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The supposed referential power and testimonial value of photographs often becomes suspect in (post)modernist fiction or historiographic metafiction. On the one hand, invented or fabricated photographs are often used for propagandistic purposes when the "official" history is being written and documented. On the other hand, personal and family photos may only be mental images and part of traumatic memories in narrative fiction, but they still tell individual experiential stories beyond those official histories. In her novels Purge (2008) and When the Doves Disappeared (2012), Finnish-Estonian author Sofi Oksanen represents the history of twentieth-century Estonia as constructed in textual documents and in visual materials such as photographic images. In addition to discussing the use of photographs in her narrative fiction, this essay focuses on the production of the meaning of photographs in Estonia's specific historical, social, and cultural contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article looks at the imaginaries of progress through technology and new activities by tracing the emergence of Baltic Moorkultur in Estonia and Livonia from the 1850s to the early 1910s. Baltic Moorkultur, a set of modern drainage and peat extraction techniques, has been viewed as part of a modernisation process and evolving visions of future, which touched the identity of Baltic German landowners, scientists and entrepreneurs. General reasons for an impetus for the large-scale reclamation of peatlands were the growth of population, economic liberalisation, growing demand for fuels and the fact that the basis of manorial economy gradually crumbled and led to increasing urge to modernise its source of livelihood. Baltic Moorkultur can be thought as a high-tech response of that time to the exploitation of peatlands. This article explains why it became adopted and how it altered the appraisal of environments that had been perceived as suboptimal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Zeitschrift für Ostmitteleuropa-Forschung is the property of Herder Institut e.V. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Author-supplied Abstracts.)

Copyright of Zeitschrift für Ostmitteleuropa-Forschung is the property of Herder Institut e.V. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Author-supplied Abstracts.)

Copyright of Estonian Journal of Archaeology is the property of Teaduste Akadeemia Kirjastus and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The article summarizes the fourth conference of the Baltic Heritage Network, held in Rīga, Latvia on June 30–July 2, 2015. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Copyright of Acta Historica Tallinnensia is the property of Teaduste Akadeemia Kirjastus and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Studies on Art & Architecture / Kunstiteaduslikke Uurimusi is the property of Estonian Society of Art Historians and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The article discusses the Great Flight of 1944 wherein a substantial portion of Estonian intellectuals fled the country for either Sweden or Germany and talks about the intellectual community of historians and others with a political mission that was created as a result of the flight.

This article explores the measures taken by the institutions of state government, the nobility, communities and charitable committees to relieve suffering in Estland during the hunger crisis of 1867–9, examining the share of relief borne by local resources and central administration. Through comparisons with Russian and Finnish famine experiences, it demonstrates that the functioning and efficiency of famine relief were strongly influenced by patterns of landownership as well as political and social factors. Estonian peasants received their share from the imperial funds but these were clearly inadequate to meet their needs. The government not only spared the purse but was also determined to follow the laissez-faire policy of non-interference in markets. The communities were unwilling to provide for the landless and the Baltic German landlords kept aid to the minimum for both farmer peasants and the landless. Institutional responses were shaped by the belief that all able-bodied persons had to provide for themselves, which was hardly possible due to the extreme lack of jobs and the legal restrictions on out-migration from the province. The severity of famine in Estland was a result not of inadequate resources but of inadequate responses, which were shaped by the dynamics of class relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses seventeenth-century Estonian author and Lutheran minister Heinrich Stahl, providing both a biographical sketch and a discussion of his works. He was born circa 1600 into a merchant family in Tallinn, Estonia while the country was under the rule of Sweden. He attended the University of Rostock and the University of Wittenberg, completing his Master of Arts in theology and proceeding to become a Lutheran pastor. He married Dorothea, the daughter of an alderman named Eberhard Eckholt in 1624. He served as Superintendent of Ingria until his death in 1657. His works include the bilingual Estonian-German manual “Käsi- ja koduraamat/Hand- und Hausbuch," the Swedish catechism “Förnufftennes Miölk,” and the German book of sermons “Leyen Spiegel.”

This article outlines the context and genesis of the idea of a Scandinavian-Estonian connection in early Estonian nationalism. Mnemopolitical (the role of the myth of ‘the good old Swedish times’) and geopolitical (Sweden understood as an alternative regional power to Germany and Russia) aspects of Estonian nationalism's engagement with Scandinavia are considered as factors that produced and reinforced this image of Nordic identity that has remained a persistent part of Estonian nationalist discourse. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article discusses the representation of industrial labor and industrial heritage of northeast Estonia's former mines in Estonian heritage museums. An overview of the museum guides, including their former employment as miners and mining engineers at the Kohtla museum in Kohtla, Estonia is provided. An overview of Estonian miners' salaries, including in relation to the salaries of auxiliary workers and mining engineers, is also provided. The representation of class and ethnicity at the industrial heritage museums, including from the period during which Estonia was part of the Soviet Union, are discussed.

