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Teesid: Tõukudes juba kolmandat aastat käivast sõjast Ukrainas, millele eesti autorid on reageerinud kiiresti ja erksa meelega, võtab artikkel vaatluse alla sõjateema kajastuse eesti algupärases laste- ja noortekirjanduses läbi aegade. Alates kõige varasematest juturaamatutest 18./19. sajandi vahetusel, mis sisaldavad tekste sõjaväeteenistusse saadetud noormeestest, kuni kõige uuemate sõjast rääkivate pildiraamatuteni 2023. aastast annab artikkel kronoloogilise ülevaate lastele ja noortele suunatud teostest, mis kujutavad sõda, okupatsioone, revolutsioone või mõnd muud militaarse iseloomuga sündmust ning nendega seotud aspekte. Artikkel keskendub valdavalt eraldi kaante vahel ilmunud teostele, mis moodustavad vaid ühe osa mahukast tekstikorpusest, toob välja algupärases sõjateemalises laste- ja noortekirjanduses kõige enam kasutatud ainestikud ja motiivid ning loetleb sõjateema edasise uurimise võimalusi. The article gives a historical overview of war-themed texts in Estonian children’s and youth literature. The choice of the research topic is motivated by Russia’s military invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, which also changed the sense of security in our region. It has also prompted children’s and young adult writers to reflect on war and peace, resistance and cooperation, justice and injustice in a form that is appropriate and comprehensible to young readers. From the earliest storybooks at the turn of the 19th century, which include texts about young men conscripted into military service, to the most recent picture books about war from 2023, the article provides a chronological overview of works for children and young people depicting war, occupation, revolution or other events of a military nature and their related aspects. The article looks at works published mainly in book form, covering only part of a large corpus of texts. Texts published in journals, story collections, anthologies, school textbooks and elsewhere have been excluded for reasons of space. The theme of war in Estonian children’s and youth literature has become topical in connection with the turning points in Estonian history (revolutions, wars, occupations), and also bears the ideological signs of the time. However, as early as the 19th century, during the period of national awakening, national mythological and romantic material (the ancient struggle for freedom and the so-called Lembitu line; the so-called Jüriöö text) was introduced into literature, and has remained topical to the present day. The theme of war has been used more in periods when it was important to strengthen the nation’s sense of unity (the Republic of Estonia before the Second World War) or to justify regime change and new ideology (Soviet Estonia). Texts published in these periods stand out for their strong combative or combative-propagandist stance, strong and/or ideologised characters, sharp confrontations, realistic depictions of violence and death. The war texts that have appeared in free society in the last few decades are predominantly childhood memoirs of a long-ago war or occupation, although they are still generally told in an exclusionary, fragmented way through a narrative of silence. The trauma narrative has not been as topical in Estonian children’s and young people’s war literature as it has been in Western literature in recent decades. In Estonian children’s and young adult literature, most of the war stories are realistic, with human characters and real or possible situations, with only a few animal tales. To a large extent, the way a story is presented depends on the theme, genre and the age of the reader of the text. The majority of war stories are written by men, while women’s voices can be heard in memoirs, fairy tales and, to a lesser extent, folk mythological histories. Most of the works have an autobiographical background, i.e. the writers have themselves participated in the war and/or lived under occupation. This leads to a situation in which male characters are in the foreground and the events are characterised by adventures, intense confrontations and action. Girls came to Estonian children and young people’s war literature during the over-militarised Soviet era. Although writing about war is the most difficult and problematic for young children, both from an age and education point of view, there is literature for them (picture books, books about war games). War-themed texts in Estonian children’s and youth literature mainly pursue educational aims (stories of masculinisation, stories of cooperation, presentations of Estonian history in exile, reminiscences of tragic times in contemporary memoirs), but in certain periods political (the period of the Estonian Republic, exile) and ideological aims (Soviet Estonia) have been more prominent. The article outlines the most frequently used themes and motifs in Estonian children’s and young adult literature on war and lists possibilities for further research on war.

