Kivistik says freedom came but awakening must continue

Gaute “Rohke Debelak” Kivistik said Estonia’s awakening must continue in a speech delivered at a concert marking the 35th anniversary of the restoration of independence. ERR is publishing the speech in full.

The event took place on August 21 at the Mere Cultural Centre in Tallinn.

The circus arrived in Estonia about 35 years ago. It brought a banana, a video recorder, a Finnish plastic bag and an Opel imported from Germany.

The free world did not enter through the main doors. It seeped in through Finnish television, crossed the border in the boot of an expatriate Estonian’s car and appeared one morning on a stool at the market.

The Soviet economy was planned with great precision. That was why nobody knew what would be sold in the shops the next day. When bananas arrived somewhere, the news spread faster than it would on the internet today. A queue formed before people even knew what they were queuing for. But they stayed in line, because when something was offered, it had to be taken. Only later, at home, did people examine what it was and what could be done with it.

During the Soviet era, a banana was more a legend than a fruit. Some people had seen one in Moscow, some on Finnish television, and some knew somebody whose brother-in-law’s colleague had eaten a banana.

Then we became free.

Freedom did not make us rich immediately. First, it made us consumers.

The first hamburger stalls appeared, along with the first hamburgers. They were prepared like this: a loaf of bread was cut in half and then crosswise into quarters. A three- or four-centimetre-thick slice of boiled sausage was taken from hot water on the end of a fork and placed between two quarters of bread with grated fresh cabbage. It was covered with a mixture of sour cream and ketchup, and some number of roubles changed hands.

The hamburger itself did not really exist yet, but the consumer had already been born.

Suddenly, shops had bananas, chewing gum, Coca-Cola, foreign cigarettes and chocolates whose names we could pronounce only after our third purchase. There was so much merchandise that it could no longer be hidden under the counter.

Previously, people had money but nothing to buy. Now everything was available, but people had no money. At least progress was visible.

Plastic bags appeared on the streets. Not ordinary plastic bags, but foreign plastic bags: Marlboro, Stockmann and Anttila. Such a bag was never thrown away. It was taken to work, to weddings and, when possible, even to funerals. If the writing on it was in a foreign language, the bag was practically diplomatic baggage.

Jeans, trainers, tracksuits and leather jackets arrived. Some tracksuits had the name of a company printed on them. The wearer might not have known how to pronounce it, but that did not stop them from representing the company throughout the entire residential district.

Then the expatriate Estonians arrived. They came with good intentions, proper cars and an instructive gaze. They explained how democracy worked, how business should be conducted and why people had to wash themselves regularly.

Of course, we had washed ourselves before. Just not yet using Western methods and under international supervision.

The expatriate Estonians sent us soap, toothpaste, used clothes and, along with everything else necessary for life, expired Snickers bars. Naturally, we ate them. They were foreign Snickers, after all. If the packaging had English writing on it, the expiry date was more of a recommendation.

Royal spirits also reached Estonia. In some bars, there was nothing else. Sometimes even the water pipe in the bar had frozen. You took a shot of Royal, went outside and ate some snow afterwards. Today, this would be called an experience bar with a Nordic concept.

But Estonians did not want to remain merely recipients of aid. They wanted to become entrepreneurs.

The first cooperatives emerged. At one point, entire families reviewed their possessions. Grandmother had a waffle iron. Aunt Maali had a waffle iron. The former wife of Uncle’s neighbour had one too.

Once five waffle irons had been borrowed together, a business was already taking shape.