Udmurts and Russians. Interethnic relations up to the Second World War
This article reflects on the history of the Udmurts and their relations with Russians from the late Middle Ages to the mid-20th century: how contacts with Russians developed before the incorporation of the Kazan khanate into Muscovy and what it meant for the smaller peoples who became part of the emerging Russian Empire. Special attention is paid to the process of Evangelization and its consequences, including the migration of many villagers to regions less exposed to Russian interference. I trace how Russian eastward migration led to a problematic, although not yet conflictual coexistence. I focus especially on the Soviet period, which was marked by contradictions: an initial period, during which the interests of smaller communities were genuinely acknowledged by the central authorities, was followed by a later phase, during which attempts to promote indigenous culture were treated as expressions of dangerous nationalism and repressed. As a result, by the end of the first half of the 20th century, the Udmurt intelligentsia had been almost completely destroyed following a tragic, staged process during which most of its main representatives were arrested and accused of separatism and seeking to bring the Finno-Ugric regions of central Russia under Finnish protectorate. Moreover, the fear of defending one’s culture persisted for decades, paralyzing the principal potential forces in the region.
Films about the Vepsians and Vepsian cultural self-representation through film
This article examines films made about the Vepsians. From the second half of the 20th century onwards, the Vepsians have been filmed primarily for documentary purposes by (Soviet) Russian, Estonian and Finnish researchers, journalists and other interested parties. These productions include both documentary films and journalistic television formats. Since the 21st century, the Vepsians themselves have also begun to produce films addressing their ethnography and history. The visual representation of one’s own culture constitutes a form of ethnic self-reflection. Films made by Vepsians encompass both recollections and reconstructions of a traditional ethnographic way of life, as well as portrayals of acts directed against the people in recent history – such as repression and demographic assimilation – within the Soviet Union. In addition to documentaries, one amateur feature film has been produced, dealing with the theme of flight from collectivization. Taken together, these films provide a space for reflecting on history and national identity. At the same time, presenting the concerns of a small ethnic group to a wider audience remains problematic: even in visual media, compromises are often required in response to mainstream taste, widespread lack of background knowledge and the resulting simplifications, as well as the limited resources available for achieving a professional end result.
From the ice age to the inter ice age: Abe Kōbō’s Daiyon kanpyōkiin the translations of Agu Sisask and Arkady Strugatsky
This article examines how Abe Kōbō’s science fiction novel Daiyon kanpyōki (“Inter Ice Age 4”) reached Estonian readers in 1966 through Agu Sisask’s translation. Having come to Sisask by somewhat accidental means, the work became an important part of the local literary canon, influencing theoretical debates on the nature of science fiction and challenging the Western-centric tendencies characteristic of such discussions.
A year before the Estonian translation appeared in print, Arkady Strugatsky’s Russian translation was published (1965). In addition to serving as the basis for several indirect translations issued in the Soviet Union, it also functioned as the model for the Serbian and Hungarian versions. Translations based on the Russian version are easily identifiable, as Strugatsky mistakenly rendered the word kanpyōki (‘inter ice age’, i.e. ‘interglacial’) as ‘ice age’. A comparative analysis of the Estonian and Russian translations reveals numerous stylistic and lexical similarities between the two versions. Both Strugatsky’s and Sisask’s texts rely on the earliest version of Abe’s work, published in 1958–59 in the journal Sekai, aimed at Japanese intellectuals; this version differs in several important respects from the revised and expanded edition cited as the source text in Loomingu Raamatukogu.
In addition to examining the cultural-historical background and comparing the translations, the study highlights the central role of the translator in shaping the literary canon. Whereas in the English-speaking world the so-called great triumvirate of Japanese authors (Tanizaki, Kawabata, Mishima) predominated, in Estonia Sisask first introduced readers to writers of a younger generation (Abe, Endō). The comparison of the translations and the contextualization within literary history demonstrate how the choices of a single translator – Agu Sisask – significantly influenced the reception of Japanese literature in Estonia and shaped the preferences of the local readership.
