Repressions Against People and Property in Estonia

Although our data did not allow us to count the losses due to Soviet oppression in absolute figures, we could examine who was targeted for repressive measures and what happened with their next generation. Our data missed not only those people killed by the Soviets but also a substantial part of the Estonian elite who were refugees of war. However, the data about Estonians and Russians did provide information about repressions against the respondents and their spouses, as well as their families.We found that massive repressions in the form of expropriation, deportation, and restrictions on education were targeted against categories of people: the educated part of the population, the upper class and wealthier peasants, and the population of major cities. At the same time, imprisonments and executions were carried out in a more individualized manner.Our most unexpected finding was that-in the families that were repressed—the next generation fared about the same as other Estonians in terms of access to education, professional mobility, and even membership in the Communist Party. Although they lost the educational, social, and other capital accumulated by their parents, in a broad sense, this next generation fared equally well or even better in entering the ranks of the Soviet elite

Communism · Demographic economics · Deportation · Economics · Elite · Expropriation · Immigration · Inequality · Oppression · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Population · Refugee · Sociology · Law · Soviet and Russian History

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