Evangelical Lutheran Church and the Emergence of Ethnic Identity of the Ingrian Finns in the Nineteenth Century

Abstract

The article, drawing partly on unpublished archival documents, considers causes and directions of the impact of the Evangelical Lutheran Church on the formation of the Ingrian Finnish ethnic identity in the St. Petersburg province of the Russian Empire in the nineteenth century. The 1832 Charter of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Russia became the basic legal document defining its particular goals and responsibilities before the secular authorities. One of the main ideas was to strengthen the role of Lutheranism in the life of the Finnish peasants. The church, willingly or not, created conditions for the consolidation and promotion of the Ingrian identity of the Finns. It also led to the emergence of the Ingrian intelligentsia who elaborated the meaning of Ingrian identity.