Kalmistu kodupaiga sümbolina: Siberi eestlaste näide
Cemetery as a Symbol of Home: on the Example of the Estonians in Siberia

Summary/Abstract: The article analyses the importance of cemeteries among the Estonians in Siberia. The Diaspora of the Siberian Estonians has formed during the past 150 years, comprising the descendents of deportees and voluntary emigrants. The Estonians in Siberia have lived more or less in isolation, having distanced themselves from foreign-language- speaking neighbours: this need for privacy is evident even today. Cemeteries are no exception. In the Diaspora, several cultural elements may have been attributed additional meanings that they lacked in the source country, and, in the isolation, may have begun to symbolise the lost homeland (the language, religion, calendar, etc.). One such symbol of homeland for the Estonians in Siberia is also cemetery. The cemeteries of the Siberian Estonians are organised according to the territorial principle. If a village has a multi-ethnic population, then the dead are buried to the section belonging to this particular ethnic/religious group. The group, who has formed a community in life, will continue to do so in death. The cemetery is a place where our worldly existence ends, a place which extends to eternity. And since our worldly existence follows certain rules, a cemetery (and its appearance) must follow certain order as well. The Estonians have not been accustomed to the bleak and treeless cemeteries of other ethnic groups and, unlike other Siberian settlers, have tried to mark the graves with trees, steppe or field flowers. The same applied to the appearance of villages - it is characteristic of the Estonians to plant trees around their houses. The symbol of cemetery as a homeland is reflected also in the tradition of the settlers in sister colonies to bury their dead to the cemetery of their mother colony. The Estonians in Siberia have brought back a handful of soil as a symbol of their homeland; this custom, however, is not known in Estonia.

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