Estonian National Identity Discourse in 1939-1940: The Emergence of a New Hegemony

Abstract

In this paper, I observe and analyse the developments in the Estonian national identity discourse from the bases era in 1940 all the way until Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic was declared on 21 July. My understanding of hegemony is based on the Gramscian tradition, and the primary aim of this work is to focus on observing the destabilisation of the old hegemonic discourse. In order to map out the dominant discourse in Estonian media, I have worked through the numbers of Postimees from 01.01.1940-21.07.1940 and categorised the most important discourse elements. The change of the official discourse happened in June of 1940, with the most radical change happening with the change of government on 21 June. The new hegemon defined the old government as an enemy from the first speech onwards. Nevertheless, the new discourse was in the beginning clearly mixing elements from the old regime as well, continuing the positive narratives describing Estonian history and having both pro-Soviet and pro-independence people still in media, although the adopted narratives were usually manipulated to serve the new regime. There were additionally unexpected new narratives entering the discourse even after the regime change, which weakened the build-up of a logical alternative narrative. Despite apparent Soviet attempts to “get consent” from Estonians, the new discourse seems to have dominated only on paper.