Complications continued in the years of World War II (1939-1945). Adult males left in the villages and even younger boys were mobilised. A number of the men served in the Red Army under the Estonian Rifle Corps. Younger women and men were sent to work at munitions factories. Due to high taxes the villages lacked food as well as working hands. In 1940 the Republic of Estonia was annexed to the Soviet Union. Thereafter the first to arrive at Siberian villages from Estonia were evacuees and the wounded sent to the rear to recuperate; they engaged themselves actively in the Estonian-language village life. Those deported from Estonia in 1941 and 1949 were not assigned to Estonian settlements in Siberia.
Changes occurred in the population of the Estonian villages. Several villages took in people of other nationalities, e.g. Germans from the Volga River region. The war and the related events played an essential role in prompting the repatriation of Estonians. After the end of the war many of the men stayed in Estonia in quest of better living conditions. Beginning from 1940 Estonians also started to move from elsewhere in the Soviet Union to Estonia by reason of job placement. Estonians living in Russia were often sent, by order of the authorities, to study at Communist Party schools, after which they were installed in Estonia as enterprise managers and Communist Party officials with executive powers. A number of those evacuated during the war had married while in Siberian villages and repatriated together with their families. In 1945-1947 repatriation assumed massive proportions; between 1940-1949 a total of 24,000-25,000 Estonians moved to Estonia from all across Soviet Russia.
In the post-war Soviet time (2nd half of the 1940s to 1990) the life of Siberian Estonian villages was influenced by various factors. The number of Estonians dropped due to exodus from the villages and assimilation. Thus, the key words for the period are urbanisation and bilingualism.
The exodus from the villages was prompted by the repressions and disappointment in the prevailing situation. The post-war period drove the dissatisfaction even deeper. Although foodstuffs and industrial commodities were rationed, collective farms languished and private enterprise was banned all over Soviet Russia, the Siberian conditions were even tighter and slower to improve. The standard of living in Siberia was lower than in European Russia, for instance; even in later times, Siberians went to Estonia to buy a variety of industrial goods, such as furniture and children’s clothes. A number of schools were downgraded to primary schools; later, 8-years schools were restored in larger villages (Vambola, Ülem-Suetuk and others; 8-year school education was made mandatory in 1958). As was already mentioned, people left their former residences to live in Estonia; in particular, this tendency was evident in the generation born between 1911-1930, who received Estonian-language education and wanted to remain Estonians.
In the 1950s and 1960s a number of smaller collective farms and village soviets were merged. Several villages were declared “unpromising”. Part of the Estonian settlements was permanently abandoned (Estono-Semyonovka, Kaseküla and Aruküla in Novosibirsk Province, etc). Others lost their cultural and economic independence. The villages of Koidula and Yuryev in Mariinsk County, Kemerovo Province, both had a collective farm initially. Later they were incorporated into Koidula Village Soviet and Rodina Collective Farm. In 1961 the aforementioned Estonian settlements and the Russian villages Malyi Antibes and Bolshoi Antibes were joined together to become Avangard Collective Farm and Bolshoi-Antibes Village Soviet. Houses were built in the collective farm centre Mariinsk and the village Soviet centre Malyi-Antibes whereas Yuryev and Koidula steadily lost their inhabitants.
At the same time, the population of promising Estonian settlements expanded, at the expense of both Estonians and representatives of other nationalities. Estonians moved from their more remote settlements to those that were more affluent (from villages in the Tara region to Tsvetnopolye and Zolotaya Niva; from Nikolayevka to Orava and Zolotaya Niva, etc.) and from smaller and dwindling settlements to larger ones (from Linda to Kaseküla, from Novikovka to Yuryev). Larger Estonian settlements turned into developed centres of state farms and collective farms where production was concentrated, new residential houses were built and new roads and infrastructure were constructed.
Such settlements attracted other nationalities also, and in most cases the Estonians were forced into minority. For instance, in Zolotaya Niva, a former habitat of (southern) Estonians, the share of Estonians dropped to 35% in the 1980s. Other nationalities (Russians, Chuvashes, etc.) were lured to move to Kingissepp Collective Farm in Vambola and Iskra Collective Farm in Kaseküla (both in Tomsk Province) for want of workers (the percentage of Estonians in Kaseküla 39, in Vambola 50). Part of the newcomers has left again after the collective farms and the related incentives were abolished in the 1990s.
