhov.
It's not like Finns were only group targeted on ethnic bases. Karelians, Germans, Koreans, Chechens etc. also had their share. Ingrian Finns were however only group with strict territorial identity and
own institutions. Their only crime was their ethnicity.
Today Ingermanland does not exist as entity, it is called Leningrad region. Ingrians hardly make 0.1% of population there. Ingrian Finns were rehabilited only 2 years after Soviet Unions collapse, 1993. Ingria is still huge taboo issue at Russia. It is quite funny that city of St. Petersburg is located in the middle of Leningrad region.
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