From Kirjasalo with love

A review of the Ingrian flag. 

Ingria (Ingermanland) is a region at the Russo-Finnish border. It was controlled by Sweden from 1583 to 1595 and again from 1609 to 1703 (during this time, the Swedish kingdom also comprised Finland). From 1703 (officially 1721) onwards, Ingria has been controlled by Russia. Most of its population, however, was Finnish until the Soviet period, when Stalin more or less exterminated the Ingrian Finns through forced resettlement, Russification and purges. The Finns had settled in Ingria during the Swedish period. The original inhabitants of the area are known as Izhorians and Votes. They, too, are mostly gone today.

This is the flag of the Republic of North Ingria, a short-lived state (1919-20) established by anti-Bolshevik Ingrian Finns during the Russian Civil War. It only comprised the northernmost parts of Ingria and was in practice a puppet state of Finland. The flag, a typical Nordic cross flag, is based on the Ingrian coat of arms (adopted in 1618) which is yellow, blue and red. The flag survived the collapse of the “republic”, and is now used either as a symbol of the Ingrian Finns, or of the territory of Ingria as a whole. As far as I know, it has no official standing in Russia and is therefore mostly used by cultural associations of Ingrian Finns in Finland and Sweden. Izhorians and Votes have their own ethnic symbols.