Estonian History

The author presents a genesis and analyzes the symbolism  of  the  Memorial  to  the  Victims  of  Communism in Tallinn. It focuses on conceptual assumptions adopted by its authors, but also takes into account later interpretations of the monument’s  message.  It  recalls  historical  events  the  memorial site relates to. It describes the period of the Soviet occupation of Estonia and presents the balance of repressions made at that time – mass arrests, secret executions, deportations of people, and  brutal  collectivization  of  agriculture.  The  historical  context  outlined  in  such  way  allows  for  a  better  understanding  of  significance  of the monument in question and its place on the memory  map  of  contemporary  Estonia.  The  author also notes that Tallinn’s monument is an important element of not only Estonian, but also – more broadly – of the European memory of the victims of Stalinism and Communism.

The numeration of the protocols of the EC(B)P CC Bureau meetings started in 1940. The first elections to the Bureau that were carried out according to the Articles of Association of the Party, took place on February 8, 1941 at the plenary session of the EC(B)P CC. The Bureau of the EC(B)P CC had 11 members in most periods. In 1962–1966, when there was a presidium instead of a bureau, the number of members was 8–9. Presidium had same functions as bureau. From time to time this number has been bigger or smaller.
As a rule, the members of the Bureau included all Secretaries of the EC(B)P CC, the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic (ESSR), the Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet and the First Secretary of the EC(B)P Tallinn City Committee. During different times also the First Deputy of the Chairman of the Council of Ministers, Chairman of the Council of Trade Unions, Head of the Department for Interorganisational Affairs of the EC(B)P CC, a few high-ranking military officers, and Minister of Internal Affairs or of Internal Security. The latter officials often made it only to the position of a member candidate of the Bureau or were excluded from the membership of this body. Sometimes also the First Secretary of the CC of the Estonian Leninist Communist Youth League and the editors of two major newspapers Rahva Hääl (People’s Voice) and Sovetskaja Estonija (Soviet Estonia) were chosen to be member candidates of Bureau. Observers of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU), members of the EC(B)P CC and employees of the CC and leading government apparatus took part in the meetings of the Bureau. The position of 3rd Secretary existed only during the period of Nikolai Karotamm and it could have been created in order to copy the large power structure of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist (Bolshevik) Party.
The Bureau of the EC(B)P CC was the control body for lower level party bodies and executive bodies and also a legislative body in the ESSR. As a legislative body it made decisions on internal matters of the Party and directed legal acts to other organisations for issuing or adoption. In 1940–1990, during this nearly 50-year period, the members of the Bureau included the top leaders of the ESSR. The members of the Bureau were leaders of the Party bodies and Soviet bodies. For that reason, in the conditions of a totalitarian society, the Bureau of the EC(B)P CC can be considered as a
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local „government“ that was subordinated to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU CC). 3–5 or sometimes up to 6 members of the Bureau had to be secretaries of the EC(B)P CC. The 2nd Secretary was the local “eye of Moscow”, a control body sent by the CPSU to the Bureau of ECP CC. The local Bureaus of the communist parties of the soviet republics were accountable to Moscow. Initiatives of any importance taken by a soviet republic had to be coordinated with Moscow.
In 1944–1947 there was an Estonian Bureau at Central Committee of All-Union Communist (Bolshevik) Party. Its task was to start an effective process of sovietisation and to implement it as soon as possible in order to make it irreversible in a short period of time.
