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Now, with 22 years having passed since Estonia’s regained independence, lots of local thinkers have expressed fears of encroaching state-tedium. The same underlined, in his yesterday speech, by President Toomas Hendrik Ilves quoting Ain Kaalep who used to worry about that in 1999 already.
In everyday greyness – in the literal weather context and figurative work-home-routine idea of it – people may not be as enthusiastic as before regarding nationhood. Life drags on and it may be pretty bothersome that some 80 kilometres away, in Finland, jobs are more abundant, wages higher and pensions bigger. Providing a backdrop for gloominess despite knowing the Finns have been blessed with much more time to build up their state.
Luckily, however, Estonian life consists not in ferias alone. Any chance to get together and express ideas and emotions are readily seized upon. Estonian sportsmen at title tournaments, our singers at Eurovision, the President’s reception on February 24th always provide such chances, even if at home, with friends and family, mostly via TV. Even so, these past days the Opinion Culture Festival in Paide (over the week-end) and the all-night song festival in Tartu (on Monday) exceeded all expectations by the numbers showing up. In Tartu, song festival grounds proved too small for the crowds.
No doubt the singers gave their all, in the night; even so, such masses were not drawn by personalities – it was for Estonia that they came, to celebrate new-found independence. And though Paide is a nice place at the heart of Estonia, folks gathered because of the issues to be discussed, the tasks facing our nation and society.
Yesterday, when greeting the August 20th Club, Riigikogu Chairwoman Ene Ergma quoted the ancient Roman politician and philosopher Cicero saying that any liberty once suppressed and then regained will be a lot stronger than one never threatened.
In everyday hassle, the question posed by Ain Kaalep verily may arise: «Are the words Republic of Estonia still the magic words they used to be?» Troubling indeed may be the generation who have spent their entire existence in an independent Estonia – do they realise how it came about, and what luck, risk, and determination it took?
Even so, awareness of the fragility of freedom will not fade, even today there is no need to daily fight for it. The tales of life under foreign oppression, whether pre-1918 or post-1940, are stuck in our national narrative, with every upcoming generation understanding their responsibility to make the republic last. This responsibility being as self-evident as storing up for the winter – a thing not needed to be constantly affirmed; that’s just the way things are. And should our homeland again face real danger, the responsibility will serve to unite us again.