On the richness of the critical field, for a change: Estonian literary criticism in 2024–2025
This article provides an overview of literary criticism published in 2024 and 2025 in the periodicals Akadeemia, Keel ja Kirjandus, Looming, Müürileht, Sirp, Vikerkaar and Värske Rõhk, all issued by SA Kultuurileht. The analysis draws on key statistical indicators. The sample comprises 475 reviews in total, of which 89 address translated works and 124 discuss non-fiction titles or new editions of older literature. The primary focus of the article is on reviews of contemporary Estonian fiction, which account for 278 items in the sample. Of these, 36% concern poetry and 60.4% prose; 35.6% of the reviewers are men and 63.3% women, while among the authors of the works reviewed, 41.7% are men and 49.3% women. Compared with the situation seven years ago, the proportion of women in both categories has increased significantly, and the earlier imbalance between reviews written by women about men and those written by men about women has largely evened out.
In addition to presenting general statistics, the survey outlines the distinctive styles of the most frequently published critics and examines the reception of the most widely reviewed works. During the period under consideration, the most prolific reviewer of Estonian fiction was Sveta Grigorjeva (13 reviews), followed by Vilja Kiisler (9) and Ave Taavet (9). The work that received the greatest number of reviews was Carolina Pihelgas’ Lõikejoon (“The Cut Line”) (6 reviews), the only title to be reviewed in all the publications covering fiction. The article also highlights other notable critics and individual reviews deserving of attention, supporting the author’s view that the Estonian critical field is diverse and in good health.
This article examines the Latvian language as found in the manuscripts of the Moravian Brethren from the 18th and early 19th centuries, offering a sociolinguistic analysis of how standard written Latvian evolved in interaction with spoken dialects. It traces the historical development of Latvian written language from the early Reformation texts to the emergence of a more standardized form following the 1739 Bible revision. Special attention is given to the role of the Moravian Brethren in expanding literacy among Latvian-speaking peasants and fostering a manuscript tradition that included both translated and original religious, didactic, and personal writings. The study analyzes linguistic features at the orthographic, phonetic, morphological, syntactic, and lexical levels, highlighting both adherence to printed language norms and the influence of Vidzeme dialects. German influence is also significant, especially in syntax and vocabulary. The article concludes that the Moravian Brethren manuscripts represent a crucial link between the clerical elite’s written Latvian and a broader vernacular literary culture, thereby contributing to the formation of Latvian as a medium of self-expression, education, and identity.
The meaning of raamat ‘book’ and kiri ‘letter’ in old written Estonian
This article explores the historical development of the meanings of two key words in 16th–19th century literary Estonian – raamat ‘book’ and kiri ‘letter, message, etc.’ Literary Estonian emerged in the first half of the 16th century, following the Reformation, with the translation of religious literature from German. Even at that time, the Estonian words raamat and kiri were used with distinct meanings. This article examines the evolution of their usage, drawing primarily on Corpus of Old Written Estonian and dictionaries. At the same time, it seeks to answer how and why, unlike in Finnish, the word raamat in Estonian came to refer to various types of texts, while kiri retained meanings that diverged from its Finnish counterpart, kirja ‘book’.
In old written Estonian, both raamat and kiri referred to written documents. Over time, the word raamat became associated with longer printed or handwritten texts, while kiri referred to shorter texts intended for a specific recipient and purpose. Both words were used to denote the Bible and its parts. The usage of these words by Baltic German religious authors was influenced by the example of German words, such as Buch, Schrift, and Brief. However, there were also several semantic developments that occurred independently of German influence. With the diversification of Estonian written culture, new types of books, documents, letters, and other written texts have continued to be introduced over the centuries. Already by the late 19th century, compound words had been created to describe many of these. Later, as a result of deliberate language planning, further adjustments were made to both the meanings and forms of these words, leading to the creation of new terms for emerging types of books and written materials.
