Quietly postcolonial: the impact of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine on curation strategies in Estonia

Abstract

It is widely understood that moments of great geopolitical change have a profound impact on the manufacture and treatment of the past. Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine has not only revealed the politicisation and weaponisation of history and memory, but also prompted more intensive discussions among scholars and politicians about the application of postcolonial perspectives and methods in the states with an entangled history with Russia. Two years on from the onset of the full-scale conflict, this thesis seeks to examine whether postcolonial approaches have also had a wider impact on national narratives, as reflected in museum design and curation strategies. By utilising a single-case study of Estonian National Museum/Eesti Rahva Muuseum (ERM) and combining ethnographic observational analysis and five expert interviews with museum workers, this thesis analyses the state of Estonian national memory in the year 2024. Whereas most previous studies on memory and postcolonialism in the Baltic states have been confined to the twentieth century, this thesis broadens these empirics and utilises a longue durée approach to Estonia’s national master narrative in order to show the interconnectedness of the different layers of Estonia’s past, rather than treating its different elements in isolation. The findings revealed that, in contrast to the wake-up call that much of academia has experienced, ERM has rather been operating in a “quietly postcolonial” manner for some time, suggesting that this public-facing institution has been ahead of much of academia and political discourse.