Membership to the EC(B)P CC was determined at plenary sessions. Party congresses took place at least once in five years. The congress determined the number of the members of the EC(B)P CC. Decisions taken at the congresses and plenary sessions were generally agreed and prepared by the EC(B)P CC Bureau. During the intercongressional period the EC(B)P CC was led by the Bureau and was the highest body in the EC(B)P organisational structure.
Generally the Bureau of the EC(B)P CC convened once a week, but from the 1970s this changed to 3–4 times in a month. The Bureau listened to the decisions and reports of various organisations of the power institution, including reports about implementing decisions. According to the example of Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) the Bureau of the EC(B)P CC passed regulations of the Council of Ministers of the ESSR and EC(B)P CC that were signed by the Chairman of the Council of Ministers or by the Secretary of the EC(B)P CC. The Bureau appointed and dismissed Party members who belonged to the nomenklatura.
The time from 1945 to the beginning of the 1950s was a process of introduction of the soviet power structure in the ESSR. In 1952 the All-Union Communist (Bolshevik) Party was renamed at its All-Union XIX Party congress to Communist Party of the Soviet Union and the Estonian Communist (Bolshevik) Party to Estonian Communist Party. During the Soviet occupation the Bureau of the EC(B)P CC was engaged in both substantial and technical matters: collectivisation, staff, economy (agriculture, industry), ideology, humanising the repressive apparatus, renewal of the power structure of the EC(b)P CC and the ESSR, ethnic issues, cultural life and control mechanisms of the society.
Candidates to the Bureau of the ECP CC were presented until 1990. By that time
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the Bureau had lost its absolute power in leading the society. At the XX congress of the ECP on March 23–25, 1990 a new political party with an independent platform was founded on the basis of the CPSU. Until that time the Bureau of the ECP CC could be considered as the „government“ of the ESSR but after that it consisted only of the staff of the Party apparatus.
40 secretaries of the EC(B)P CC and 31 higher functionaries belonged to the Bureau of the EC(B)P CC. During 50 years the total number of the members of the EC(B)P CC was 71, of whom all were men. There were 27 member candidates, among them one woman, of whom 8 did not remain candidates but became members. During 1940–1990 the members of the Bureau came from various ethnic groups: 35 ethnic Estonians, 13 ethnic Estonians from Russia, 14 Russians, 6 people from other nationalities and 4 whose nationality could not be determined. The members of the Bureau had various educational backgrounds: only 14 with higher education, 3 with uncompleted higher education, 21 had vocational secondary education, 4 with secondary education, 3 with basic education and 1 with uncompleted basic education, 2 had primary education, 1 had uncompleted primary education and the education of 21 members could not be determined. The average age by the time of appointment to the Bureau was 43.1 years. According to available information the average time of being a Bureau member was 8.7 years. 13 persons were members of the Bureau for more than 10 years. 4 members were chosen to be Bureau members twice, one for three times. According to available information the youngest Bureau member at the time of his first appointment was 28-year-old Propaganda Secretary Neeme Ruus (member of the Bureau of the EC(B)P CC in 1940–1941) and the oldest were the 54-year-old 2nd Secretary Aleksandr Kudrjavtsev (1982–1985) and Secretary Vladimir Käo (1978–1985). 10 members of the Bureau of the EC(B)P CC had been political prisoners during the Estonian independence period.
The Bureau of the EC(B)P CC approved the list of administrative positions of the nomenklatura and changes in them. The Bureau of the EC(b)P CC was subordinated to the CC CPSU.

