Eesti! Eesti! Eesti! (Tallinn day 1)
Jul. 15th, 2007 12:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jawnbcI was very excited about going to Tallinn Estonia as the last destination of my European sojourn. Tallinn is beautiful, but several aspects of my (admittedly brief) visit were a disappointment. To a large extent, this young woman's expression captures my feelings about this week Baltic Scandanavian endroit: beautiful but troubled.
Yes I'm proud to be Estonian. But drag is drag is drag...
First off, it must be said that Tallinn--particularly its nearly wholly intact mediaeval Old Town--is gorgeous. Having survived bombing raids in WW II with only about 5% of its buildings destroyed or damaged, this remains one of the best places to get a sense of what life in the Hanseatic League looked like. In the last 15 years especially Estonia has gone to great lengths to restore much of Old Town--though if you enter through it's back door (*cough*) there are still a few streets that reflect the Town's condition under the Soviets.
One could go mad trying to get the perfect photo...only to discover an even nicer vista around the corner
Estonia has only been independent for about 35 of the last 800 years: briefly between WW I and WW II and since the Singing Revolution of 87-91. Otherwise the Danes, Swedes, Germans or Russians have colonized the place. I found the superficial historical discourse about Estonia fascinating: a revolution of song, with not a drop of blood shed. And in strictest, descriptive terms this is true. But Estonia's independence has perhaps more to do with the state of the Soviet sphere than with the persuasive power of its musical people. Tallinn has held song/singing festivals since the 19th century, but under the Soviets the music had to be either propoganda or not-at-all nationalist. But starting in 1988 the canon of nationalist Estonian music began to be reasserted.
At the same time the Latvians and Lithuanians were also asserted their nationhood and on 23 August 1989 over 3 million Estonians, Latvians and Lithuanians formed a 600km human chain--roughly 40% of their combined populations. This event caught the eye of global media and finally, after 4 decades "waiting for the white ship" of the free West coming to liberate them, leaders in Europe and North America began to assert their support for Baltic independence. In both Latvia and Lithuania the local Soviet authorities took aggressive military action against public demonstrations, resulting in deaths and injuries. But in Estonia the Soviet loyalists refused to take any action that would lead to bloodshed. With the attempted coup in Moscow in 1991, they each declared (or, more accurately, re-asserted--since no democratically elected government in each had ever assented to Sovietization) their independence. Which even Russia recognized in a matter of weeks.
But I digress.
ABC: another bloody cobblestone lane
Since then Estonia has joined NATO and the EU. They would be in the € as well, except their annual inflation is about 5% (it has to be less than 3%). It almost every respect things are going well but one: internal unity. When new citizenship laws were brought into force in the early 90s, the Estonian government didn't grant automatic citizenship to those who had arrived in the country since 1940--Russians and other Soviet supporters. However, these residents were eligible for citizenship if they: 1.) pass an Estonian language test; and 2.) pass an Estonian history test. Many refused, and also elected to send their children to unilingual Russian language schools. All of which seems eminently reasonable to me.Tallinn is roughly 40% (the Northeast of Estonia is as much as 80%) Russian.
Y'a tant de murs qui tu retiennent
I picked up a 2 day Tallinn Card for about $40. This included free admission to most tourist sites (I hit about 12 in 2 days, which cost about $3 each), a 2 hour intro sightseeing tour (which I used to orient myself to the place on my first morning), ultimated public transport, store discounts, and other perks. It paid for itself very quickly. The intro tour was half by bus, half walking. They took us out to the Song Fesitval grounds, through some of the residential neighbourhoods, and the Old Town from top (Toompea) to bottom (Viru). The tour made my self-directed sightseeing much easier.
Yes I'm proud to be Estonian. But drag is drag is drag...
First off, it must be said that Tallinn--particularly its nearly wholly intact mediaeval Old Town--is gorgeous. Having survived bombing raids in WW II with only about 5% of its buildings destroyed or damaged, this remains one of the best places to get a sense of what life in the Hanseatic League looked like. In the last 15 years especially Estonia has gone to great lengths to restore much of Old Town--though if you enter through it's back door (*cough*) there are still a few streets that reflect the Town's condition under the Soviets.
One could go mad trying to get the perfect photo...only to discover an even nicer vista around the corner
Estonia has only been independent for about 35 of the last 800 years: briefly between WW I and WW II and since the Singing Revolution of 87-91. Otherwise the Danes, Swedes, Germans or Russians have colonized the place. I found the superficial historical discourse about Estonia fascinating: a revolution of song, with not a drop of blood shed. And in strictest, descriptive terms this is true. But Estonia's independence has perhaps more to do with the state of the Soviet sphere than with the persuasive power of its musical people. Tallinn has held song/singing festivals since the 19th century, but under the Soviets the music had to be either propoganda or not-at-all nationalist. But starting in 1988 the canon of nationalist Estonian music began to be reasserted.
At the same time the Latvians and Lithuanians were also asserted their nationhood and on 23 August 1989 over 3 million Estonians, Latvians and Lithuanians formed a 600km human chain--roughly 40% of their combined populations. This event caught the eye of global media and finally, after 4 decades "waiting for the white ship" of the free West coming to liberate them, leaders in Europe and North America began to assert their support for Baltic independence. In both Latvia and Lithuania the local Soviet authorities took aggressive military action against public demonstrations, resulting in deaths and injuries. But in Estonia the Soviet loyalists refused to take any action that would lead to bloodshed. With the attempted coup in Moscow in 1991, they each declared (or, more accurately, re-asserted--since no democratically elected government in each had ever assented to Sovietization) their independence. Which even Russia recognized in a matter of weeks.
But I digress.
ABC: another bloody cobblestone lane
Since then Estonia has joined NATO and the EU. They would be in the € as well, except their annual inflation is about 5% (it has to be less than 3%). It almost every respect things are going well but one: internal unity. When new citizenship laws were brought into force in the early 90s, the Estonian government didn't grant automatic citizenship to those who had arrived in the country since 1940--Russians and other Soviet supporters. However, these residents were eligible for citizenship if they: 1.) pass an Estonian language test; and 2.) pass an Estonian history test. Many refused, and also elected to send their children to unilingual Russian language schools. All of which seems eminently reasonable to me.Tallinn is roughly 40% (the Northeast of Estonia is as much as 80%) Russian.
Y'a tant de murs qui tu retiennent
I picked up a 2 day Tallinn Card for about $40. This included free admission to most tourist sites (I hit about 12 in 2 days, which cost about $3 each), a 2 hour intro sightseeing tour (which I used to orient myself to the place on my first morning), ultimated public transport, store discounts, and other perks. It paid for itself very quickly. The intro tour was half by bus, half walking. They took us out to the Song Fesitval grounds, through some of the residential neighbourhoods, and the Old Town from top (Toompea) to bottom (Viru). The tour made my self-directed sightseeing much easier.
