Cultural Trauma and Life Stories

Aili Aarelaid-Tart Cultural Trauma And Life Stories KIKIMORA PUBLICATIONS A 15 Cultural Trauma and Life Stories ISBN 952-1-3416-5 ISSN 1455-481X Cover design: Vesa Tuukkanen Layout: Indrek Tart and Anu Heiskanen © The Aleksanteri Institute and the author Gummerus Printing 2006 Vaajakoski Contents Abbreviations 6 List of the table and figures 6 Preface 7 I Introduction 10 I.1 My life story: the framework for my field of study and research interests 10 I.2 Research design 14 1.2.1 The composition of the sample. Collaborations 14 1.2.2 Theoretical objectives 18 II Human time and life course 22 II.1 Human time: the compass within uncertainty 22 II.2 Modes of human time 24 II.2.1 Cultural time 25 II.2.2 Political time 26 II.2.3 Generational time 26 II.3 Individual life course and life story 30 II.4 Human time throughout the trauma prism 34 III Understanding of cultural trauma 40 III.1 Making sense of the theory of cultural trauma 40 III.1.1 Cultural trauma as a new master paradigm 40 III.1.2 Cultural trauma as social practice 41 III.1.3 Cultural trauma as a discourse 45 III.1.4 Discourses as a search for usable past 49 III.2 Trauma and explosion: re-building the cultural fabric 51 III.3 From life stories to the discourse of cultural trauma 53 IV Framing biographical research in post-traumatic social practice 57 IV.1 Unbalanced social memory 57 IV.1.1 A double trauma discourse let loose by the collapse of Socialism 57 IV.1.2 A non-unified European memory as the cause of new traumas 59 IV.2 Living through Estonia: the contours of the main CT discourses 61 IV.3 Individual reflection of the collective unpleasant past 67 IV.3.1 What constitutes a CT life story? 67 IV.3.2 Guidelines for studying life stories of culturally traumatised persons 71 V The manifestation of Post-Socialist cultural trauma in life stories 81 V.1 The appearance of discourses in told stories 81 V.1.1 Testimonies from the reality of Soviet Estonia (Marko’s case) 82 V.1.2 The refugee romance (Anni’s case) 86 V.1.3 The fall of the dreamland for the Estonian Russians (Vera’s case) 90 V.2 The appearance of strategies for coping with cultural trauma in life stories 95 V.2.1 Double mental standards 96 V.2.2 Re-ritualisation of the life path 98 V.2.3 Reordering of the grass-root initiatives 101 V.3 Towards social becoming through cultural trauma 103 VI Conclusion (a parable) 105 References 108 Original articles 122 1. Johnston, H. and Aarelaid-Tart, A. (2000) Generations, Micro-Co- horts, and Long-Term Mobilization: The Estonian National Movement, 1940-1991. Sociological Perspectives, Vol. 43, No. 4, pp. 671–698 “GENERATIONS” 122 2. Aarelaid-Tart, A. (2003) The Adaptation of Estonians to New Cultural Realities after World War II. SocIs (Sociologicheskije Issledovanija), No.2, pp. 59–67, (authorised translation into English) “ADAPTATION” 153 3. Aarelaid-Tart, A. (2003) Estonian-Inclined Communists as Marginals. In Humphrey, R, Miller, B. and Zdravomyslova, E. (eds.), Biographical Reseach in Eastern Europe: Altered Lives and Broken Biographies. London: Ashgate, pp. 71–99 “COMMUNISTS” 168 4. Aarelaid-Tart, A. (2003) Double Mental Standards in the Baltic Coun- tries – Three Generations. In Kõll, A. M. (ed.), The Baltic Countries under Occupation. Soviet and Nazi Rule 1939–1991. Acta Universitatis Stock- holmiensis, Studia Baltica Stockholmiensia 23. Stockholm: Stockholm University, pp. 213–226 “STANDARDS” 192 5. Aarelaid-Tart, A. and Kannike, A. (2004) The End of Singing Natio- nalism as Cultural Trauma. Acta Historica Tallinnensia , Vol. 8, pp. 77–98 “SINGING” 206 6. Aarelaid-Tart, A. and Belobrovtseva, I. (2004) The (Im)Possibilities of Estonian Russian Dialogue in the Conditions of Cultural Trauma. In Klemeshev, A. P. (ed.), Na perekrjostke kultur: Russkije v Baltijskom regione. II. Kaliningrad: Izdatelstvo Kaliningradskogo Universiteta, pp. 149–165 (authorised translation into English) “DIALOGUE” 228 7. Aarelaid-Tart, A. (forthcoming) The Theory of Cultural Trauma as Ap- plied to Investigation of the Mind-Set of Estonians under Soviet Rule (Based on the Biographical Method). In Kangere, B. (ed.), Inherited 1990s. Acta Universitatis Stockholmiensis, Studia Baltica Stockholmien- sia. Stockholm: Stockholm University “THEORY” 242 8. Aarelaid-Tart, A. (forthcoming) Civil Initiatives of Estonians Split by “Iron Curtain” (Comparison of Homeland and Émigré Cases after WWII). In Hackmann, J. (ed.), Vereinskultur und Zivilgesellschaft in Nordost- europa. Köln, etc.: Böhlau “CIVIL” 268 Appendix (biograhies) 288 Marko , recorded in March 1997 288 Anni , interviewed in September 2000 306 Vera , recorded autumn 2003 331 Abbreviations CEE Central and Eastern Europe CPSU Communist Party of Soviet Union CT cultural trauma ECP Estonian Communist Party EstR Estonian Russians: Discourse III “Fall of the Dreamland for the Estonian Russians” ESTO World-wide Estonian Days (Ülemaailmsed Eesti päevad) KGB People’s Commissariat