A representative of the Ukrainian minority visiting the town of Käsmu.
Everyday items found in situ belonging to the Soviet period. They show how deep was the process of Russification, started from the 50s, especially within the people's daily lives.
O ne of the very few statues of Lenin left within the E uropean Union stands today in the courtyard of the Narva castle. The Russian communist revolutionary directs his look to the border, just a few meters away.
Sergej Tjahin came to Narva looking for a job in 1969 from Chuvashia, a region in the center of European Russia.
Inside the Sillamäe Cultural Centre is hidden a fallout shelter, where today all sorts of items from the Soviet period are kept, together with souvenirs and memorabilia, like this book collecting champions and sport heros of the city.
Everyday items found in situ belonging to the Soviet period. They show how deep was the process of Russification, started from the 50s, especially within the people's daily lives.
Jelena Shestak is a teacher of Estonian language in the Narva High School. Besides the teaching in the school, Jelena gives lectures and private lessons to Russophones who want to take the language proficiency exam required for Estonian citizenship.
The Estonian-Russian border from the tower of the Narva castle. In the background the Russian twin city of Ivangorod.
Overlooking the Baltic Sea, the city of Sillamäe has been an important industrial centre of the former U.S.S.R., producing military hardware and in particular in the uranium processing field. The whole industrial activity was kept under military secret and Sillamäe remained a closed town until the independence of Estonia in 1991: it didn't appear on official maps and its inhabitants weren't able to move outside without a specific authorization.
Borys Tutuka proudly claims his Ukrainian origin. Ukrainian people were transferred to Estonia during the Soviet period and today they are the second biggest Russophone minority of the country, Kohtla-Järve.
Houses and offices in the centre of Narva.
Ljubov Zvereva is the head of the most important association in Narva gathering disabled people and war wounded of the Russian community. The association helps them in finding
an occupation and in the everyday life activities, Narva.
The theatre inside the Sillamäe Cultural Centre, one of the brightest and best kept example of the Stalinist architecture of the city.
Found picture in Narva
Alla Matveeva wearing traditional Russian clothes. Alla is the director of Svätogor, one of the slavic cultural centres of Narva, which has the aim of spreading and preserving the Russian traditions in the Ida-Viru county.
Everyday items found in situ belonging to the Soviet period. They show how deep was the process of Russification, started from the 50s, especially within the people's daily lives.
One of the few cafés in Narva. Its twin city, Ivangorod , lies seamlessly after the border with Russia.
A grey passport, the one for stateless persons, grants anyway access to Russia and a maximum of 90 days of stay.
Estonia is one of the least religious countries in the world. The second religious group of the country is represented by the Orthodox Church, to which the Russian minority belongs
to. Vladimir Lihhatšov is the Archipriest of Sillamäe.
Everyday items found in situ belonging to the Soviet period. They show how deep was the process of Russification, started from the 50s, especially within the people's daily lives.
Soldiers of the Estonian Army during military train ing in the forest. Exercises are held quite often in order to keep the Army ready to defend the country from an attack by Russia, Uusküla.
Z oya Nikolaeva has worked in the Kreenholm textile factory of Narva (the biggest one of the city) until the collapse of the U.S.S.R. and the consequent closing down of the business.
A Russian actor of the Svätogor company before the beginning of a show.
Everyday items found in situ belonging to the Soviet period. They show how deep was the process of Russification, started from the 50s, especially within the people's daily lives.
The Estonian-Russian border crosses the Baltic Sea, north of the touristic town of Narva-Jõesuu. The area has long been a popular summer destination, especially during the Soviet period, when it was visited in large numbers by representatives of the Russian intelligentsia and local people.
Jana, 18, on the Sillamäe beach.
Spruce pine forests near the shores of Peipsi lake.
Albina Pugatsenko inside the meeting room of the Russian cultural organization Nadezda, the biggest in Narva. She is the President of the association.
Everyday items found in situ belonging to the Soviet period. They show how deep was the process of Russification, started from the 50s, especially within the people's daily lives.
A tomb of a soviet soldier in the Narva cemetery.
Inside a house in Viivikonna. Viivikonna is a rural village of Ida-Viru county that boomed, back in the 60s, after the opening of some sorrounding shale mines. A lot of workers first moved there and then quit the village after all the mines have been closed. Today the village is almost abandoned.