Abstract

The conclusion summarizes what a living national history is in the case of Estonia. Then it discusses the guardians of the past introduced in this book, their anxieties and dreams, and places them in wider Estonian society. All informants act in their own ways, individually and collectively, to preserve their living ties with the past. By bringing all chapters together, the conclusion shows what all social groups introduced in the book have in common: they avoid full closure through mediation and representation. They fear that this will cut the emotional connection with the past, and that the horrors of the past might repeat themselves. Putting down the battle axes does not feel right in relation to their (grand) parents.

Keywords: Guardians of the past, acts of preservation, closure, repetition of the past, collective memory

‘The past is like an anchor. It helps us to survive in a storm, but it can also impede quick progress’. (Estonian National Museum, Tartu)

In this book I have questioned what personal and national stories of the past mean to people in Estonia, a society on the periphery of Europe, characterized by a short period of nationhood, historical ruptures, and a quick and desired integration into the European family.