Estonian National Identity: Nordic versus Baltic

Post Reply New Topic

Estonia is a small, yet passionate country that exists in Northern Europe. The nation itself has been inhabited for millenniums. The nation of approximately 1.3 million people first got a taste of independence in 1918 after WWI. It was temporarily under Nazi control between the early 1940's and 1945. After that, it was transferred into the hands of what the world knows as the former USSR. It wasn't until 1991 that it, along with Lithuania and Latvia, became freed. Since then, it has had a stable economy and has been striving to become a tech savvy nation.

Estonians themselves are very, very unique. Their language is a good starting point. It's not an Indo-European language. Indo-European refers to a large language family spread throughout most of the world. English, Spanish, French, Russian, German, and Portuguese are some of the most common examples of Indo-European languages. Estonian is a Finno-Ugric language which comes from the Ural Mountains, the border between Europe and Asia. The closest related languages are Finnish (which has obvious similarities) and Hungarian (which, due to distance and time factors, is quite different). Here's an example. Hello in Estonian is tere, hello in Finnish is terve.

Since Finland has very close cultural and economic ties with Estonia, shouldn't Estonia be Nordic like Finland is? That's what you'd expect, but it runs deeper than that. Many Estonians are taught that they're Nordic, but they aren't treated as such. Estonia was captured between 1945 and 1991, but Finland was not. Some also say that Finland is Nordic, because it has a larger Nordic culture. Finland and Sweden also have close ties economically, but how deep do they run when it comes to culture? Estonia has a similar amount of relations with Sweden. Between the 1550's and approximately 1710, Estonia was ruled by Sweden. You could only imagine the cultural connection this has caused.

Estonia also has close relations with Denmark. Even the name of its capital city, Tallinn, has been speculated to originate from a Danish word. In the early 1200's, Estonia was invaded by Denmark. It was part of Danish rule for hundreds of years. (Please note, only the northern half of the country was.) Estonia's crest originates from the Danish one as well. So, what is exactly holding Estonia back from being considered Nordic? Its relationship with the Nordic countries is certainly there.

Estonia was put under the Iron Curtain along with nearby Latvia and Lithuania in 1945. Whilst Finland completely turned its country around during this time period, Estonia was left to suffer. Estonia's relations with Latvia and Lithuania only grew. In 1989, a movement between the three countries called The Baltic Way was performed. Over 2 million people formed a 400 mile long human chain stretching from Estonia's Tallinn to Lithuania's Vilnius. I should add that Estonian culture was not originally related to Latvian and Lithuanian culture.

As a conclusion, Estonia very well deserves a place as a Nordic nation. It's Finland's closest ancestor and if not for the USSR, it'd be caught up with the current Nordic nations. Finland was considered a Baltic state until the 30's or so, but Estonia was left alone and kept this label. Whilst it does touch the Baltic Sea, it does not share the culture of Latvia and Lithuania beyond certain socioeconomic ties. I'll let you draw your own conclusions. This is just my perspective on the complicated matter.

Very interesting. I had no idea Estonian was a Finno-Ugarian language.
I think the reason why so many consider the Finns Nordic, but the Estonians not to be, is because Finland had been swamped with Swedish settlers centuries ago. While the native language stuck, a lot of people of Nordic stock had left their genetic and cultural imprint on Finland.

Been a map geek since I was child so I am one of the few Americans who knew something about this.

Americans tend lump all three(Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia) of the "Baltic states" (if they are aware of their existence at all) in with Slavic Eastern Europe. But thats innaccurate.

All three participated in the Protestant Reformation, and in the Catholic counter reformation. And all three are mostly Lutheran (I believe) which puts them into the Germanic/Scandanavian culture sphere right there. And outside of the Eastern Orthodox Russian culture sphere. And they each have a larger Catholic population than Eastern Orthodox population as well.

Latvians and Lithuanians speak Baltic languages, and not Slavic languages. Baltic is its own subdivision of the vast Indoeuropean language family (like Slavic is a family, and Germanic,Romance, Celtic, and Indoaryan, are also subfamilies of the larger Indoeuropean language family). The original Prussians of old spoke a "Prussian" language that was also in the Baltic group before Prussia got assimilated into the German speaking world.

And as the OP said: Estonian is not only not Slavic, its not even Indoeuropean (but Uralic, like Hungarian and Finnish).

All three Baltic states were ruled by Czarist Russia in the 19th Century. All three were free republics during the bat of an eyelash (the 20 years between the two World Wars). All of eastern Europe then fell under Soviet satrapy after the second world war. But the three Baltic countries returned to the same direct rule by Moscow that they had been under under the Czars, and became "Republics" of the "Union of Soviet Socialist Republics".

But then after the fall of Communism, and the break up of the USSR, in 1991 all three became the independent nations that they had been in the 20 years between the two world wars. But I am sure that Putin has plans for the futures of all three -futures that do NOT involve them being free seperate nations from Moscow.

But the OP is probably right that Estonia is one of the more westward looking, and more western in attitude of the nations that were once part of the USSR. And if it has to join a club it would rather be part of a greater Scandanavia, then be part of a revived USSR.

I couldn't agree more.

West: Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania

East: Belarus, Moldova, Ukraine

That's what I feel like the general mindset of each country is.