This is a scanned copy of Jüri Viikberg's very rare paper published in the journal Fenno-Ugrica Suecana, 1992, volume 11, pages 79-90. This reprint at Academia is presented with permission given by the current editorial board of the journal (of which I am part).

This work is a fascinating study about Estonians in far away Siberia. The Abstract states: When talking about the Siberian Estonians one easily associates with the deportations of the Stalin period in 1941 and 1949. However, that is a mislead. The Estonian villages in Siberia have a much longer and more interesting history. There are two kinds of Estonian settlements in Russia: 1) villages founded by deported persons in the 19th century, and 2) villages founded by voluntary expatriates. The older Estonian villages in Siberia (as well as e.g. the Finnish, German, Latvian, and Russian villages) are primarily a result of the conquest policy of Russia. Siberia is considered a part of Russia since 1582, and in 1721 also Estonia and Ingria were incorporated with Russia. Since then the Estonians have had access to Siberia. The main purpose of the authorities was to take the rich natural products of Siberia into use and to populate new territories with Russian citizens. Therefore a deportation of people into Siberia began, mainly that of penal servitude to banish a lot of criminals, prisoners of war and rebels. A hard-labour-paradise grew in Siberia and the name therefore has got a gloomy honour.

The first military order in Livonia, founded in 1202 in order to supply the Christian mission with a stable and local military force in addition to the coming and going of seasonal crusaders. In its short history, it was defeated in Lithuania in 1236 and forced to merge with the Teutonic Order, the Sword Brethren played a major role in Livonia often in opposition to other Christian powers in Livonia, the Bishop of Riga, the city of Riga and the Danish king.

Artikkel uurib kunstinäituste üldpubliku arusaamade muutumist Eestis stalinistlikul perioodil, kui kunsti ja kultuuri loomine ning hindamine olid rangelt allutatud sotsialistliku realismi printsiipidele. Näituse külalisraamatutesse kirjutatud kommentaarid kolmele näitusele, mis toimusid Tallinna Kunstihoones ajavahemikus sügisest 1948 kuni sügiseni 1949, peegeldavad mitmeid ajastuomaseid kultuurilisi ja sotsiaalseid muutusi. Eraldi vaadeldakse nn rahva häälele omistatud rolli nõukogulikus kultuuriloome mudelis ning seda, kuidas kunstinäitustele antud tagasisides ilmneb varasema väärtussüsteemi asendamine uue nõukoguliku maailmavaatega.
The article looks at the changes in popular understanding of visual art during the Stalinist period in Estonia when the official model for producing, and assessing, culture was strictly defined by socialist realist method, and corresponding ideological rhetoric. The commentaries in the visitors’ books of the three exhibitions in Tallinn Art Hall from 1948-49 point at several cultural and social transformations taking place in a recently occupied territory: e.g. the strict ideological control over art production; mechanisms of disseminating Soviet ideology through education and culture; the influx of Russian-speaking population into Estonia and their participation in the viewing practices. Special attention will be paid to the role of so-called people’s voice in critical responses to works of art, and to how different models of assessing, or talking about, art relate to the rapid process of an old value-system being replaced by the new, Soviet one. (published in Estonian, summary in English)

The main aim of this dissertation is to explore the aspects of femininity and masculinity in the anthology of Estonian folk tales "Eestirahva ennemuistsed jutud" (Old Estonian Fairy Tales in English) compiled by Friedrich Reinhold Kreutzwald in direct relation with the national awakening movement in Estonia and the process of building the Estonian nation and national identity. The author of this dissertation supposes that the aspects of gender as an inseparable part of the work simultaneously entered the mind of the target audience and permeated the newly formed national substratum. Therefore, it is argued that as one accepted the national identity of Estonia, whether consciously or not, one subsequently accepted also the gender characteristics pertaining to it. The focus of this work is to uncover these aspects and investigate the role assigned to human women and men in the realm of Kreutzwald’s selected fairy tales as well as the perception of gender in the beyond-human beings.

The article discusses the tradition of Estonian nature writing with the focus on two representative examples, depicting a coastal environment (Vilsandi islet) and a remote forest area (Alutaguse). The study proceeds from an ecosemiotic understanding of communication-based relations between humans and their environment. Nature writing serves as a modelling tool for inter-species’ relations and the humans’ relations with their environment. It is also suitable material for the study of the semiotic mechanisms of meaning making. The chapter demonstrates that texts of nature writing are locally situated; that in order to analyse them it is necessary to take into account the specific Umwelts of the represented species; and that texts of nature writing form an intertextual ecosystem. Structural similarities can be detected in texts written about the same place by different authors. We argue that nature writing works as a model of the specific environmental relationships of the particular culture and era, as well as of the biotope as a whole.

