Sillamäe Group (Russian speaking minority in Estonia)

Beitrag
Video about our identity feeling. Irina, Jekaterina, Jelena, Alevtina, Irina, Aleksandra, Sillamäe, Estonia
Gruppe von fünf Frauen steht draußen auf einem gepflasterten Weg vor Bäumen und Grünfläche

We were born in Northeast Estonia, at a time when Estonia was still part of the Soviet Union.
Our mother tongue was Russian.
Back then, we never even thought of ourselves as a minority.

Then Estonia regained its independence.
The world around us changed. And so did our place in it.
We became part of Estonia’s Russian-speaking minority.

But over the years, we have changed too.
Today, two languages live side by side in our everyday lives.
Sometimes we start a sentence in Russian and finish it in Estonian.
Some Estonian words have become so natural to us that we no longer even look for a translation.

These are not two separate worlds.
This is our life.
This is our story.
This is who we are.

Two languages. One life. One Estonia we share.

Our video: