Visit to Armenia

Prof. Simyan organised two lectures attended by students of the university and staff members. On 3 November, Timur Guzairov spoke on the topic "The Northern War and the Estonian Peasant: Transcending the Empire in Estonian School History Textbooks (1920–1940)." During his lecture, he analyzed how the authors of Estonian textbooks during the interwar period sought to shape an Estonian national historical narrative, emphasized the divide with the former foreign rulers, portrayed Estonians as victims, and searched for expressions of the national idea and its connection to the War of Independence. On 4 November, project leader Karsten Brüggemann gave a lecture at the university on "Soviet Internationalism and Estonian Nationalism," arguing that the Baltic independence movements during the perestroika period were not merely a struggle for freedom by colonized peoples, but also, at least indirectly, the result of Soviet national policy, which ultimately led to the independence of Estonia and her neighbours. At the same time, Heli Reimann mapped the history of jazz in Soviet-era Armenia by meeting with local jazz researchers and musicians. Her focus was on jazz-relations between Armenia and Estonia, which began in the 1980s when Soviet jazz star Datevik Hovanesian was a frequent guest on the Estonian jazz scene.