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The essay presents the profile of Natalia Sindecka, an Estonian citizen of Russian origin, a graduate in Slavic studies at the University of Tartu and Polish studies at Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin, where she defended her doctoral thesis on Polish-Estonian cultural relations in the interwar period. The protagonist of the essay is a Polish language lecturer at the University of Tallinn, actively participating in Polish, Russian, and Estonian cultural and academic life. The biography and activities of Natalia Sindecka are presented against a broad background, taking into account the national situation in Estonia - both in the last years of the existence of the Soviet Union and after 1991. This also applies to the academic environment of the University of Tartu, centered around Yuri Lotman. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The historical use of medicinal plants is of special interest because the use of plants for healing is a rapidly changing, highly culture-specific and often need-specific practice, which also depends on the availability of resources and knowledge. To set an example of folkloristic data analysis in ethnobotany, we analyzed texts from the database, HERBA, identifying as many plants and diseases as possible. The research was limited to the Seto, Räpina and Vastseliina parishes in Estonia. The use of 119 taxa belonging to 48 families was identified, of which nine were identified at the genus level, four ethnotaxa were identified as two possible botanical taxa and fifteen ethnotaxa were unidentifiable. The most frequently mentioned taxa were Pinus sylvestris, Matricaria discoidea and Valeriana officinalis. High plant name diversity as well as high heterogeneity in the plants used were observed, especially in earlier records. The use of local wild taxa growing outside the sphere of everyday human activities, which was abandoned during Soviet occupation, signals an earlier, pre-existing rich tradition of plant use and a deep relationship with nature. Working with archival data requires knowledge of historical contexts and the acceptance of the possibility of not finding all the answers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Surname changes have taken place throughout their existence, but not so often as a result of a nationwide campaign. In Estonia campaign of Estonianizing foreign (mostly German) sounding names took place in 1920--1944 with 99% of the name changes taking place in 1935--1940. It stands out for its intenseness which resulted a surname change of every sixth person. Also, public access to the complete database of name changes already since the 1990s (www.ra.ee/apps/onomastika/) is unique when compared to other countries. Author of this article has amended the public version of the database for the last two decades and explains the arisen problems with it. This article uses new data analysis methods to correct the total number of surname changers during the campaign (see Table 1). The resulting number of approximately 195,000 is smaller than has been estimated so far (210,000). Estonian population at that time was 1.13 million, thus the amount of name changers was 17%. New names were often taken from a 1935 book of suggested surnames titled Eesti nimi ("Estonian name"). The book contains 15,595 suggested names and 30% of them were actually taken as a new name. Also 30% of all taken names (37% when counting all individual name changes) come from the book, in some municipalities even up to 83%. The public preferred shorter names from the book and the use of the book slightly increased year by year (see Figures 2 and 3). Average length of all taken names was seven letters (69% took a name with 6 to 8 letters), the most popular first letters being k (13%), r (11%) and l (10%). The first letter of the old and new name matches in 57% cases, most popular preserved first letters being r and l (both 77%, see Figure 1). Tendency of preserving the first letter also increased in time. 10% of the names were taken only once, with the highest (up to 29%) number in municipalities of Petseri county. Taking an unique name also slightly increased in time. Almost the Pareto rule applies to surname changers: 73% of name changers used 22% of the overall choice of taken names. Many more analyses can be made with the huge database, for example analysis of the vocabulary used in taken names, aesthetically motivated name changes, reused names (for example taking a wife's maiden name as a new surname), geographical-chronological dynamics of name changes etc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The historical use of medicinal plants is of special interest because the use of plants for healing is a rapidly changing, highly culture-specific and often need-specific practice, which also depends on the availability of resources and knowledge. To set an example of folkloristic data analysis in ethnobotany, we analyzed texts from the database, HERBA, identifying as many plants and diseases as possible. The research was limited to the Seto, Räpina and Vastseliina parishes in Estonia. The use of 119 taxa belonging to 48 families was identified, of which nine were identified at the genus level, four ethnotaxa were identified as two possible botanical taxa and fifteen ethnotaxa were unidentifiable. The most frequently mentioned taxa were Pinus sylvestris, Matricaria discoidea and Valeriana officinalis. High plant name diversity as well as high heterogeneity in the plants used were observed, especially in earlier records. The use of local wild taxa growing outside the sphere of everyday human activities, which was abandoned during Soviet occupation, signals an earlier, pre-existing rich tradition of plant use and a deep relationship with nature. Working with archival data requires knowledge of historical contexts and the acceptance of the possibility of not finding all the answers.

