Paper short abstract:

This paper investigates the role of major Estonian history museums in representing identities related to post-WWII migration within the Soviet Union. We will discuss antagonistic, humanistic, and agonistic modes of representation and their limits in (re)imagining the Russophone minority.

Paper long abstract:

This paper investigates the role of major Estonian history museums in representing identities related to post-WWII migration within the Soviet Union. By combining the theories of transcultural and agonistic memory with the methodology of social positioning we ask what social, cultural, and political roles and options for choices are made available to depict the Russophone population in Estonia? How are they juxtaposed to other positions and to what ends? We aim to test the possible changes in Estonian mnemonic discourses against the background of the national memory narrative, established during the post-communist turn, that externalized the Soviet regime and imagined the Estonian Russians as “Russia’s fifth column” which posed a direct threat to Estonia's national independence. We argue that Estonian history museums have become to differ significantly in what kind of mnemonic possibilities they offer about imagining the role and outcome of the Soviet-time migration. We will discuss antagonistic, humanistic, and agonistic modes of representation and their limits in the Estonian History Museum, Estonian National Museum, and the Estonian Museum of Occupations and Freedom Vabamu, respectively.