Russians in Estonia before 1917

1
Russians in Estonia before 1917

• Source Rajasalu 2001,
• p.21-22.

2

• 12-13th centuries villages with Russian
  population in the West coast of Peipsi lake and
  on the West coast of Narva river.
• 14-16th centirues communities of Russian traders
  in Narva, Tartu (Dorpat, Jurjev) and Tallinn.
• Middle of 17th centiry 16 of farm owners in
  Northern Livonia were non-Estonians, among them
  Russians and Seto made 34.
• By the end of 17th century Russians made 0,5 of
  population of Estonia (about 2000 people). The
  majority of them were Old Believers, lived in
  Eastern Estonia, close to Russian border.

3

• Gradual increase of the Russian population in
  Tallinn and Narva since 1860-ies in connection
  with the reforms in the Russian Empire and the
  development of industry in Estonia.
• By 1897
• In Estonia lived 46026 Russians 4,7 of
  population. Half of them lived in the towns.
• The largest Russian community lived in Tallinn
  (over 6000 people), the highest share of Russians
  in town population was in Narva (43). On biggest
  factories Russian made 33-50 of workers.

4
Russian Journalism in Estonia in 1830-1880ies

• Main trends and editions
• Isakov 1998

5
1832-1833 magazine Raduga

• Launched by Bürger and Magnitski in Reval.
• Main ideological trend monarchic, conservative.
• Criticized all Western civilization, described it
  as a kingdom of total chaos, sensless revolt,
  accused it in being heretical.
• Romanticism interest to history Russian and
  Estonian ones, search of the national roots.

6
1832-1833 magazine Raduga

• Connection with Estonia
• First translation of an Estonian folk song into
  Russian (Tiiu tassane ja helde),
• Published Estonian poem German and Margareta.
• Included whole part Ostseiskie zapiski,
  telling the audience about history of Estonia,
  lectures in Dorpat university, Estonian and
  Latvian customs and traditions, cultural life in
  Estonia, providing various statistics, etc.

7
1833-1834 magazine Uchebny Matematichesky
zhurnal

• Launched in Tartu, published 4 times per year.
• There were published 6 issues, closed after the
  editor moved away from Tartu.
• 467 subscribers among teachers from Tartu,
  Tallinn and St.Peterburg schools (quite high
  circulation for a specialized magazine at that
  time).

8
1853-1917 official newspaper Estlandskie
Gubernskie Vedomosti

• Published in Tallinn 1-3 times per week. It
  considered of official and non-official parts.
• The official part informed about changes in
  legislation, news from local administration, and
  economic news.
• The non-official part mainly included ads
  (crimes, public sales).
• News were published in Russian and German in
  1850-1860-ies mainly in German, since 1869 mainly
  in Russian.
• The main subscribers were governmental and local
  offices.

9
Vedomosti utilitarian functions

• Informed local administrators, gentry, traders
  and entrepreneurs about new laws and regulations,
  published official advertisements,
• Propagated desirable norms of behaviour.
• Not interested in audience feedback,
• Did not encourage dialogue between social groups
  and institutions.
• Society was constructed in these newspapers as
  deeply divided on a class basis, consisting on
  the one side of officials, landlords and burghers
  with German and Russian names and peasants who
  either had Russian names or no names at all on
  the other side.
• Estonians were semiotically non-existent in the
  texts, no cultural groups were mentioned there.

10
Private Russian newspapers, 1870-ies I

• 1874-1876 Narvski Gorodskoi Listok weekly.
• By that time Russians made about 50 of Narva
  population.
• It had only 60 subscribers and was produced by
  one person retired officer Larionov.
• Concentrated on the local news (orders of Narva
  municipality, letters, jokes, etc).

11
Prerequisites for further development of the
Russian press in Estonia

• Economic and political reforms of the 1860-ies
  gave a new impetus for industrial development in
  the Empire
• Factories appeared in Estonia, targeting the
  Russian market and owned by Russian
  entrepreneurs.Agricultural production also became
  more Russian-oriented.
• Gradually the number of educated Russian
  administrators and entrepreneurs in Estonia
  increased, started to form a thin layer of local
  Russian bourgeoisie.
• Its informational needs became more diverse.
• Thus, in the 1870s, the first private newspapers
  appeared in Narva and Reval,

12
Private Russian newspapers, 1870-ies II

• 1877 Listok objavleni dlja goroda Revelja i ego
  okrestnostei.
• Daily newspaper, contained only advertisments.
• Alltogether there were published 119 issues.
• Edited by Vasili Kerr.
• In 1878 it transformed into Listok Objavleni,
  which looked like regular daily newspaper on 2-4
  pages.
• Contained mainly local news for the local Russian
  community.