Copyright of Athenaeum: Polskie Studia Politologiczne is the property of Faculty of Political Science & Security Studies Nicolaus Copernicus University 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 studies the ideas and practices involved in implementing an art collection in university studies, focusing on a plaster cast collection. The history of museums began in Estonia with the reopening of the University of Tartu (1802) and, since then, collections have played an important role in teaching. This article concentrates on the features of the Enlightenment in Estonia in the context of university education. The University of Tartu was located on the periphery of Europe: on the one hand it was on the fringes of the Russian Empire and on the other hand in the sphere of German culture. Nevertheless, the university collections proved to be varied and were integrated into lectures and seminars, which was an innovative idea in Estonian education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The death of Joseph Stalin resulted in the liberalization of formerly strict travel policies in the Soviet Union. The number of foreign tourists to the Soviet Union gradually increased, and soon Finnish visitors accounted for the majority of foreign visitors. One of the main travel destinations of Finns was Soviet Estonia. The aim of this paper is to analyze security considerations related to the growing number of Finnish tourists to Soviet Estonia from the mid-1950s until 1980. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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]

The theatres of Estonia celebrated the centenary of Estonian Republic by staging performances depicting different decades of the country's history. The article dis- cusses one of these performances "BB at Night" that staged the 1940s. The performance is based on a novel of the same title that tells the story of Berthold Brecht's journey to Finland during the Second World War. The aim of the article is to show - by describing three particular scenes from the performance and using the theories of Jacques Rancière, more precisely his notion of dissensus to analyse these scenes - how a performance that is not political per se could be received as political. By inviting audience members to participate in certain scenes, the bodies of theatre visitors are politicized, and the performance becomes aesthetically political and politically aesthetical. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article is analysing three productions from Estonia 100 theatre series "Tale of the Century" (Sajandi lugu): "The Landlady of Raven Stone" (Kaarnakivi perenaine), "Estonian History. A Nation Born of Shock" (Eesti ajalugu. Ehmatusest sündinud rahvas) and "Will Be / Will Not Be. Estonia in 100 Years" (Tuleb / Ei tule. Eesti 100 aasta pärast). These three productions had a common feature: they presented an alternate history, using either mytho-historic, counterfactual or utopian approach in interpreting Estonian history. The main aim is to demonstrate, how poetics of alternate history or utopia is explicitly or implicitly also building up politics of the future, depriving from victimisation and empowering subjectivity and agency. Alternate histories create space for opportunities where different stories - both factual, personal and fictional - can be realized. Estonian theatre makers and audiences seem not need any more precise imitations or reconstruction of history but reflections from different point of views and with different degrees of authenticity that help them to remember and understand the palimpsestic nature of history, the current situation and possible future scenarios. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, regional development research and policies have paid ever-increasing attention to the importance of regional images. Following the breakthrough of the neoliberal regional policy paradigm that embraces place marketing as its central development strategy, rural areas have also turned to measures of image-making in order to boost their development and fight peripheralization. In the case of two controversies over the 'right' kind of response strategy to the peripheralization of Valga County in southern Estonia, this article will show how this new focus on regional images is deeply embedded in the old policy controversy on the question of responsibility for dealing with regional development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present article aims at throwing light on publishing in the area of present-day Estonia and the role of clergymen originating from Sweden and Finland in the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. The authors of the first books printed in Estonia were of German, Swedish and Finnish origin. German and Baltic-German clergy have been researched in greater detail than parish ministers of Swedish and Finnish origin. The article will focus on the latter, placing them in the context of general literary culture in the area of present-day Estonia. [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]