During the second half of the 19th century and at the beginning of the 20th century, Estonia experienced extensive emigration to other regions of the Russian empire. This was an agrarian resettlement triggered on the one hand by the shortage of arable land in Estonia and on the other hand by the desire of the state to populate the sparsely populated regions of the country. This emigration was not an isolated event; rather it was a prolonged process that received a major social response. Public opinion in Estonian society elevated collectivism and essential ties to the homeland and early on assumed opinion on emigration, and this opinion was predominantly negative. Only at the beginning of the 20th century did attitudes begin to change. The opinions on emigration are often divided into two groups – those who were in favour and those who opposed it. The pro-emigration trend was practically not represented in the Estonian press initially. We can, however, find trains of thoughts that saw emigration as a signal indicating that all was not well in the homeland. Thus, the expressions in “favour of emigration” or “opposed to emigration” are not justified when discussing the Estonian press. The terms conservative and liberal seem more appropriate when referring to opinions on this issue. Conservatives tended to maintain the traditions, the prevailing social relations and hierarchy. As an argument they presented an emotional concept closely tied to traditions – the concept of “fatherland”, and the supporting concepts of “mother tongue”, “family”, and “religion”. They deemed that those who abandon these values do not really deserve their fatherland that they belong to the less valuable part of the nation that the fatherland can easily do without. The other, liberal trend favoured the idea that fatherland is fatherland only when it can protect and support its inhabitants, meaning that the fatherland has an obligation to a person, and non-fulfilment of this obligation frees the person from any obligations to the fatherland. The representatives of the liberal trend did not consider the emigrants the outcasts of society but rather as a more progressive part of the nation, more capable of development, possessing enough initiative to escape poor conditions and move elsewhere where the opportunities seemed better. We should also emphasise the fact that the conservative and liberal trends did not exist simultaneously as major trends – the former conservative trend prevailed from the beginning of the emigration to the end of the 19th century, and was then gradually replaced by the liberal trend. The caesura between the two trends was the different understanding of the concept fatherland. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The following paper examines early film reception in Estonia and its transformation over the first decades of the 20th century. The discussion focuses on the aspects that influenced the notions and opinions of films and who voiced them. A lengthy article published under the pseudonym S. Culex stands out against the general background as a bright and mature exception. As Young Estonia was the most innovative Estonian cultural movement of the early 20th century, the article also concentrates on the ideas of its leading figures regarding cinema. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a discussion on the changes faced by the German Baltic minority group living in what became the republic of Estonia in 1918. Descriptions are given of the social, cultural, and political tensions between German Balts and Estonians between 1918 and 1940. Discussion focuses on a 1925 Estonian cultural autonomy law inspired by similar legislation passed in Austria in 1899. Particular attention is paid to a voluntary population transfer of Germans from Estonia to Germany, occurring between 1939 and 1940.

Estonia within the essentially Baltic framework -though differing linguistically from Baltic German-rooted/or Baltic Slavic-rooted people- draw attention by virtue of her sociocultural depth, which is certainly disproportionate to her relatively small population. The popularity and usage of the Estonian language has held an important place in Eston people's cultural heritage within the continuation of its existence, sustaining its identity against the passage of time. A better understanding of the historical issues which overlap with the Turkish and Estonian cultural wealth and political life may be obtained through a comparative study of the history of both countries. Therefore, instead of introducing a great number of contradictory views or materials, this study aims to encourage further scholarly curiosity by assessing the destiny and the similarities or differences within the history of state foundation and that of cultural background of the two countries.Primarily, it should be remembered, not only in terms of cultural interaction but also in terms of the bilateral relations between Turkey and Estonia, that Atatürk's Turkey had been one of the first countries to have recognized (in 1924) the independence of Estonia declared in 1918. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a discussion on the representation of social inclusion and exclusion in Estonian mass media around the turn of the 19th to the 20th century. Particular attention is paid to the conceptualization of history, society, and modernity that influenced the writing of Estonian newspaper reports during the time period under discussion. Focusing on three historical periods between 1860 and 1914, the author examines social, ethnic, and economic tensions appearing in interactions between farming groups and the landed aristocracy.

Provides a historical overview on Estonia from the time of being conquered to the declaration of independence. Beginning of Estonian's experience with foreign conquerors; Progress in terms of Christianization under the Crusaders; Russian's occupation of the territory; Start and end of the Swedish rule; Impact of the wide-sweeping Russification campaign in 1885.

Discusses the Estonian question at Brest-Litovsk. German occupation of Congress Poland, Lithuania and Courland; Concerns over the future of the German occupied regions; Studies on the Estonian question; Reactions of Estonian political and societal leaders' reactions to petitions calling for separation from Russia.