Me elupäiväkese
The days of our life. A Travel Article of a Trip to Siberian Estonians in Spring 1996

Summary/Abstract: The collecting expedition of the Estonian Folklore Archive (participated by Anu Korb, Ell Vahtramäe, Aivar Jürgenson and the author) this time headed for the nearby villages of Tara city, Omsk oblast. Villages situated near the Siberian taiga were founded in the end of the last century by emigrants. Of the original 11 villages near Tara, only four have survived. Due to their fairness, isolation and compactness, Jurjevka, Lilliküla and Estonka have maintained South-Estonian language. Currently, in Lilliküla are about 170, in Estonka 70 and Jurjevka about 25 inhabitants, the majority of them Estonian. The village of Mihhailovka, situated across the Irtõsh, was founded in 1906 and there are concentrated inhabitants from the surrounding Finnish, Estonian and Russian villages. Estonians are the minority in the village and the village language is mainly Russian. Estonian villages are the centers of maintaining Estonian language and customs. Although they listen to Russian radio, watch Russian television programs, children of the village speak Estonian. People born in the 1950s and 60s living in the city with their children often have passive knowledge of the language, but their children speak only Russian. The majority of village inhabitants are made up of Estonians about 70 years old. The small pension money is not enough to live on, so it is their own houshold that they live on. The youth has trouble finding work as in smaller villages work was previously found in collective farms and now there are none left. Comfort is often sought from alcohol. Even moral support from Estonia would be of help but it is the sad truth that because of material and authority trouble there has been little contact with Estonia. Thus they are genuinely glad of anybody coming from Estonia and according to their tradition, hospitality is limitless.

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