Draft:Ingrian Battalion

The Ingrian Battalion(Estonian: ingeri pataljon; Finnish: Inkerin Pataljoona), later the Ingrian Regiment (Estonian: ingeri polk; Finnish: Inkerin Rykmentti), was a national unit in the Estonian army during the Estonian War of Independence made up of Ingrian Finns.

Formation
When the Red Army cracked down on native revolts in Ingria during 1918 and 1919, many Ingrian Finns fled to the newly independent Republic of Estonia, hoping to gain autonomy.

In February 1919, Ingrian national committee member Paavo Tapanainen started preparing for the organization of an Ingrian national unit and on 26 March 1919, the Ingrians reached an official agreement with the Estonian Provisional Government, allowing them to form a national unit which would have to be completely armed and supplied by Estonia and which would be subordinate to the Estonian army.

Ingrian representatives were sent to each Estonian division's headquarters, where all Ingrian Finns who had joined the Estonian army would be given over to them.

Additionally, the Estonian Provisional Goverment gave Tapanainen 25000 marks, which were to be used to gather equipment for the unit, 671 rifles, nearly half a million rounds of ammunition and other pieces of equipment.

The Ingrian battalion was formed in April 1919, made up of 241 men.

First battles
The battalion's first military operation was to aid the Russian Whites of the Northwestern Army in their offensive on Petrograd. The battalion performed a naval landing at Ust-Luga and then pushed on to Koporye, where its commander, Aleksanteri Tynni fell with 46 of his men.

Conflicts with the Russian Whites arose immediately. Alexander Rodzyanko, a commander of the Russian Northwestern Army, demanded the disbanding of all Ingrian formations and the transfer of their personell to the Russian Northwestern Army.

The Ingrians refused, stating that they were loyal to Estonia and wished to fight along with the Russian Whites to free their homeland from Bolshevism. However, this did not appease the Russians, who recognized the independence of neither Estonia nor Ingria, and the existance of the Ingrian battalion became a source of tension between the Estonians and Russian whites. After the defeat under Koporye, the battalion received reinforcements through local drafts and was expanded into a regiment with a size of 2200 men in June 1919.

The regiment was made up of two infantry battalions and a battery. Major Aarne Uimonen was promoted to its commander and several officers of the Pohjan Pojat, which was disbanded at around the same time, also joined the regiment's ranks.

Battles under Krasnaya Gorka and disbandment
In June 1919, the Ingrian Regiment advanced along the coast and made it to Krasnaya Gorka naval fortress, which was part of Petrograd's naval defence system. The fortress' garrison, facing a clearly inferior attacker, unexpectedly mutinied and surrendered to the Ingrians, and were promptly disarmed. However, the Ingrians were unable to defend their positions and retreated from the fort, which then fell to the Bolsheviks once again. Rodzyanko was furious.

After tensions escalated between the Ingrians with their Estonian allies and the White Russians, the Estonians eventually caved to Russian demands. During 16-19 June 1919, all Finnish officers were forced to resign from their posts in the regiment, along with its commander Aarne Uimonen.

Ingrian units were either partially disarmed or completely disbanded and around 600 Ingrians were directly transferred to the Russian Northwestern Army under a new Ingrian Battalion.

This Russian Ingrian battalion suffered critically high tensions between ethnic Russians and Ingrians, low morale and disorganization, eventually collapsing in late June, when most of its members deserted.

The Estonians also demanded the equipment confiscated from Ingrian units, as it was supposedly property of the Estonian Republic.

Re-formation of the Ingrian Regiment in Estonia
Johan Laidoner, commander in chief of the Estonian army and Alexander Rodzyanko, under pressure from the British, came to a compromise, in which the Russian Whites would return Ingrian equipment to the Estonian army and the Ingrian regiment would be re-formed as an Estonian unit under White Russian command that wouldn't intervene in the region's politics. The 1100-1600 strong Ingrian Regiment was officially re-formed in August 1919 in Narva-Jõesuu under the command of Emil Pekkanen, a former Pohjan Pojat officer.

The Petrograd Offensive and the Krasnaya Gorka Operation
In October 1919, the Ingrian Regiment took part in the Northwestern Army's offensive on Petrograd, once again under Krasnaya Gorka.

Many Estonian soldiers that took part in the Krasnaya Gorka Operation had refused to fight on foreign soil and refused to follow orders, and thus the Estonian high command had confidence in the morale and combat ability of the Ingrian regiment, which was fighting on their own homeland.

The Ingrian Regiment was positioned on a disproportionately long section of the front between Estonian and White Russian forces behind the Kovashi river. The attempts to advance towards Petrograd failed and the Ingrian Regiment suffered massive casualties. The biggest difficulty for Ingrian troops was the severe lack of equipment. Some soldiers were barefoot, some lacked coats. Their machine guns and mortars were borrowed from the 1st Estonian Infantry Regiment.

The Soviet counter-offensive and the destruction of the Ingrian Regiment
After the Petrograd Offensive failed, the Red Army went on a counter-offensive and started pushing the Russian Whites back towards Estonia.

During the Battle of Ropsha, the entire 1st battalion, half of the Ingrian regiment, was severely outnumbered and got completely surrounded, taking massive casualties trying to break out. 127 Ingrian fighters were either dead, wounded or missing. The casualties were comparable to the losses taken by Estonian and Finnish forces combined(140 dead, wounded or missing) during the Battle of Paju, which was the bloodiest battle of the Estonian War of Independence.

On 4 November 1919, the Regiment started retreating back towards Estonia. During their retreat over half of the remaining Ingrian force deserted and returned home or defected to the Red Army.

The Ingrian Regiment that arrived on their new defensive positions on the Luga river on 16 November 1919 was a beaten and tired fraction of what it once was. The men were tired of constant and costly battles and they slept rarely and outside in rainy and snowy conditions. Typhus, scurvy, lice, high fevers and mental breakdowns were widespread due to battle stress and a severe lack of winter clothing, food and hygienic supplies. This left around half of the remaining soldiers unfit for battle.

Ingrian requests for reinforcements or to be withdrawn from the front to recover were repeatedly denied by commander of the 1st Estonian Division, Aleksander Tõnisson, and on 21 November 1919, an entire company of the severely depleted, underequipped and tired remains of the Ingrian Regiment was encircled and nearly completely destroyed under the village of Bolshoye Kuzyomkino.

In December 1919, the Ingrian Regiment gave local Ingrian peasants several dozen horses to replace the horses taken by Estonian troops, which enraged Aleksander Tõnisson further.

The Ingrian Regiment would remain on the front until the Tartu Peace treaty.

Post-war
After the war, a huge part of the Ingrian Regiment returned to Ingria, now under Soviet rule, which disorganized the regiment completely. Some of the main reasons listed for Ingrians returning home was homesickness and Estonian prejudice against Ingrian Finns. Discipline completely collapsed, soldiers refused to follow orders, drank vodka and partied. A furious Aleksander Tõnisson tried to court-martial 29 of the regiment's members, but they all deserted before any action could be taken against them.

The regiment was finally disbanded in June 1920 and most of its members were extradited to the Soviet Union as "foreign citizens." Out of thousands, not a single Ingrian Finn was deemed worthy of the Estonian Cross of Liberty, despite their huge sacrifices.