13
Private Russian newspapers, 1870-ies III

• 1888-1900 magazine Gymnasia. Zhurnal pedagogiki
  I filologii I
• Issued in Tallinn by the director of one of
  Tallinn Russian High schools (gymnasiums)
  G.Janchevetski till 1900.
• Monthly, since 1897 issued 6 times per year
• It had many subscribers among local teachers as
  well as in St.Peterburg.
• Partly subsidized by the Ministry of Education,
  ceased due to long illness of its editor.

14
Private Russian newspapers, 1870-ies IV

• Magazine Gymnasia. Zhurnal pedagogiki I
  filologii II
• Included articles on methods of teaching,
  supplementary materials on humanitarian subjects
  (Russian, Greek, Latin languages), articles about
  development of pedagogics in Russia and abroad,
  information about newly published books.
• The authors of the magazine were mainly talented
  Russian teachers from various provincial towns of
  the Empire (Novocherkassk, Simpheropol, Tver,
  Vladivostok, Hortitsa, Kazan, Voronezh, Kiev,
  Jelizavetgrad), less from St.Petrersburg. Here we
  may see that the majority of the authors came
  from regions with dominating non-Russian
  population.

15
Private Russian newspapers, 1870-ies V

• 1890-1892 newspaper Revelski Gorodskoi Listok
  I
• The initiative of launching belonged to Governor
  of Estland Duke S.Shahovskoi.
• Formally Jakob Kõrv performed as an editor.
  Actually and since October 1890 also formally the
  editor was Michail Ljashenko1.
• Altogether there were published 214 issues of the
  newspaper.

16
Private Russian newspapers, 1870-ies VI

• Revelski Gorodskoi Listok II
• Typical local newspaper with official and local
  news. The information was focusing on the local
  Russian-speaking community, provided readers with
  information about life in orther parts of Russia,
  published poems and short stories of various
  Russian authors, made reviews of the local
  Estonian press and articles about history of
  Estonia and traditions of Estonians.

17
Private Russian newspapers, 1870-ies VII

• Revelski Gorodskoi Listok III
• The newspaper has become a big supporter of
  Russification and Ortodoxy it not only
  propagated Russian culture and religion, but also
  critisized local Germans and separatist
  tendencies among Estonians. According to the
  general standards of Russian journalism of this
  period,, this newspaper was weak1 .
• 1 ?????? ?????????????? ?????????? ???????????
  ????????????? ?????? ?? ?????? ???????,
  ???????????? ?? ????, ?? ??????? ??????.

18
Private Russian newspapers, 1870-ies VIII

• In 1891 Revelski Gorodskoi Listok was
  transformed and named Kolyvan.
• Here appeared more local information from all
  over Estonia Rakvere, Paldiski, Tartu, Lihula,
  Paide, newspaper had also correspondents in Riga
  and St.Petersburg.
• The reviews of the Estonian press also took an
  important place there.
• Still the anti-German trend in the newspaper
  content has become even stronger, also such
  Estonian cultural societies as Vanemuine and
  Estonia were often accused in being not loyal
  to tsarist regime.

19
Private Russian newspapers, 1870-ies IX

• Kolyvan
• The newspaper has got state donation of 10000
  Roubles, but it was mainly stolen by editors,
  there were very few subscribers, so that this
  newspaper ceased in 1892.

20
Private Russian newspapers, 1870-ies X

• 1893-1917 Newspaper Revelskie Izvestia.
• Also initially inspired by S.Shahovskoi.
• Editor in chief Varvara Janchevetskaja, wife of
  G.Janchevetski, director of the Russian High
  School and editor in chief of the magazin
  Gymnasia.
• A normal daily newspaper, providing Estonian
  daily news, also presenting news from other
  regions of Russia (re-prints from other local
  newspapers), from St.Petersburg, from abroad in a
  column Abroad (?? ????????). It also
  published lot of ads, anecdotes, translated
  articles from Estonian newspapers, published
  articles about the history of Estonia, health
  care issues.

