DUKE UNIVERSITY Durham, North Carolina The Spirit Of Survival: Projections of International Solidarity and Security in Contemporary Estonia Katharyn S. Loweth April 2019 Under the supervision of Professor Gareth Price, Department of Linguistics Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement for Graduation with Distinction Program in International Comparative Studies Trinity College of Arts and Sciences Table of Contents List of Figures ........................................................................................................................................... 1 Acknowledgements .................................................................................................................................. 2 Abstract ...................................................................................................................................................... 3 Introduction ............................................................................................................................................... 4 i. An Overview of the Estonian Nation-State ................................................................................................ 8 ii. Terminology ................................................................................................................................................... 12 iii. Methodology ................................................................................................................................................. 17 iv. Overview of the Chapters .......................................................................................................................... 20 Chapter 1: The Estonian Folk Heart and Performing the Past ..................................................22 1.1 Song Festivals: The Keeper of Tradition .............................................................................................. 23 1.2 Estonian Songs: Themes and Values ..................................................................................................... 28 1.2.1 Children’s Songs .................................................................................................................................................. 33 1.3 The Estonian Das Volk .............................................................................................................................. 36 1.4 Conclusion .................................................................................................................................................... 41 Chapter 2: Estonia’s Desire for European Solidarity ...................................................................43 2.1 Is Estonia a European Country? ............................................................................................................ 44 2.2 Separating Contemporary Estonia from Russian influence ............................................................ 52 2.3 Conclusion .................................................................................................................................................... 62 Chapter 3: The Strife Over European Acceptance and ‘Freedom’ ...........................................64 3.1 Mandated EU Changes to Estonia.......................................................................................................... 65 3.2 ‘Freedom’ at the Vabamu and Estonian National Museum .............................................................. 69 3.2.1 The Value in Freedom: Museum Purpose Statements ............................................................................ 71 3.2.2 Freedom Embodied: Museum Architecture ................................................................................................ 74 3.2.3 Freedom Brings Tension: Exhibit Narratives ............................................................................................. 77 3.3 Is Estonia Free? ........................................................................................................................................... 84 3.4 Conclusion .................................................................................................................................................... 87 Conclusion – Where does Estonia stand? .........................................................................................89 Appendix ..................................................................................................................................................94 Bibliography ............................................................................................................................................95 1 List of Figures Figure 0-1: Photo of the Baltic Chain, August 23, 1989; someone is waving Estonia’s national flag ..............................................................................................................................................................................11 Figure 0-2: Critical Discourse Analysis Model for Museums ...................................................... 19 Figure 1-1: Photo I took of 100th Year Celebration, Song Festival Grounds .............................. 23 Figure 1-2: Map of Amateur Choir Participation, 2014 ............................................................... 26 Figure 1-3: Estonian People Dancing Kaera Jann on a sidewalk in London, UK ........................ 36 Figure 1-4: Photo I took of teenage girl performers, 100th year celebration ............................... 40 Figure 2-1 Section of Exhibit on Soviet Occupation, Tallinn City Museum ................................ 53 Figure 2-2 Last Image of Estonian Russians at the National Minorities exhibit, The Great Guild (photo taken in 1940) .................................................................................................................... 58 Figure 2-3 Last Image of the Estonian Swedish Population at the National Minorities Exhibit, The Great Guild (date unspecified) .............................................................................................. 59 Figure 2-4 Last Image of the Estonian Jewish Population at the National Minorities Exhibit, The Great Guild (Photo Taken in 2006) .............................................................................................. 60 Figure 3-1 Exterior of the Tallinn City Museum ........................................................................... 75 Figure 3-2 Exterior of the Vabamu ............................................................................................... 76 Figure 3-3 Exterior of the Estonian National Museum ................................................................. 76 Figure 3-4: Photo I took of Seesaw Installation at the Vabamu ................................................... 79 Figure 3-5 Map of Tallinn Population Distribution in 2015, by Ethnicity ................................... 83 2 Acknowledgements First, I would like to thank the ICS Program, which provided me with research travel funding from the Scott Lee Stephenson Memorial Fund. This award enabled me to travel to museums in Tallinn and Tartu, Estonia and collect firsthand data on museum and song festival narratives. Thank you to my advisor, Professor Gareth Price. Your encouragement throughout the writing process and helping me understand the underlying social factors in my museum texts meant so much to me personally and to my thesis. Thank you Professor Kathryn Mathers and Shahrazad Shareef for all of your valuable advice, which pushed me to connect the local to the global. Through this process, I have learned about myself and have gained confidence in my own voice as a scholar. And finally to my incredible family, without you, this thesis truly would not have been possible. From the day in May 2018 I decided to travel to Estonia, you have fully supported me in my research. Thank you for all the phone calls, all of the drafts you proofread, and for taking this academic journey with me. 3 Abstract This thesis explores the relationship between national cultural spaces and identity in a former Soviet-Bloc state. Through the lens of Estonian history museums and national performances, this paper studies how representations of national identity in the post-Soviet context are a reaction to dominant transnational forces that increasingly challenge the post-Soviet state’s perceptions of respect and power. Applying critical discourse analysis (CDA) theory, I connect museum and song texts to their social and political environment and to overarching global factors. In particular, I analyze Estonian song themes and historical narratives in relation to the Estonian nation, how they fit within the state’s political goals of ‘returning to Europe’, abide by the cultural models of what it means to be ‘European’, and project idealized conditions of a nation- state, such as ethnic homogeneity. Based on my evidence, I argue that the national performance and museum narratives are representing diverging ideals of the nation and state, respectively, in the contemporary era. Although the two representations are not completely incompatible, they position the state on an unstable foundation, which could lead to state sanctioned unrest in the future. 4 Introduction I sat on the grassy hill facing the large outdoor amphitheater on a brisk August afternoon. People of all ages sat around me—parents with young children, young adults hanging out with friends or significant others, older adults with friends or family—chatting and drinking