Occupied Identities: National Narratives in Baltic Museums of Occupations

This paper analyzes representations of national identity in three museums dedicated to commemorating twentieth-century occupations in the Baltic States. Narratives presented in those museums can reproduce dominant forms of nationalism (the Estonian case), provide alternative models of discourse while paying respect to established identities (the Latvian case) or deconstruct the victim/oppressor binary altogether while contributing to other aspects of nationalist discourse at the same time (the Lithuanian case). Keywords: sites of memorymuseum studiesdeconstructionnational identityUSSR Acknowledgements This paper was completed thanks to PDCC grant funding and comments from Richard Leventhal, Rogers Smith, Arjun Chowdhury and Anne Norton. Notes Notes 1 The complicated history of identity conflicts in light of recent events has just recently been explored in a special issue of The Journal of Baltic Studies, 39, 4, 2008. 2 Heiki Ahonen (director of the Estonian Museum of Occupation), interview with the author, July 2009, Estonian Museum of Occupation. 3 The Kistler-Ritso Estonian Foundation. Goals and Objectives,Tallinn, http://www.okupatsioon.ee/english/index.html, last accessed 15 November 2009. 4 Ahonen, interview with the author. 5 Iveta Druva Druvaskalne and Agita Slara, 'Tourism Challenges in the Baltic States Since EU Enlargement,' European Regional Science Association Conference Paper, 2006, http://ideas.repec.org/p/wiw/wiwrsa/ersa06p121.html, last accessed 15 November 2009. 6 Ahonen, interview with the author. 7 Eesti Vabariigi Kultuuriministeerium, Kultuuriministeeriumi valitsemisala Eelarve 2009, 8 March 2009, http://www.kul.ee/webeditor/files/erle/KUM_2009_eelarve_seis_03_08_2009.xls, last accessed 15 November 2009. 8 The Kistler-Ritso Estonian Foundation. Teadustegevuse Põhisuunad ja Prioriteedid. http://www.okupatsioon.ee/tegevus/tegevus.html, last accessed 1 December 2009. 9 Ahonen, interview with the author. 10 The publications include titles like The Forgotten War: Armed Resistance Movement in Estonia 1944-1956 and Birds-Eye View of Estonian History, all Grenader: Tallinn, 2005. 11 Gundega Michel (director of the Museum of the Occupations of Latvia), interview with the author, August 2009, Museum of the Occupations of Latvia. 12 Museum of the Occupations of Latvia, Visitors, http://www.omf.lv/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=22&Itemid=142, last accessed 1 December 2009. 13 Michel, interview with the author. 14 Museum of the Occupations of Latvia, Museum Brochure; English. 15 Michel, interview with the author and Valters Nollendorfs (director of external relations of the Museum of the Occupations of Latvia), interview with the author, August 2009, Museum of the Occupations of Latvia. 16 Ieva Gundare (curator), interview with the author, August 2009, Museum of the Occupations of Latvia. 17 Valters Nollendorfs, interview with the author. 18 Nollendorfs, interview with the author. 19 Museum of the Occupation of Latvia, Publications, http://www.omf.lv/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=32&Itemid=28, last accessed 1 December 2009. 20 A popular drink in Russian and Eastern Europe, similar to root beer. 21 Viliumas Malinauskas (director of Grutas Park), interview with the author, August 2009, Grutas Park. 22 Gundega Michel, interview to Martin Evans, 9 April 2006. 23 Indeed, though this idea has many proponents among the early theorizers of nationalism, and unsurprisingly among many contemporary Marxists, such as Eric Hobsbawm, there are equally potent counterarguments, advanced by the likes of Anthony D. Smith (in the field of Political Science) or the likes of Michel Foucault (and his followers in critical theory and cultural studies), which posit that although identity is something widely co-opted by the state for its own ends, it is not necessarily tied to it in some intrinsic way, and that such a proposition would be a post hoc ergo propter hoc fallacy. An example of such an argument can be found in Anthony D. Smith, Nationalism: Theory, Ideology, History, Cambridge, Polity Press, 2001, 76–78. 24 This concept is fundamentally central to Michel Foucault's analysis of power and representation, which has been adopted and elaborated by many scholars of cultural studies. A good starting point for a deeper discussion of representational politics can be found in Michel Foucault (Citation1980) 'Truth and Power' in Power/Knowledge: Selected Interviews and Other Writings, 1972-1977, New York, Pantheon, pp. 109–132. 25 Cf. Michael MacQueen, 'The Context of Mass Destruction: Agents and Prerequisites of the Holocaust in Lithuania' in Holocaust and Genocide Studies, 12,1, pp. 27–48 for an overview of the Holocaust in Lithuania; Valters Nollendorfs and Uldis Neiburgs (Citation2006), The Holocaust in German-Occupied Latvia, Museum of Latvian Occupations, Riga, for the same in Latvia and Estonian International Commission for Investigating Crimes Against Humanity, Conclusions: 1941-1944, http://www.historycommission.ee/temp/pdf/conclusions_en_1941-1944.pdf, last accessed 12 March 2009 for the same in Estonia; Anton Weiss-Wendt, 'Why the Holocaust Does Not Matter to Estonians,' in The Journal of Baltic Studies, 39, 4, p. 476 for additional geographical data. 26 Gundega Michel, interview with Martin Evans, 9 April 2006. 27 Museum of Occupations, 'Sõda ja Saksa Aeg, 1941–1944' in Eesti Lähiajaloo Okupatsioonid, 1940-1991, Tallinn, http://www.okupatsioon.ee/english/index.html, last accessed 17 November 2009. 28 Heiki Ahonen, interview with the author. 29 Gundega Michel, interview with the author. 30 Viliumas Malinauskas, interview with the author. 31 Heiki Ahonen, interview with the author. 32 Ieva Gundare, interview with the author. 33 Grutas Park audioguide, item 55, 57 are just two examples. 34 Grutas Park audioguide, item 50. 35 Grutas Park audioguide, items 1–18. 36 Malinauskas, interview with the author. 37 Grutas Park audioguide, item 11. 38 Malinauskas, interview with the author. 39 Grutas Park as a deconstruction of Lithuanian identity is of course a topic well deserving of its own essay, and the analysis provide above is only a very crude outline of Derrida's method. For a better understanding of this complication of what appear to be rigid binary opposition, Derrida's (Citation1991, pp. 114–42) essay on 'Plato's Pharmarcy' provides a good introduction. 40 Ahonen, interview with the author. 41 Ahonen, interview with the author. 42 Ahonen, interview with the author, on the difficulties of acquiring artifacts and compiling the exhibition. Nollendorfs, interview with the author, on attracting specific audiences, and the new exhibition. Malinauskas, interview with the author, on the problem of family visits.