In 1838, Marcus Heinrich Windekilde, who ran the Moravian congregation at Tartu, Livonia, set out on a long journey with his family by horse-drawn coach in order to visit his father in the Danish-speaking part of the Duchy of Sleswick. The father was about to celebrate his fiftieth anniversary as a Lutheran minister.
After his return, Windekilde wrote a report about this journey for the Moravian Brethren under his care. His account is therefore composed in Tartu-Estonian. Windekilde took great care to use words his readers and listeners would understand, choosing paraphrases over precise terms when the objects in question were unfamiliar to his audience.
This article follows Windekilde on his journey, explains his background and stylistic choices, and discusses Windekilde’s knowledge of Standard Danish and the Danish dialect spoken at his father’s place.
The linguistic situation in the northern part of Sleswick merits closer examination, since also there – comparable to Livonia – German was the language of administration and higher education, while the majority of the population spoke a Danish dialect, with church services conducted in Standard Danish.
In those days, hierarchies of languages were rather common across Europe’s multilingual regions. The article argues that the development of early written Estonian should be studied as an expression of socially stratified European multilingualism, rather than in the context of overseas colonialism, as has recently become fashionable in some scholarly circles.
Variation of the diminutive suffix -kEnE in Estonian runic songs
This article investigates the variation of the diminutive suffix –kEnE in Estonian runic songs (regilaulud), comparing its usage to that in contemporary Estonian dialects. The study employs variationist linguistic methods to analyze the frequency and forms of diminutive usage in the runic song corpus, with particular attention to geographic and verse-contextual distribution of the suffix. The study focuses on the definition and functions of diminutives in runic songs, as well as their usage patterns. The research combines frequency analysis with qualitative examination of the most common examples. One key finding is that the proportion of the –kEnE suffix is significantly higher in runic song texts collected from Eastern Estonia than in those from the west. The research contributes to a deeper understanding of diminutive variation in Estonian runic songs and sheds light on the poetic and linguistic aspects of these traditional songs.
Orthography as a stylistic device in modern Estonian poetry
This article examines instances of nonstandard orthography in poetry books published in Estonia between 2000 and 2023. The aim is to identify the types of orthographic deviation that appear in contemporary Estonian poetry and the stylistic functions that they serve. The theoretical section provides an overview of the concept of stylistic deviation, international research on orthographic deviation, and earlier studies on this topic in Estonia. The analysis proposes five functions of orthographic deviation: marking belonging, constructing authorial style, referencing linguistic varieties, guiding the reading process, and language play. These functional categories are then examined in more detail using examples found in the material.
In conclusion, the range of orthographic deviations in Estonian poetry is remarkably broad, with all five functions present in the works of multiple authors. The most common type of deviation used to mark belonging to a cultural group or tradition is systematic letter substitution – particularly the frequent replacement of ü with y, along with other substitutions involving foreign letters (e.g., ks with x, ku with q). In constructing an authorial style, systematic substitutions are likewise used alongside other distinctive deviations such as selected spoken-language traits. References to linguistic varieties include nonstandard representation of oral pronunciation, representation of idiolects, historical or cultural connotations, reference to other languages, and highlighting the writing process, all of which are well attested in the material. The function of guiding the reading process involves strategies that slow down the reader or shift their focus in unconventional ways, typically through letter repetition or substitution. The fifth function, language play, is manifested primarily in the orthographic linking of words that would not normally be connected.
An important observation is the strikingly metalinguistic nature of some of the deviations discussed. Some authors seem to employ nonstandard spelling specifically to highlight discrepancies between Estonian orthography and spoken language, or to evoke alternative orthographic systems rooted in historical language development. This goes to show that literature not only uses the tools of language but also enters into continuous dialogue with them.
This article explores the linguistic representations and perceptions of the words queer and kväär within the Estonian LGBT community. The study delves into the evolution of LGBT vocabulary in Estonian, focusing on how kväär, the equivalent of the English queer, is perceived and used.
