Based on the concept of transition culture, the article discusses patterns of generational continuity and disruption in post-Soviet Estonia. We suggest a tool for meso-level analysis: factor structures of self-identification and value orientations. The empirical analysis of population survey data collected in 2005 shows that such mental structures have significant correlations with indices of perceptions about social changes and everyday social and cultural practices. Our analysis focuses on mental patterns of three generations among two main ethno-linguistic groups: ethnic Estonians and the Russian minority. The results reveal considerable differentiation between older and younger generations. We suggest that post-Soviet transition has brought about generational disruption in cultural reproduction, which is particularly visible among the ethnic minority group: Russian youngsters differ from their parents to a greater extent than do young Estonians from theirs. Moreover, the mental patterns of young Estonians and Russians have common elements.
Richard Rose and Neil Munro, Elections and Parties in New European Democracies ( Washington : CQPress, 2003).
2.
Marju Lauristin, "Contexts of Transition," In Marju Lauristin et al., eds., Return to the Western World: Cultural and Political Perspectives on the Estonian Post-Communist Transition (Tartu: Tartu University Press, 1997), 27.
3.
As shown, for instance, by Ronald Inglehart and Christian Welzel, Modernization, Cultural Change, and Democracy: The Human Development Sequence ( Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005), 99.
4.
Among the few examples are: Michael D. Kennedy, Cultural Formations of Post-Communism: Emancipation, Transition, Nation, and War (Minneapolis and London: University of Minnesota Press, 2002); Piotr Sztompka, "The Trauma of Social Change: A Case of Postcommunist Societies," In Jeffrey C. Alexander et al., eds., Cultural Trauma and Collective Identity ( Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2004); Henri Vogt, Between Utopia and Disillusionment: A Narrative of the Political Transformation in Eastern Europe (New York: Berghahn Books, 2004).
5.
Sztompka, "The Trauma."
6.
Kennedy, Cultural Formations, 8-9.
7.
Sztompka, "The Trauma," 176.
8.
Sztompka, "The Trauma"; Vogt, Utopia.
9.
Sztompka, "The Trauma," 193.
10.
Richard Rose , William Mishler, and Christian Haerpfrer, Democracy and its Alternatives: Understanding Post-Communist Societies ( Baltimore, Maryland: The Johns Hopkins University Press , 1998), 128.
11.
Rose et al., Democracy.
12.
Index of Economic Freedom site: http://www.heritage.org/index/countries.cfm.
13.
The economic growth in Estonia decelerated in 2007. In the 4th quarter of 2007, the economic growth was 4.5 percent compared with the same period in the previous year, being the slowest of the past eight years. Statistics Estonia site: http://www.stat.ee/19071 .
14.
According to Grzymala-Busse, the robust competition is ". . . characterized by an opposition that is clearly identifiable, plausible as a governing alternative, and vociferously critical, constantly monitoring and censuring government actions." See Anna Grzymala-Busse, Rebuilding Leviathan: Party Competition and State Exploitation in Post-Communist Democracies (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2007), 11.
15.
Rose and Munro, Elections, 72.
16.
See Mikko Lagerspetz, "Civil Society Resources in the Modernization of Estonia," In Estonian Human Development Report ( Tallinn: TPÜ RASI, 1999), 36-40; Mikko Lagerspetz, "Consolidation as Hegemonization: The Case of Estonia,"Journal of Baltic Studies32:4( 2001): 402-20.
17.
Lagerspetz, "Consolidation,"413.
18.
Vogt, Utopia.
19.
Attitudes toward the changes that took place in Estonia in the 1990s are relatively positive: 55 percent of the Estonian population regard the changes as being rather positive for themselves; see Marju Lauristin, "Eesti ühiskonna kihistumine" ("Stratification of Estonian Society") , In Veronika Kalmus, Marju Lauristin and Pille Pruulmann-Vengerfeldt , eds., Eesti elavik 21. sajandi algul: uurimuse "Mina. Maailm. Meedia" aruanne (Estonian Life-World at the Beginning of the 21st Century: Report of the Survey "Me. The World. The Media") ( Tartu: Tartu University Press, 2004 ), 232. At the same time, the changes are regarded as being too fast: 85 percent agreed with this statement; see Triin Vihalemm and Anu Masso, "The Nation-Building and Perspectives of Formation of Civic Identity in Post-Soviet Estonia," In N. Hashimoto et al., eds., A Collection of Papers on the History and Today's Situation of Russian-Speaking Population in Estonia and Latvia (Hiroshima: Proceedings of Hiroshima University, 2005).
20.
Lagerspetz, "Consolidation,"413.
21.
