Mäetagused vol. 91Summary
Andu Rämmer Associate Professor of Youth Studies at Narva College, University of Tartu andu.rammer@ut.ee Maria Zhuravliova Head of the Department of Youth Work and a Junior Lecturer in Youth Work at Narva College, PhD candidate in Sociology, University of Tartu maria.zuravljova@ut.ee Anne Kivimäe Teacher of youth work at Narva College, University of Tartu, Head of the Narva Study Centre, Estonian Academy of Security Sciences anne.kivimae@ut.ee Maria Anderson Research coordinator at Narva College, University of Tartu MA student in the Youth Work Management curriculum, Tallinn University maria.anderson@ut.ee Keywords: identity, Narva, youth, values We share the view that people are guided in their everyday decisions by common sense, the trustworthiness of which has been confirmed by its usefulness in the past; its nature is thoroughly explained by the theory of social representations. A social representation is a system of values, ideas and practices with a twofold function: first, to enable individuals to orient themselves in the everyday world and to master it; and second, to provide codes for social exchange or naming and classifying unambiguously the various aspects of their world and their individual group history. This article focuses on the values and identity of young people in Narva. We compare the results of a survey of 284 Narva high school students and University of Tartu Narva College students with the values of their peers who participated in the Baltic Youth Values Survey, the European Social Survey, the European Values Survey, Estonian School-leavers Survey and the Eurobarometer Values and Identity Survey. We rely on qualitative interviews to interpret the value judgements elucidated in the Narva survey. To detect contextual interpretations of informants’ beliefs from 15 individual in-depth interviews and two focus group interviews we employed thematic content analysis. Among youngsters of Narva, a regional identity has developed and, like their Russian-speaking peers in previous surveys, most people consider themselves as Estonian Russians. Like the rest of Estonians, most youngsters studied see themselves as Northern Europeans, but they tend more than the aforementioned to identify as Eastern Europeans. Their identity is moulded by society, social media and close relationships with family and friends. The youngsters studied identify themselves primarily through gender, but family, age and life period, sexual orientation and acquired education level are also important referents. Both in the survey and in the interviews, identity insecurity resulting from living in two cultural spaces emerged, exacerbated by the war in Ukraine. Like their peers in Estonia, youngsters studied in Narva retrieve information about events in society mostly from social media. They prefer to follow Russian-language media, as their Estonian language skills are insufficient, and some news channels are paid. Values as manifestations of common sense are prescriptive, and they are not questioned, so long as they are considered useful guides. The values of youngsters in Narva reflect a weak sense of physical and material security and desires to strengthen them. Achievement is highly valued, and self-expression values are seen to be less important than for Estonian-speaking young people. Like the rest of Russophone Estonians, youngsters in Narva value security, achievement and power-oriented basic values more highly than their Estonian-speaking peers. The most desired goals for the youngsters studied in Narva include the pursuits of social recognition, independence and education. Among them are aspirations towards a successful career, independence from parents and good looks. The next important goals for them are material security, taking responsibility and graduating from university. Marriage and having children are valued much lower. Participation in civic activities is seen as the least important. The level of generalized trust in other people – an important precondition for participation in civil society activities – is significantly lower among youngsters in Narva than among their Estonian peers. Job security and a good salary are seen as the most important work values. However, opportunities to work in an enjoyable field, to use their abilities, to see the results of their work and to continuously improve themselves are also considered noteworthy desires. Opportunities for career advancement, job prestige, the ease of work and flexible working hours are seen as less desired goals. The prospect of unemployment is a major concern for the youngsters studied in Narva, more so than for other young people in Estonia. Many of them also fear that social injustice will worsen. On the other hand, they are less concerned than other Estonian youngsters about environmental pollution. Their fear of falling victim to physical violence is also greater than that of other young people in Estonia. The youngsters studied in Narva consider encouragement of the sense of responsibility in children as the most important educational value. The acquisition of determination, perseverance and independence is also highly valued. Cultivation of traditional values such as obedience and religiosity in children is considered the least important. Of the self-expression values, instilling tolerance towards others is the most highly valued. Narva youngsters tend to share the dominant view among young people in Estonia that the lives of today’s children will be more difficult than those of their own generation. Who are we here? Narva in the Russian-language press in 1990 Elena Pavlova Researcher University of Tartu elena.pavlova@ut.ee Keywords: identity, mass media, Estonia, Narva, collapse of the USSR, autonomy This article examines the logic of constructing a new identity discourse in Narva in 1990. Analyzing the newspapers Molodezh Estonii and Sovetskaja Estonia, I reveal the discussion in Narva regarding Estonia’s exit from the USSR and the restoration of independence as open and multidimensional. Based on the example of the debates on the project to create a Free Economic Zone in Narva and the Economic Border Act, I demonstrate the ambition