Using corpus analysis and an online survey among the LGBT community, the research reveals nuanced attitudes toward kväär in Estonia. The corpus data shows shifts in usage frequencies of LGBT related words that reflect societal debates. The word kväär is multifaceted, used in various contexts, and represents intentional resistance to societal norms or expectations. It also serves as a lens for observing phenomena from a non-conformist perspective. Additionally, it marks membership in the LGBT community without necessitating a specific critical context.
The online survey results show diverse attitudes towards the word kväär among the LGBT community, with a slight tendency towards negative interpretations. Gender and age were identified as significant factors shaping attitudes, with non-binary individuals and those under 30 generally expressing more positive views.
Thematic analysis of the survey responses uncovers underlying themes and sentiments associated with the word kväär, elucidating various ways in which it is conceptualized and employed within the community. Themes that surfaced in the survey show the complexities and multifaceted nature of kväär as a linguistic construct, shedding light on its role in identity formation and community dynamics within the Estonian LGBT context.
"Why the child speaks, or how to talk about violence:
The example of the Estonian infanticide ballad “Mareta’s Child”". The lyroepic runosong type “Mareta’s Child” tells the story of a secret sexual encounter between a young unmarried peasant woman and a man of higher social status. The encounter leads to pregnancy and might involve money and/or broken promises. Acting either on his advice or on her own initiative, the woman conceals her pregnancy and abandons the newborn child in the forest, where another woman from the same community finds it. Miraculously, the child starts to speak and reveals its parents. Drawing on the concept of positioning as developed by Rom Harré and Luk van Langenhove, the article explores how the newborn’s preternatural intervention questions and changes, even if temporarily, what can be said about whom, and who can say it. The child speaks so that the female protagonist and the community could address and contemplate breaches that are felt and witnessed but not discussed: powerful men taking sexual advantage of women of lower status, female sexuality and sexual agency, money, infanticide, delusions of social mobility, collective shame and (ir)responsibility. The multivalent poetic language of runosongs is crucial here, as it enables and even encourages multiple interpretations and positions simultaneously. The article also examines the use of direct speech as a marker of decisive moments and turns in the narrative. These formal features, along with the dramatic plot, suggest that “Mareta’s Child” is best approached as a ballad. Rich with characters, conflicts and perspectives, it problematizes the relationship between narrative and violence and highlights the difficulties of discussing acts and experiences of violence.
A new field has emerged alongside constructional linguistic theories and electronic lexicography, known as constructicography (Lyngfelt 2018: 11). Its goal is to compile a constructicon, a resource that organizes and presents linguistic constructions much like dictionaries present words. This concept stems from the theoretical framework of Construction Grammar (see Fillmore 2006; Goldberg 2003; Hoffmann, Trousdale 2013). The main purpose of this study is to outline the necessary theoretical concepts, map out existing solutions, and identify the main challenges in creating different types of constructicons. This aims to inform decisions when beginning to create a potential Estonian language constructicon. First, we discuss the main theoretical considerations and concepts essential for constructicon building. The basic assumption of this theory is that there is a continuum-like transition from grammar to lexicon, rather than a sharp boundary between these two basic linguistic phenomena. According to this view, linguistic units are constructions – pairings of form and meaning with a variable number of lexical components and various levels of schematicity. We further examine the theoretical and methodological principles behind current constructiographic practices, using examples from eight initiatives across seven languages: English, German, Japanese, Russian, Hungarian, Swedish, and Brazilian Portuguese (Perek, Patten 2019; Ziem et al. 2019; Janda et al. 2020; Lyngfelt et al. 2018; Ohara 2018; Fillmore et al. 2012; Torrent et al. 2014; Sass 2023). Meta-analysis reveals that most constructicographic databases are linked to FrameNet resources created for respective languages. The target audiences for these resources vary from language experts to second language learners and language technology applications. The coverage of constructions ranges from 73 to approximately 13,000 entries. The constructicons include semi-schematic constructions, abstract valency patterns, argument structure constructions, and even idiomatic constructions located at the “lexical end” of the grammar–lexicon continuum. As constructions form networks characterized by inheritance relations, describing these relations is a crucial part of constructicon building. Challenges discussed in the paper include defining a construction – whether narrowly or broadly; deciding if a constructicon should encompass general phrase structure constructions or be limited to idiosyncratic constructions; determining which constructions should be included in the resource and how to arrive at a nomenclature; handling constructions at different levels of abstraction; ensuring that the meta-language of descriptions is accessible to learners, native speakers, linguists, and NLP applications alike; and providing effective search functionalities in the dictionary/database for users. Based on the analysis results, we highlight questions that need to be addressed if a constructicon is to be created as part of a relational lexicographical database for Estonian, specifically within the database of the EKI Combined Dictionary compiled within DWS Ekilex (Tavast et al. 2018).