Drawing on interviews with women who identify as feminists in Estonia, this article explores how the stories we tell about feminism and its past influence the kind of theoretical and political work we are able to do. Zooming in on the story of the emergence of feminisms in postsocialist Estonia which has not been thoroughly researched yet, this article calls upon feminists in Estonia to reflect critically on how they conceptualize feminisms, while at the same time building a framework to think about local feminism within transnational feminist context. Starting from stories of how women became feminists in Estonia since the fall of the Soviet Union in the 1990s, I reflect on the gaps, chance encounters and tensions that my fieldwork revealed to narrate feminism differently, to bring forth new aspects of feminism in this context. In particular, I focus on two moments: the common imaginary of ‘real’ feminism as Western mass movement and the tensions between the local context and ‘Western feminism’. I complicate the narrative in the article through including interludes in between the main text to highlight how the incidents that happened outside and around the interviews shape my story of feminism in Estonia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Estonian 1940s-1950s town planning practices show that Stalinist principles were in line with those of Estonian architects during the 1930s pre-war, independence period. However, between 1944 and 1955, within the context of the Soviet regime’s occupation, urban planning was faced with rigid ideological constraints. After the Second World War, Estonian architects were forced to abandon projects in historical city centres, which focused on maintaining local natural conditions and cultural heritage, as well as using local materials. Some existing town centres, such as in Tallinn, Narva, and Pärnu, were reconstructed after suffering damage in the war, as well as for ideological reasons. Yet, during this time period, most efforts were directed towards building new industrial towns in East Estonia that exemplified a Stalinist utopia; this also presented the Soviet regime with an opportunity to exploit local mineral resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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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.)

As a result of the First World War several new nation-states emerged on the map of Europe. One of them was the Republic of Estonia, emerging from the ruins of the Russian Empire. As Estonians had never had their own state before, the establishment of the parliamentary republic, its institutions and a national identity was a big challenge for its small elite. First and foremost, the ambition was to do things differently from the previous rulers. The Estonian economic geographer Edgar Kant played an important role in the development of his country between 1920 and 1940. His geography was politically motivated, innovative and pragmatic as the rapid development of the state required new theories and methods. The methodological basis for Kant's ‘innovative geography’ became Walter Christaller's central place theory, and he was the first in the world to understand the importance of applying it in empirical research, doing so in the 1930s in the reform of Estonian rural municipalities. In September 1944, Edgar Kant fled from Estonia to Lund and Christaller's theory spread more widely through Kant's interactions with Torsten Hägerstrand in Sweden and later Edward Ullman and Brian Berry in the United States. This paper reviews the relatively unknown geography, and the complicated life, of Edgar Kant, who, it is argued, strongly influenced the trajectory of the triumph of the ‘new geography’ in the 1950s. Through this example it will be shown how peripheral actors and places can play key roles in innovation diffusion and intellectual history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A decision adopted on 30 October 1944 in Moscow by the Orgburo of the Central Committee of the Communist (Bolshevist) Party of the Soviet Union (hereinafter C(B)PSU CC) launched an extensive process of sovieti-sation in the Estonian SSR. The great struggle' against so-called bourgeois nationalism began, and one of its thrusts was aimed at vilifying the prewar Republic of Estonia and rooting it out of society's consciousness. History started playing an important role in this 'struggle'. This was already stressed at the Estonian Communist (Bolshevist) Party (hereinafter EC(B) P) CC plenary meeting held in early December of 1944, where Moscow's decision was discussed along with the first measures for launching the sovietisation of society. At the meeting, a programmatic speech was given by Hans Kruus, the founder of historical science focusing on the Estonian nation, who began to serve the Soviet regime in the 'June coup' of 1940. In 1944, Kruus was a close associate of Nikolai Karotamm, the leader of the Estonian SSR at that time, and he led the sovietisation of historical science, and more broadly of the whole system of scientific and academic research in Estonia. Hans Kruus formulated the aims and tasks of historical science in Soviet society and also considered it necessary to study the period of independent statehood. He understood perfectly that the assessment from Marxist positions of the legacy of the era of independence was essential for educating the 'new Soviet man', but also for making the Soviet regime as palatable as possible for society. For this reason, Karotamm and his 'team' paid a great deal of attention to involving writers, scientists and other people known in society to a greater or lesser extent in carrying out the sovietisation process. Kruus stressed the need to eliminate the 'remnants of misconceptions' left by the era of bourgeois Estonia, but this did not mean casting the era of independent statehood into the trash bin of history. The task of historical science was to give the 'bourgeois Estonian state' Soviet content. One of the first practical tasks in sovietising historical science was to work out a Marxist periodisation for Estonian history, which was supposed to be founded on the theory of social-economic formations. Artur Vas-sar was the historian who dealt the most with questions of periodisation, completing his system by 1947. Additionally, Abe Liebman, the head of the Chair of History at the Estonian republic's EC(B)P CC Communist Party School, and Gustav Naan, who at that time was studying at the C(B)PSU CC Higher Communist Party School in Moscow, worked out their own periodisation system. These