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Votia (Russia)

Vaddjamå

image by Mikko Hämäläinen, 25 Aug 2000

Description of the flag
Presentation of Votia

See also:

Other sites:

Virtual Votia

Description of the flag

The flag dates to after 1992.
Chris Kretowicz, 08 May 2001

I noticed the similarity between the Vepsian flag and the Votian flag. I guess the East Karelian flag is influential, too.

Theory: If the East Karelian flag is well-known in the area, the green colour could have the local connotation of Finnic peoples. And in that case, the similarity of the various flags is more or less to be expected. After all, how many different flags can you make, if you must use a green field and a Scandinavian cross?

Contra: The Ingrian flag is yellow, red and blue, and our page on pan-finnic colours seems to be mostly about shades of blue…

Ole Andersen, 26 Aug 2000

What struck me with the Votian flag, was that it rather much looked like the Swedish flag, not only in design but also in one of the colours. If this is intentional or not, I don’t know.
Elias Granqvist, 26 Aug 2000

This image, as any other, is just one of a wide range of variation seen on many related sources.
António Martins, 16 Jun 2001

Presentation

Southern group of the Baltic-Finnic languages
closest to Estonian
Population estimate: 62 (50% native speakers) 1989
Around mid XIX th Century they numbered ca. 6,000
several villages between Estonian border and Sankt Peterburg
presently only five villages have Votic population, (in the Kingissepp district of the Leningradskaya Oblast’ ): Kukkusi, Rajo, Jagopera, Liivchula & Luuditsa.
Estonian ethnographer Dr Paul Ariste done most to preserve Votic language and folklore in the last few years.

Soviet census stopped including Votics (as a separate ethnic group) in 1939 and almost managed to wipe them out completely. The people, who were the original settlers of the area, with the history going back to, at least XI Century, were declared summarily «enemies of the people» just because of ethnic ties and proximity to Finnish border and deported, scattered across 11 time-zones. Only Khrushchev allowed them to come back, but they found their homes taken by others, who didn’t even know of their existence. In the new Russia, people of good will, mainly from Estonia, Hungary and Finland were able to preserve the Votic language and whatever is remembered of folklore of the vanishing nation.
Chris Kretowicz, 08 May 2001

I checked the map on line and it seems that beside the Estonian border town of Narva, all the votic population is in Russian territory.
Dov Gutterman, 29 Aug 2000

The Votic people obviously lives in Ingria. What is the difference between the Ingrian and the Votic languages?
Elias Granqvist, 25 Aug 2000

Vote is the earliest of the Baltic-Finnic languages; Ingria’s variegated population has included also Ingrians, Estonians, and above all, Finns. Vote has almost died out; there remain a few tens of speakers, mostly elderly, the youngest being middle-aged. In the middle of the last [i.e., 19th] century there were still five thousand or so, but they have assimilated to the Ingrians, Finns and Estonians.
Lewis Nowitz, 25 Aug 2000,
quoting from Maailman kielet ja kielikunnat, by Jaakko Anhava

Remnants of the original Finnish population are the Ingers (Inkerikot) and the Woten [Votic] (Vaddjalaiset, cf. the name of the Wotjaks). The first (13.800), named by the Russians also Ishortsy, after the Ishora river, a tributary of the Newa, spread in olden days up to the southern end of Lake Ladoga; now they live spread along the coast between Oranienbaum [Lomonosov] and Narwa and south of that. The Woten (1000) live only in the municipality of Kattila near Narwa; before the immigration of the Ingers they ruled Ingtermanland and took part in the foundation of the Varinger-realm of Novgorod. Their language is archaic and forms the transition from Finnish and Karelic to Estonian; while the Ingers speak a Karelic dialect mixed with Russian elements. Both peoples used to be Lutheran, but are now members of the Russian Chrurch.
Jarig Bakker, 25 Aug 2000,
quoting from Die Völker Europas, by Georg Buschan, c. 1910

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