Language ideologies both reflect and (re)create our understandings of language. This article focuses on language ideological discourses where language is overtly the subject of discussion, yet other social concerns are subtly expressed in the background. What is discussed in a public language ideological debate beyond language itself? Who are the participants in such a debate? The case study that we have chosen to examine is the public debate in Estonian media on the meanings of the word "liiderlik" (a loanword from German "liederlich", meaning ‘debauched’; and a newer loan from English "leader" + adjective suffix "-lik", meaning ‘leader-like’) that took place in March and April 2023. We use argumentation analysis as a methodological tool to explore the debate from the perspective of how arguments are constructed to express language ideologies. Our aim is to highlight the non-linguistic social concerns that become associated with language in such a debate and are presented as language issues. The article reveals that language professionals – such as linguists, language editors, language teachers, and journalists – play a prominent role in the debate. Whereas most of them adopt the standpoint that word meanings should be standardized in a normative dictionary, some linguists advocate for the opposing view that meanings cannot be fixed. The analysis shows that there is a lot at stake for the participants in the debate: ensuring mutual understanding, the functioning of society, the quality of higher education and science, the survival of the nation and the state, and even the future of humanity. With this article, we aim to bridge the gap between linguists and other language professionals, showing that while their concerns are vital, framing them as language issues can lead to entrenched, outdated discourses.
Since the emergence of decadent literature, sonnets have played a significant role within its realm. Charles Baudelaire’s Les Fleurs du mal contains 72 sonnets in all. In the preface to the posthumous edition of 1868, Théophile Gautier describes Baudelaire’s style as decadent. Paul Verlaine’s seminal sonnet Langueur, published in 1883, opens with the well-known line: Je suis l’Empire à la fin de la décadence (“I am the Empire at the end of decadence”). This sonnet had an enormous impact on fin de siècle poetry, earning recognition as both the ars poetica of decadence and its most representative example. The concept of decadence also found its way into Estonian literary circles through sonnets when Johannes Aavik published his article Charles Baudelaire ja dekadentismus (“Charles Baudelaire and the Decadent movement”) in 1905, alongside translations of Baudelaire’s poems, including two sonnets (De profundis clamavi and La Destruction). The first original Estonian decadent sonnets appeared four years later, in 1909, marking the beginning of their heyday in the subsequent decades.
The aim of the article is twofold: to explore the development of the Estonian decadent sonnet within a cultural-historical context, primarily drawing from the 1903/1904 correspondence between Gustav Suits and Johannes Aavik, who first introduced the decadent sonnet to Estonian culture. Additionally, the article delves into the poetics of the Estonian decadent sonnet, distinguishing between three types, often intertwined: firstly, those expressing decadent melancholy; secondly, sonnets depicting aestheticism, synaesthesia, and the dissolution of perceptual boundaries; and finally, poems expressing the so-called radical decadence of the Estonian sonnet – conveying moral decline, sexual desires, and excessively morbid motifs.
