History, Natural Monuments, and Estonian National Identity

41 Linda Kongo, "Tartu Ülikooli juures Olev Loodusuurijate Selts Looduskaitseidee Initsiaatorina," Teaduse ajaloo lehekülgi Eestist VI (Tartu, 1986), 55. The word, macadam, is derived from the inventor of modern paving methods, John McAdam of Glasgow. Berman suggests that it might well be the first word in French to fall under the satirical rubric of Franglais, a fact interesting if for no other reason than to indicate the overwhelming pressures of modernization as reflected in international linguistics. See Berman, All that is Solid Melts into Air, 161.

42 Helmersen, "Studien über die Wanderblöcke und die Diluvialgebilde Russlands,"105 & 82. This lament about erratics needlessly being wasted as mere macadam is eerily repeated nearly a century later when Tartu University’s geology chair, Armin Öpik, writes: "Now, when Estonia is stepping on the road to a cultural awakening and is experiencing its own unique rhythm of life in the protection and preservation of animate and inanimate nature, the demolished Lindakivi or Iru ämm [a sacred stone on Iru hill] which now serves as columns for the Iru bridge, shines as an incomprehensible contrast. And is the Narva Highway smoother to travel on because they used a number of sacrificial stones from Kuusalu as macadam?” A. Öpik, "Rändkividest Eestis," in Looduskaitse II, ed. A Mathieson (Tallinn, 1940), 105 & 110.

43 Helmersen was active on several fronts. He joined forces with Karl von Baer to found the Russian Geographical Society in 1845. It was, like most other Academy institutions, a “German” affair, but one that had already been outstripped by ethnic Russians near the end of the decade. This fact did not prevent Russians from complaining about persistent “foreign” influences still decades later. See, e.g., K. Orviku, “Akadeemik Gregor Helmersen ja suurte rändrahnude kaitse,” Eesti Loodus (1970, No.1), 4-44; A. Köppen, “Zum fünfzigjärigen Jubiläum des Akademikers Gregor von Helmersen, Zapiski Imperatorskogo S-Peterburgskogo mineralogicheskogo obshchestva, vtoraia seriia, chast’ XIV, S-Peterburg, 1879, 174-188; Lehbert, “Erratische Blöcke in Estland: 1,” 169-170; and Vucinich, Empire of Knowledge, 44-57.

44 Clarence Glacken, Traces on the Rhodian Shore (Berkeley, 1967), 187. Herder’s comprehensive use of the term Klima (climate), which he speaks of as the “global sphere of interaction,” reflects his view that humans simultaneously mould and are moulded by environmental forces. Klima certainly changes humans and human culture, according to Herder, but so too do humans and their culture change Klima. F. M. Barnard, Herder’s Social and Political Thought; from Enlightenment to Nationalism (Oxford, 1965), 121-122. See also Alexander Gillies, Herder (Oxford, 1945); Ernst Baur, Johann Gottfried Herder: Leben und Werk (Stuttgart, 1960); and Aira Keiläinen, Nationalism: Problems Concerning the Word, the Concept and Classification (Juväsküla, 1964); for more on Herder’s influence on folk traditions, see Guntis Smidchens, A Baltic Music: The Folklore Movement in Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, 1968-1991 (unpublished doctoral dissertation, Indiana University, 1996), 80 and passim.

45 The Moravian (or Herrnhut) Brethren began proselytizing in Estonia in the 1730s, and their popularity peaked by the middle of the next century. Periodically proscribed by the authorities, the Brethren actively promoted the development of literature, songs and education because literacy was deemed a means to attain personal salvation. Largely due to their efforts, Estonian literacy rates attained 94 percent by 1897 (the Russian empire’s highest, shared by Latvia and Finland), and 98 percent by 1926. Jaanus Plaat, “The Influence of the West-Estonian Religious Movements of the 18^th-20^th Centuries on the Estonian and Estonian-Swedish Popular Culture,” Studies in Folkore and Popular Religion, Vol. 3 (Tartu, 1999), 207-219; Rein Taagepera, The Finno-Ugric Republics and the Russian State (London, 1999), 67; and Toivo Raun, “The Development of Estonian Literacy in the eighteenth and nineteenth Centuries,” Journal of Baltic Studies, Vol. X, 1979, 115-126.

