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London School of Economics and Political Science Department of Government Historical Culture, Conflicting Memories and Identities in post-Soviet Estonia Meike Wulf Thesis submitted for the degree of PhD at the University of London London 2005 UMI Number: U213073 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Dissertation Publishing UMI U213073 Published by ProQuest LLC 2014. Copyright in the Dissertation held by the Author. Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest LLC 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 Ih c s e s . r. 3 5 o ^ . Library British Library of Political and Economic Science Abstract This study investigates the interplay of collective memories and national identity in Estonia, and uses life story interviews with members of the intellectual elite as the primary source. I view collective memory not as a monolithic homogenous unit, but as subdivided into various group memories that can be conflicting. The conflict line between ‘Estonian victims’ and ‘Russian perpetrators* figures prominently in the historical culture of post-Soviet Estonia. However, by setting an ethnic Estonian memory against a ‘Soviet Russian’ memory, the official historical narrative fails to account for the complexity of the various counter-histories and newly emerging identities activated in times of socio-political ‘transition’. Considering that any national history is above all the tale of the dominant group, a comparative analysis of the different group memories among those debating, teaching and writing Estonian history helps to discover which historical facts were integrated into the official narrative after 1991 and which had to be deliberately omitted. From the life story interviews with over forty intellectuals of Estonian, Russian and Estonian Russian background it transpired that group memories are not determined by ethnic background alone, but that generational factors and the socio-political milieu play as significant a role. In the interviews ‘narrative identity’ is re constructed and the intertwined levels of ‘communicative memory’ and of ‘cultural memory’ are revealed. Post-Soviet Estonia is a ‘nationalising state’ with an exclusive ethnic concept of the nation. Estonian identity is based on language, folklore and culture and a long tradition of defining one’s identity against the ‘other’ (i.e. Baltic German, Soviet Russian rule). In contrast to some postmodernists, I argue that it is memories of certain ‘formative historical events’ that compose one constitutive part of national identity. At the core of Estonia’s national narrative lies the story of subjugation and survival; thus events of collective suffering and resistance figure prominently. After 1940 in particular it was up to individual history teachers to convey a more critical view on the past, and it was historians bom in the late 1950s who took an active political stance in the move for independence (e.g. Estonian Heritage Society). Quintessentially, historians did not function as ‘custodians of counter memory’ during the Soviet period; instead it was through private family memories, underground literature, forbidden books and other sites of counter memory that alternative historical accounts were preserved. This study of emerging collective identities in Estonia is applicable to the larger context of societies in Eastern Europe that have undergone processes of identity-reconfiguration during and after the collapse of the Soviet bloc. Table of Contents Abstract i Table of Contents ii List of Tables and Figures in Acronyms and Estonian terms iv Acknowledgements viii Introduction 1 Chapter I: On Collective Memory 0. Introduction 8 1. A short history of memory 10 1.1. Individual memory and the group: from Halbwachs to J. Assmann 12 1.2. Communicative memory and cultural memory: a dual concept 15 1.3. Continuity: sites of memory 19 1.4. Group memories: multi-vocality and conflict 20 1.5. On dynamics of remembering and forgetting 22 2. Between history and memory 25 2.1. Dynamics of past and present 25 2.2. Inclusive concept of historical culture 27 2.3. Excursus: post-1945 Germany 28 3. Chapter summary & outlook 32 Chapter II: National Identification and Collective Memory - Establishing a link 0. Introduction 37 Parti 1. Individual and collective identities 39 1.1. Identity prior to difference 40 1.2. Cultural collective identities 41 1.3. The power of national identity 42 1.4. The connective structure of national identity 42 1.5. The nation as a political and cultural community 44 1.6. Ethno-symbolist approach 46 1.7. Group identification and the ‘other’ 49 Part II 2. Collective memory and national identity 51 3. Chapter summary & outlook 58 ii Chapter m : Estonian History from the 19th c. to the Ringing Revolution’ 0. Introduction 62 1. Historical overview 64 1.1. The Awakening (1857 - 80) 69 1.2. First World War 75 1.3. The Estonian Republic (1920 - 40) 77 1.4. Second World War in Estonia 78 1.5. Stalinism, Thaw, Stagnation (1945 - 85) 83 1.6. Path to Independence 84 Chapter IV: Estonian National identity and the Changing Nature of Estonian Nationalism 0. Introduction 93 1. On Estonian national identity 94 2. A small nation between Slavonia and Teutonia: Estonians, Germans and Russians 98 2.1. The German ‘other’ 99 2.2. The Russian ‘other’ 101 3. Changing nature of Estonian nationalism 104 4. Chapter summary & outlook 112 Chapter V: On Methodology 0. Introduction 116 1. Oral History: life story interviews 118 2. Historians as respondent 120 3. The interviews 122 3.1. (Re-) construction of narrative identity in the narrative 122 3.2. Operationalisation: the questionnaires 123 3.3. On self-reflexivity 126 4. Generational group memory 129 4.1. War Generation: the ‘Lost Generation’ (G 1) 132 4.2. Khrushchev Generation Khrushchev: the ‘Post-War Children’, ‘ Stagnas ’ (G 2) 139 4.3. Brezhnev Generation: the ‘Transitional Generation’ (G 3) 145 4.4. Gorbachev Generation: the ‘Freedom Children’ (G 4) 147 5. Chapter summary & outlook 151 Chapter VI: History Teaching, Writing and Telling in Estonia 0. Introduction 157 Parti 1. The changing role of historians 159 2. History in times of transition 176 Part II 3. Formative historical events constitutive of the Estonian (ethnic) identity 188 4. Transcending national history: prospects for a multi-dimensional history 203 5. Chapter summary 206 Chapter VII: Public Uses of History and Private Counter Memories 0. Introduction 215 1. Public uses of history: expressions of historical culture in post- Soviet Estonia 216 1.1. Battles over historical interpretation: on regicide 216 1.2. On the problem of historical comparison: the Estonian Occupation Museum 220 1.3. The Estonian international commission for the investigation of crimes against humanity and the memory of the Holocaust 227 1.4. When private memory goes public: fisticuffs over monuments 230 2. Cui Bono? Typology of (public) uses of history 235 3. Chapter summary 241 Epilogue 246 Appendix I: List of principal narrators 260 Appendix H: Questionnaires (A, B) 262 Bibliographical References 266 iv List of Tables and Figures List of Figures 1.1. Figure I: Levels of Collective Memory 14 2.1. Figure II: Integral Elements of Collective Cultural Communities 42 2.2. Figure HI: Connective Structure of National Identity 43 2.3. Figure IV: Collective Identity and Common Sense Knowledge 55 6.1. Figure V: Formative Historical Events Constitutive of the Estonian National Identity 190 6.2. Figure VI: Constitutive Element of the New Winner’s Tale 203 7.1. Figure VII: Taxonomy of the Various Public Uses of History 236 List of Tables 1. Map of the Estonia and the Baltic region 2. Entrance Hall of the Estonian Occupation Museum v Acronyms BdS Commander in Chief of the Security Police and SD (Germ., Befehlshaber der Sicherheitspolizei und des SD) CC Central Committee (Est., Keskkomitee) CPE Communist Party of Estonia CPSU Communist Party of the Soviet Union CSSR Czechoslovak Socialist Republic (1960-90) ECP Estonian Communist Party (Est., Eesti Kummunistlik Partei) EE Estonian Encyclopaedia EG Mobile killing unit of the Sipo (Germ., Einsatzgruppe) EM Situational reports of the Sipo (Germ., Ereignismeldungen UdSSR) EMS Estonian Heritage Society” (Est.,Eesti Muinsuskaitse Selts) ENE Soviet Estonian Encyclopaedia (Est.,Eesti Ndukogude Entsukloopeedia) ENIP Estonian National Independence Party(Eesti Rahvusliku Soltumatuse Partei) ESSR Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic (Est., Eesti Ndukogude Sotsialistlik Vabariik) Est. Estonian EU European Union (since 1993) EUS Estonian Students Society (Est., Eesti Ulidpilaste Selts) EVL Estonian War of Independence Veterans’ League (Est., Eesti Vabadussojalaste Liit) Ger. German HGr. Heeresgruppe: Army Group IME Economically Self-Managing Estonia (Est.Isemajandav Eesti) Ital. Italian KdS Commander of the Security Police and SD (Germ., Kommandeur der Sicherheitspolizei und des SD) KGB Soviet Secret Police (successor of NKVD) KL Estonian Home Guard, Estonian Defence League (Est. Kaitseliit) Lat. Latin MRP Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact MRP-AEG Estonian Group for the Publication of the Secret Protocols of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. NKVDSoviet Security Police