How History Changed the Future of Estonia 1986-1992

On 10 October at 16:15 Olli Nurmi, a diplomat and Doctoral Researcher at the University of Helsinki will give a lecture "How History Changed the Future of Estonia 1986-1992" in room 224 of Jakobi study building. The lecture will be held in English. Everybody interested in the topic is welcome.

Politics and history are in constant interaction with each other. This interaction is intensified during times of political transition. Estonia is an example of a country where a political revolution completely transformed society in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Mikhail Gorbachev’s perestroika policy led to a dismantling of totalitarian society. It quickly paved the way for freedom of speech and a national freedom movement. Estonian artists and historians played a key role as initiators of this process as they had been allowed wider freedom of expression during the years of Soviet rule.

The exceptional non-violent revolution in Estonia drew its driving force from the re-evaluation of recent history and Estonia's national history. The interwar republic and the loss of independence in 1939–1940 were its most central topics. History helped prove the impossibility of continuing Soviet society. The goal of the revolution was not to create something new, but to return to the old.

My research helps to understand totalitarian society and what kind of assumptions independent modern Estonia was built on. The effects of the decisions made in the early stages of independence can still be seen and felt. This is how history politics takes very concrete forms.

Olli Nurmi (b. 1984) is a Doctoral Researcher at the University of Helsinki. His main academic interests are related to history politics, especially the use of history during political transition and the deconstruction of totalitarianism. He has studied in Finland and Germany and holds a Master of Social Sciences degree. Mr. Nurmi is diplomat by profession having worked for over ten years with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Finland. He has been posted to Berlin, Kabul and Brussels. He has also served a peacekeeper and written a non-fiction book based on his experiences in Lebanon.

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