46 E. Nörk, ed., Eesti kirjanduse ajalugu. II köide: XIX sajandi teine pool, (Tallinn, 1966), 261.

47 Liah Greenfeld, Nationalism: Five Roads to Modernity (Cambridge and London, 1992), 319.

48 See Jürgen Beyer, “Conceptions of Holiness in the Lutheran Countries, c. 1550-1700,” Studies in Folklore and Popular Religion, Tartu, 1999, 137-168.

49 Stephen Fox concludes, “The common distinction between animate and inanimate matter meant nothing to Muir.” It was just as meaningless a distinction to Muir, Fox suggests, as the ranking of “higher” or “lower” creatures. Rocks were, in other words, just another part of what Muir termed the “mystery of harmony,” i.e., Herder’s “lebendiges Ganze.” See Stephen Fox, The American Conservation Movement: John Muir and his Legacy (Madison, Wisconsin, 1981), 13 and passim.

50 C. R. Jakobson, "Elu kivide sees," Kooli Lugemise raamat, teine jagu (Tartu, 1904), 100-102; V. Paatsi, "Looduskaitseline kasvatus Eesti Rahvakoolis," in Looduskaitse ja ökoloogiline kasvatus Eestis, ed. A. Järvekülg, V. Masing and V. Hang (Tallinn, 1990), 61-96.

51 See Linda Kongo, “Loodusuurijate selts Liivimaa Üldkasuliku ja Ökonoomilise Sotsieteedi ajaloos,” in Sirje Kivimäe, Liivimaa Üldkasulik ja Ökonoomiline Sotsieteet 200 (Tartu, 1994), 78-83; and Gregor von Helmersen, "Über Wanderblöcke," Correspondenzblatt des Naturforscher-Vereins zu Riga (Bd. 23, H. 2, 1880), 163.

52 Founded on April 4, 1853 and officially confirmed by Tsar Nicholas I as a branch member of the Livland Public Benefit and Economic Society, the Tartu Naturalists’ Society (originally the Dorpater naturforscher-Gesellschaft) had as its task “to manage scientific and descriptive work in order to provide a general overview of these issues in the regions of Livonia and the Baltic littoral.” See “Statuten und Berichte der Dorpater naturforscher-Gesellschaft und Briefewechsel” in the Estonian Historical Archive (Eesti Ajaloo Arhiiv), R. 1185, N. 1, S. 251, L. 10-15.

53 Helmersen, "Die Schonung der Wanderblöcke,"182. The fact that Helmersen spoke of preserving the erratics of “Russia” in no way implies a lack of interest in Estonian boulders. On the contrary, as Yuri Slezkine suggests, “much of [Russia’s] ‘sacred’ heartland seemed to consist of its borderlands.” Slezkine, “Naturalists versus Nations: Eighteenth-Century Russian Scholars Confront Ethnic Diversity,” in Daniel R. Brower and Edward J. Lazzerini, eds, Russia’s Orient: Imperial Borderlands and Peoples, 1700-1917 (Bloomington, 1997), 50.

54 Helmersen, "Die Schonung der Wanderblöcke," 182-183.

55 Viiding, "Eluta Looduse Kaitse Ajaloost Eestis," 7; Helmersen, "Studien über die Wanderblöcke und die Diluvialgebilde Russlands,"1-137.

56 Hugh Trevor-Roper, “The Invention of Tradition: The Highland Tradition of Scotland,” in Hobsbawm and Ranger, eds., The Invention of Tradition (Cambridge, 1983), 21-22.

