The first generation is now entering its 60th year as refugees from Estonia. Many who fled the Red Army terror remained in Germany or Sweden either out of choice or circumstances. Others went to North America and in some cases Australia, as economic refugees. A large number ended up in or close to Toronto, Canada.
Despite a recent revival from the “echo boom” generation, Canadian-Estonian society has been aging much more rapidly than the population in general and this is very evident whenever a gathering takes place either at the summer camps or Estonian House. The sole remaining Estonian language paper has many more death notices than university graduation or confirmation class pictures.
Watching all this from remote snowbound Ottawa as one of the second generation on the fringes of Estonian-Canadian society, I was struck by the similarity between the slow fading away to oblivion of the communist parties in North America and Estonian Canadian society today. Some of the similarities are striking. While one group existed because of their love of an ideology to the point where it became a religion, another, with some justification, fed on its hatred of that same ideology. Beliefs were narrow, rigid and sometimes very unrealistic despite what common sense and the real world should have made evident. Both groups looked back on the 1930’s with fond memories and did not seem to notice that the world had changed significantly in the meantime.
For the communists, Khrushchev’s 1956 “secret speech” was an event that shook the foundations of the party, for Canadian-Estonians revelations, true or not, about former president Päts shook them as well, but perhaps to a lessor extent. In any event by the time of these revelations, memberships in both societies had already declined precipitously. There was also the common problem of inter-generation transfer of power; both societies became mired in a situation that was known in the latter years of the Soviet Union as the “stagnation period” or in Estonian “stagna aeg”.
Party membership never did recover and younger people stayed away in droves. Canadian-Estonian society is still breathing, but just barely. Whether or not it has sufficient “critical mass” to remain alive remains to be seen. Other than language for some of the group, nothing much distinguishes members from middle class WASP society in general, so assimilation, primarily from intermarriage has been rapid. The prognosis is not favorable.
The question then becomes did Estonian-Canadian society unwittingly promote this and to what degree is it prepared to accept it. A choice needs to be made about whether language is really that important. If it is, then many potential members will be lost because their spouses will simply not go along with being left out and to expect them to learn a language of otherwise little practical use is unrealistic. If it is not, then some accommodation needs to be made on the part of the “super nationalists” even if this leads to some dilution of the “Estonian” character of the society.
I have been impressed with the efforts that have been made by the Ottawa Estonian Society to make everyone feel welcome. The annual “Aktus” speeches have been both interesting and informative, especially so those by the older generation commemorating those who fell in the struggle for independence. In particular, the speech given by the Danish ambassador at the last “Aktus” was well worth the price of admission alone.
I recently wrote what I thought was a humorous article entitled “Greek Wedding” which was published in the English language pages of
Eesti Elu. The reaction was a learning experience for me. While most people that knew me found the article funny, there were others who were so incensed that they either wrote to the paper or told me in person that they found it extremely offensive. Humor is a strange thing, especially when somebody is laughing at themselves and others aren’t sure enough of themselves to do the same.
The expatriate Estonian community was never homogenous, witness the fact that there were several churches and newspapers when one would have sufficed. However, it has come to the point where some serious thinking and self-examination needs to be done, particularly by those who still live by the motto “eestlane olen ja eestlaseks jään” which translates to “I am Estonian and will remain Estonian.”
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Mari Ann Tammark25 Jan 2004 09:02
The situation in Ottawa and Montreal is very different from Toronto. Yes change has been slow, but those organizations that have adapted to realities have survived and will continue to gain members. Some clubs will simply disappear as they relate to the generation born in Estonia before about 1940.
We all make choices in how to spend our time and money. What we should support are those families who have made the effort to expose their children to the Estonian language and allowed them to share experiences which will inevitably forge some bonds or friendships for the next generation.
New members are welcome to join the Toronto Estonian school, churches, scout and guide troops, gymnastics clubs, fraternities, sororities etc. - language abilities are not a pre requisite. You will inevitably find that for major events the principal language is Estonian. Several parents of mixed marriages participate and donate their time and I am always amazed at their generosity and support - they are truly nice people. Try it the effort may be worth it - the first step is yours.
Kadri Wichman06 Jan 2004 07:08
Dear Mr. P. Tiidus,
It seems to me, that you are feeling bad, that your children do not know how to speak the estonian language. You yourself, have, in my opinion, actually been the "language Nazi", having "not allowed for any personal choice" in your OWN children as to what languages they could speak. What choice does a 2-3 year old child anywhere have, as to what language(s) they will be spoken to with????? Parents make that choice.
Please explain to me WHY you want your children to be "Estos" (in Canada), or anywhere else for that matter??? What is the attraction?? Why now?? What for?? Why not want to be French in Canada??? Surely canadians have learned more French than any other language in Canada??
Your struggle with yourself and the sadness you feel, now that the time is over for your children to have gotten a grasp of the Estonian language, is, I believe, very common, in people who regret the lack of effort in having their children speak another language, especially their own ancestral heritage language. (One can ask, "Were these parents 'Estos' at heart themselves????????) It seems, that one typically begins to DOWNPLAY the need for speaking estonian to be "an Esto"?? What does "be an esto " mean to you anyway????Please clear that up also. Perhaps some people thought that because their parents spoke estonian, it was a GENETIC given, that their offspring do also? What a thing to leave to chance!!!!
As the age old saying goes, "With Language comes Culture "--whether you like it or not! How could it be otherwise, Ku_at?????
Peter29 Dec 2003 08:47
I know that I have been one of your most vocal critics in the past but this time I think that you have raised some very valid points in your article.
I do not think that the death of our community is inevitable as some of our pessimists keep saying and am much more optimistic now than I was a few years ago. There are now many 3rd generation Estonians who speak our language fluently (some better than their parents) and this is a very positive sign since some were saying 50 years ago that our language would not survive beyond the 2nd generation. There has also been a renewed interest in learning the language by people with Estonian parents or grandparents who were not taught Estonian. I hope that Mr. Tiidus's children will also start attending Estonian classes someday so that we can pull them back into our community. Also, we should not forget that there are even non-Estonians that admire our culture so much that they have learned our language. I know one lady here in Toronto who is not Estonian and has never been to Estonia but speaks our language. I have also heard of a few others like her.
Now that there is no longer any official policy by the Canadian government to destroy our culture or language I feel that we must radically re-think our strategy for survival. We should no longer think of ourselves as "pagulased" since Estonia is now a free country (although less independent than a few years ago) and start to think of ourselves as Estonian-speaking Canadians.
Our culture will not survive as a part-time hobby. We can only keep our language alive if we have a territory (or territories), however small, where Estonian is the everyday spoken language and also, we must educate our children in Estonian. We have been talking about an Estonian school for 50 years now but it is still no more than an idea. I think it is an idea whose time has come. The Ukrainian community has established many schools for their children in Western Canada in the last 10 years. We should be able to receive funding from the Estonian community here and possibly from the Estonian government as well. We can also work with the Ukranians and other Euro-Canadians who have the same concerns that we do. Teachers in Estonia are poorly paid and we should have no problem recruiting some to come here to teach. It could be done in the same manner as in the churches that bring ministers here from Estonia. Much money has been spent on "peod ja aktused" over the years but is not the education of our children in the language and culture of our ancestors not much more important?
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