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When Mikhail Gorbachev [45] declared a new course of the Party, perestroika [46], I honestly didn't expect anything good from that like from any other concoctions of the Soviet regime. Many people in Tallinn didn't trust that either. Everybody understood that if military force was removed, supporting the Soviet regime in its entirety, all that gigantic empire would collapse. At the beginning, a lot of liberties appeared. We were disaccustomed to freedom of speech, religion, press and lack of censorship. Then things were like before, but people felt the taste of freedom and didn't want to go back to the past. We understood that there was no more cruelty of the past years and we started hoping. It turned out so that when Gorbachev decided to found a normal state, not one based on fear and compulsion, that the empire burst like a bubble. I consider the breakup of the Soviet Union [in 1991] to be appropriate and right. That was the way all utopist regimes ended.
The newly gained independence of Estonia [47] was joyful for all of us. We became free. We can go anywhere we want to and do what we find appropriate. Our living became better. I think a lot had been done within a short period of time for a relatively small and not very rich state like Estonia. The state takes care of its citizens, taking into account the things people went through. I understand very well that it was not easy for our state to accomplish that and I value it. The things our country is doing for us are great and magnanimous.
In contrast to the Soviet regime, when anti-Semitism was steadfast on the state level, there was no state anti-Semitism in independent Estonia. It has always been a loyal state. There has been social anti-Semitism and I think it will remain. Social anti-Semitism is deterrent only when the state facilitates it or tacitly accepts this homely phenomenon.
The newly gained independence of Estonia [47] was joyful for all of us. We became free. We can go anywhere we want to and do what we find appropriate. Our living became better. I think a lot had been done within a short period of time for a relatively small and not very rich state like Estonia. The state takes care of its citizens, taking into account the things people went through. I understand very well that it was not easy for our state to accomplish that and I value it. The things our country is doing for us are great and magnanimous.
In contrast to the Soviet regime, when anti-Semitism was steadfast on the state level, there was no state anti-Semitism in independent Estonia. It has always been a loyal state. There has been social anti-Semitism and I think it will remain. Social anti-Semitism is deterrent only when the state facilitates it or tacitly accepts this homely phenomenon.
Period
Location
Talinn
Estonia
Interview
simon rapoport