57 Helmersen, "Studien über die Wanderblöcke,” 181.

58 G. Helmersen, "Über Wanderblöcke," 163.

59 Established in 1792, the Livland Public Benefit and Economic Society (Livländische Gemeinnützige und Ökonomische Sozietät, or Liivimaa Üldkasulik ja Ökonoomiline Sotsieteet) considered natural science research work essential for developing and improving agricultural techniques. To this end it supported official studies and frequently held essay competitions. Preservation efforts began on a limited basis in Estonia only in 1851. See Linda Kongo, “Organiseeritud Loodusuurimise algusest Baltikumis,” Tartu Ülikooli ajaloo küsimusi XIV (Tartu Riikliik Ülikool, 1983), 3-6; Madis Aruja, Eesti NSV looduse kaitsest (Tallinn, 1983), 1-6; and Hella Moorits, Liivimaa Üldkasulik ja Ökonoomiline Sotsieteet inimest übritsev keskkond,” in Teaduse ajaloo lehekülgi Eestist VI (Tallinn, 1986), 78.

60 Gregor von Helmersen, "Studien über die Wanderblöcke und die Diluvialgebilde Russlands," Mémoires de l'Académie Impériale des Sciences de St. -Pétersbourg, (St.-Pétersbourg, VIIe Série, Tome XXX, No. 5, 1882), 23 & 39. The admiration, at least in the longue durée, was reciprocated. Today on the western Estonian Baltic island of Hiiumaa one can still visit the so-called “Helmerseni kivikülv” (Helmersen’s stone field), a destination listed on most regional tourist routes.

61 Margus Laidre, “Reformatsioonist rahvusliku ärkamiseni 1520-1850,” Eesti identiteet ja iseseisvus, 84; Jansen, ibid., 54.

62 T. Raun, Estonia and the Estonians, 77. In 1838 and 1839 the Baltic German writer Dr. Georg Schultz-Bertram was in Helsinki from which he returned with a copy of Lönnrot’s Kalevala, the widely hailed Finnish epic. The epic made a huge impression on the writer who proposed to his Estonian Learned Society colleagues that they put their efforts to the creation of an Estonian national epic. Robert Faehelmann assumed this responsibility, and Friedrich Reinhold Kreutzwald took the work to its completion upon the early death of Faehelmann. In the Estonian epic, Kreutzwald transferred some of the verses directly from traditional folksongs, but much of the compilation consists of his versified version of numerous folktales and prose legends. Felix Oinas, Kalevipoeg kütkeis, 12.

63 For more details about geographic features related to folkloric characters, see Paulson, Vana eesti rahvausk: usundiloolisi esseid, (Ilmamaa, Tartu, 1997), 27; Felix Oinas, Kalevipoeg kütkeis, 14-15, and 224; and Endel Varep, “The Landscapes of Estonia throughout the Centuries,” Estonian Geographical Society, 1972, 90.

64 Kreutzwald as cited in Ian Eilart, “Kraevedenie i okhrana prirody,” in O kraevedcheskoi rabote v Estonskoi SSR, 64.

65 In contrast, by the 1920s, e.g., the German Friends of Nature boasted of more than 100,000 members. Rudy Koshar, Germany’s Transient Pasts (Chapel Hill, 1998), 134.

66 Gekker, "K okhrane pamiatnikov nezhivoi prirody," Okhrana prirody, Sbornik No. 1 (Moskva, 1948), 100-106. Borodin felt that despite "The particularly low cultural level of our population and their poverty, both in the intellectual and economic sense...it is our moral duty to our homeland, humanity and science" to preserve threatened monuments of nature. See I.P. Borodin, "Okhrana pamiatnikov prirody," Trudy Botanicheskago sada Iur'evskago universisteta (Iur'ev, T. XI, Vyp. 4, 1910), 309-310.

67 Linda Kongo, Istoriia issledovatel'skikh rabot po estestvennym naukam v Estonii v period do 1917g. (Tallinn, 1987), 22-23.

