Introduction. from Baltic Glint to Lake Peipsi Discovering Estonia’S Environment

Dynamiques environnementales Journal international de géosciences et de l’environnement 42 | 2018 Du glint baltique au lac Peïpous Introduction. From Baltic Glint to Lake Peipsi Discovering Estonia’s environment Pascal Bartout and Tiiu Koff Electronic version URL: https://journals.openedition.org/dynenviron/2228 DOI: 10.4000/dynenviron.2228 ISSN: 2534-4358 Publisher Presses universitaires de Bordeaux Printed version Date of publication: 1 July 2018 Number of pages: 276-281 ISSN: 1968-469X Electronic reference Pascal Bartout and Tiiu Koff, “Introduction. From Baltic Glint to Lake Peipsi”, Dynamiques environnementales [Online], 42 | 2018, Online since 01 June 2019, connection on 09 July 2021. URL: http://journals.openedition.org/dynenviron/2228 ; DOI: https://doi.org/10.4000/dynenviron.2228 La revue Dynamiques environnementales est mise à disposition selon les termes de la Licence Creative Commons Attribution - Pas d'Utilisation Commerciale - Pas de Modiﬁcation 4.0 International. Introduction Saaremaa cliffs and foreshore of limestone slabs (photo: Pascal Bartout). Introduction From Baltic Glint to Lake Peipsi Discovering Estonia’s environment Pascal Bartout1 and Tiiu Koff2 Version française p. 13 or geographers, to evoke in 2018 Es- of different Finno-Ugric language group part tonia, this small Baltic country located of the bigger Uralic language family. The in the northeast of the Baltic Sea, is three most spoken languages are Hungarian, to highlight its economic geography. Finnish and Estonian. FIndependent since 1991, Estonia became a member of eurozone in 2002 as the first Estonians arrived on the territory of Es- ex-Soviet state. This country is open to in- tonia most probably 5000 years ago, even novations such as electronic voting and is an Estonia was inhabited 10 000 years ago after economic opportunity for its Norden neigh- the Last Ice Age by a people whose ethnic bours, particularly Finland. It is also to evoke identity is unknown. The name Eesti is appar- geopolitic with all the problems generated by ently derived from the word Aisti, the name the presence of the Russian neighbour (eth- given by the ancient Germans to the peoples nic minorities, NATO...). It is finally to cross living north-east of Visla river. these two sets by dealing with all the Baltic countries (Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia). Historically, although Estonia is the small- est country in the three Baltic States, its stra- However, should the study of Estonia be tegic location at the south-west end of the reduced to these partial and sometimes bi- Gulf of Finland has generated many wars with ased approaches, such as the use of the term the only goal of controlling this strategic situ- “Baltic countries” implies? In fact, what do ation. Although the first counters on the Baltic these three geopolitical entities have in com- coast were made by the Danes, such as “The mon apart from bordering the Baltic Sea? Danish Fort”, which will give in Este language “Taani-Linn”, the ancestor of the present The Baltic states are unique and it begins capital “Tallinn1”, the first mass implantation with language. Latvian and Lithuanian form was the result of the first German Crusaders. the Baltic group of languages, a part of the These Teutonic and Gladius-Carried Knights large Indo-European family to which Slavic and Germanic also belong. Estonia is a part 1. There was an older “Tallinn” known as “Ravel” or “Revel”. 277 Dynamiques Environnementales 42 - Journal international des géosciences et de l’environnement, 2nd semestre 2018 of the early 13th century fought against the the collapse of the Tsarist power in 1917, the local pagan society and developed trade in chaos also seized Estonia, which proclaimed the region, notably by entering the Hanseatic its independence on 24th of February 1918 League. After the conquest of 1227, Estonia under the name “Republic of Estonia”. Not was divided between Denmark, the Livonian accepted by Soviet Russia, a war of indepen- Order and the Bishops of Tartu and Saare. For dence followed, until the February 2, 1920, centuries, local power was in the hands of the when Soviet Russia officially recognized the German-speaking nobility who neglected the Republic of Estonia. Estonian peasant mass, deteriorating their legal status and covering them with taxes. This period of independence was short- lived, just over twenty years. In fact, accord- In 1721, the geopolitical situation evolved. ing to the secret protocol of the German-So- By the Treaty of Nystad, the Russian Empire viet pacts skinning central Europe, Estonia seized Estonia and Livonia at the expense entered the sphere of influence of the Soviet of the Swedes who had been walking a few Union. Thus, in June 1940, the Red Army oc- centuries before