Johann Woldemar Jannsen, Carl Robert Jakobson, Ado Grenzstein: Collaborators under Foreign Domination?

Abstract

It is only 150 years since Estonians began to identify themselves as a nation with a language, culture and history of its own. This history was framed by Estonians' understanding of themselves as a “small people,” dominated by foreign powers. Alongside the “national awakening” and the battles against Baltic Germans or Russians, perceptions of foreign dominance have also been manifested through the articulation of concepts such as conformity, cooperation or “collaboration.” In its widest sense, “collaboration” can be defined as cooperation with foreign rulers based on conscious part-identities of the individual. The term can therefore be applied to instances of ideological, confessional or cultural domination as well as to circumstances of war or military confrontation. In the period of the “national awakening,” the growing verbal and ideological confrontation between the Estonians and their “foreign” Baltic-German and Russian overlords was played out on the pages of Estonian newspapers. This article analyzes the varying stances adopted by some of the main protagonists in these debates. In so doing, it highlights the need for a more thorough examination of individual motives for “collaboration,” beyond the categories of “treason” or “national duty.”