Authors

Kaarel Piirimae¹;  ¹ University of Helsinki, Finland

Discussion

In September 1991, just days after achieving independence, Foreign Minister Lennart Meri warned that the country’s treatment of its Russian-speaking minority would become Estonia’s Assamalla. He was referring to a mythical battle in the 19th century Estonian epic Kalevipoeg, fought between an army of knights and heavily outnumbered Estonian pagans. In the 1990s, Estonia was not facing crusaders but a disapproving Russian Government and a legion of concerned observers in the West. Why Estonia, along with Latvia, chose a nationalizing state-building strategy has interested scholars ever since. While some identified a “higher national consciousness” (Lieven 1993), others pointed to the othering of Russia/Soviet past as a pillar of identity (Mole 2013). But as Pettai (2004, also Brubaker 1992) argues, the issue was about establishing state continuity, after the legal concept of Restorationism proved the most effective mobilizing frame. However, this paper (based on a book manuscript) argues that the origins of Restorationism were not as much in domestic politics as in successful diplomacy. In 1989, many Russian democrats went along with the Baltic politicians' idea to condemn the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact as a matter of historical justice. Moreover, the international community recognised the legal identity of the Baltic states with the pre-1940 republics. As the Estonian national movement thought it was engaged in an existential struggle against demographic collapse and imperial domination, Restorationism promised the quickest break with the past. As diplomacy of the 1990s showed, Russian displeasure and Western criticism delayed but did not prevent the restoration of independence, nationalizing policies and a speedy “return to Europe”. As in national mythos, Assamalla was a victory for the Pagans: by 2004, the Baltic states were memebers of both the EU and NATO and the security of the nations, defined in ethnic terms, seemed assured. This paper (and book) is the first on this topic to be based on extensive research in archives in many countries, but primarily Estonia.