two competing systems were combined into a single unified system through the mediation of Ivan Kabin, the EC(B) PCC Propaganda and Agitation Secretary, and it was published in the magazine Eesti Bolsevik [Estonian Bolshevik] in September of 1948. The publication of the Soviet periodisation system in 1948 was an important landmark in the sovietisation of historical science, since the main periods of Estonian history based on social-economic formations were introduced to the public for the first time. Although this periodisation system was later refined and expanded, it remained the basis for future historical works and provided the framework for the study of history in the Estonian SSR for many years to come. Naturally, the aim of the regime was also to sovietise the organisation of science. The central undertaking in this process was the founding of the Estonian SSR Academy of Sciences in 1946. Here as well, the key figure was Hans Kruus, who became the Academy's first president and a corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union. Various academic institutes began operating as sub-institutions of the Academy of Sciences. These institutes had the leading role in academic research, unlike institutions of higher education, which were expected to prepare students for research and academic degrees and not to contribute to research as their primary task. The Estonian SSR Academy of Sciences Institute of History (directed by Richard Kleis) became the central research institution for historical science (together with archaeology and art history). The compilation of Marxist survey works on Estonian history, which were also supposed to provide a complete overview of the period of the independent Republic of Estonia, became the primary task of the Institute of History. Its primary aim at that time was to write an Estonian history textbook, but the undertaking failed. Thereafter plans were made to produce a two-volume Luhike Eesti ajalugu [Brief History of Estonia]. The manuscript for the first volume was ready to be printed by the end of 1949. The institute also started compiling a new three-volume Soviet-style general treatment of Estonian history. The manuscript for the first volume was supposed to be completed in 1948, the second volume in 1950 and the third volume in 1951. Hans Kruus was the executive editor of both publications. In studying the period of the independent Republic of Estonia, chief attention had to be paid to the labour movement, though initially there were also more substantial studies of the period of independent statehood planned in the Institute of History. Namely, Hans Kruus planned to write the book Eesti kodanlik riik 1918-1920 [The Estonian Bourgeois State 1918-1920], which was supposed to provide a 'general popular-style overview of the class nature of the bourgeois Estonian state, its economic foundations, the struggles between cliques that developed in it, and foreign policy'. After a few years, Kruus abandoned this theme and set a new objective for himself to write the book Kodanliku Eesti valispoliitika 1918-1940 [The Foreign Policy of Bourgeois Estonia 1918-1940]. Yet even this undertaking did not come to fruition since the political conditions had already been significantly altered by the end of the 1940s. The campaign against so-called bourgeois nationalism was picking up steam and it did not leave those who went along with the Soviet regime in 1940 untouched. From late 1949, Hans Kruus became the primary target of this campaign, which led to his expulsion from the Communist Party, the dismissal from the posts of Minister of Foreign Affairs and President of the Academy of Sciences, and eventually to his arrest in October of 1950. The organisation of historical research disintegrated with the fall of Kruus, and most of the projects connected to his name were cancelled. His stigmatisation as a 'bourgeois nationalist' led to the more substantial themes concerning the period of the independent Republic of Estonia being squeezed out of the work plans for the Estonian SSR Academy of Sciences institutes by 1950. One of the main points in the accusations levelled against Kruus became the reprimand that 'having taken it upon himself to study the bourgeois dictatorship', he actually did not do anything to launch this research, but rather organised 'the work in the Estonian SSR Academy of Sciences Institute of History in such a way as to prevent the study of this period in the future as well'. The entire era of independent statehood was turned into a marginal period of research. A few narrow themes were permitted in its research, such as the labour movement, the activities of the Communists, agrarian conditions, and opposition to the Soviet Union in foreign policy. The negative attitude towards the independent Republic of Estonia achieved its apogee in the first Soviet, more precisely Stalinist, general survey of Estonian history published in 1952. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Since historical memory is a vital element of national unity and identity in oppressed nations that challenges the legitimacy of an occupying power, an important goal of the oppressors becomes the distortion of this memory. The Soviet authorities put a massive effort into the legitimization of their power by creating official versions of histories of the nations they occupied to prove that their incorporation into the Soviet Union was a voluntary act. The article demonstrates how in Estonia, the so-called June Myth was created to justify the Soviet take-over on 21st June 1940 and the consequent annexation of Estonia. Discourse analysis of 25 articles from the leading Communist Party daily Rahva Hääl/ The People’s Voice demonstrates how argumentation strategies, ‘us – them’ polarization and three types of antagonisms were used for constructing the June Myth.