Keywords: nature writing, ecocriticism, ecosemiotics, Umwelt theory, structure of text, Estonia

'Window', a little-known surrealist painting in the collection of the National Gallery Prague, was created by Soviet-Estonian artist Ülo Sooster in the mid-1960s. While taking the form of a trompe l’oeil window, the author argues that the work can also be read as a metaphorical view onto the nonconformist art scene in Moscow in the early Cold War. This essay takes a detailed look through the layers of paint to explore the life of the artist: from his youth in Tartu, followed by his imprisonment in the Gulag, to his later confrontation with Khrushchev at the height of the “Thaw”. It also brings together archival material, personal recollections and correspondence with other national museums to reveal the mystery of how and why Window found its home in Prague.

The article provides an overview of marriage and how was it regulated in Estonia and Livonia during the 18th century. An introduction to the social and historical background of Estonian peasant life is given as an aid to understand these regulations and the way they were (or were not) applied.
The topic of marriage and issues connected with marriage are presented following the life span of the couple. The overview starts with the issues that are related to their life before marriage (how young people got to know each other in a village), and ends with the questions of possible divorce.
During the 18th century the Swedish Church Law (1686) was of key importance in the juristiction of the territory of Estonia and Livonia. Therefore, almost every section describes how the issue under consideration (betrothal, wedding, sexual relationship outside marriage, widowing etc.) was regulated under Swedish Church Law. However, as this legislation was not always in accordance with local habits and customs, information on local regulations and the actual practices among the peasants is also included.

Монография издана под грифом Санкт-Петербургского Института истории РАН, в качестве ее рецензента выступил д.и.н., проф. М.Ф.Флоринский (СПбГУ).
На основании широкого круга источников как отечественных, так и зарубежных архивов в ней исследуется политика российского правительства по отношению к прибалтийским немцам в начале 20 в. В работе рассмотрены правовой статус Прибалтийских губерний в составе Российской империи и общественно-политическая ситуация в них на рубеже 19-20 вв., а также формирование прибалтийско-немецкой политической эмиграции в Германии и ее влияние на русско-германские отношения.
Основное внимание в монографии уделено разработке правительственных реформ для Прибалтики – церковной, аграрной, земской и др., а также политике в отношении лютеранской церкви и прибалтийско-немецкой школы. Особый интерес представляет исследование такого малоизученного вопроса, как политика правительства и военных властей применительно к прибалтийским немцам в период Первой мировой войны.
Наряду с этим автор рассматривает участие отдельных представителей прибалтийско-немецкой политической эмиграции в деятельности спецслужб Германии и в организации антироссийской пропаганды. В то же время на основании широкого круга документальных источников в работе опровергается огульное обвинение немецкого населения Прибалтики в шпионаже в пользу Германии.
В целом исследование разрушает сложившиеся в историографии стереотипы в отношении прибалтийских немцев и дает иную, отличную от традиционной, оценку политики правительства в Прибалтийских губерниях в конце 19 - начале 20 в.

Built in 1980, the Linnahall Concert Hall in Tallinn, Estonia, is a fairly recent but nonetheless controversial Soviet monument. Having been highly praised on its completion for its bold architectural solution, within a decade its close associations with the previous regime meant that it had fallen into disrepute. Developers, who realised the economic potential of the site, were quick to seize on its controversial history and called for its destruction. Andres Kurg looks at the changing role of the Linnahall in Tallinn over time and asks what the future might now hold for it. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

This work casts a brief glance at the activities of Vello Vaartnou, the Nyingmapa Buddhist, who has been active in culture, science, Buddhism, art, architecture, politics and social life for decades.
Keywords: Vello Vaartnou; Nyingma; Estonia; Buddhism; Thangkas; Buddhist Brotherhood; Tallinn; Estonian National Independent Party; Stupas; KGB; Buryatia; Ivolga; Hambo Lama Zhimba Erdineev; Hambo Lama Munko Tsybikov; International Conferences;

