Dark Heritage in Tallinn: Dissonant Narratives of Mass Violence

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

This presentation will examine several museums and heritage initiatives connected to Nazi and/or Soviet violence in and around Tallinn, Estonia, through the lens of “dark” and “contested” heritage, as well as “competitive victimhood” and “securitization of the past.” It will analyze the narratives of victimhood, perpetration, and suffering that are communicated at these sites, “memorial” or not, and their interpretative mechanisms and lenses, in order to discuss patterns in the country’s overall interpretation and memory of repression. It will particularly focus on how regional and international “memorial forms” related to repression, death, and suffering are adopted and adapted for local use. It will also focus on how interpretations have changed in the aftermath of the intensification of the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine. Case studies include Vabamu and the KGB Prison Cells, Patarei Prison, the Estonian War Museum, and the Estonian Jewish Museum.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

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Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 40222.0