Old Novgorod

 According to Russian historical books, Novgorod was a multinational trading place, whose administration represented an early form of democracy. The city's nationalities also include Finns and Karelians, who are originally from Finnish tribes.

The graphic I have made now indeed shows that Finnish roots can still be found 554 years after the city lost its independence. Moscow conquered the city in 1471. Finnish heritage today is of course not even close to what it was at the time of Novgorod's greatness.

It must be considered that the current PCA only covers the relationships between the peoples represented in it. For example, Siberian heritage is therefore ignored, as are Caucasian and southern influences. Scandinavia and the Baltic have been taken into account. Of course, a two-dimensional presentation with the two most significant PCA dimensions does not cover all similarities, but based on the image it is clear that in Novgorod, Finnishness is clearly stronger than Scandinavianness.

This result raises questions among both Finns and Russians. Politics aside, I fully understand the problems with genetics-based demography because of its possible new interpretations. However, we must ask what is a new interpretation of things and whether a new interpretation of history is always progressive. These things need to be examined openly, both in terms of the data and the results obtained.

Mordovians lean towards eastern Finno-Ugric people, which are not included in this picture.

The Kursk sample is an outlier, drifting another one a bit to the same direction.