'This is a superb ancient Viking braided silver bracelet / Oath-ring, dating to the 9th-10th century A.D. It is formed from rods of silver, twisted about each other in a ropework formation, the terminals welded, forming a double spiral decorative element. This type of double spiral can be found on other Viking silver bracelets from Gotland in Sweden see here. This example recovered during dredging work is intact, though parts of the original weld has failed due to the conditions of sediment and machinery, this has been repaired but sadly it is no longer suitable to be worn. This bracelet is a very rare museum grade example, classic Viking workmanship and presence. Such an item would have been a prize piece of jewellery, worn as an 'Oath-Ring', given by a Jarl to brave and worthy subject. The silver likely taken at some stage as booty in raids, used as form of currency in a barter system of exchange. The weight of this bracelet alone would have been the monetary equivalent of at least 42 silver pennies, when 1 penny would have bought you 15 chickens! A wonderful piece of iconic Viking jewellery for the serious collector.' So far for the salesman advertisement ! So.. it got in hands of the serious collector .. A bracelet / arm ring of this braided type I think was a one off chance to aquire for my collection.

This is the second edition of this translation. Errors present in the 1st edition were corrected and the translation now follows strict chronological order. In addition to being on the Internet (https://sites.google.com/site/pskovrelease3/), it can now be downloaded.

In connection with the 800-anniversary celebration of the alleged descent from heaven of the Danish flag, Dannebrog, at Lyndanise [Tallinn] during the Danish conquest of Estonia in 1219 a number of books and articles were written, some more scholarly than others. In the present text the relevant sources of the Danish involvement in the Baltic crusades leading up to the conquest are discussed afresh. That involves first of all the only source to mention the descent of Dannebrog from Heaven accompanied by a voice promising Danish victory, not at Lyndanise, though, and not in 1219, but during a battle in 1208 at Viljandi in central Estonia!

In the article the validity of this source, only known in a copy from the 1520s, is positively evaluated as far as the date, place and context are concerned. This is done on the basis of contemporary sources, mainly letters to and from the popes Innocent III and Honorius III, showing a much more active Danish involvement in Livonia and Estonia from 1206 onwards than Henry of Livonia want us to believe in his Chronicle. Furthermore, it is argued, based on the evidence in Henry’s Chronicle, that, while the German missionaries and crusaders operated in the sign of the Virgin Mary, the Danes did so in the sign of the Cross. Also the continued use of the Cross symbol in Estonian and especially Tallinnian context, long after Danish rule had ceased, is seen as confirming the strong link between the Cross symbol and the Danish mission and conquest. This supports the idea of Estonia as the Land of the Cross, where Bishop Albert of Riga in an address to Pope Innocent III at the Fourth Lateran Council, according to Henry, claimed Livonia to be the Land of the Mother, where the Holy Land was the Land of the Son.


Postscriptum
Among the many writings, resulting from the anniversary celebration, only a few focuses on the Danish crusades and their immediate aftermath. Since it will probably take at least 25 years, hopefully more, before another anniversary will be celebrated and scholars once more will be asked to comment on the legend of the descending Dannebrog, I should like to draw attention to two text which are of immediate interest with regard to the conquest and the legend of the descending Dannebrog.

Most important is a Danish-Estonian collaborative work, published in both Danish and Estonian versions. Two Danish historians, Carsten Selch Jensen and Janus Møller Jensen focus on the written sources while archaeologist Marika Mägi and art historian Kersti Markus pictures the local environments in which the Danish conquest took place. From a Danish perspective the Estonian contribution to the book is especially interesting. See ‘Da Danskerne fik Dannebrog. Historien om de dansk-estiske relationer omkring år 1200’ / ‘Taanlaste ristisõda Eestis’, Tallinn (Argo) 2019.

