Kodumaalt lahkumise põhjuste kajastumisest Abhaasia eestlaste rändenarratiivis: kurja mõisniku kuju

Abstract

When adapting to a new host country, one of the most important issues is social belonging – the question on what basis people feel a sense of belonging. This is a question of group identity. Group identity is based on the group’s shared history and especially on myths of common and special origins. In the narratives of the Estonians of Abkhazia, the main reason for emigration is the difficult economic conditions in the old homeland. These stories are recorded in the written memories and village chronicles of the inhabitants of the Estonian settlements in the Caucasus, which date back to the 19th and 20th centuries, but they can be heard orally even today, because the stories have been heard from parents and grandparents. Both in earlier writings and in today’s oral presentations, the conditions in the old homeland of Estonia are depicted as poor, sometimes quite unbearable. An important figure in these stories is an evil and arrogant German landlord who oppressed the ancestors of the settlers. The first chapter of the article shows the historical background of the confrontation between the Estonian peasants and the German landlords in Estonia and how it was at least partially realized as an emigration movement under the influence of the peasant laws of the 19th century. The topic of the evil landlord was taken by the Estonian settlers to the settlements in Caucasus – these were stories told from personal experiences with the landlords. The formation and transmission of stories from generation to generation as founding narratives was facilitated by the opposition between Estonians and Germans in the Estonian national discourse. The second chapter focuses on the texts that reflect landlord-peasant conflicts in Estonia at the time of emigration – the texts of the leading figures of the national awakening movement in the school- and history books. These texts also influenced the developing identity of the Estonian colonists. The article then discusses the stories about the evil landlord told in various Estonian settlements on the Black Sea coast and finally the meaning of these stories in the formation of social belonging.