of Narva’s people’s desire to form an urban and regional identity in the framework of free and democratic Estonia. As the theoretical and methodological framework, I use the methodology of identity research developed by Ted Hopf and Bentley Allan in their monograph “Making Identity Count: Building a National Identity Database” (2016). The image of Narva in the soviet city guidebook Jelena Nõmm Lecturer in Russian Culture Narva College of the University of Tartu Jelena.Nomm@ut.ee Keywords: guidebook, Soviet Narva guidebook, Narva image, Narva history, Soviet ideology The material analysed in the article consists of guidebooks on Narva published in the Soviet era: “Narva. Guidebook” (1960) by Evgeny Krivosheev; “Narva” (1960) by Silvi Kihu; “Narva. Guidebook” (1967) by Evgeny Krivosheev and Konstantin Mikhailov; “Narva. Guidebook” (1981) by Evgeny Krivosheev; “Narva. Guidebook” (1990) by Eldar Efendiev. The focus of attention is on the ideological functions of guidebooks. Under the influence of official ideology and historiography, the texts of Soviet guidebooks on Narva modelled the historical narrative about the city and created an image of Narva, which experienced a second birth after 1944. The image of Narva in the guidebooks splits into two images: historical (ancient, old) Narva and modern (Soviet, socialist, young, new) Narva. These two Narvas are dissimilar to each other: we cannot recognise the ancient city in the image of modern Narva. The history of the Soviet-era Narva guidebook can be seen as a history of attempts to resolve this contradiction or to escape from it. The ideological task of the Soviet guide to Narva was to justify the history of the city after 1940. The image of ancient Narva fades before the image of modern Narva. Actually, the guidebook becomes a guide to the achievements of socialist Narva. It can be said that the Soviet guidebooks on Narva are a vivid example of the ideological pressure of the epoch on the author of the text. However, the Soviet era was not always unified; the loosening of Soviet ideology in the 1980s affected Narva guidebooks as well. Two Narvas. Representation of the city in guidebooks from the 1960s and 2023 Anna Troitskaya Tartu Art historian annatroitckaya@gmail.com Keywords: historical context, ideology, Kreenholm, urban identity, Narva, guide The article examines two reference works devoted to Estonia’s border city Narva, one of which was published in 1960, the other in 2023. Through comparison the guidebooks’ pragmatics and rhetoric come to the fore with clarity. In analysing the texts each reference work’s genre particularities and its ideological, cultural and educational aspects were taken into account. The main objective was to elucidate the ways in which the city was presented and how its image was shaped, including how it reflected historical experience and the multifaceted present day. To this end the article compares the guidebooks’ compositional structure, semantic accents and descriptive language. The authors describe historical monuments, contemporary buildings, individual districts and marche-routes. When compiling the guidebooks, each author is confronted with the choice of objects in a changing urban landscape: after destruction during the war and Soviet development up to the year 1960 on the one hand, and after extensive construction and renovation work up till 2023 on the other. In order to clarify the ways of presentation of the city through chosen objects, the article brings out two directions that are used in both reference works: visualisation through verbal description and the construction of a narrative. When investigating the structure of the guidebooks the relationship between historical and contemporary marche-routes is compared. The 1960 guidebook clearly shows how an historical excursion can serve ideological purposes. Between the publication of this guidebook and the contemporary excursion guide to Narva, an era elapsed during which the values orientations of the target group and the criteria for the attractiveness of the city to tourists changed. A specific conjuncture of the two texts was the description of the Kreenholm district, showing change in both the addressee of the reference work and the representation of the image of the city. In general, in comparing the two texts a discursive shift becomes apparent, accompanied by completely different approaches to the choice and dissemination of objects of description. As a result, a newness in presenting Narva to tourists can be recognised as well as a revision of the fundamental ideas of the residents’ identity. The impact of a large construction site on the cultural reputation of Narva in the 1960s Vladimir Vaingort NGO “Door to Culture” Dr. habil. in Economics kardis@kardis.ee Keywords: post-Stalinist Narva – the city of the young sixties, cultural Leningradocentricity of power builders, the influence of Estonian culture on the identity of Narvites The largest in Northern Europe in the 1960s, the Baltic TPP near the town of Narva, was built by a team whose mentality was created based on the traditions of power builders, dating back to GOELRO and influenced by the culture of Leningrad and Tallinn during the Thaw. As a result, high civic responsibility, intergenerational trust and tolerance towards any forms of modern art of that time became characteristic features of young builders. This, in turn, became the basis for the growth of personal and group creativity and the unacceptability of totalitarianism in the social sphere. The problem of determining the city center in a local text (based on the Russian-language newspapers of Narva in the 1920s) Olga Burdakova Associate Professor of Russian Language Narva College of the University of Tartu Olga.Burdakova@ut.ee Jelena Nõmm Lecturer in Russian Culture Narva College of the University of Tartu Jelena.Nomm@ut.ee Keywords: concept of city center, place reputation, urban anthropology, local text, Narva periodicals, Narva history The article is the first in a series of three articles devoted to the problem of defining the city centre in the local text of Narva (the first half of the 20th century). It proposes an original approach to the reconstruction