Category Archives: back on the map

Please join us on Facebook

Posted on 14 January 11 | Leave a comment

The Estonia on the Map blog is now published on Facebook.

Please “like” us there (facebook.com/estoniaonthemap) to get our regular take on what’s happening in contemporary Estonia.

See you on Facebook!

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Listening to Estonia, 1992: the official soundtrack to Back on the Map

Posted on 28 February 10 | Leave a comment

In the Bonus Features section of the website I’ve begun to post the long-promised supplements to Back on the Map.

First up: the soundtrack.

This is a subjective selection of a dozen songs that were hugely popular in Estonia in the fall of 1992, the period covered by the book. These songs were played on the radio, at parties, in bars and nightclubs, in shops and restaurants. Several of them are mentioned in the book and, for me at least, all of them evoke vivid memories of newly independent Estonia.

See the list here. By clicking on a song’s title, you’ll be able to listen to the song.

The photo album and the bonus chapter are still to come. Watch for details soon …

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Back on the blog

Posted on 27 January 10 | Leave a comment

Greetings to all! Estonia on the Map has returned from its mid-winter hibernation. I’m looking forward to resuming EOTM’s observations and ruminations on contemporary Estonia in the days and weeks ahead.

But first, here’s a quick update on Back on the Map. Sales of the book have been brisk, and I appreciate the wonderful comments that readers have posted, both on this blog and on the book’s page on amazon.com. The promised bonus features — the playlist, the 1992 photo album, and the long-awaited “lost” chapter — are nearly ready for release and will be rolled out in February. Watch for details soon.

February is also a weighty month in the Estonian calendar. Even before the country sends 27 talented athletes with high hopes to the Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Estonia is set to observe the 90th anniversary of the signing of the Tartu Peace Treaty on February 2nd. And three weeks later, on February 24th, comes the celebration of Estonian Independence Day. Watch for full coverage of these events and milestones, and lots more too, here on Estonia on the Map.

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Back on the Map: bonus features coming soon

Posted on 19 October 09 | Leave a comment

Back on the Map: bonus features still under wrapsThis web log was conceived to serve two complementary purposes: to promote across the English-language blogosphere an awareness of and appreciation for developments in contemporary Estonia, and to serve as a real-time supplement to my book, Back on the Map: Adventures in Newly Independent Estonia.

With a focus on the second purpose I’m preparing to roll out, in the “back pages” of this blog, a series of supplementary Back on the Map “bonus features”. Here are a few of the items on their way:

  • The playlist: a list of the songs that were popular in Estonia in 1992 and that served as the soundtrack to my adventures
  • The album: photographs and mementos from my stay in Tallinn and travels around the former Soviet Union
  • The lost chapters: adventures in Russia and Lithuania that didn’t quite make it into the book

Stay tuned; details will be posted soon!

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You can read the first chapter of my book online

Posted on 9 October 09 | 2 Comments

SovichampagneAmazon.com has just activated their “Look Inside” and “Search Inside” services on my book. This means that you can read the entire first chapter using amazon’s popup book reader, and also that you can enter search terms and find any references to these terms inside the book.

Say, for example, you wanted to find a description of Bistro, my favorite Tallinn restaurant in 1992. Simply go to this page, click on the book cover, enter “Bistro” in the “Search Inside This Book” box, click Go, and you’re taken to page 74 where Bistro is described as “a well-lighted cafeteria with tall round tables, no chairs, and decent pasta that cost less than ten kroons a plate.”

But don’t add Bistro to your itinerary on your next trip to Tallinn. It no longer exists.

You can search for any term you like. But please don’t search for “champanskoye,” the notorious Latvian-bottled sparkling wine. The results are slightly embarrassing.

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His majesty, the King of Estonia?

Posted on 5 October 09 | 2 Comments

Royal_crown.svgEstonia has a well-functioning parliamentary democracy. The government is led by a prime minister and the state is headed by a president. But could the country have ended up with a king instead?

This was an open question back in 1992, when Estonia held its first free elections since before the Second World War. The balloting marked a key turning point in the country’s evolution from captive Soviet republic to thriving sovereign nation.

A total of 13 electoral blocs competed for the 101 seats in the Estonian parliament (riigikogu). To everyone’s surprise, including their own, one of the 9 blocs to win parliamentary representation was the Independent Royalist Party (Sõltumatud Kuningriiklased), whose platform called for the establishment of an Estonian monarchy. Estonia had never in its history had a monarch, so the proposal was a radical one. The Royalists won 8 seats in that first freely-elected parliament.

This was a remarkable outcome, especially considering the royalist platform was put forward with its proponents’ tongues planted firmly in their cheeks. Although the party did make a show of inviting Britain’s Prince Edward to become King of Estonia, the party was led by humorists and its main purpose was to draw attention to the hypocrisies and absurdities of government, for example through the elaborate performance of pagan rituals during mandatory parliamentary prayer sessions.

The 1992 election was won by the Pro Patria coalition, whose 33-year-old leader, Mart Laar, went on to become Estonia’s best-known prime minister. The Royalist party no longer exists, and the prospect of an Estonian monarchy is, shall we say, remote.

Back on the Map is my just-released memoir of 100 remarkable days in Estonia in the summer and autumn of 1992, a period that encompassed these first free elections. The book can be purchased here.

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Book release: my new memoir recounts life in Estonia in 1992

Posted on 21 September 09 | 4 Comments

book coverThe memoir of the experiences I had when I first moved to Estonia in 1992 is called Back on the Map: Adventures in Newly Independent Estonia.

The book is in the final stages of pre-publication. It will be released and available to purchase through amazon.com next week (the week of September 28th). I’ll post more precise details along with ordering information here soon. In the meantime, here’s the first glimpse of the book’s cover.

Now why does that picture look so familiar …?

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