A much smaller and rather puzzling text is presented by the Danish historian Johnny Grandjean Gøgsig Jakobsen, available here, https://www.academia.edu/39788011/Tallinn_-_eller_hvor_det_nu_var_henne_at_Dannebrog_faldt_ned,
The main theme of the paper turns out to be a toponymic analysis of the surroundings of the battle in 1219, which in itself is indeed interesting. However, for some reason Jakobsen decided to embed this analysis within some rather lighthearted comments on the where and when of Dannebrog’s fall from Heaven. This leads him to the conclusion that it is for each and anyone to decide whether to believe the event happened in 1219 at Lyndanise or in 1208 at Viljandi. Jakobsen is well aware that it is the Franciscan Peder Olsen, who in the 1520s both copied the source about the battle in 1208 at Viljandi with the descending Dannebrog and at the same time expressed doubts with regard to the dating. Jakobsen assumes Peder Olsen must have had corrective knowledge. This knowledge, Jakobsen thinks, Olsen may have had from Henry of Livonia’s Chronicle, which, however, forces Jakobsen to admit that Henry has no mention of a descending Dannebrog!

We are, in other words, back to the fact that only one source mentions Dannebrog’s descent and without that one source, we would never have had reason to celebrate a legend of Dannebrog descending over Lyndanise in 1219. The reason for Peder Olsen to doubt the dating was quite rightly that he did indeed have ‘corrective knowledge’ in the sense that, while he had no further evidence of Danish activity in Estonia in 1208, he did know from some of the Danish annals, he was acquainted with, that the Danes led a large fleet to Estonia in 1219 ending in its conquest. It is also quite clear from his text that that was what made him doubt the date 1208. This he almost spelled out in both places he quoted the 1208 source. Thus there was no need for his knowledge of Henry’s chronicle, which he certainly did not have.

A mythical island the size of Ireland in the North Atlantic called Hyperborea by Greeks, Atland by Frisians and Frisland by Mercator, disappeared on October 24, 2194 BC, when it partially slid down the Judd Anticline toward the Icelandic Basin. A remnant remained, the Faroe Plateau, topped by the Faroe Islands. The resulting tsunami, about 185m high, terminated life on other islands, plus the Bell Beaker people in Britain and Ireland, plus most farmers in Denmark, Sweden, Holland, Germany, Poland, Finland and Estonia. The maximum elevation of plowed farmland on silt from the tsunami decreases with distance from the epicenter. Oera Linda Boek provides a detailed account of the tragedy.

This is a special issue of the Acta Historica Tallinnensia on historical studies in Estonia in the first two decades of the twenty-­first century. The whole issue is open access and available for free: https://kirj.ee/acta-publications/?filter[year]=2020:%20Eesti%20ajalooteadus%2021.%20sajandil&filter[issue]=402

(The thesis itself is in Estonian) In the beginning of the 1990s, the adoption of several important laws led to broad dissatisfaction amongst Estonia’s Russian-speaking population, as these laws narrowed the possibilities of the group to participate in policy making, and led to the vast majority of them becoming stateless persons. Driven by this, the local council of Narva, a city located by the Russian border, came to an understanding that there is a need for autonomy – which, according to the city council, should be reflected in being able to veto legal acts issued by Estonian authorities. The referendum on the autonomy of Narva, held in 1993, is a special event in Estonian history. For the Estonian state, which had regained its independence in 1991, this was a great challenge, as the situation was competely new and unexpected. Despite active involvement of representatives of Russia in the proccess and almost 100% support for autonomy by Narva residents, the Supreme Court of Estonia declared the results of the referendum illegal and there were no attempts of the same scale to campaign for autonomy in the following years. The referendum served as an effective tool to attract attention to the problems of the Russian-speaking population, and attract attention away from Narva’s problems with coping with increased administrative burden in the case of real autonomy.
The presentation of a superficial concept for Narva’s autonomy following the court decision meant that the leaders of the autonomy movement had no clear vision of an autonomous Narva, i.e. the whole event had been nothing but a farce from the very beginning.

