Celsius Centre for Scandinavian Studies

Vol 2 1998 - Review by Tony Griffiths

L'Estonie

Suzanne Champonnois and Francois de Labriolle

Karthala
22-24 Boulevard Arago, 75013 Paris, France
ISBN 2 86537 724 5

Suzanne Champonnois and Francois de Labriolle have written with French vivacity a timely and appropriate account of Estonia and the Estonians. Their book first explains the complexity and significance of the Estonian arms, flag, geography and pre-history from an ethnographical and historical perspective. The authors then point out that as early as the first century Tacitus in Germania used the word Aestii to describe a society different from that of their Baltic neighbours and from that of the Norwegians, Swedes, Finns and Northern Germans. Ancient Estonian society was originally organised around villages where several families grouped in the interest of security and to provide for their material needs. Estonians, like their Finnish neighbours, had a pantheon of natural elements, featuring the forest, the rivers, hunting, fishing, gods and goddesses, most notably Pergel/Pikker (still called upon today on numerous occasions as any visitor to the region will recognise). Rites around the solstice, funerals and runic chanting were characteristics of a poetic society whose pagan love of nature, water, rocks and trees reached their apotheosis of expression in the Kalevipoeg, the mythical adventure of the sons of Kalev. The authors show how Estonian national identity survived the transformation of economic and social life which occurred when the eastward expansion of German merchants began after 1158 and the creation of the Hanseatic league in Lubeck. The authors describe how:

Cette hanse reprend les routes connues des Vikings et rétablit des liaisons commerciales avec Novgorod. Les marchands allemands, souvent guidés par des Danois d'origine viking, cherchent à acquérir des fourrures, de la cire, du miel, de céréales. Ils explorent aussi les territoires au sud de la Finlande, l'embouchre de al Daugava (en allemand Düna, en russe: Dvine) et le pays des Coures.

Ces expéditions, à but commercial, ressemblent fort à celles des Vikings; les marchands étaient eux-mêmes armes ou accomapgnés de soldats

The early history of Estonia, from one point of view, a success story of crusades led by bishops, princes and knights, focussed on the competition between groups of capitalist evangelists. As the authors note:

Cette rivalité apparut très clairement dans les premières décennies du siècle qui virent la conquête totale du pays des Estes, par les Allemands au sud et par les Danois au nord, et marquèrent le début d'une servitude qui, relayée par les occupations polonaise, suédoise et russe, dura jusqu'en 1919, pendant sept siècles.

The authors outline in detail how the German and Tentonic power expanded eastward, 1202-1561 by looking at the roles of Meinhardt and Theoric, Albert de Buxhoevden and by investigating the roles of the nobility, the clergy, artisans and businessmen, in an investigation with all the genius and flavour of Fernand Braulel's Wheels of Commerce. Between 1561 and 1710 Estonia suffered Polish and Swedish hegemony, only to have their servitude followed up by the Russian yoke for a little over 200 years.

Chapters 4 to 12 are most particularly interesting and timely. They cover the Russian regime, the emergence of Estonian nationalism in the face of Russification, the end of Tsarism, the first world war and the war of independence, the Estonian republic which followed 1920-1939, the second world war, the 'Great Winter' of 1944-1989, and the sudden independence of contemporary politics. These are followed by a brief and inviting picture of Estonia today.

L'Estonie est la pays du ciel, de la forêt et de l'eau. Malgré les catastrophes écologiques que lui a values l'industrialisation rapide pendant l'occupation soviétique, elle continue d'offrir de magnifiques espaces au touriste qui sair appécier la douceur de son climat, le bleu lavé de son ciel, la lumière cristalline, le silence de ses bois de pins, de sapins, de bouleaux et d'épicéas. Rien n'est excessif dans ce pays où l'on ne trouve pas d'immensite oppressante comme en Russie, ni de sommets impressionnants comme en Scandinavie, mais une nature à l'échelle humaine, modest et sereine.

This is an important book about an important region. The significance of Estonia and the Baltic has been underlined in 1998 by the priority given to its future role in an expanded NATO, and a new European community in the next millennium, by the leaders of both Russia and the United States.