In Europe and Estonia, linguistic research on paronyms has been rather limited. This article presents a corpus-based comparative study of Estonian and German paronyms, the results of which were included in the German online dictionary Paronyme – Dynamisch im Kontrast as a bilingual word entry in the spring of 2023. This is the first German paronym dictionary compiled strictly based on corpus data analysis. The author examined the Estonian words autoritaarne ‘authoritarian’ and autoriteetne ‘authoritative’ by analyzing their collocations. In Estonian, these words have not previously been recognized as paronyms, whereas their German equivalents autoritär ‘authoritarian’ and autoritativ ‘authoritative’ are considered paronyms. In Estonian, the emphasis in defining paronyms is on the differences in form and meaning of the words, while in German, the emphasis is on their similarity. This discrepancy is partly due to the fact that in Estonia, paronyms have been addressed in language planning rather than linguistics, whereas the German dictionary was compiled using corpus linguistic methods. As a result, the contemporary German understanding of paronyms is broader than that in Estonian linguistics and language planning. The study concludes that, in form, Estonian autoritaarne and autoriteetne are similar loanwords with different meanings, which means they could be considered paronyms according to paronym definitions. Ultimately, this comparative linguistic study reveals that the cosmos of (Estonian) paronyms is extensive, yet only a small fraction has been explored so far.
The article looks at the figure of the woman philologist in the 1970s–1980s Soviet Estonia. Although philology (defined as the study of language, literature, and folklore) was itself a reputable discipline, the character of the woman philologist stands out as ridiculous in the literary fiction of the era. She is depicted as an embittered, aging single woman who has failed to create a nuclear family and is disappointed in her career. The analysis underlines the motif of sexual coldness: male authors (Oskar Kruus, Mihkel Mutt, Juhan Viiding) ridicule women philologists as frigid, whereas texts by women authors (Ene Mihkelson, Ann Must, Aino Pervik) subtly convey a sense of being bound by “forced open-mindedness.”
Patterns identified in literary prose are compared with interviews conducted with seven women who studied philology at the University of Tartu during the period in question. The interviewees mostly had families and enjoyed their job, so did not identify with the literary characters in this respect; rather, they pointed out difficulties with reconciling work and family life. In general, they denied being ridiculed or ill-treated due to their gender. However, their accounts expose notable gender disparities, such as the fact that most professors and other socially recognized philologists were men.
It is concluded that in literary works by male authors, the woman philologist became a metonym for several demographic problems also discussed in contemporary print media: changing gender roles, gender gaps in education, divorces, falling birth rates. The motif of “forced open-mindedness” in works by female authors is interpreted as expressing discomfort with women’s role as a friend and muse. Although gender roles and women’s emancipation were a hot topic in late Soviet print media, the flesh and blood women philologists that were interviewed perceived this as something irrelevant to their personal lives. This, as well as the „forced open-mindedness,” seems to indicate that the language used to address these topics proved insufficient for many women.
The paper analyses the patterns of figurative language and thought addressing the abstract domain of “language”, which emerged in the discourse about the language norms and standardisation in Estonian public media in 2020–2022. The situation was perceived as critical by the language practitioners (editors, proof-readers, translators, teachers, etc) because of confusion and ambiguity in respect of when and in what form would the new edition of ÕS (the traditional prescriptive dictionary of Standard Estonian), appear. The ambiguous feelings were accompanied by the sense of threat to fundamental values, and the sense of urgency to act – all the substantial features of a crisis were met. The corpus of texts contained 62 texts by practitioners, journalists, professional linguists (institutional scientists), and state officials. The corpus of texts was analyzed qualitatively from the viewpoint of the Conceptual Metaphor Theory, Figurative Framing, Systemic Functional Linguistics, and Critical Discourse Analysis.
