Identity and othering in past and present: Representations of the Soviet era in Estonian post-Soviet textbooks
Author(s) / Creator(s)
Kello, Katrin
Abstract / Description
This paper analyses representations of the ‘core Soviet era’ (1945-1985) in Estonian post-Soviet history textbooks (1989-2016). Attitudes towards the Soviet system have been a rich resource for identity building, and hence a powerful political tool across the whole of the post-Soviet block. Based on an analysis of sections about the Soviet era in Estonia in 21 textbooks, the paper takes a look at how textbooks reflect broader processes of social meaning making, identity building and othering after a profound social and political turn. In 1989 and during the early 1990s, perspectives and narratives in Estonian history textbooks were closely related to social memory and national politics, enacting a specific social representation of the Soviet era that dominated the Estonian-speaking public space during the 1990s. The Soviet era, Russia and local Russians became the main Others for Estonia and Estonians. Over time, public discourse has diversified. The national curriculum and textbooks, however, still maintain the canon that formed in 1990s and thus reflect earlier sentiments. Apart from the increasing salience of Soviet-era daily life in more recent textbooks, the thematic choices and emphases have changed little since the 1990s. Therefore, even if the style of writing has ‘cooled down’, issues of identity preservation, resistance and accommodation, together with a saliently negative representation of wrongdoings by the Soviet system, still prevail. On the one hand, this testifies to the resilience of an established tradition in the textbook genre in general. On the other hand, it reflects the dominance of an ethnocentric tradition in Estonian history textbook writing. The paper discusses the implications of these findings for interethnic relations in Estonia.
Keyword(s)
history politics history textbooks social memory immigration intergroup relations othering Estonia Russian-speakersPersistent Identifier
Date of first publication
2018-02-05
Journal title
Journal of Social and Political Psychology
Volume
5
Issue
2
Page numbers
665–693
Publisher
PsychOpen GOLD
Publication status
publishedVersion
Review status
peerReviewed
Is version of
Citation
Kello, K. (2018). Identity and othering in past and present: Representations of the Soviet era in Estonian post-Soviet textbooks. Journal of Social and Political Psychology, 5(2), 665–693. https://doi.org/10.5964/jspp.v5i2.737
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Author(s) / Creator(s)Kello, Katrin
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PsychArchives acquisition timestamp2018-11-26T12:45:44Z
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Made available on2018-11-26T12:45:44Z
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Date of first publication2018-02-05
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Abstract / DescriptionThis paper analyses representations of the ‘core Soviet era’ (1945-1985) in Estonian post-Soviet history textbooks (1989-2016). Attitudes towards the Soviet system have been a rich resource for identity building, and hence a powerful political tool across the whole of the post-Soviet block. Based on an analysis of sections about the Soviet era in Estonia in 21 textbooks, the paper takes a look at how textbooks reflect broader processes of social meaning making, identity building and othering after a profound social and political turn. In 1989 and during the early 1990s, perspectives and narratives in Estonian history textbooks were closely related to social memory and national politics, enacting a specific social representation of the Soviet era that dominated the Estonian-speaking public space during the 1990s. The Soviet era, Russia and local Russians became the main Others for Estonia and Estonians. Over time, public discourse has diversified. The national curriculum and textbooks, however, still maintain the canon that formed in 1990s and thus reflect earlier sentiments. Apart from the increasing salience of Soviet-era daily life in more recent textbooks, the thematic choices and emphases have changed little since the 1990s. Therefore, even if the style of writing has ‘cooled down’, issues of identity preservation, resistance and accommodation, together with a saliently negative representation of wrongdoings by the Soviet system, still prevail. On the one hand, this testifies to the resilience of an established tradition in the textbook genre in general. On the other hand, it reflects the dominance of an ethnocentric tradition in Estonian history textbook writing. The paper discusses the implications of these findings for interethnic relations in Estonia.en_US
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Publication statuspublishedVersion
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Review statuspeerReviewed
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CitationKello, K. (2018). Identity and othering in past and present: Representations of the Soviet era in Estonian post-Soviet textbooks. Journal of Social and Political Psychology, 5(2), 665–693. https://doi.org/10.5964/jspp.v5i2.737en_US
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ISSN2195-3325
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Persistent Identifierhttps://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12034/1450
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Persistent Identifierhttps://doi.org/10.23668/psycharchives.1825
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Language of contenteng
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PublisherPsychOpen GOLD
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Is version ofhttps://doi.org/10.5964/jspp.v5i2.737
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Keyword(s)history politicsen_US
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Keyword(s)history textbooksen_US
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Keyword(s)social memoryen_US
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Keyword(s)immigrationen_US
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Keyword(s)intergroup relationsen_US
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Keyword(s)otheringen_US
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Keyword(s)Estoniaen_US
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Keyword(s)Russian-speakersen_US
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Dewey Decimal Classification number(s)150
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TitleIdentity and othering in past and present: Representations of the Soviet era in Estonian post-Soviet textbooksen_US
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DRO typearticle
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Issue2
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Journal titleJournal of Social and Political Psychology
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Page numbers665–693
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Volume5
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Visible tag(s)Version of Record