The aim of this article is to explore the limits of Russian diffusion in Estonia by elaborating on Ida-Viru country of Estonia closely. The article focuses on Russian/Soviet historical links to Ida-Viru country and those links' effect on current Russian diffusion potential in Estonia. The article concludes that Russian/Soviet historical links to Ida-Viru country should not automatically be classified as potential indicators of Russian dominance in Estonia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After the time of the Great Duchy of Lithuania and that of their inclusion to Russian Empire, the three Baltic countries got their first independence after WWI, but WWII forced them to enter the Soviet Union for almost five decades before getting their second independence and resuming with market economy, to finally join the European Union. Such strong historical changes caused major impacts (either positive or negative) on the implementation of the health transition in the region, quite interesting to document, but they also produced dramatic changes in the quality and the accuracy of information required to compute mortality indicators. The aim of this article is to briefly summarize existing knowledge on mortality in the Baltic region for the past two centuries, but focusing more precisely on the consequences of getting in and then getting out of the Soviet system in terms of health and survival. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Despite the effort of our predecessors, today's art historians still need to do a lot of work regarding older art, not only in the field of theoretical generalisations and contemporary evaluations, but also in gathering and interpreting factual material, without which generalisations cannot be reliable. Tonis Grenzstein's life and work confirm this eloquently. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article was created as a result of 2016 project in which the large-scale Swedish land survey maps of Vidzeme were referenced.1 At the end of the 17th century, professional surveyors mapped what is now largely the territory of Vidzeme. The project as well as this article aims to increase the use of these historic maps in everyday archaeological and historic research. The article focuses on the methods used to adjust the maps and the potential uses of these maps. Various studies from Sweden and Estonia serve as examples both for this project and, hopefully, for further archaeological research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In her influential article, Tara Zahra works to develop a new style of historical analysis that functions without presupposed national or other identities. However, it is difficult to integrate her concept of ‘national indifference’ into a practical program of research. The present article argues that this can be achieved by a broader usage of the term. First, instead of excluding national and ethnic affiliations from research altogether, it stresses whatfunctionsthey fulfill in individual lives. Second, it argues that nationality has a meaning in some contexts, while it is unimportant in others. Therefore, the concept ‘spaces of national indifference’ is developed. This concept is exemplified by discussing the biography of the Baltic German banker Klaus Scheel in interwar Estonia. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

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Copyright of Archaeologia Baltica is the property of Archaeologia Baltica 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 subjugation of Northern Estonia to Swedish rule in 1561 is described in all general presentations of history, yet by and large, the course of events has not been traced in newer research. This period of history is very remarkable in three aspects. First of all, it was important for Sweden's political history because over the course of the subsequent hundred years, Sweden became a major power in the Baltic Sea region, in reference to which the expression dominium maris Baltici is used. Secondly, the events of 1561-62 were of local importance because they led to the demise of the State of the Livonian Order in Livonia, which also meant the end of the Middle Ages in that region. The third viewpoint concerning the effect of these events to constitutional is perhaps even more important. They started the transformation of previously unitary Sweden into a European conglomerate state where in addition to the motherland, there were other distinctive parts with different , so called provinces. Only a part of this chain of events will be examined in this study, namely the visit of the Swedish envoys Klas Kristersson Horn, Hans Larsson Björnram and Herman Bruser to Tallinn from March to June of 1561 and the events following this visit after the coronation of the king in Stockholm towards the end of the summer. There is abundant source material related to the deliberations (correspondence, presentations, documents verifying privileges, descriptions of oral conversations) and part of it has been published, but there