After a decade of transformation in Estonia, the formerly dominant topics on the political agenda—internal consolidation on ethnic grounds and external security—have given way to an emergency of less conflictual modes of identity policy. If recent analysis was focused almost
entirely on ethnic tensions then this article argues that the way Estonian elites imagine Estonia’s place on the map of the world can also be said to be influenced by the fact that the country will soon be part of an enlarged Europe. Thus, conflictual issues increasingly lose their importance.
Historically, Estonians have been influenced by Germans, Swedes and Russians, and all these three ‘cultural spaces’ had their own impact on Estonian imagination. Is Estonia ‘simply’ Western or particularly Scandinavian? Does it belong to the ‘North’, the ‘East’ or the ‘West’? Is it ‘Baltic’, baltisch, pribaltiiskii or simply ‘Estonian’? An imagined Estonian Geschichtsraum must not necessarily be limited to the almost canonical ‘our space’ inhabited by ethnic Estonians. This view, which was extremely popular at the end of the 1980s, becomes, on integrating Europe, increasingly old-fashioned because of its isolationist tendencies. However, ‘our space’ remains the core of any attempt to re-regionalise Estonian identity in providing the historic motive of Estonians living there for at least 5000 years. Yet, the growing dissatisfaction with being ‘Baltic’ as a means of being a victim of history is one of the main arguments in trying to escape the ‘East’ and reach
the ‘North’, and it is part of a marketing strategy to ‘sell’ the country as being successfully transformed.

Until recently the impact of the Lutheran Reformation has been largely regarded in political and socio-economic terms, yet for most people it was not the abstract theological debates that had the greatest impact upon their lives, but what they saw in their parish churches every Sunday. This collection of essays provides a coherent and interdisciplinary investigation of the impact that the Lutheran Reformation had on the appearance, architecture and arrangement of early modern churches.

Drawing upon recent research being undertaken by leading art historians and historians on Lutheran places of worship, the volume emphasises often surprising levels of continuity, reflecting the survival of Catholic fixtures, fittings and altarpieces, and exploring how these could be remodelled in order to conform with the tenets of Lutheran belief. The volume not only addresses Lutheran art but also the way in which the architecture of their churches reflected the importance of preaching and the administration of the sacraments. Furthermore the collection is committed to extending these discussions beyond a purely German context, and to look at churches not only within the Holy Roman Empire, but also in Scandinavia, the Baltic States as well as towns dominated by Saxon communities in areas such as in Hungary and Transylvania.

By focusing on ecclesiastical 'material culture' the collection helps to place the art and architecture of Lutheran places of worship into the historical, political and theological context of early modern Europe.

Der Paradigmenwechsel in der estnischen Musikgeschichtsschreibung am Anfang der 1990er Jahre hat sich nicht vornehmlich von der sowjetischen Tradition der musikalischen Historiographie abgegrenzt, sondern von der nationalen Ideologie, die sich in den 1920er–30er Jahren herausgebildet und im Wesentlichen die sowjetische Zeit überlebt hatte. Der zu enge nationale Blickwinkel neigte dazu, die Rolle des baltendeutschen Kulturraums zu vernachlässigen. Um 1920 fing man an, bei der estnischen nationalen Bewegung der zweiten Hälfte des 19. Jahrhunderts zwei Parteien zu sehen: Die Tätigkeit des deutschfeindlichen Publizisten Carl Robert Jakobson (1841–1882) wurde positiv hervorgehoben und die des den Baltendeutschen freundlich gesinnten Johann Voldemar Jannsen (1819–1890) kritisiert. Bisher wurde zudem neben dem estnischen (bzw. lettischen) und baltendeutschen Kulturraum der dritte, russische Faktor vernachlässigt. Die baltendeutsche Minderheit, die im Baltikum die regierende Stellung hatte, fühlte sich wegen der zunehmenden Russifizierungstendenzen gefährdet. In dieser Situation wurde das stark ausgebildete Vereinswesen der Baltendeutschen nicht nur ein bedeutsames Instrument ihrer Identitätsbildung und der Bewahrung ihrer gesellschaftlichen Position, sondern sie schufen besonders mit ihren Gesangvereinen auch das Modell für die estnische und lettische Identitätsbildung. Die Tätigkeit der Brüdergemeine, die der bäuerlichen Chorbewegung und den Posaunenchören sowie der breiten städtischen Musikpflege zugrunde lag, spielte dabei eine bedeutende Rolle.

