Discussion
In present-day Estonia, the country's Russian-speaking minority is regularly considered to be a peril for social cohesion and sometimes even national security. As a result, the government has implemented far-reaching assimilation policies which include reforms in the education sector as well as the close monitoring of Russian-speaking populations and the media. It is the expectation of the government, that these efforts will lead to an integration of the minority into the Estonian society overall.
However, assimilation pressure might very well lead to the contrary and the awakening of an ethnic identity. Through such policies, the identity in question becomes more salient and considered as something that is to be protected. I argue, however, that such a reactive identity does not seem to be the defining characteristic among young Russian-background Estonians when looking at their attitudes on history.
This paper looks at the extent to which Russian background Estonians differ from ethnic Estonians with regard to their understanding of history. I argue that by 2025, young Russian background Estonians are in large ways similar in their attitudes to their age peers without such a background. The gap is particularly strong when compared to the parental generation of Russian-Estonians, with implications for family dynamics. The paper uses an intergenerational survey conducted in 2024 as well as a large-scale cross-sectional survey conducted in 2025 in Estonia.
