A Bright Day in Estonia

My opinion of Estonia has changed. I like Estonia. The sun came out today, my class enjoyed a very informative lecture about the struggles of the Estonian people against the occupation of the Nazis and then the Soviets, and then we visited the Estonia occupation museum.

Estonia is sincere and unapologetic supporters of United States foreign policy. They joined the States into Afghanistan and Iraq and will probably join any foreign policy efforts, whether it is war, peace keeping or humanitarian, that American ventures on. Of course, under it all, they’re hoping for American assistance if anything was to happen between them and their unfriendly neighbor to the east. They’ve joined any and every political union that helps them. They’re members the EU, the UN and NATO. Skepticism of Russia cannot be expressed in greater terms. They’re upset at any Russian aggressions and furious that the Russian government won’t recognize the Soviet occupation. While their fear is legitimate and based on hard history, it may also be dangerous as they move forward into a more integrated world.

A great effort has been revived to teach the language of Estonian to its citizens. During the Soviet occupation all the schools were made to teach Russian. Estonian was used at home still, but the written word of Estonia has suffered greatly as the people look to regain a national identity. So far, all that is left of an Estonian national identity are a peoples struggle for independence.

I woke up today and went to breakfast with my roommate Ray. Ray is my field trip roommate. When ever we travel he and I are going to be rooming together. He’s a good guy from some private school out in Wisconsin. Ray was born and raised near Tampa Florida and for some reason he decided to go to school in Wisconsin. Well we went to breakfast, which was not that good, and then went to a lecture that was presented by Prof. Andres Kasekamp.

Kasekamp’s lecture was good and informative. We learned a lot about how and why the Estonians align themselves with the United States and Western Europe. It can sometimes be a tight-wire act. When the U.S. and Western Europe were at odds about the War in Iraq, Estonia had to appease both while participating in the war with the U.S. and making the final steps toward integration into the European Union. Kasekamp knew what he was talking about and it was quite an honor to listen to someone with such influence in a nation’s foreign policy decisions. Kasekamp is the director of the Estonian Foreign Policy Institute and a professor at Tartu University. He has published a number of books and essays about the Estonian foreign policy positions.

After the lecture I went to get lunch with some of the other people in my program. We went to some place in the old town that served Mediteranian food. I had a personal pizza and a beer. Our conversation was interesting. We spent most of the time talking about Estonian foreign policy especially with regard to the Middle East.

The Estonian president made a statement that was used by the United States on the eve of the Iraq invasion that went something like, “We understand what the consequences are when democracies don’t take action.” It was used by President Bush and other advocates for the war.

It is ironic that Estonia is a part of an occupational force when the Estonian people themselves fear occupation, and have such a history of occupation. But they also understand the terror, more than most nations, of oppressive tyrant government. So they do what is most pragmatic and join their allies, and this is perhaps because of such a fear of the east.

After lunch we went to the Occupation Museum. It was interesting for its depiction of the Soviets. There were some displays on the Nazi occupation but since the last half decade was dominated by Soviet rule, most of the museum was anti-Russian. The walk around the museum included video documentaries of the various stages of Nazi and then Soviet occupation. The displays were mostly the clothes, pictures and propaganda used by the Soviets.

As we walked around old town Tallinn the weather became increasingly cold. In Tallinn the more sun there is the more cold it gets. Apparently, the clouds that are the norm keep the heat close to the ground. When there are no clouds, and plenty of sun, the weather drops at least ten degrees. It was weird, but I had not yet felt so cold in Europe.

There will be pictures and a video to come later.