The effects of the war in Ukraine on the Russophone minority's identity in Estonia

Abstract

In this thesis, I study the Estonian Russian-speaking population’s identity. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union postcolonial studies primarily focused on nationalizing discourses within a country and experiences of linguistic and ethnic minorities were overlooked. In the 2010-2020s as the war in Ukraine added social significance to this topic, researchers still question the relationship between the minorities and the “homeland” Russia as it took on a neo imperialist route. The objective of this thesis is to understand the relationship between Estonian Russophones and Russia as a Significant Other and monitor whether there has been any change in Estonian Russophones’ identity discourse in reaction to Russia’s war in Ukraine. I narrow down the research scope to Russian (rossiyskaya) popular culture representations in the Estonian Russophones’ discourse. I conduct a discourse analysis of a Russian-language Estonian news outlet articles, Delfi, throughout 2010, 2014, 2020, and 2022. The main findings of this thesis are the following. First, the Estonian Russophones are not a homogenous group, and therefore their relationship with and attachment to Russia and its popular culture differs. Second, after the war in Ukraine began in 2014 the “othering” between Russophone citizens of Estonia and Russian citizens living in Estonia, as well as the “othering” of the Russophones in Estonia as a collective and Estonians, have increased due to differing views on the Russian invasion of Ukrainian territories and the Soviet past. The fact that parts of Russian popular culture began equating the victory in the Great Patriotic War, which Estonian Russophones attach positive sentiment to, to the war in Ukraine and using Soviet symbols as also symbols of the war in Ukraine, caused a high level of contestation in the Estonian Russophones’ identity.