68 Lehbert, Erratische Blöcke in Estland: 1, 3.

69 Hugo Conwentz, Die Gefährdung der Naturdenkmäler und Vorschläge zu ihrer Erhaltung (Berlin, 1904), epigraph.

70 Otto von Thilo, “Die Pflege der Naturdenkmäler,” in Arbeiten des Ersten Baltischen Historikertages zu Riga, 1908 (Riga, 1909), 169-173.

71 F. E. Stoll, “Naturschutz und Naturdenkmalspflege,” Jahrbuch der Vereinigung für Heimatkunde in Livland 1911-1912 (Riga, 1913), 93-94 and passim. For more on the work and influence of Conwentz, see Walter Schoenichen, Naturschutz, Heimatschutz: Ihre Begründung durch Ernst Rudorff, Hugo Conwentz und ihre Vorläufer (Wissenschaftliche Verlaagsgesellschaft M. B. H., Stuttgart, 1954), 158-301.

72 Borodin, "Okhrana pamiatnikov prirody," 303.

73 Borodin, "Okhrana pamiatnikov prirody," 297.

74 M. Sepp and Ü. Sihver, “Maaparandusest Eestis viimase suure sõja ajal,” Maaparandaja nr. 3-4, (1990), 15; as cited in Jaan Laurand, “Põllumees kividega hädas,” Eesti Maaparandajate Selts, Toimetised Nr. 4 (Tallinn, 2000), 11.

75 Estonia’s increased population as well as its new road and railway connections led to a robust dairy and cattle industry, both of which in turn brought some 1.6 million hectares of new land under cultivation during the 1880s. Maie Pihlamägi, Eesti industrialiseerimine, 1870-1940 (Tallinn, 1999), 23-27.

76 Estonians nearly doubled their number in the course of the 19^th century, and nearly halved that again by the mid 1930s to 1,126,000 citizens. See Raun, Estonia and the Estonians, 246.

77 Öpik, "Rändkividest Eestis,"110.

78 "Was ist tägliches Brot, was ein Leckerbissen?" Lehbert, Erratische Blöcke in Estland: 1, 4.

79 Lehbert’s wife, née Ebba Faehlmann (1863-1936), was a blood relative of the famous author, and Lehbert himself had family ties to Professor Russow’s wife. Both Russow and Lehbert conducted extensive research on erratics found in northeastern Estonia’s captivating Käsmu Peninsula, the heart of today’s Lahemaa National Park. Indeed, Lehbert was well established in his family’s Tallinn pharmacy business, but he appears to have had a far greater interest in the natural sciences and participating in Tallinn’s numerous social organizations. For more on Lehbert, his family, work, and science interests, see Anto Juske, “R. Leherti Jälgedes Käsmus,” Eesti Maaparandajate Selts, Toimetised Nr. 4 (Tallinn, 2000), 35-39; and F. Nikitina, “Rudolh Lehberti elu ja loodusteaduslik tegevus,” Eesti NSV Riikliku Loodusmuuseumi töid, II (Tallinn, 1983), 5-19.

80 See Vorträge gehalten in der Sektion für Naturkunde, Estlandische literärishche Gesellschaft, 1912-1913 ("Revalschen Zeitung," Reval, 1913), 29. The Estonian Literary Society was founded in Tartu in 1907. Its goal was to popularize literature and further interest in the national humanities. To that end it set up several specialized sections such as homelore, history and natural sciences. It also established the first professional Estonian cultural and literary journal, Eesti Kirjandus (Estonian Literature).

81 Lehbert, Erratische Blöcke in Estland: 1, 28-30. The homelore (Heimatkunde) committee of the literary society assumed responsibility for furthering Lehbert's proposal.

