Estonia in 1867

Estonia in 1867 did not exist as a separate entity; together with the northern part of Latvia, it was known as the Russian imperial province of Livonia and was administered by the German Baltic nobility. Pictured are rusty 5 penny coins from the time of Alexander II.

According to the census of 1881, the population of this province was 881,455, of which about 90 percent declared Estonian nationality, as stated by Toivo Raun in Estonia and the Estonians. The majority of the urban elite were German until the mid-1880's, when Russian officals began to stream in.

The 1860's saw the beginning of the National Awakening Movement. Lydia Emilie Florentine Jannsen, better known as Lydia Koidula, published her most important colection of peoms, Emajõe ööbik (The Nightingale of the Emajõgi) in 1867. A poem from this collection, Ema süda (A Mother's Heart) has become a national classic song and often sung on Mother's Day; the music was written by Robert Theodore Hanson in 1882.

She also assisted her father Johann Voldenar Jannsen with Pärnu Postimees, the first Estonian langauge newspaper, which he had started in 1857. Jannsen also wrote the words to Mu isamaa, mu õnn ja rõõm in 1848, which was performed in the first song festival in 1869 and became the national anthem in 1920.

Also in 1867, Carl Robert Jakobson published the Estonian speller “Uus Aabitsaraamat, kust wiiekümne pääwaga lugema ja kirjutama wõib õppida”, New Spelling Book. Learn to read and write Estonian in 50 days. He also published started an Estonian language newspaper, Sakala, in 1878.

Interestingly, Heinrich Laakmann, an Estonian printer and publisher of German descent, opened the first Estonian bookstore in Tartu in 1867. He also printed many of the Estonian language newspapers, such as Eesti Postimees, Eesti Põllumees, Meelejahutaja and published the works of many nationalistic figures.

It is important to note that in 1866, after an assassination attempt on Czar Alexander of Russia, the censorship reforms of 1855 that had given Koidula’s father a window to start Postimees were reversed. Pre-publication censorship was re-imposed and literary freedom was curtailed. This was the political and literary climate when Koidula started to publish; ultimately, it lead to the Czar's death - he was shot in March 1881 by the terrorist organization People's Will.