Estonianness in the Making: Transformations of Ethnic Democracy Model and Nationalism in Estonia

Abstract

Estonian nationalism has undergone a transformation from ‘state-seeking’ to ‘state-led’ since acquiring independence, which has affected the Estonian national identity. Estonia is commonly labelled as an ‘ethnic democracy’; however, we propose a dichotomy between open and closed ethnic democracies. The process of national state-building in Estonia is still going on, with the concept of ‘Estonianness’ consisting of the ‘Finno-Ugric,’ ‘Nordic/Scandinavian,’ and ‘European’ identity structures. These form the basis for an inclusive, or open ethnic democracy. Though Estonianness is primarily defined in cultural and linguistic terms, a newcomer may ascribe oneself to it and become a member of the ethno-civic nation.

Acknowledgments

For their valuable comments on earlier drafts, I am indebted to Prof. Dr. Alexei Miller (European University in Saint-Petersburg), to Dr. Nikolai Silaev (MGIMO University), and to Silver Loit (Tartu University). I am also grateful to the anonymous reviewers for their constructive and highly valuable input.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 This elimination process is though very gradual and, at times, slow-unfolding. In 2009, Vadim Poleshchuk stated that ‘there are no doubts that in Estonian academia, it is primordialism which prevails’ (2009, p. 16). Now, looking from 2023, we might assume (and, hopefully, prove it below) that this prevalence is somehow shaken, if not ousted entirely from the academic Olympus (Ventsel, 2018).

2 Data from the Estonian Media Union webpage: https://meedialiit.ee/statistika/statistika-2020/.

3 Nevertheless, Estonian Citizens’ Committees cannot be viewed as the bearers of the ‘ethnic democracy’ point of view, since their main initial goal was to register all citizens of the Republic of Estonia (those who had the citizenship prior to the Soviet takeover) and their successors, regardless of their ethnic background. So, Saarts’s distinction is not that much about ethnic/civic nation, but about, again, openness/closeness.

4 To better understand Rand’s position, probably it is worth mentioning that Walter (Valter) Rand (1914-1994) lived and worked mostly outside Estonia.

5 We should admit that the semantic boundaries between the two terms (rahvas and rahvus) are rather contextual and indexical, and not in every situation are they clearly identifiable (though official documents, like Constitution, leave not that much space for ambiguity). According to Ventsel (2018), rahvus can be interpreted as ‘ethnicity,’ rahvas as ‘people,’ while both of them can denote ‘nation,’ depending on a speaker’s intention.

6 Though there is some archaeological evidence of Christianity being partly brought to the Estonian territory by the Kyivan Rus in the 11th-12th centuries already (Engelhardt, 2014).

7 Probably, after February 24, 2022, the Eurosceptic component of the public discourse has lost some of its importance in Estonia; it is hard to predict however whether it will regain some popularity in the nearest future.

8 ‘The Soviet period and Soviet power (colloquially vene aeg – Russian time) were associated with ethnic Russians and the Russian language, and was normally stigmatized as being alien and inorganic for the country’ (Poleshchuk, 2009, p. 17).

9 A very exceptional February 1925 Law on Cultural Self-Government for National Minorities might be of evidence here.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by MGIMO University: [Grant Number 2023-03-01].

Notes on contributors

Petr Oskolkov

Petr Oskolkov is a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Middle Eastern Studies and Political Science and the Moskowitz School of Communication at Ariel University, Israel. He worked as an assistant professor at MGIMO University (Russia) and Lomonosov Moscow State University (Russia). His latest book is Transforming the Administrative Matryoshka: The Reform of Autonomous Okrugs in the Russian Federation, 2003-2008 (2022, Ibidem, co-edited with Igor Okunev).