Tallinn Trip – Estonian History Museum (Estonian Language for Everyone)

In Estonia today, there are few signs that the Soviets tried desperately to make Russian the primary language in the country. Estonian was used, but there was pressure on institutions to use Russian, careers often required the knowledge of Russian and children were taught Russian in schools.

The text reads EESTI KEEL kõigikeeleks, or “Estonian as the National Language” and it was used in the mass event of the Popular Front of Estonia at the Tallinn Song Festival Grounds in June 1988. Russian isn’t much used at all now in Estonia and an example is this museum, which translates only into English. I saw very few Russian translations anywhere in Tallinn, only really in a few places with older exhibits. And children are no longer taught Russian in schools. There were some schools which taught Russian, but times are changing (https://estonianworld.com/knowledge/estonias-russian-schools-to-switch-to-estonian-language-schooling/)….