Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rdxmf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-27T13:54:38.188Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Estonian Family in Transition

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

Anu Narusk
Anu Narusk*
Affiliation:
Institute of International and Social Studies, Estonian Academy of Sciences
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

All of the sociological surveys of Estonians carried out after the Second World War have highlighted family life and children as the main values for Estonians. Family and children were also the values that survived the transition from the Soviet to the post-Soviet system, becoming even higher ranked in Estonians’ value priorities. Other rising values during the transitional period were health, close friends, self-education, and a pollution-free environment. Among those aspects suffering considerable decline were participation in social as well as in cultural activities (visiting cultural institutions, reading books, etc.), professional work, and taking care of one's own physical well-being. The rural lifestyle together with Lutheran religious values, which emphasize the family and a “good mother,” have been the main cultural orientations handed down through generations of Estonian families. Even the Soviet period with its forced industrialization, collectivization and political terror did not break this value-system but, quite the opposite, often meant that the family became a place that provided “refuge, and temporary escape” from these pressures, thereby preserving important elements of an earlier cultural orientation. Through its ideologically restricted social studies and deformed official statistics, which left people without reliable information about reality, the Soviet system managed to preserve the relatively strong impact of cultural traditions on people's behavior.

Type
Part I: Estonia's Path to Identity and Independence
Information
Nationalities Papers , Volume 23 , Issue 1 , March 1995 , pp. 141 - 152
Copyright
Copyright © 1995 Association for the Study of Nationalities of Eastern Europe and ex-USSR 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Notes

1. L. Hansson, “Eestlaste eluväärtused” (“Life Values of Estonians”); A. Narusk, Ed., Murrangulised 80-ndad ja 90-ndad aastad Eestis: Töö, perekond ja vaba aeg (“The Critical 1980s and 1990s in Estonia: Work, Family, Leisure”) Tallinn-Helsinki: TAK STAKES, 1994.Google Scholar

2. G. W. Lapidus, Women in Soviet Society. Equality, Development, and Social Change, Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University of CA Press, 1978, pp. 2–8; G. W. Lapidus, “The Interaction of Women's Work and Family Roles in the Former USSR,” H. Kahne and J. Z. Giele, (eds), Women's Work and Women's Lives. The Continuing Struggle Worldwide, Boulder, San Francisco, Oxford: Westview Press, 1992, pp. 140–164.Google Scholar

3. A. Narusk, Murrangulised 80-ndad ja 90-ndad aastad Eestis: Töö, perekond ja vaba aeg (“The Critical 1980s and 1990s in Estonia: Work, Family, Leisure”) Tallinn-Helsinki: TAK STAKES, 1994.Google Scholar

4. Statistika aastaraamat. 1993 (“Statistical Yearbook, 1993”) Tallinn: Estonian Statistical Office, 1993.Google Scholar

5. D. Kutsar and A. Trumm, “Poverty Among Households in Estonia”, Scandinavian Journal of Social Welfare, No. 2, 1993, pp. 128–141.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

6. “Eesti naine täna ja homme” (“Women in Estonia: Today and Tommorrow”), Rahva Hääl (“People's Voice”), 8 March 1989.Google Scholar

7. K. Paadam, “Estonian Women's Self-Realization in an Urban Environment,” Paper presented at the First European Conference of Sociology, Section II/1: Feminism and Citizenship in Europe. Vienna, 26–29 August 1992.Google Scholar

8. A. Kelam, “Üleminekuaja abielusuhted: kodutööd, pereküsimuste otsustamine, lahkhelid,” (“Marriage Relations in the Transitional Period: Housework, Family Decision-Making, Dissentions”) A. Narusk, (ed.), Murrangulised 80-ndad ja 90-ndad aastad Eestis: Töö, perekond ja vaba aeg (“The Critical 1980s and 1990s in Estonia: Work, Family, Leisure”) Tallinn-Helsinki: TAK STAKES, 1994.Google Scholar

9. A. Narusk and L. Pulkkinen, “Parental Relationship and Adolescents’ Conceptions of their Interaction with Significant Others,” European Journal of Psychology of Education, 1994.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

10. L. A. Gilbert, C. K. Holahan and L. Manning, “Coping with Conflict between Professional and Maternal Roles,” Family Relations, No. 30, 1981, pp. 419–426.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

11. S. N. C. Lewis, C. L. Cooper, “Stress in Two-Earner Couples and Stage in the Life-Cycle,” Journal of Occupational Psychology, Vol. 60, 1987, pp. 289–2303.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

12. P. Shipley and M. A. Coats, “Community Study of Dual-Role Stress and Coping in Working Mothers,” Work & Stress, Vol. 6, 1992, pp. 49–63; Statistika aastaraamat, 1993, Tallinn: ESA, 1993.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

13. E. Haavio-Mannila and E. Rannik (eds), Vertaileva tutkimus Eestin ja Suomen perheestä, työstä ja vapaa-ajasta, Helsinki: Suomi-NL TTYK, 1985; A. Narusk, “Parenthood, Parentship, and Family in Estonia,” U. Björnberg, Ed., European Parents in the 1990s. Contradictions and Comparisons, London: Transaction Publishing, 1992, pp. 155–171.Google Scholar

14. S. Bridger, “Young Women and Perestroika,” L. Edmondson, (ed.) Women and Society in Russia and the Soviet Union (Cambridge: University Press, 1992), pp. 178–202.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

15. A. Narusk, “Transmission of Drinking Habits Within the Family,” Contemporary Drug Problems, Winter 1991, pp. 645–671; A. Narusk, Pered, kus kasvavad teismelised (“Families With Teenagers”), Tallinn: Valgus, 1988.Google Scholar

16. S. Bankovskaya, “Social Change in the Baltic States: A Tentative Framework for Analysis,” I. Alanen, Ed., The Baltic States at a Crossroads: Preliminary Methodological Analyses. (Baltic-Nordic Project), Jyväskylan Yliopiston Sosiologian Laitoksen Julkaisuja, Vol. 56, 1993, pp. 21–26.Google Scholar

17. A. Narusk, “Gender and Rationality: The Estonian Women's Case” T. Gordon and K. Kauppinen-Toropainen, (eds), Unresolved Dilemmas: Women, Work and the Family in the United States, Europe and the Former Soviet Union, Avebury: Ashgate PC, 1994.Google Scholar

18. M. J. Hogan, J. W. Maddock, A. I. Antonov and M. S. Matskovsky, (eds), “The Future of Families,” Families Before and After Perestroika: Russian and US Perspectives, New York & London: Guilford Press, 1994), p. 230.Google Scholar