in the region. Indeed, Rus- cupied Estonia. There followed massive de- sian tsars and notably Peter the Great wish portations of Estonians (about 10 000 people to turn the Russian Empire into Europe. To do were sent to Siberia). However, this Soviet so, they set up their new capital St. Peters- domination was short-lived and German burg in the immediate vicinity of the Estonian forces occupied Estonia from July 1941 until territory in the Neva delta. The conquest of September1944, when the Red Army “liber- this Baltic space becomes vital to secure the ated” Tallinn. Fearing another Soviet occupa- passage to the newly created port. tion, about 70,000 people fled to Sweden or Germany, creating a large Estonian Diaspo- This conquest is not going to lead to forced ra. Forced accession to the USSR led to new Russian assimilation, as for example on the challenges and deportations such as that of religious level where orthodoxy will not sup- 1949 where 20,700 people were expelled. plant the Lithuanian Catholic majority or that Lutheran Latvians and Estonians. In the middle of the 1980s, general stag- nation prevailed. The political changes of the The era of awakening as a nation began Moscow regime caused a popular awakening shortly after the great European “national” of Estonians. On August 23, 1989, the Pop- Revolutions of 1848. From the years 1860, ular Fronts of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania this resulted in the establishment of an Es- organized a 600 km long human chain from tonian-language secondary school for peas- Tallinn to Vilnius, demanding freedom for the ants, a song Festival (1869), but also a Baltic States. In August 1991, concomitantly folklore collection. Later, agricultural and cul- with its Baltic neighbors, Estonia declared its tural societies and the National Theatre were second independence. founded. This complex geopolitical history made of The era of Russification began shortly af- successive dominations, where the Estonian ter that in 1890. Economically, Estonia large- people are most often peripheral in thought ly benefited from this new Russian market as central, has built a local “dwarf” that is with, for example, the exploitation of the oil little studied in relation to the relative magni- shales of northeastern Estonia around Koht- tude of its neighbors, whether they are Ger- la-Järve. It became one of the most indus- manic, Scandinavian, Russian or Baltic. trialized areas of the Russian Empire, devel- oping according to the general interest. This These geopolitical changes have neces- was reflected in the number of Russian raw sarily aroused the interest of social scientists materials but also Russian work-force. After such as historians and geographers. If his- 278 Introduction torically, Jean-Pierre Minaudier (2007) wrote and peatlands, and a Baltic peculiarity that is a General history of Estonia, Ago Pajur and the isostatic uprising. Tonu Tannberg (2017) of the University of Tartu have synthesized the history of Estonia In Estonia, these are characteristic land- over the period from 1918 to 2017. Maarten scapes with a primary peneplain planed by Ham and Tiit Tammaru (2011) focused on the the ice sheet where hydrography is some- links between minorities and ethnic majori- times uncertain due to the succession of hills ties in Estonia as well as researchers from IN- and terraces of kame and other œsar. The ALCO in France, like Antoine Chalvin (2008). north presents a regional originality with the Finally, other researchers sought to under- presence of a cliff exceeding by place the 50 stand the Estonian soul and the vision that meters in height: it is an erosional limestone the neighboring peoples had. Thus, accord- escarpment called “glint” or “klint”. The ero- ing to R. Brunet (1996), for the Russians, the sive action of the former ice sheet is visible Estonians were “Germans”, denoting for the with the presence of many erratic blocks author a mark of respect, of envy. Howev- placed on the shallow sea (photo 1). er, this vision is not shared by all the actors and the current geopolitical conflicts between However, the descriptions of this common Russians and Estonians, both external and and original environment are not many not internal to the Baltic state, lead to an assim- to say almost non-existent if we focus on ilation born of the Second World War where the French language. Thus, apart from our “German = Fascist “. work (Touchart et al, 2013) on the Kurtna natural reserve in northeastern Estonia, In the 21st century, three thesis in French we only found traces of Camille Girault’s allowed to enlighten these questions, only article in Vertigo review in 2018 on the right the last one being exclusively devoted to Es- of access to nature in northern Europe. tonia: first of all that of Claire Autin

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