Baltist & Orientalist, Ethnologist
Cell. ph. +370 67746906, e-mail: palmaitis@yahoo.co.uk
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1. Introduction
2. Positions and grants
3. Research work: Orientalistics, Indoeuropean and general linguistics,
Indoeuropean and Baltic linguistics, Prussology
4. Life programme: N.-Baltic boundary, toponyms, Rurik, Neo-Prussian,
A DOCUMENTED NOVEL ABOUT INGERMANLAND
5. Support
The life programme is calculated for possible last 10 years in which the daughters must be brought up and the main planned works finalised under hard conditions of unemployment and accidental earnings demanding almost all energy and time.
A documented novel about tragic fate of Ingria (Ingermanland), Old Sanct-Peterbourg and their people.
EUROPEAN LAND BETWEEN THE LAKES OF PEIPUS AND LADOGA SHOULD NOT FALL INTO OBLIVION!
When inquired about Baltics, one usually mentions Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. Sometimes may be also heard the name of former East and West Prussia originating from the name of the ancient Baltic tribes of the Old Prussians. Although when a further question about the fifth ingredient of the Baltics follows, then one gets astonished: Ingermanland? What is it?
Statistics. On the territory of 15000 km2 there dwelled the following Finno-Ugrian autochthons in 1926 : 26137 Ingrians (Inkeri, Izhora), more than 16240 Finns, and (in ca. 30 villages) the Vadyas (Vozhane). The Ingrians and the Finns had schools, books publishing, press and radio of their own. When one visits the region of Leningrad today, one sees ethnic Russian inhabitants everywhere in old Ingermanland villages and even in old Ingermanland farmhouses. There were only 820 Ingrians in 1989, of whom only 36,8 % spoke their native language, 8000 Finns and 62 Vadyas, hardly a half of the latter speaking Vadian. How could so quick processes take place in so short period of time, i.e. the "assimilation" of the autochthons who formed the bulk of the population there from time immemorial till the beginning of the 20th c.? The country is called after the name of the river Inkere (Izhora), which is a southern tributary of the Neva river. The name of the country sounds Inkerin-Maa "the Land of Ingrians" in Finnish. When in the 13th – 14th c. the Swedes struggled for this country against Great Novgorod and Moscow, they named the country Ingermanland and they took the possession of it according to the Peace Treaty of Stolbovo of 1617. Then the Swedes organised a mass colonisation of Ingermanland with the Finns Lutherans in order to overcome the influence of the Orthodoxy. Nevertheless, the country was occupied by Russia at the beginning of the 18th c., but it was annexed to Russia in 1710. The name Ingermanland survived in official use up to the Bolshevik revolt of 1917. From 1917 up to the beginning of Stalin's terror in 1930 the Ingermanlandians enjoyed ethnic freedom, although in the frames of the Bolshevik ideology. These small nations distinguished themselves with their old culture (fishery, agriculture, seafaring, cattle-breeding, trade, handicraft), but the level of this culture is witnessed by their rich folklore. 6500 pages collection of Ingermanlandian songs in 9 volumes was published in Finland in 1915-1931.
