Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of Informants
- Abbreviations
- Acknowledgements
- Preface
- Introduction: Persisting Pasts in the Margins of Europe
- Part 1 The Making of Estonian History
- Part 2 The Meaning of Closure
- Part 3 Closure and a Significant Other
- Conclusion: Guardians Of Living History
- List of Informants
- Full Reference List
- Index
4 - Postmemory: The Inherited Obligation to Secure the Future
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 November 2020
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of Informants
- Abbreviations
- Acknowledgements
- Preface
- Introduction: Persisting Pasts in the Margins of Europe
- Part 1 The Making of Estonian History
- Part 2 The Meaning of Closure
- Part 3 Closure and a Significant Other
- Conclusion: Guardians Of Living History
- List of Informants
- Full Reference List
- Index
Summary
Abstract
Chapter 4 follows the postgeneration and questions what the emotional rupture narrative means to young Estonian intellectuals. Because of a ‘belated postmemory’, they encountered the still unnarrated emotions of Soviet suffering during the Singing Revolution. Moreover, they lively remember that they and their relatives have participated in the rebuilding of the nation-state. The chapter explores the moral obligations that they still experience today. Independence is not something they take for granted but a merit that needs to be cherished. Their belief in the necessity of a strong national culture for Estonia's survival makes it difficult for these young intellectuals to criticize nationalist memory politics, especially in times of insecurity. They would not only betray their nation, but also their (grand)parents.
Keywords: Postgeneration, young Estonian intellectuals, belated postmemory, citizen participation, independence a merit, moral obligations
It is 25 March 2011, six o’clock in the evening. Tartu's Raekoja Plats (the Town Hall Square) is covered with a blanket of white snow. I have never before experienced minus thirty degrees and I am happy with my new ski trousers, winter jacket, and warm gloves. It is hard to imagine that on a similar day sixty-two years earlier, 22,000 Estonians had been taken outside in this cold, put into cattle wagons and deported to Siberia. Today the streets are quiet, almost deserted, until a van enters the square, accompanied by groups of students, recognizable by their university caps. They start to unload 22,000 candles from the van. Bypassers stop, curious about what is about to happen. I switch on my recorder, expecting a speech or at least some public words. Instead, the students start handing out maps, pointing out the places where the candles are to be put. They also distribute lighters. The cafés on the square offer their tables and the students start to light the candles. Some elderly people arrive in the square as well, some of them are Memento members. They start to help the students. While observing what is happening, I see an older man lighting some candles on one of the tables. I help him by placing the candles on the square. We do not speak. I see other youngsters help the elderly as well.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Guardians of Living HistoryAn Ethnography of Post-Soviet Memory Making in Estonia, pp. 195 - 240Publisher: Amsterdam University PressPrint publication year: 2020