Inkeri was an UNPO member between 1993 and 2009. 

The Inkeri, or Ingrian Finns, are a Finno-Ugric people Indigenous to the Ingria region around the Neva River and the Gulf of Finland, an area now divided between northwestern Russia (including St Petersburg and Leningrad Oblast) and the borderlands near Finland and Estonia. Historically, they formed a distinct community of Finnish-speaking Lutherans within a multi-ethnic region influenced by Swedish, Russian, and Finnish rule. 

Throughout the 20th century, the Ingrian Finns experienced profound disruptions due to political repression, forced displacement, and cultural assimilation. Following the Bolshevik Revolution and the creation of the Soviet Union, Ingria became subject to collectivisation policies and restrictions on cross-border contacts with Finland. During the 1930s, thousands of Ingrians were deported to the other parts of the USSR as “unreliable elements,” and during World War II, further evacuations and repressions led to a near-total dispersal of the population from their homeland. After the war, most were prohibited from resettling in Ingria, leading to the erosion of local community structures. 

Today, the primary issues facing the Inkeri community include cultural and linguistic preservation, access to education and religious practice in the Finnish language, and formal recognition of their historical experience of repression and displacement. Declining numbers, assimilation pressures, and limited institutional support continue to threaten the community’s long-term viability. Representation within UNPO highlighted the need for recognition of the Ingrian Finns as Indigenous people of the Ingria region and calls for measures to preserve their linguistic and cultural heritage in both Russia and the diaspora. 

The Inkeri Finns have their roots in the historical region of Ingria. Their collective identity emerged in earnest in the 19th century, when Finnish-speaking settlers and their descendants began to see themselves as part of a distinct “Inkeri” community. Language is a key marker: the community uses Finnish (with local Ingrian dialects) as their literary and cultural medium, linking them with the broader Finnic world. Their Lutheran Christian tradition has likewise been central—churches, hymns and congregational life historically provided social as well as spiritual cohesion. 

Cultural memory is shaped by both continuity and rupture. Ingrian Finns maintain traditional folk song, dance, and craft practices. At the same time, mass deportations, religious repression and language prohibition during the Soviet era deeply impacted the community’s ability to transmit culture across generations. In modern times, institutional efforts in both Russia and the diaspora (Finland, Estonia) to preserve Ingrian identity have become important. 

The Ingrian Finns trace their origins to Finnish-speaking settlers from Savonia and Äyräpää in southeastern Finland who migrated into the region of Ingria during the 17th century when the area was under Swedish control. Following the conclusion of the Great Northern War, Ingria was ceded to the Russian Empire, and its capital region became the site of Saint Petersburg founded by Peter the Great. During the 18th and 19th centuries, the Ingrian Finns maintained their Lutheran faith and Finnish language even as their cultural and demographic environment changed under Russian rule. 

With the collapse of the Russian Empire and the turmoil of the Russian Revolution and Civil War, a short-lived entity known as the Republic of North Ingria emerged in 1919-1920, aimed at autonomy or union with Finland, but was reintegrated via the treaty of Tartu into Soviet Russia. The interwar period initially saw some cultural autonomy (Finnish-language schools, Finnish-language publications) in Ingria. However, from the late 1920s and into the 1930s, the Ingrian Finns suffered severe repression under Soviet policies: forced collectivisation, closure of Lutheran churches, abolition of Finnish-language schools, mass deportations, executions and population transfers. During World War II and its aftermath, many Ingrians were evacuated or deported to Finland or to internal Soviet exile; tens of thousands never returned, and the ethnic community in their historic homeland was deeply disrupted. 

In the post-Soviet era the Ingrian Finns have faced shrinking numbers, emigration to Finland under a return-migration scheme, and challenges in preserving language and culture. Finnish citizenship and return-migration programmes began around 1990, enabling some Ingrians to move to Finland, though the cultural base in Russia remains diminished.