Aasta 2017 on reformatsiooni alguse 500. aastapäeva tähistamise aasta. Reformatsiooniga seonduvad mitmed impulsid, mis on olulised eeskätt õhtumaises kultuuris, aga on ka üleilmselt avaldanud mõju kiriku, usu ja inimese mõistmisele, kujundades ühtlasi ühiskondliku elu ja arengut. Raamat käsitleb usupuhastuse vaimsust ja keskseid arusaamu ning avab reformatsiooni mõju Eesti kontekstis. Lisaks pilguheidule minevikku arutletakse kriitiliselt ka selle üle, kuidas võiks reformatsiooni pärand olla inspiratsiooni allikaks tänases ja homses Eestis.

Katrin Kivimaa "Rahvuslik ja modernne naiselikkus eesti kunstis 1850-2000" põhineb autori Leedsi Ülikoolis kaitstud doktoritööl, mis keskendus sellele, kuidas soolisustatud kujutised ja kriitikamudelid on vorminud kunsti loomist ja professionaalset kunstikirjutust. Tegemist on nn uue ehk kriitilise kunstiajaloo traditsiooniga suhestuva uurimusega, mille eesmärgiks on vaadelda kunstiteoseid ja nende retseptsiooni ajaloolises kontekstis ning tuua nähtavale kunsti ideelised ja ideoloogilised alustalad. Raamatus esitatud juhtumiuuringud vaatlevad eesti kunsti ajaloo peamisi perioode alates 19. sajandi teisest poolest kuni kaasaegse kunstini. Käsitletud kunsti ajatelje sisse Kölerist Mare Trallani mahuvad lisaks nimetatutele veel August Weizenberg, Karin Luts, Erna Brinckmann, sotsrealistlik Evald Okas, Marju Mutsu, Kai Kaljo jt.

De inval van het Rode Leger in de Baltische staten bleek het begin te zijn van een lange lijdensweg van de drie jonge staten. Een samenloop van factoren dreef een grote groep burgers in deze gebieden in het verzet, dat voornamelijk vanuit de dichte Baltische wouden opereerde. Demografisch valt vooral de jonge leeftijd van de verzetslui op, maar evenzeer de verschillen in sociaal profiel in de diverse staten en gebieden, die ook een organisatorisch verschil opleverden. Zo bleef in het landelijke Litouwen een grote groep ongeschoolden en boeren zeer lang actief, terwijl meer verstedelijkte gebieden als Letland dan weer de middenklasse en stedelijke netwerken deden ontstaan. Ook de rol van de centrale leiders, de getuigenissen, de latere historiografische herwerking en vooral de Russische strategieën worden niet onbelicht gelaten. Het is net deze cruciale wissel in handelen, die door de Sovjets in vnl. Oekraïne getest werd, die zorgt voor de finale breuk in het gewapende verzet en de verandering van de strategie onder de verzetslui.

Conceptualizing of perestroika in framework of Soviet ideology (based on Karl Vaino and Vaino Väljas reports)

The objective of this paper is to analyse how Central Committee of Communist Party of Estonia changed their use of language and point of view on their plenums during January 1988 to May 1989. Because there was many discussions on different subjects, a choice had to be made. Concept of Estonian history, mass media and civil society organizations were selected. Main sources of this paper were the reports by the First Secretaries of the Communist Party of Estonia (Karl Vaino and Vaino Väljas). These reports were published on newspapers, mainly on “Rahva Hääl” and later in separate booklets.