In this episode, we celebrate the life of Lydia Koidula for International Women's Day. We have as a guest Tara Godwin, who is an incoming Ph.D. student at The Ohio State University for the Fall of 2023, where she will study Estonian women’s history. She completed her undergraduate degree at the University of Utah. She won the Marriot Library Thesis Award for her honors capstone, Gender, and National Identity: The Historical Memory of Soviet-Era Ethnic Estonian and Ethnic Russian Women

In this episode, Dr. David Feest of Hamburg University and I discuss the history of the Baltic Germans. Dr. Feest talks to us about the place of the Baltic Germans in Estonian history. He tells us about the plight of the Baltic Germans today, and we discuss who should keep the memory of the Baltic Germans alive and why their history is relevant to Estonians today.

Introduction to German Cultural History in Estonia with Professor David Feest of Hamburg University.

In this episode, we are lucky to have Olaf Mertelsmann who is Professor of Eastern European History at the Institute of History and Archeology, University of Tartu. He holds a doctorate in History from the University of Hamburg (2000). He has taught in Estonia, Germany, and Russia. His main interests are the social and economic history of Eastern Europe, Stalinism, Soviet history, and contemporary Baltic history. He is the author of five monographs, has edited several volumes, and published more than fifty papers in journals. In this episode we get to learn a little about Christmas in Stalin's Estonia.

In this episode, we are lucky to have Olaf Mertelsmann who is Professor of Eastern European History at the Institute of History and Archeology, University of Tartu. He holds a doctorate in History from the University of Hamburg (2000). He has taught in Estonia, Germany, and Russia. His main interests are the social and economic history of Eastern Europe, Stalinism, Soviet history, and contemporary Baltic history. He is the author of five monographs, has edited several volumes, and published more than fifty papers in journals

We meet with Professor Andres Kasekamp of the University of Toronto to discuss his book, The Radical Right In Interwar Estonia. Palgrave 2000

We talk about the war in Ukraine and how it will its outcome is likely to have an influence on Estonia. We talk about the passing of Jüri Arrak the great Estonian artist. A new future format is introduced in which esteemed guests will appear on the podcast.

In this episode, we look at how Estonia developed itself into a market economy. We also learn how Estonia began to integrate itself into Europe and a discussion was started about the eventual acceptance of Estonia into NATO.

Perestroika has arrived and the Soviet Union gets more than what they expected with the new reforms.

Lennart Meri Speech Hamburg, Germany February 25, 1994, Matthiae-Supper of Hansa Cities

In this episode, we learn what modernity did for Estonia, which was to allow it to get a small glimpse of the outside world with Finnish television broadcasts being picked up in Northern Estonia and also Radio broadcasts that came in from the west. We also learned about the Letter of 40 that spelled out clearly the years of Russification that Estonia had to endure.

In this episode, we learn more about student protest groups, who were really the lifeblood for retaining Estonian dignity and culture. We mostly cover the third wave of Russification which put Estonians as a minority in the cities.

In this episode, we take a look at the political leadership of the Estonian SSR during the 1950s-1970s.  We learn about the Komsomol student groups and how they made their impact felt in Estonia. We also learned a little about how the suppression of the Prague Spring put a stop to liberalization in Estonia.

In this episode we see how Estonian industry and agriculture was collectivized under the Soviet Union.

The war is over and the Soviet Union took power in Estonia. Many politicians are shuffled around as Moscow is intent on keeping Estonia Politically Correct. In Marxism, bourgeois nationalism is the practice by the ruling classes of deliberately dividing people by nationality, race, ethnicity, or religion, so as to distract them from engaging in class struggle. It is seen as a divide-and-conquer strategy used by the ruling classes to prevent the working from uniting against them; hence the Marxist slogan, Workers of all countries, unite!

In this episode the Soviet Union is able to regroup and push back against the invading Germans and eventual retake Estonia. In this episode, we see how and when this is accomplished.

In this episode we cover the invasion of Estonia by the German Army. We briefly look at the local uprising against Soviet rule and the fight for Tartu before learning what German rule meant for every day Estonians.

In this episode we take a brief detour from Estonia and cover what Operation Barbarrosa  meant to the Jews and Romani of Latvia and Lithuania. 

In this episode we learn what happened after the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact and how the Soviet Union brought Estonia into the Union through deception and force of arms.

In last episode we covered the Molotov Ribbentrop Pact. In this episode we find out what the implications were of the Molotov Ribbentrop Pact and the terrible choices the Estonian government were offered. Option 1: was to agree to the Treaty on Bases,   Option 2: face an overwhelming invasion from the Soviet Union.             No choice at all really.