Swedish Ingermanland in the 17th century
Ingermanland was a dominion of the Swedish empire between 1583 and 1595 and between 1617 and 1721. The territory, unlike Finland, was never incorporated into Sweden proper. Governor-general, holding administrative, judicial and military authority over the territory, was entitled to highly autonomous decision-making powers. Ingermanland had its own custom borders and was not represented in the Riksdag of the Estates; local population was exempted from recruitment into the Swedish army; administrative division into pogosts, inherited from Novgorod republic, was in force, and so were elements of Russian tax and legal systems.
Pogosts were run by elected elders, while lowest level legal rulings were made by elected jury members. Appointed landsmän were responsible for implementing gubernatorial decrees at pogost level; fogdes had similar responsibilities but at higher level of administrative division (läns).
Narva and Nyen, largest cities of Ingermanland, had broad autonomy. Their magistrates and mayors (borgmästäre) were responsible for ensuring fair competition between manufacturers and traders, for fire safety, urban planning, collection of taxes. Urban dwellers were tried by special municipal courts and could not be prosecuted for criminal offences by militarymen or via gubernatorial decrees.
The region was characterised by segregation along religious lines. Native Vod’ and Izhora tribesmen and ethnic Russians who confessed Orthodox faith, were restricted in ownership rights, could not bear arms and were not allowed to elect magistrate members. Construction of new Orthodox churches was prohibited and Orthodox people were forced to pay tithes both to their own religious congregations and Lutheran parishes.
For conversion to Protestant faith, locals were granted exemption from taxes for as long as 4 years. To ensure mass conversion, superintendent Johannes Gezellius created network of compulsory rural schools, translated Lutheran religious texts to Russian and incorporated elements of Orthodox liturgy into Lutheran services. Policy of compulsory education has its fruits; by 1700, proportion of literate population in Ingermanland was above 60%, what exceeded literacy rate in Russia nearly 6 times.
Royal authority in Ingermanland relied heavily on settlers from Savonia and Karelian isthmus. They were attracted by up to 6 year long exemption from taxes, exemption from recruitment and rich soils. Stockholm saw them as a more reliable ally than the nobility. Under the reign of Charles XI, the Great Reduction was implemented, which was a process of confiscation of land possessions from the nobility; as the result, over two thirds of all land in the dominion was owned by the crown, what to the benefit of the peasants resulted in standardisation of the taxes and prevented turning of them into serves.
As the combined result of settlement policies and of religious conversion, Ingermanland, predominantly Orthodox before 1617, became roughly 75% Lutheran by 1695.