NÕUKOGUDE AEG NÄHTUNA ERINEVATE MÄLUKOGUKONDADE SILMADE LÄBI
SOVIET PAST THROUGH THE LENSES OF DIFFERENT COMMUNITIES OF MEMORY

Summary/Abstract: This article discusses autobiographical memories concerning the life conditions and mentality during the Soviet period in Estonia. Several different discourses of memorizing the Soviet past are distinguished: (1) the tragic stories of victims of Stalinist repressions; (2) peacockery of the “cleaver gamblers” with the stupid and rigid rules of alien for Estonians Kremlin power-holders; (3) eventful life stories of public favourites (well-known artists, writers, sportsmen, etc.), who made their successful careers partly in Soviet circumstances; (4) testimonies of happy elderly persons who declare their life-long positive self-construction even under difficult social conditions. These discourses (including many micro-discourses) represent the interpretations of Soviet past by certain communities of memory who all treat the historical truth as their priority. Autobiographical “historical truth” is a very vulnerable and questionable topic for the researchers to estimate the actual reality and the exact positions of storytellers in that reality.

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