of Internal affairs (Komitet Gosudarstvennoi Bezopasnosti) Komsomol Young Communist League NKVD National Committee for Interior Affairs (Narodnyi Komissariat Vnutrennih Del) PTSD Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder SovE Soviet Estonians: Discourse I “Testimonies from the Soviet Estonia Realities” SweE Swedish Estonians: Discourse II “The Refugee Romance” List of table and figures Table 1. Number of respondents by generation and gender 16 Figure 1. Connections between theoretical and empirical levels 21 Figure 2. Comparison of generational time in Russia, Estonia and Finland in relation to historical and political time, 1900- 2000 29 Figure 3. Formation of CT discourses in relation to historical events 66 Figure 4. Relations between components in frame analysis of a CT life story 80 Figure 5. Calendars as presented in the three CT discourses 100 6 Preface The fate of the Estonians in the 20th Century, like that of many other Central and Eastern European (CEE) peoples, has had to go through several sharp turns and tragic twists. The current work is based on two important turning points, the after effects of which are still visible today: the second violent establishment of Soviet rule in Estonia in September 1944 and its later collapse in August 1991. These events have deeply touched every Estonian family, laid the foundations for the development of the self-consciousness of several generations, and caused more than a half- century of segregation between the annexed natives and the Soviet colonists. Both of these events of radical change in the political system have provoked cultural traumas, the nature and management of which I shall reflect in detail in this work. The aforementioned historical events have been interpreted in many ways by different social and ethnic groups. These distinct points of view have caused the formation of various public discourses over the years. What was the price the homeland Estonians had to pay for their Soviet adaptation? Was exile Estonian-ness merely a mirage developed to hide the real and rapid assimilation of boat refugees from 1944 into Swedish society? What should the identity of the Soviet colonists be like after the restoration of the Republic of Estonia? Several generations have sought usable answers for managing their nightmarish past in discourses full of such questions. The post-restoration period has demonstrated that these two stormy events still have an important place in shaping the life ideolo- gies of a great many Estonians both in Estonia and in Sweden. In recent years there has developed a new “occupier”-discourse – the discourse of the non-Estonians who settled in Estonia during the forty-seven Soviet years. The present book is based on 148 biographies, in which, in one way or another, both the forced liquidation and the rebirth of the Republic of Estonia have played a role. Every life story is a part of the collective mem- 7 ory. Some recall the horrors of the Red terror, others tell of the widening establishment of the Soviet way of life, or of the mentality of the singing nationalism and the keeping of national continuity. The biggest thanks go to the interviewees from among both homeland Estonians, Swedish Estonians and Estonian Russians. Had these people not trusted me/us with their life stories, this book would have never be- come a reality. The collecting of biographical interviews has accompanied and influenced my life for the last ten years. I am deeply grateful to American researcher Hank Johnston, under whose supervision I dared to enter the field at all. While extending my studies to Sweden, I soon found that sharing a common language by no means guarantees an adequate understanding of the exile world. I am glad to have had the following great assistants in entering the world of Swedish Estonians: Aleksander Loit, Anu Mai Kõll, Juhan Eelend and Diana Krull from Stockholm Uni- versity, but also other Swedish Estonians and boat-refugee companions, Gunna Maria Haabma, Leelo Andrén, Ilmar Roostal, Peeter Tõnus and Hans Sarap. I have had the assistance of the diligent pathfinders Aida Hatchaturyan, Irina Belobrovtseva, Grigori Utkof, Boriss Baljasnyi and Maria Tolbast and also students from Tallinn University in finding my way to the Estonian Russians. For many years I have had the good com- pany of enthusiastic biographical researchers to discuss the interviews with, from the society “Estonian Life Stories”. They include Rutt Hinri- kus, Ene Kõresaar, Terje Anepaio, Aigi Rahi, Merle Karusoo, Marju Lauristin, Tiina Kirss, etc. My special thanks belong to my confidant for thirty years, the grand old lady of Estonian history – Ea Jansen, who passed to eternity in 2004. When the winds of freedom started to blow in Estonia again, I had left behind my life’s fortieth milepost. The new era in both my life and in that of my people was promising, yet complicated.

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