82 Borodin, "Okhrana pamiatnikov prirody," 297.

83 Ustav Ezel'skago obshchestva liubitelei prirody (Arensburg, 1913), 1-16.

84 Aristoklii Hrebtov, "Loodusetööde alalhoidmiseks," Hääl (Mar. 20, 1913, Nr. 21); A. A. Khrebtov, "Okhranenie pamiatnikov prirody: Tsirkuliarnye vozzvaniia ob okhrane prirody na ostrove Ezele," Trudy Botanicheskago sada Iur'evskago Universiteta (Iur'ev, T. XIV, Vyp. I, 1913), 102.

85 Hrebtov became the society’s first president, but the Estonian J. Sander served as chairman, as did the representative of German nobility from Kuressaare, Baron Freytag-Loringhoven. Hrebtov’s remarkably “amiable and friendly” manner was said to have “won him trust from all sides.” Good contacts with the Kuressaare gentry and the especially close ties he cultivated with the island’s orthodox community were a tangible result of his notable conviviality, the same attribute which helped him to win the chairmanship of the Estonian-Russian Fraternal Society (Eesti-Vene Vennaste Selts). See E. Varep. "Rahvakoolide Inspektor A. Hrebtov ja tema tegevus looduskaitse alal Eestis," Looduskaitse ja ökoloogiline kasvatus Eestis, 1990, 101; "Uue Wiljandi maakona rahwakoolide inspektori A. A. Hrebtowi," Sakala, 1915, Nr. 111, 23 Sept.; and Kohalikud teated: koosolek," Hääl. 1913(5), Jan. 19.

86 A. A. Khrebtov, Pamiatniki prirody na ostrovakh Ezelia, Abro i Runo (Fellinn, 1916), 15.

87 Aristoklii Hrebtov, "Saaremaa kooli õpetajatele ja kõigi loodusearmastajatele," Hääl (Jan. 8, 1914, Nr. 2).

88 In these views Hrebtov seems to mirror the views of the American conservationist John Muir and park designer/conservationist Frederick Law Olmsted. See Anne Whiston Spirn, “Constructing Nature: The Legacy of Frederick Law Olmsted,” 91-113; and Kenneth R. Olwig, “Reinventing Common Nature: Yosemite and Mount Rushmore – A Meandering Tale of Double Nature,” 379-408 in William Cronon, Uncommon Ground: Toward Reinventing Nature (New York, 1995).

89 Hrebtov, "Looduse kaitseks," Postimees, 1916(80), 7 Apr.

90 Ibid.

91 Ernest Gellner, Nations and Nationalism (Oxford, 1983), 37-38.

92 Tom Nairn, The Break-up of Britain: Crisis and Neo-Nationalism (London, 1977), 340. For a brief but detailed analysis of the role various nineteenth century voluntary societies played in this development, see Ellen Karu, “On the Development of the Association Movement and its Socio-Economic Background in the Estonian Countryside,” Acta Universitatis Stockholmiensis-Studia Baltica Stockholmiensia 2, 1985, 271-282.

93 For fine examinations of German national monuments and construction of a German “memory landscape” (Erinnerungslandschaft), see Rudy Koshar, From Monuments to Traces: Artifacts of German Memory, 1870-1999 (Berkeley, 2000). For a more detailed investigation of the role Heimatschutzgruppen played in this process, see Koshar’s Germany’s Transient Pasts (Chapel Hill, 1998); and Alon Confino, The Nation as a Local Metaphor: Wurttemburg, imperial Germany, and national memory, 1871-1918 (Chapel Hill, 1997).

94 Viiding, Lahemaa Kivid, 52.

95 Local identities continued to figure prominently in Estonian folklore and belief late into the 20^th century. Indeed, the concept of “nine historical lands,” bound together since ancient times to form the land called Eesti, became one of the most powerful images to resonate through Estonian folklore during the late 1980s. Nearly every Estonian village, no matter how obscure, can trace its name to some legendary event, and these events in turn link the nine “lands” (maad: Saaremaa; Läänemaa; Harjumaa; Järvemaa; Virumaa; Pärnumaa; Viljandimaa; Tartumaa; and Võrumaa) of Eesti. This association helps to explain the frenzied reception given to the 1987 rock song “No Land Stands Alone” (Ei Ole Üksi Ükski Maa), a rallying cry for national unity in defiance of the official supra-national Soviet ideology. For more on these and other regional and local identities, see the Eesti Nõukogude Entsüklopeedia (2), 1987, 308-310; and Ants Viires et al., Eesti Rahvakultuur, 1998, 655-665.