of inhabitants’ perceptions of the city centre expressed in newspaper publications of that time. The approach implies the sequential solution of the following tasks: localisation of the city centre, geometrization of the city centre, identification of the functionality of the city’s central places and establishment of the connection between the ‘geometry’ of the centre and its functional content. The approach presented in the article is implemented to reconstruct the perceptions of Russian-speaking Narva residents of the 1920s about the centre of Narva. The sources of the reconstruction were six Russian-language newspapers published in Narva in 1923–1929. The analysis of the newspaper texts of the 1920s allowed identification of the range of streets and squares called central in the newspapers (Vyshgorodskaia / Suur street, Kirochnaia / Rahu street, Virskaia / Viru street, Rytsarskaia / Rüütli street, Westervalskaia / Vestervalli street, Gornaia / Mäe street, Pavlovskaia / Tuleviku street, Pochtamtskaia / Posti street, Ratushnaia / Raekoja square and Petrovskaia / Peetri square), and outlining the boundaries of the city centre, which generally coincided with the Südalinn district. However, as the analysis of the language of different newspaper article genres has shown, in the 1920s the central places in the newspapers included some places that went beyond the boundaries of the Südalinn district and belonged to the neighbouring Petrovsky forestadt; in particular, Petrovskaia / Peetri square. A comparison of the functionality of three central places – Vyshgorodskaia street, Ratushnaia square, which belonged to the Südalinn district, and Petrovskaya square (as part of the Petrovsky forestadt) – allowed us to identify the reasons for the expansion of inhabitants’ perceptions of the centre and the inclusion of Petrovskaya square in the notion of the city centre in the 1920s. The second article of this series will be devoted to the functionality and image of Vyshgorodskaia street as the main street of Narva in the 1920s; the third article of the series will consider two competing central squares – Ratushnaia square and Petrovskaia square, their significance in the life of the townspeople and the reputation of the places. Magical means of protection of domestic animals among the Bashkirs Zifa Khasanova Scientific Associate Institute of Ethnological Research of the Ufa Federal Research Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences Zifa.83@mail.ru Keywords: Bashkirs, domestic animals, magic, amulets, verbal magic The purpose of the article is to analyse magical means of protecting domestic animals in the territory of the Bashkirs’ Bashkortostan Republic in the middle of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century. To protect their domestic animals against evil spirits and illnesses, the Bashkirs used amulets, metal objects, natural stones, etc. Magical objects and amulets with a long tradition are firmly rooted in the ritual customs of the Bashkirs and continue in their relevance today. This is attested to by the author’s fieldwork materials, which derive from various territorial groups. In the last decades the Bashkirs have begun using materials and amulets available on the internet. The Contrasts were Enormous Interview with photographer Alar Madisson Mare Kõiva Head of the Estonian Literary Museum folkloristics department mare.koiva@folklore.ee The Estonian Literary Museum’s photographer Alar Madisson (b. 17.03.1954) is an idea-photographer; from his ideas was born the first outdoor exhibition of University of Tartu professors. For years, in a completely different version, this idea has returned the gaze of the spectator with hundreds of eyes from the end wall of the oldest building of the Estonian Literary Museum. From the photo windows one can encounter the gaze of good-humoured writers from Estonia and Tartu, but the exhibition is even broader: it includes writing folk ranging from literati to poets, with professors among them. Last year and this year Alar Madisson has opened thematic photography exhibitions in Estonian galleries in several places. The large-scale exhibition “Half an Hour with a Writer” was unveiled in the Narva main library, but this offered a very good opportunity to go back in time and recall another photography exhibition – the travels of Estonian (Tartu) and German (Aachen) photographers in east Virumaa in 1999 with exciting photographs that stopped the flow of time and that help us remember the landscape that once was. NEWS IN BRIEF Enn Ernits 80 Mare Kõiva writes about Estonian doctor of veterinary medicine, linguist, and esperantist Enn Ernits, who, among other things, has studied folklore and rock paintings. Irina Sedakova 70 Svetlana Tolstaja writes about the work of Russian folklorist, balkanist, ethnolinguist and sociolinguist Irina Sedakova. Vene folkloristi, balkanisti, etnolingvisti ja sotsiolingvisti Irina Sedakova tegevusest kirjutab Svetlana Tolstaja. Conference “Connections between song, instrumental music and dance in traditional music: Perspectives from the past to the present” Natali Ponetajev, Olha Petrovych and Janika Oras write about the 14th international conference on traditional song held at the Estonian Literary Museum in Tartu from 25-27 November 2024. The conference was focused on the connections of folk singing to instrumental music and dance. 25 years among fairy tales. Fairy Tale seminars 15, Fairy Tale project 25 Risto Järv writes about the 15th fairy tale seminar “Among Fairy Tales” organised on 19 December 2024 by the fairy tale working group of the Estonian Folklore Archives and the University of Tartu Institute of Cultural Research, and the fairy tale project that has lasted for 25 years. Calendar A brief summary of the events of Estonian folklorists from December 2024 to April 2025. BOOK REVIEWS On the prayers of the Udmurts beyond the River Kama Ranus Sadikov & Eva Toulouze (comps.) Kams’ör udmurt’iöslen kuris’kon’iössy [Prayers of the Udmurts beyond the River Kama]. Ufa: R.G. Kuzeev Institute for Ethnological Research, Ufa Federal Research Centre, Russian Academy of Sciences, 2023. 200 pp. The book is introduced by Nikolai Anisimov. |