Since the late 1960s the economic situation in the villages began to improve gradually. Money wages started to be paid and the right to old-age pension was introduced, with the pensioners being granted a number of advantages. State farms started to be formed (e.g. in Zolotaya Niva in 1961). TV-sets, fridges and, later on, cars, etc. appeared in almost every family. Most of the villagers worked on the state farm: women as farm workers, men as mechanics. Jobs were also obtained at schools, shops, post offices, etc. Besides work on state farms, private husbandry was allowed to earn additional income. The level of the collective or state farm determined the villagers’ welfare.
In the 1970s the villages were hit by another wave of depopulation with the exodus of the generation born in 1950-960. Of that generation, a total of 60-80% left, and subsequent generations followed suit. Most of them moved to urban areas. Thus, the proportion of rural population among the Siberian Estonians, as well as among Russia’s other nationalities, has gone down steadily. Urban areas provided young people with opportunities for continuing their studies and with better living and working conditions. The destinations of the exodus were local towns and settlements as well as other places all over the Soviet Union. A small part of the emigrants came to Estonia. Since that period the number of Siberian Estonians has only decreased. Makarkino, Novikovka, Baltika and others villages disappeared from the map. The villages upon the Kan in Krasnoyarsk Territory were liquidated when a secret and closed city, currently Zelenogorsk, was built there.
Russification intensified with the stagnation of the 1970s. Although the language of instruction at school was Russian, there were some local villagers educated at pedagogical schools who after having returned to their native places to work used a degree of Estonian in communicating with children (Raissa Menskaya in Nikolayevka, Herman and Olga Reile in Kaseküla, Evald Voormann in Vambola and others). In general, however, speaking Estonian was frowned upon, and it could be banned at schools.
As a counterbalance to ethnic and cultural homogenisation folk art ensembles, or folklore ensembles, sprang up all over the Soviet Union. They were able to operate under the cover of the pathos-filled label of “friendship between the nations” and of clubs. Estonian national costumes were procured, Estonian songs were sung, performances were given outside the village. Such folk ensembles were established, for instance, at Tsvetnopolye (Omsk Province), which was supervised by Linda Tsirk, at Orava, at Zolotaya Niva, etc.). A brass band each operated at Kaseküla and Ülem-Suetuk; the latter is still around. Village museums were founded at Kaseküla, Zolotaya Niva and Liflandia; likewise, Estonian-language books could be found in village libraries. Red-letter days and family holidays were celebrated at home according to national customs; as well, Estonian was used in everyday life in most of the villages. Despite that, the Estonian language and Estonian patriotism was confined to the home and the home village as they were denied official recognition.
Contacts with Estonia grew closer, considering just the relatives who had moved to the fatherland. Subscription to periodicals from Estonia (the daily “Rahva Hääl” [The Voice of the People], “Kodumaa” [The Homeland], the magazine “Nõukogude Naine” [The Soviet Woman], etc.) resumed. Some people paid visits from Siberia to Estonia and vice versa every summer.
Russification, including Russian-language school education, closer contacts with other peoples at schools, collective farms and village soviets were conducive to marriages with non-Estonians and transfer to Russian. In cities, where the working and living environment was Russian-speaking, it was particularly difficult to remain Estonian. Thus, the role of the family and the village became crucial to preserving Estonian patriotism: for instance, Juhan Linde of Lilliküla subscribed to a number of newspapers and magazines from Estonia and taught Estonian to his ten children. People originating from small but ethnically Estonian villages can still speak their mother tongue whereas those that had grown up in multi-ethnic settlements, where the common language was Russian, found it much harder to preserve their native language. Therefore, the post-war generations became bilingual. Still younger generations can no longer speak Estonian in some localities. In the second half of the 1980s the percentage of the Siberian Estonians (including those living in cities) speaking fluent Estonian was 46.3; of them, 37.5% spoke but could not read or write Estonian. In 1979 the Estonian population in Siberia was 21,869.