are many loose ends in this material, first and foremost in regard to questions related to constitutional . A completely new picture of the history of the birth of Sweden as a great power emerges as a result of the careful reading of the sources. Unlike later developments, to a great extent the initiative came from Tallinners themselves. Their vision was affected both by the fear of Russia and by the wish to use the opportunities offered by trade with the east. Complete concord prevailed in these matters between the Tallinners and Sweden's young king Erik XIV. The Harju-Viru knighthood and the nobility of Järvamaa followed the example of Tallinn's senior magistrates and town council. The vote with acclamation that took place in Tallinn, where the participants chose “with hand and mouth” the king of Sweden as their ruler, was of central importance. This was followed by detailed consultations, where Horn, Björnram and Bruser in accordance with their authorisation agreed to the existing privileges of the corporations. Two separate “acts of recognition” (Huldigung) took place in Tallinn on 4 and 6 June 1951, the content of which was typical in the case of the declaration of the sovereign as ruler. The central elements of these ceremonies were the oath of allegiance and the affirmation of the ruler, ecclesiastical ceremonies and various kinds of expressions of joy. After this, a delegation from the knighthood and the city travelled to Sweden, but they were late (perhaps for diplomatic reasons) for the king's coronation celebrations held in Uppsala in June of 1561. In this way they did not have to take the oath of allegiance the same way as the Swedes. The final phase of the events took place in audiences with Erik XIV in Stockholm as well as its surrounding area. The promises and the written oaths taken in Tallinn were reviewed on the basis of Sweden's legal expertise and even though the Swedes were not always satisfied with them, the king affirmed them all the same. He was emphatically benevolent and even approved the privileges presented by the delegations without reading them, asking only whether there was not anything in them contrary to natural . Thus the privileges of both the knighthood and the city were approved in Norrköping on 2 August 1561. The Riksradet (Council of the Realm) did not participate in making the final decisions and the king also did not request any recommendation from the Riksdag (Sweden's parliament). Instead, he relied on the permit that Riksdag had already granted to Gustav Vasa in the summer of 1560 “to set foot in Livonia”. The reason as seen from Sweden for incorporating Tallinn and its surrounding region was undoubtedly primarily mercantile. Several features of the policy of Erik XIV, and the selection of envoys (Horn and Björnram) from among persons who knew Russian trade the best, are indicative of this. Yet other reasons also had their effect, for instance state security and the ruler's ambition and vanity. On the whole, Sweden's path to becoming a great power can be explained on the basis of the complexity theory and especially the path dependence featured in this theory, where decision-making is limited to the path that has previously been selected. The distinctive feature of the events that took place in Tallinn was the fact that they had the strong support of the city's inhabitants and that very little military force was used, while on the other hand was spent liberally to pay for both bribes and awards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper discusses a hoard of Swedish copper coins discovered using metal detector in 2013 in Vaidavere, eastern Estonia. 11 104 coins were hidden in the ground in a wooden box. Youngest of the coins were minted in the year 1654. Vast majority of the hoard consists of ¼ öre from the reign of queen Christina. 10 coins were struck for King Gustav II Adolf. Oldest coins of the hoard are from the year 1624. Considering the numer of the coins, Vaidavere hoard is the largest in Estonia and it also represents a largest hoard of seventeenth-century Swedish copper coins ever to have reached public collections. The owner of Vaidavere coins died probably during the Russo-Swedish War (1656-61), more precisely in the year 1656 when Russian troops conquered Tartu and looted neighbouring territories. Approximately 40 hoards discovered in Estonia can be associated with the hostile activities of the same war. The paper compares the composition of Vaidavere hoard to the composition of other larger seventeenth-century copper coin hoards unearthed in Estonia and neighbouring countries. Results of the study reveal that the composition of different ¼ öre find assemblages from Estonia and Ingria is largely similar and in good correlation with the production of different Swedish mints in different years. Weighing of ¼ öre from Vaidavere hoard revealed that their average weight was considerably lower than the officially fixed minted standard. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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.)

