The problems of designing and studying the Estonian-Russian cultural space

The article is written in the framework of the project IUT34-30 "Ideology of Translation and Translation of Ideology: Mechanisms of Cultural Dynamics under the Russian Empire and Soviet Power in Estonia in the 19th - 20th Centuries". The article reviews the main factors that determined the interaction of Russian and Estonian culture in the late imperial period (the last third of the 19th - the beginning of the 20th centuries). Until the twentieth century, the dominant culture in Estonia was the culture of the Baltic (Ostsee) Germans, who amounted to only 4-5% of the population, but were still the main landowners and practical masters of the region. Estonian culture was a folk culture, but the national awakening, which began in the middle of the 19th century, very quickly led to the formation of an educated class of Estonians and to the creation of a high national culture. One of the channels of its formation was the introduction of Russian culture in the process of training in gymnasiums and higher educational institutions of the country, mainly in the capital. A turning point in the organic formation of the Russian-Estonian cultural space occurred in the last third of the 19th century. The article describes the negative consequences of the ill-conceived language policy of the imperial authorities in the field of education in the Ostsee Territory during this period. Rigid Russification of the education system came into conflict with the established principles of education in primary school in the native Estonian language, significantly hampered learning and provoked the growth of a negative attitude of society towards Russian culture. A representative alternative to violent Russification is considered, which is the program of language education put forward by the famous philologist I.A. Baudouin de Courtenay in a series of speeches and journalistic performances of the 1900s-1910s. The main thesis of all his works is the idea of the equality of all nations and the rejection of the idea of the dominant nation and the dominant language. At the same time, Bau-douin de Courtenay finds the right to choose rather than struggle for the rights of nations crucial; in this sense nationality as such, from his point of view, can not be considered mandatory. The same applies to language. One has the right to choose the language (or languages) that one considers native. Baudouin de Courtenay proposed the only possible way of a productive interaction between different cultures, including the way of building the Estonian-Russian cultural space.

Keywords

Authors

References