10. Estonia in the Soviet period

Question 1

• The Cold War between the Soviet Union (and its satellites in Eastern Europe) and the free world
• Wide-scale Sovietisation in Estonia

Answer 1

Introduction of Soviet-style command economy
Expropriation of private property „Collectivization“ of agriculture (individual rural households turned into state-controlled „collective farms“)

Question 2

• Massive terror

Answer 2

Mass deportation in March 1949, more than 20 000 people to Siberia (including women, children and elderly people
 Estonian armed resistance movement against the Soviets until the early 1950s
 Although mass terror was not used after Stalin’s death 1953, fear, intimidation and imprisonment of dissidents remained essential instruments of totalitarian state control until the end of the Soviet Union
The Soviet tanks crushed the popular freedom movements in Hungary (1956) and Czechoslovakia (1968)
Gulags, forced labor camps (basically prison camps for slave work) in the Soviet Union

Question 3

• The Nomenklatura in the Soviet Union

Answer 3

The new privileged class, itself hierarchically divided into different levels

Question 4

• Mass propaganda hushed up great disasters

Answer 4

–>In Oct 1957, the Soviets sent the first satellite (Sputnik) to the Earth’s orbit,
The Kyshtym disaster or Kyshtym incident, a radioactive contamination accident that occurred on 29 September 1957 at Mayak, a plutonium production site for nuclear weapons and nuclear fuel reprocessing plant located in the closed city of Chelyabinsk-40 (now Ozyorsk) in Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russian SFSR

Question 5

• The Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic

Answer 5

Political power held by the local communist party leaders, who in turn were controlled from Moscow
Highly militarized society

Question 6

• Some general effects of the Soviet era

Answer 6

On the level of the whole society: Dramatic change in demographic situation, massive influx of Russian speaking (mainly Russian) immigrants and the massive increase of Russian language and Russianism in several spheres of life Russification Cultural developments distorted by Sovietisation
Economy restructured according to the needs of Moscow
On the level of a single person: Totalitarian society diminished personal initiative and accountability, as fear and intimidation (including imprisonment of dissidents) continued to be used also after Stalin’s death
For the environment: Reckless pollution of natural environment by industry and by numerous Soviet military bases
In spite of all the Sovietization, Estonia maintained a different vibe than the rest of the Soviet Union – Estonia as the „Soviet West“ (Sovetski Zapad)
A significant source of information for Estonians – the Finnish television, could be watched in the northern part of Estonia, also foreign radio stations (Voice of America in Estonian, Radio Free Europe in Estonian), mail communication with relatives in exile (after Stalin’s death 1953)