The fate of the Ingermanlandians was the bitterest among all nationalities of the Soviet Empire. As border nations they were considered to be untrustworthy by the Soviet authorities and were damned to be exterminated, so that their name had to disappear but their land had to get an ethnic Russian appearance. 15 % of all autochthons and ethnic minorities of Ingermanland, including Estonians, Latvians, Germans, i.e. 20000, were shot to death. The others were banished to Middle Asia where most of them died out under unbearable conditions (cf. Gildi L.A. Rasstrely, ssylki, mucenija. Sankt-Petersburg 1996). This was also time when remnants of once famous West-European culture of Sanct-Peterbourg were lost together with their representatives, i.e. Old Peterbourgians of mixed German, Swedish, Finnish, Polish etc. origins. Only some few is able to imagine today what the West-European cultural elite of Old Sankt-Petersburg (Sanct-Peterbourg) really was, or what the daily life of this Megapolis looked like. Let us examine e.g. the year 1869 (Juchneva N.V. Etniceskij sostav i etnosocialnaja struktura naselenija Peterburga. / Institut Etnografii AN SSSR, 1984, p. 75, 76):
35 % of all technical engineers were foreigners, but 25 % were not ethnic Russians by their origin, the latter forming 40 %;
there were only 1 % foreigners among railway men, nevertheless 55 % were not ethnic Russians, the latter forming 44 %;
4 % of all physicians men were foreigners, but 52 % were not ethnic Russians, the latter forming 44 %;
15 % of all teachers in Sanct-Peterbourg were foreigners, and 32 % were not ethnic Russians, the latter forming 53 %;
among assistant medicine men 2 % were foreigners and 40 % were not ethnic Russians, the latter forming 58 %;
the ethnic Russians strongly prevailed only in such categories as teachers women (70 %, the others were either foreigners: 14 %, or of non-Russian origin: 16 %), assistant medicine women (73 %, the others correspondingly - 7 % and 20 %), lecturers in high-schools (76 % vs. 2 % and 22%), civil administration (81 % vs. 1 % and 18 %).
Of 355 proprietors industrialists and businessmen there were 12 % foreign citizens, 30 % Russian citizens of Non-Russian origin and 58 % of Russian origin (cf. ibid. 69-70). There were ca. 85000 craftsmen in Sanct-Peterbourg in 1869. Only 39 % of 188 clock and watch workshops were Russian (the other mostly Jewish, German and Finnish). Russian were only 37 % of all 167 carpenter and turnery works (the other – mostly German, Finnish and Jewish) and only 34% of all 380 jewellery workshops (the other – mostly German, Finnish and Swedish). Frenchmen scored an advantage in sewing-shops, although the percentage of Russian sewing-shops was bigger (61 % of 333 sewing-shops of women clothes and 59 % of 822 sewing-shops of men clothes were Russian). Russian were 53 % of 450 baker's shops (the other mostly Swedish, German and Jewish) (cf. ibid. 65). Trade was mostly ethnic Russian, although most of the merchants were not constant residents of Sanct-Peterbourg.
Its main newspaper, Sanktpeterburgskie Vedomosti, appeared in Russian, German and French.
This was the town, which appeared to be able to present to the world the music of Peter Chaikovsky (son of a Frenchwoman and a descendant of a Polish family Czajkowski). This town, which was West-European by culture and which was more mixed than ethnic Russian by appearance, does not exist any more. The majority of the representatives of its culture found their end in mass-murder graves of the waste land of Levashovo, in order that the newest murderers of the Chechen nation together with Western leaders could celebrate the 300th Anniversary of as if ethnic Russian Sanct-Peterbourg in former Rastrelli's palaces 65 years later.
Dr. Phil. Letas Palmaitis is one of the last descendants of the former micro-ethnic group of Old Peterbourgians. He sees his aim in witnessing to the world the disappearing languages and cultures of the Finno-Ugrian autochthons of Ingermanland, as well as cultural heritage and fate of Sanct-Peterbourg and the last Sanct-Peterbourgians. To the said theme he has inherited unique photo- and manuscript archives of the 19th – the beginning of the 20th c. On the basis of this heritage he elaborates a documented history of several typical middle-class Old-Peterbourg families of the mixed origin.
This work is aimed to show the life and spirit of the end of the 19th – the beginning of the 20th c. in St. Petersburg, Ingermanland and neighbouring countries. The author plans to illustrate this work with authentic photo-material.
Unfortunately, the author is forced to dedicate almost all his time and efforts to earn daily bread for his family. This essentially impedes the realisation of the task, so that any support of the project is urgently desirable. Any person interested in the accomplishment of the project is welcome to write to Dr. L. Palmaitis to palmaitis@yahoo.co.uc, in order to get samples of the work and archival materials, to evaluate the stuff and to form own independent opinion. Dr. L. Palmaitis elaborates Finno-Ugrian records with the help of Dr. Nicolas Kirsanov, Helsinki, (claes_valtone@yahoo.com), who is one of the last descendants of the Vadya autochthons of Ingermanland.