96 Hrebtov still managed to pursue limited surveys of nature monuments when he moved to the mainland, yet most other preservation activities and publications came to a standstill during the war.

97 “Spravka komissii prezidiuma verkhovnogo soveta estonskoi SSR o sobytiiakh 1940 goda v Estonii, 1.1”, 1940 god v Estonii: dokumenty i materialy, 12. This did not prevent Soviet agents from orchestrating a coup attempt in Tallinn on December 1, 1924, however.

98 The USSR played only a negligible part in Estonia’s trade relations throughout the inter-war era. Up until 1937, Great Britain was Estonia’s greatest or second greatest trading partner. This was a shift from pre-WWI trading practices in which Germany provided almost 60 percent of all foreign investment in Estonia. See William Tomingas, The Soviet Colonization of Estonia (kultuur pub., 1973) 45-46; Pihlamägi, Industrialiseerimine Eestis, 93-104; and Pihlamägi, “Eesti Kaubandussuhted Suurbritanniaga Aastail 1918-1940,”Acta Historica Tallinnensia, (1999, 3) 88-108.

99 Tomingas, op. cit., 24.

100 At the turn of the century, the all-Russian literacy rate was abysmally low when compared to that of Estonia: 29% in Russia, 94% in Estonia. Taagepera, The Finno-Ugric Republics and the Russian State, 67.

101 This may have been a case of nepotism, but Peeter did come to the post with solid credentials. He graduated from Tartu University with a degree in geography, fought in the Russo-Japanese War, WWI, and the Estonian War of Independence, and served as director for the Department of Land and Forestry in Pärnu. Later, in 1935 he was appointed Director of State Parks and became the editor in chief of Eesti Looduskaitse (Estonian Nature Protection). Peeter Päts frequently wrote just as passionately about the goal of nature preservation as did Vilbaste, Hrebtov, et. al. In 1940, e.g., he wrote “We often do not think about the resources that we use for our own egoistic endeavors, and even less do we think about what might arise as a consequence of our actions in the future.” See “Mag. Geog. Peeter Päts,” Eesti Looduskaitse, 1938(2), 34-36; and P. Päts, “Looduskaitse tähtsus,” Loodushoid ja Turism, 1940, Nr. 3, 129-131.

102 In addition to the journal Loodusevaatleja (Nature Observer) that Vilbaste supported with his own modest earnings as a secondary school-teacher, numerous other conservation-specific journals also aided in disseminating nature protection goals.

F. R. Kreutzwald Literature Museum Manuscript Department (F. R. Kreutzwaldi nim. Kirjandusmuuseumi Arhiiviraamatukogu Käsikirjade osakond) [hereafter KMKO],

Fond 152 M90:1 Arved "loodusevaatleja" trükkimiseks kulunud materjalide kohta, 1930-1939. Loodus (Nature), Eesti Loodus (Estonian Nature), Eesti Mets (Estonian Forest), Eesti Looduskaitse (Estonian Nature Protection), and Loodushoid ja Turism (Nature Conservation and Tourism) all had active circulation during the interwar years. Circulation figures are difficult to determine, but the years of circulation follow: Loodusevaatleja, 1930-1939; Loodus, 1922-1924; Eesti Loodus, 1933-40; Eesti Mets, 1921-1944; Eesti Looduskaitse, 1938-39; Loodushoid ja Turism, 1939-1940.

103 Viator, "Eesti Looduskaitse Sektsiooni kõneõhtu," Postimees (7 Mar., 1920).