21
Russification in Estonia since 1870-ies

• 1874 obligatory teaching of Russian language at
  schools,
• 1885 Russian language becomes language of
  documents in Estlandia and Liflandia, in 1886
  -all over the Empire.
• 1887 all schools primary and high, private and
  public are transferred into Russian.
• Since 1905 teaching in national languages was
  allowed again.
• Strengthening of propaganda of Ortodox Church.

22
1893-1917 Revelskie Izvestia II

• Till 1896 it wrote about Russian-Estonian
  relationships from the point of view of
  Russification, but after the Governor Shahovskoi
  was replaced, the newspaper stopped touching this
  topic.
• It was first newspaper in Estonia, which
  presented the life of the local Russian
  community, life of Estonians and life in the
  entire Russia in a balanced and informative
  manner.

23
1893-1917 Revelskie Izvestia III

• Literary column also consisted of poems and
  stories, provided by the authors from Russia and
  by local Russians (weakest literary production).
• It also included translations of stories of such
  well-know European writers as Mopassan, Zolja,
  M.Twain, Kipling, B.Gart,Jerom K.Jerom, etc. Here
  published his first stories writer Vassili
  Janchevetski (who later called himself V.Jan).
• The newspaper also published first unfinished
  translation from Kalevipoeg into Russian,
  translations from Estonian poets L.Koidula,
  Jansenn, A.Haava, Kuhlbars, etc.

24
Regional newspapers I

• Tartu
• 1891-1892 Derptski Listok in Tartu, edited by
  Ado Grenshtein and Ivan Jurkatam (Juhan Tamm). It
  was a newspaper in Russian for Estonians,
  supplement to the Estonian newspaper Olevik.
• 1893 transformed into Pribaltiiski listok.
• Treated all national groups living in Estonia
  with equal respect. It also dared to criticize
  Russian officials, what other Russian newspapers
  considered unacceptable. So in 1894 the newspaper
  was accused in anonymous complaint for being a
  loudspeaker for aliens' claims (???????
  ???????????? ?????????????). At the same year
  there took place strenghtening of censure, since
  1896 the newspaper is published in Riga.

25
Regional newspapers II

• 1890-ies 3-language ads newspapers in Narva.
• 1892-1893 Pernovski Listok Objavleni (Pärnu),
• 1895 Gapsalski Listok Objavleni (Haapsalu),
• 1898 Lifljandski Listok Objavleni (Tartu),
• 1897 Narvski listok (Narva, town newspaper, 2
  times per week).

26
Non-Estonians by 1917

• In Estonia lived 90-100 thousand of Russians
• In Tallinn lived over 40 thousand of Russians.
• In 1918 before the German occupation about 30-40
  thousand of Russians left from Estonia. Mainly
  they were former industrial workers.

27
Non-Estonians in 1918-1940

• Before 1940 non-Estonians accounted for 12 of
  the population of Estonia.
• Two thirds of these (91 thousand) were Russians
  of two definite groups 73 thousand peasants who
  had lived in Estonia since 1915, and 18 thousand
  political emigrants. The majority of them
  belonged to the poorest part of Estonian
  population. Russians were disassociated, mainly
  passive and estranged from politics. (Isakov
  1996, 7-9, 52-55)

28
Russian-language press in ER in 1918-1940 I

• At this period the Russian-language editions
  circulation was quite low, the largest of them
  reached a maximum of 5000 copies (Tsassovskaja
  2001).
• The majority of these newspapers survived less
  than a year (Isakov 1996).
• This press mostly informed the Russian population
  about the expectations of the state and gave the
  floor to different opinions within the Russian
  community, but did not provide two-way
  communication between the Russian minority and
  Estonian state (Jakobson 2002).

29
Russian-language press in ER in 1918-1940 II

• The change of the circumstances and the Russians
  status in Estonia transformed the
  Russian-language press into a typical minority
  media.
• It has lost its regulative force, but did not
  become an effective public forum on an
  all-Estonian scale and in the socialization of
  the Russian minority, as it did not provide
  two-way communication between the Russian
  minority and the Estonian state.
• The Russian-language press helped to preserve
  Russians ethnocultural identity.
• Its predominant function was the transmission of
  culture, its informational and entertaining
  functions were reduced.