The critical situation stimulated figurative thinking by all the “voices” in discussion: language practitioners framed the Estonian language as a ‘needy’ – an image, which was amplified into an image of ‘protegee’ and further so into ‘victim’. Linguists tended to think and speak of language as a ‘living being’, borrowing vocabulary from evolutionary biology. Both practitioners and researchers also used the image of ‘building’ while highlighting different aspects: linguists talked more about language reconstruction and repair, while the other disputants referred to demolition, breaking down, and decay. Personification was also used, i.e. attributing human qualities and desires to language. The practitioners showed empathy to the language as a sufferer, while the linguists talked about well-being and health. One of the most disputable images was that of language as a social subject that could enjoy freedom. This image, originally proposed by the progressively minded linguists was sharply rejected and responded to by the journalists and the practitioners by using irony and ridiculing. One of the images used only by the practitioners was that of language as a beautiful garden in threat of getting abandoned.
The play “The Atlantic Ocean” (Atlandi ookean) by the renowned Soviet-era Estonian writer Juhan Smuul has received very little critical attention so far. By closely looking at the work, we can find nuances and undercurrents that help us understand the motives and reasoning behind the characters’ – but in some cases also their author’s – deeds, choices, and attitudes. This article focuses on the songs referred to in the play. The shortish four-act play that is set onboard a Soviet Estonian herring trawler in the summer of 1955 contains references to 22 songs in total. The origin of the songs is remarkably heterogenous: there are songs from a Lutheran service book, references to classical music, hit music from pre- and post-WWII times and village dance parties, heroic songs from the tsarist period, and also some unidentifiable folk songs. Roughly one third of them are performed or played with melody; others are mentioned by either title or lyrics. The songs primarily function as condensed characterizations of the wide array of crew members (16 characters). Songs also function as indirect comments on a certain situation or character, letting the viewers draw their own conclusions. Such a writing technique – embedding songs into the texture of his stories – is characteristic of Smuul also in his other works which are yet to be studied from this angle.
We first provide a short overview of the critical response to the play upon its initial staging by Voldemar Panso and discuss the reasons for its subsequent limited success. After that, a statistical overview of the studied songs is provided. In the first part of qualitative analysis, the intertextual ties between Smuul’s own lyrics and those by an Estonian popular poet of the turn of the century, Georg Eduard Luiga, are discussed. The motifs and influences can be traced back to Robert Burns and Scottish folk songs. The songs referred to in the play are discussed in the two subsequent sections: first, the crew members’ favourite songs of which they request a recording from the onshore office; and second, the songs that the characters themselves sing during the voyage. The article concludes with a discussion of the necessity of songs and singing under the conditions of an enclosed space (be it real, as in the ship, or metaphorical, as in an authoritarian state), followed by a formal conclusion briefly summing up all of the foregoing.
The article looks at the history of Estonian Russian-language literature in the young Republic of Estonia (1918–1940) and the life and work of the Russian-speaking poet Igor Severyanin (1887–1941) from the perspective of Estonian literature. In 1918, Severyanin, as a mature author, moved permanently from Russia to Estonia. Gradually, he developed a hybrid identity: he became fond of Estonia and wrote in Russian. However, his works have been omitted from the Estonian literary history.
The article sets out the following hypotheses:
1) Estonian Russian-language literature from 1918 to 1940 has not become part of Estonian literature of that period, as its acceptance is hindered by various cultural-historical barriers for literary researchers. The main barriers have been highlighted by means of source criticism.
2) Igor Severyanin’s life and work serve to situate him as a representative of Estonian literature. Terms such as integration and identity were not used in his day, but Severyanin’s personal and creative choices help to understand, retrospectively, that it was important for him to live in Estonia, write poetry inspired by local material, interact with Estonian-speaking colleagues, remain connected with Estonian public and cultural institutions. I have approached Severyanin’s case through the identity theory (the work of John Charles Turner and Homi Bhabha), as well as Pierre Bourdieu’s concept of the literary field.
Both hypotheses were confirmed in the article. However, the values of modern multicultural society dictate that the discussion of Estonian literary history should include the Russian-speaking authors of the interwar period. Currently, there are gaps in Estonian literary history regarding these authors. Filling these gaps would mean overcoming the cultural-historical barriers.