The largest wave of Estonian migrations to the USA however, has been in the years immediately following World War Two. Approximately 15,000 Estonian refugees came at that time. By contrast, in the decade after Estonian re-independence (1991), only about 2,500 Estonians immigrated to the USA. Since these immigrants were from different political and historical backgrounds, how they demonstrate their Estonianness is likely to be different for each group.
In the case of WW2 refugees, while they tried to take their valuable personal belongings with them, they could not take everything. They could only take objects that fit into suitcases or trunks. Some would be from their Estonian homes, others from their years in displaced persons (DP) camps.
Example 1: Ilme (22 years old in 1944), a first generation Estonian immigrant, post-WW2
Leaving a DP camp in Germany without her husband, who died in Estonia during the war, she travelled to the US with a female cousin. Travelling in pairs was done for safety reasons. What shows her Estonianness when she remarried and settled in the US? Basically objects at home that were unique to Estonia. These included:
1. A hand-sewn Estonian flag atop a metal Pikk Herman tower, always standing tall in her living room
2. A needlepoint pillow showing a pair of Estonian folk dancers against an Estonian flag background. The pillow had hidden surprises inside! Another pillow and an Estonian-blue piece of fabric, among other things. We know that items one and two were not from Soviet-occupied Estonia because the Estonian flag was banned there.
3. Books: one had a photo of the former Estonian prime minister, Jaan Tõnisson, saying that Tõnisson is missing. What happened to him after being arrested by the Soviets in 1941 is not completely certain. Other books included an Estonian medical textbook and a German-Estonian dictionary.
4. Her mother’s woolen mittens, which Ilme kept with her wherever she went
5. A child’s sketch of the Estonian cornflower (rukkilill) in her kitchen
6. Making and eating Estonian meat jelly (sült)
7. Hanging a portrait of her mother (and mother-in-law) in her bedroom, so that she could “see” her mother every day
8. Making and wearing her own Estonian folk costume (rahvariided)
Example 2: Second/third generation post-WW2 Estonian-Americans with at least a partial American childhood, plus immigrants post-1991 with childhoods in Soviet-occupied Estonia. Ways they show their Estonianness include:
1. Keeping heritage items from first generation Estonian-American family members
2. Attending an Estonian church, choir group, folk dance groups, or Baltic films if it’s available near one’s home. For small children, parental guidance is a strong factor. Since an increasing number of events are available via the internet and Zoom, distance is not necessarily a problem anymore.
2. For recent immigrants with childhoods in Soviet-occupied Estonia, some see the United States as a temporary place of residence, with the knowledge that going back home is always an option.
Still, being from a country with a post-WW2 history of the KGB, informants, and being informed upon, some have a different style of interacting from what is considered typical of Americans. Basically, being happy with family and close friends but not necessarily being open with people otherwise.
Having lived in Soviet-occupied Estonia, they are more likely to be multilingual than second/third generation Estonian-Americans who grew up in the US. Like their Estonian-American cousins, they attend Estonian cultural events locally and overseas. High school students start to participate in American football culture at school. Both groups of Estonians eat Estonian food, but In-N-Out Burger is also popular, just like celebrities after the Oscars!
References for further reading:
1. Rejecting the Second Generation Hypothesis: Maintaining Estonian Ethnicity in Lakewood, New Jersey. By M. Ann Walko, 1989, AMS Press, Inc. NY.
2. “Only English by the third generation? Loss and preservation of the mother tongue among the grandchildren of contemporary immigrants”. Alba, R. et al., Demography. 2002 Aug;39(3):467-84. doi: 10.1353/dem.2002.0023. PMID: 12205753.
