Orientalism Against Empire: The Paradox of Postcoloniality in Estonia

In this article, I show how the same pernicious Eurocentric discourses and ethnic value hierarchies, which are so often mobilized to validate empire building, can be used as tools of resistance against imperial domination. Weaving evidence from interviews and historical sources together with two vignettes of Estonians performing temporal and ethnic others at themed costume parties, I show how the belief that Estonians are more civilized and better than Russians has shaped Estonian experiences of late socialism and the post-Soviet years. I argue that this common-sense notion of Estonians' relative superiority to Russians is animated by the same Eurocentric logic that is routinely used to legitimize and justify Western imperialism. Further, I show how in the Estonian context these ideas have been used to delegitimize, resist, and subvert Soviet-cum-Russian imperialism.