Paper short abstract:

Estonian ornithologist Heinrich Veromann serves as an excellent example of someone who developed an environmental consciousness in postwar Estonia before nature conservation became an official focus of Soviet propaganda in 1956.

Paper long abstract:

Birdwatching is the cornerstone of modern nature conservation in Estonia. It marks the establishment of the first nature reserve in the Baltics in 1910. In 1923 the Estonian Ornithological Society initiated the first citizen science project on birds. These kind of initiatives were interrupted by the Soviet occupation in 1940. The environmentalist social movement took on new forms again when nature conservation became official propaganda in the Estonian SSR in 1956. The intermediate period, however, provides examples of social and individual practices of interest and care for the environment. As an example, this paper focuses on a self-taught ornithologist, Heinrich Veromann (1926–1991), who sought refuge in the forests of South-West Estonia after the war and imprisonment as a very young man. There, he became acquainted with birding. From 1956, he became actively involved in nature education and biology. His biography still reveals some peculiarities: in 1975, he graduated from Tartu State University as a German philologist, and in 1984, in Leningrad, he defended a candidate in biology. He achieved a great deal as both a scientist and a conservationist, even breaking through the Iron Curtain. Veromann also became a teacher with his own following. However, his first environmentalist impulses appear to be a narrative of grassroots continuation despite disruptions, losses, and even danger. Ornithology also seemed to have provided him with the opportunity to express himself and convey his way of thinking as accurately as possible, with minimal distortion.