Authors

Discussion

The Setos are a Finno-Ugric people living in the southeastern borderland of Estonia. While the Seto homeland fell within interwar Estonia’s borders, it has been divided by the Estonian-Russian border since 1991. This border complicated the question of land restitution for the Seto people in post-socialist Estonia.  

This paper shifts the focus from the border to the land question. It examines the relationship between the post-socialist land reform in Estonia and the Seto movement in the 1990s. Using egodocuments, local newspapers, and oral history interviews, I explore how the Setos reflected on what their own land meant for individuals and for the community. Historicising ethnic mobilisation in the context of rapid socio-economic transformation and uncertainty of land ownership, this paper will contribute to research on the development of a Seto identity in the 1990s.