This article is based on a comparative analysis, juxtaposing archival and oral historical sources, to identify changes that took place in the teaching profession in the annexed Baltic States. Attention is paid to the generation of Estonian and Latvian teachers, born in the 1920s–1930s and trained as Soviet teachers in the 1940s–1950s. Their transformation into ‘Soviet people’ included acceptance of Soviet values and rejecting the inherent ones. Therefore, the research focuses on the course and outcomes of reeducation of teachers pursued by the Soviet authorities up to the early 1960’s. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article focuses on the generational self-understanding of women born in the 1940s in Estonia. Their self-understanding is analyzed through nostalgia and private–public remembering and is based on 21 life stories. The life stories primarily focus on the everyday experiences from the late socialism era. These women are more likely to give examples not in accordance with dominant national discourse, and their voice has not been heard in the public discourse. The article shows that experiences from the private sphere also have an influence on the formation of generational consciousness. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

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The aim of this article is to introduce the work of August Wilhem Hupel, a Baltic German author of the 18th century. The article focuses on the sections in his most voluminous workTopographische Nachrichten von Lief- und Ehstland(1774–1782) that describe Estonian peasants’ sexuality. Hupel’s writings belong to the sources of the history of the Estonian family, a field that has been rediscovered at the beginning of the 21st century. Thanks to the work of Marika Mägi and Nils Blomkvist, a new paradigm for research in this field has been opened up. This article adheres to that paradigm. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Travel is an essential feature of memory. This themed issue on Nordic-Baltic oral history research concentrates on the movement and travel of both people and memories across time, place and media, and the inevitable multi-sitedness of memory. The issue demonstrates how the social and political changes experienced in Finland and its close neighbours Sweden, Estonia and Latvia during the twentieth century have affected oral history research in these countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The restoration of the Estonian Republic in late 1980s and early 1990s can be described as the construction of ‘the Republic of Historians’. A great many founders and leaders of the newly independent republic had received their education from the Department of History at the University of Tartu, and first gained their public renown as leaders of the national heritage movement and publicists on historical issues. The whole of the period, often called the ‘new era of awakening’, was characterized by an ideology of restoration, worked out by politically minded historians and historically minded political dissidents. In essence, all the political steps taken were motivated by a desire to return to pre-war laws, traditions, and institutions – to rehabilitate and restitute everything that had been destroyed or condemned to oblivion in the Soviet period. The major role of historical arguments and restoration ideology in the Estonian independence movement was not without several important sociopolitical consequences, especially in the realm of citizenship and property policy, which departed from a strict idea of legal continuity. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Due to historical-cultural factors, Estonians answer that religion occupies a low level of importance in response to European and global surveys. Nonetheless, new spiritualities, rather than scientific materialism, have become increasingly influential in Estonia. Based on material from quantitative and qualitative studies, this article identifies indicators of the changing understandings about spiritual-alternative ideas and practices in Estonia and analyzes the tactics spiritual practitioners use to legitimize their worldviews. The study argues that “fuzzy spirituality” is the dominant mode of religiosity in Estonia and challenges researchers to find new methods and theoretical approaches to study religions. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

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The purpose of this article is to test an explanation for the atypical nature of the development of demesne lordship in western Estonia1 in early modern times. My proposed hypothesis concerning the development of early modern demesne lordship in the Baltic Sea region takes as its starting point the impact on private land ownership in Europe caused by governments' extension of their political powers and increasing conflicts. The twenty-first-century discourse about raison d'état has here been broadened with additional arguments about the role of the early modern military state in the development of demesne lordship in the Baltic Sea region, following the reasoning behind Braudel's and Wallerstein's center-periphery models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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 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.)