Ingria

The Ingrians are ethnic Finns whose ancestors moved to an area of what is now Russia on the southeast shore of the Gulf of Finland since the 17th century. Historical Ingria (Finnish: Inkeri or Inkerinmaa; Russian: Ингрия, Ingriya, Ижорская земля, Izhorskaya zemlya, or Ингерманландия, Ingermanlandiya; Swedish: Ingermanland; Estonian: Ingeri or Ingerimaa) is the geographical area, located along the southern shore of the Gulf of Finland bordered by Lake Ladoga on the Karelian Isthmus in the north and the River Narva on the border with Estonia in the west. Ingria became a province of Sweden in the Treaty of Stolbovo in 1617 that ended the Ingrian War, fought between Sweden and Russia. In 1710, Ingria was designated as the Province of St. Petersburg and in 1927 as Leningrad Province. In the Treaty of Nystad, Ingria was formally transferred back to Russia. Its russification was nearly complete by the 1930s, and today, it is the northwestern anchor of Russia, its "window" on the Baltic Sea, with Saint Petersburg as its center.