See, for example, Scott Lash and Jonathan Friedman, Modernity and Identity ( Oxford and Cambridge, MA: Blackwell , 1992); Arjun Appadurai, Modernity at Large (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1996); Manuel Castells, The Information Age: Economy, Society, and Culture: The Power of Identity ( Oxford: Blackwell Publishers , 1997 ); Zygmunt Bauman , The Individualized Society ( Cambridge: Polity Press , 2001); Ulrich Beck and Elizabeth Beck-Gernsheim, Individualization ( London: Sage , 2002).
22.
Mikko Lagerspetz , Erle Rikmann, and Rein Ruutsoo, "The Structure and Resources of NGOs in Estonia," Voluntas: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations13:1(2002): 73-87; Maie Kiisel, "Keskkonnateadvuse kujunemine Eestis 1980ndatest 2005ni" ("Formation of Environmental Consciousness in Estonia from the End of the 1980s to 2005.") (Unpublished Master's thesis, Tartu: Department of Journalism and Communication, University of Tartu, 2005); Maarja Siiner, "Planning Language Practice: A Sociolinguistic Analysis of Language Policy in Post-Communist Estonia,"Language Policy5:2(2006): 161-86.
23.
Estonian Human Development Report 2001 (Tallinn: TPÜ RASI, 2001); Estonian Human Development Report 2003 ( Tallinn: TPÜ RASI, 2003); Vihalemm and Masso, "Nation-Building."
24.
Estonian Human DevelopmentReport 2006 (Tallinn : Public Understanding Foundation, 2007).
25.
See Annika Tallo , "Erinevad generatsioonid üleminekuperioodi Eestis" ("Different Generations in Transitional Estonia"), In Estonian Human Development Report 1998 (Tallinn: UNDP Uniprint, 1998); Mikk Titma, ed., Kolmekümneaastaste põlvkonna sotsiaalne portree (The Social Portrait of the Generation of 30-year-olds) ( Tallinn: Academy of Sciences Press, 1999).
26.
E-monitoring Survey March/ May 2007 (Tallinn: TNS Emor, 2007), http://www.emor.ee/arhiiv.html?id=1778.
27.
Don Slater, ConsumerCulture and Modernity ( London : Routledge, 1997).
28.
Margit Keller and Triin Vihalemm, "Coping with Consumer Culture: Elderly Urban Consumers in Post-Soviet Estonia," Trames9:1(2005): 69-91.
29.
Lauristin, "Kihistumine" ("Stratification"), 265.
30.
The data of the last census in 2000, see Estonian Statistical Bureau site: http://pub.stat.ee.
31.
In 1989, Russians and other Soviet nationalities who had entered Estonia after 1940 formed 36 percent of the population of Estonia. For further discussion of the problem of the Citizenship Law, see Rose and Munro, Elections, 168.
32.
In the Soviet time, Russians had the right to use Russian language everywhere; see Paul Goble, "Three Faces of Nationalism in the Former Soviet Union," In Charles A. Kupchan, ed., Nationalism and Nationalities in the New Europe ( Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1995), 125. There was no need to learn the local language. Approximately one-fourth of Russians acquired Estonian language skills to the point where they could communicate; others knew Estonian passively or not at all. Since the re-establishment of the Estonian Republic, Russians' language skills have improved: 27 percent of Russians reported active knowledge of Estonian, 61 percent declared passive knowledge; see Triin Vihalemm, Anu Masso and Peeter Vihalemm, "Eesti kujunev keeleruum" ("Formation of the Linguistic Space in Estonia"), In Kalmus et al., eds., Eesti elavik (Estonian Life-World) , 60. Still, the knowledge of the national language remains modest, compared with ethnic minorities living in Western European states and the U.S., where 65 percent of those who spoke a language other than English at home reported speaking English "very well" or "well" (U.S. Census Bureau, Census 2000 site: http://www.migrationinformation.org/USFocus/display.cfm?ID=71#11) .
33.
Graham Smith , "The Ethnic Democracy Thesis and the Citizenship Question in Estonia and Latvia," Nationalities Papers24:2( 1996): 199-216.
34.
Kennedy, Cultural Formations, 186-7.
35.
The Program "Integration in Estonian Society 2000-2007" ( Tallinn, 2000, The Minister of Population site: http://www.rahvastikuminister.ee/en/home/plans/integrationprogram.html , consulted 7 July, 2006); Ragne Kõuts, "Riikluse tõlgendusmallid eesti ajakirjanduses enamuse-vähemuse suhete taustal" ("The Ideologies of Statehood in the Estonian Media in the Context of Majority-Minority Relations.") (Unpublished Master's thesis, Tartu: Department of Sociology, University of Tartu, 2002.)
36.
Gregory Feldman , "Shifting the Perspective on Identity Discourse in Estonia,"Journal of Baltic Studies31:4(2000): 406-28.
37.
Aili Aarelaid-Tart, Cultural Trauma and Life Stories (Helsinki: Kikimora Publications, Series A: 15, 2006).
38.
Kennedy, Cultural Formations; Vogt, Utopia.
39.
Sztompka, "The Trauma"; Kennedy, Cultural Formations; Vogt, Utopia; Rose et al., Democracy; Lagerspetz, "Consolidation."
40.
See, for instance, Elena Danilova and Vladimir Yadov, "Social Identification in Post-Soviet Russia: Empirical Evidence and Theoretical Explanation,"International Review of Sociology7:2(1997): 319-35; Manuel Castells, The Information Age.
41.
Stuart Hall, "Cultural Identity and Diaspora," In Jonathan Rutherford, ed., Identity: Community, Culture, Difference ( London: Lawrence and Wishart, 1990 ).
42.
Richard Jenkins , Social Identity (London : Routledge, 1996).
43.
Henry Tajfel , Human Groups and Social Categories (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981).
44.
See Marju Lauristin and Triin Vihalemm, "Changing Value Systems: Civilizational Shift and Local Differences," In Lauristin et al., eds., Return.
45.
Shalom Schwartz , "Individualism-Collectivism: Critique and Proposed Refinements," Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology19(1990): 139-157; Shalom Schwartz, "Value Priorities and Behaviour: Applying a Theory of Integrated Value Systems," In Clive Seligman, James M. Olson and Mark P. Zanna, eds., The Psychology of Values: The Ontario Symposium8 (Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, 1996).
46.
Shalom Schwartz and Lilach Sagiv, "Identifying Culture-Specifics in the Content and Structure of Values," Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology26(1995): 92-116.
47.
Aggregated variables (indices) help to increase the reliability of the data and reveal more general tendencies. The indices were formed by summarizing the codes of answers given to several questions measuring the same phenomenon. For instance, the index of Positive attitude towards the Soviet time summarizes four variables measured on a five-point scale (from 5 - Totally agree to 1 - Totally disagree): Life was more secure in the Soviet time; The income of a common person made possible greater material welfare in the Soviet time; People were more caring and honest with regard to each other in the Soviet time; There was nothing good in the Soviet time that is worth missing now. In the case of the first three indicators, the answers Totally agree and Generally agree added two points or one point, respectively, to the index; in the case of the fourth indicator, two points or one point came from the answers Totally disagree and Generally disagree, respectively.
48.
Veronika Kalmus and Triin Vihalemm, "Changes in Young People's Self-Identification and Value Structures in Transitional Estonia," In Martti Muukkonen and Tiina Sotkasiira, eds., Young People at the Crossroads (Joensuu: Joensuu University, 2007).
49.
For more details see Veronika Kalmus and Triin Vihalemm, "Distinct Mental Structures in Transition culture: An Empirical Analysis of Values and Identities in Estonia,"Journal of Baltic Studies36:1( 2006): 94-123.
50.
See Kalmus and Vihalemm, "Distinct."
51.
Cf. MaxWeber, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, trans. Talcott Parsons (Reprint, New York: Scribners , 1958).
52.
Vogt, Utopia.
53.
Kennedy, Cultural Formations, 216-20.
54.
Rose and Munro, Elections, 65.
55.
See, for example, Nico Stehr, Knowledge Societies ( London: Sage, 1992); Gerard Delanty, Modernity and Postmodernity (London : Sage, 2000); Alain Touraine, Can We Live Together? Equality and Difference (Cambridge : Polity Press, 2000); Beck and Beck-Gernsheim, Individualization.
56.
Peeter Vihalemm, Meediasüsteem ja meediakasutus Eestis 1965-2004 (The Media System and Media Usage in Estonia 1965-2004) (Tartu: Tartu University Press, 2004), 442.
57.
Triin Vihalemm, "Usage of Language as a Source of Societal Trust," In Marju Lauristin and Mati Heidmets, eds., The Challenge of the Russian Minority (Tartu: Tartu University Press, 2002); Triin Vihalemm, "Possibilities of Public Communication of Estonian Language Learning and Ethnic Relations" (Results of a qualitative study presented at the meeting of Estonian Language Training Program at the Integration Foundation, Tallinn, 2004.)
58.
Vihalemm, "Possibilities."
59.
Kennedy, Cultural Formations, 9.
60.
Ove Sernhede, "Social Exclusion, Territoriality and Cultures of Resistance in the Post-Colonial City." (Paper presented at the 9th Nordic Youth Research Information Symposium at Södertörn University College , Stockholm, 12-14 January, 2006.)
