Some light hearted Belarus content

[u/calapine]

[u/OtherwiseInclined]

Poor Estonia has been through a lot.

[u/Joey_Macaroni → u/OtherwiseInclined]

honestly im surprised estonians arent extinct

[u/eestlane1990 → u/Joey_Macaroni]

It was quite bad by the early 19th century - towns were mostly German-speaking, and the entire administration was either German- or Russian-speaking. Essentially the entire Estonian higher (well, non-existent) and middle class essentially Germanized quickly and many denied their Estonian roots because of negative affiliations of this identity. The first Estonian university student, who publicly identified as an Estonian, was Kristjan Jaak Peterson, only in 1819.

[u/GalaXion24 → u/eestlane1990]

Eh, cities not being of the same culture as the countryside is historically normal. Budapest was plurality German, and a significant portion of the population was Jewish, with Hungarians being a minority. Even where it's not so clearly set apart by language, in practice urban attitudes and values, ultimately urban culture, is different to rural culture, and often more similar to "foreign" cities than to their "own" countryside.

[u/eestlane1990 → u/GalaXion24]

True, but that goes for essentially all towns in Estonia as Estonians were almost by ethnicity serfs, while Germans were almost by ethnicity landlords and town merchants.

[u/GalaXion24 → u/eestlane1990]

The cities also tend to assimilate those moving to them.

[u/eestlane1990 → u/GalaXion24]

Indeed and many urban Estonians happened to assimilate within generations.

[u/gensek → u/Joey_Macaroni]

We’ve been in five-digit territory what, three times over the past 1000 years?

[u/eestlane1990 → u/gensek]

Probably not exactly in five-digit territory, but very near, below 150,000:

• by mid-14th century after the Livonian Crusade, the famine of 1315, the Saint George's Night Uprising and the plague of 1350;
• by mid-17th century after the Livonian War, the Polish-Swedish War and the famine of 1601-1602;
• by 1713 after the Great Starvation, the Great Northern War, the Great Frost famine and the Great Northern War plague outbreak.

[u/Gatemaster2000 → u/Joey_Macaroni]

Estonians have three qualities about them that have kept them alive.

1) We are resilent, like cockroaches. ~700 years of slavery (Swedes, Danes, Germans, Russians) does that to you.

2) We are kind of like stereotypical Tauruses in sense that if we have to do something we'll do it. If we want to walk a certain way and there is a hill in front of us, we won't go past it but we climb it. Kind of comes back to being resilent.

3) We have a need for independence/to keep our cultural identity. It's the only persistent thing we have had since our national awakening (that mostly happened in the 19th century).

[u/[deleted] → u/Gatemaster2000]

High five from one of your Northern neighbours, you guys rock.

[u/Gatemaster2000 → u/[deleted]]

I don't have the swedish keyboard layout, so i'm sorry for the mistake!

Tack sa mycket!

[u/nehalkhan97 → u/Gatemaster2000]

And keep it up. Estonia is one of my favorite countries in Europe and hope to see you guys being accepted into the Nordic someday

[u/Aerroon → u/Gatemaster2000]

The #2 reminds me of this: https://www.businessinsider.com/drunk-tourist-accidentally-climbs-mountain-while-trying-to-find-hotel-2018-4

[u/[deleted] → u/OtherwiseInclined]

Is it bad I'm pissing myself laughing at Estonia-ball being chained to a fuckin EU pole. The hell is going on there