Most Finns discovered Estonia during the Singing Revolution

For most Finns, discovering Estonia began during the Singing Revolution, while Estonians had been learning about life in Finland through Finnish television since the 1970s, ERR reported, citing Hannele Valkeeniemi, director of the Finnish Institute and a longtime Yle journalist.

Valkeeniemi spoke at a focus day on the Soviet era abroad, held at Tallinn TV Tower. She first came to Estonia in 1992, when she got the chance to work as an intern in the Finnish-language editorial office at Estonian Radio. She said the opportunity to see the country from the inside was why she stayed.

Valkeeniemi traced cooperation between Estonian and Finnish broadcasters to 1929, when a church service was transmitted from Tallinn to Finland. The live broadcast was not recorded, and it was in Church Slavonic rather than Estonian or Finnish. A few years later, broadcasts from Tallinn reached a wider audience: a European concert in 1933 was relayed to 12 countries.

Between the two world wars, broadcasters in Estonia and Finland exchanged sheet music, records and reports, and arranged visits by artists. They held Finnish days on Estonian radio and Estonian days in Finland. School radio programmes also taught Finnish in Estonia and Estonian in Finland. Valkeeniemi said she had been surprised by how extensive the countries’ shared history was before the Second World War.

The war and Estonia’s occupation changed the relationship, bringing what Valkeeniemi described as an almost immediate propaganda war using radio and, later, television. After the war, Estonia-born writer Hella Wuolijoki, born Ella Murrik, became Yle’s first female director-general. Soviet Estonia also began producing Finnish-language radio programmes for listeners in Finland.

Estonian Television began broadcasting Finnish-language programmes in 1956, two years before regular television broadcasts began in Finland. Valkeeniemi said radio and television then served as propaganda tools, but also carried Estonian music and culture to Finland.

Radio helped make the song “Saaremaa Waltz” popular in Finland. Georg Ots began performing it in Finnish, and a recording was taken to Finland by a cultural delegation in 1956. It became widely known there as “Saarenmaan valssi”, which Valkeeniemi described as a shared waltz for the two countries.

Joint concerts and music programmes also gave people on both sides of the Gulf of Finland a chance to see and hear what was happening across the water, despite the limits imposed by the Soviet Union. The quiz show “Naapurivisa”, which began in 1966, became a hit in both countries. Valkeeniemi said contestants were greeted with posters when they returned from their first appearance, and that the programme eventually had to end because it had become so popular.

Other joint quizzes and knowledge competitions followed. Valkeeniemi said the legacy of that cooperation can still be seen in “Mnemoturniir”, which began in 1967 and was partly inspired by a Finnish quiz show. The two countries also produced several joint entertainment programmes.