Karl Vaino, endine Eesti NSV parteitegelane 87

Yestonians ( et, jeestlased, jeestlane, , russian: естонцы) was a derogatory epithet for historically ethnic

Estonians Estonians or Estonian people ( et, eestlased) are a Finnic ethnic group native to Estonia who speak the Estonian language. The Estonian language is spoken as the first language by the vast majority of Estonians; it is closely related to oth ...

brought from

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...

Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, a ...

after

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

to staff the political structures of

Soviet Estonia The Estonian SSR,, russian: Эстонская ССР officially the Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic,, russian: Эстонская Советская Социалистическая Республика was an ethnically based adminis ...

with cadres loyal to

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 millio ...

. While their ethnicity was Estonian by descent, they grew up in the Russian/

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...

environment, which meant that for many, the primary language was Russian (the ethnic

Estonian language Estonian ( ) is a Finnic language, written in the Latin script. It is the official language of Estonia and one of the official languages of the European Union, spoken natively by about 1.1 million people; 922,000 people in Estonia and 160, ...

was a

second language A person's second language, or L2, is a language that is not the native language (first language or L1) of the speaker, but is learned later. A second language may be a neighbouring language, another language of the speaker's home country, or a fo ...

),"War in the woods: Estonia's struggle for survival, 1944-1956",by

Mart Laar Mart Laar (born 22 April 1960) is an Estonian politician and historian. He served as the Prime Minister of Estonia from 1992 to 1994 and from 1999 to 2002. Laar is credited with having helped bring about Estonia's rapid economic development dur ...

, 1992,
pp. 40, 41
/ref> which in turn made them prone to apply Russian-language pronunciation rules on Estonian-language texts that they were to publicly read out in speeches. The term thus relates to and derides the heavy Russian accent of these people and their practical inability to speak Estonian. To alleviate this, they inevitably read their speeches from paper, and words for Estonians were mispronounced from ''eestlased'' to ''jeestlased'' [''yeestlɑsed''], serving as the origin of the epithet. This and the Russian accent were so noticeable, that some high-ranking politicians, such as

Karl Vaino Karl Genrikhovich Vaino ( et, Karl Vaino; russian: Карл Генрихович Вайно; ''alias'' Kirill Voinov; 28 May 1923 – 12 February 2022) was an Estonian SSR politician. From 1978 to 1988 he served as the First Secretary of the ...

, avoided giving speeches in Estonian. While some of them tried to estonize, such as Ivan Kebin, who renamed himself to

Johannes Käbin Johannes Käbin (), also known by his Russified name Ivan Gustavovich Kebin (; 24 September 1905, Kalvi, Kreis Wierland, Governorate of Estonia, Russian Empire – 26 October 1999, Tallinn, Estonia) was an Estonian Soviet politician who led t ...

and notably improved his command of Estonian, most others remained Russian by culture and language."The Baltic States, years of dependence, 1940-1990", by Romuald J. Misiunas, Rein Taagepera, 1993,
p. 149
/ref>

Accent

Specifically, their application of Russian pronunciation rules and subsequent mispronunciation of the beginning

vowel A vowel is a syllabic speech sound pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract. Vowels are one of the two principal classes of speech sounds, the other being the consonant. Vowels vary in quality, in loudness and also in quantity (leng ...

lettered 'E' in Estonian words into "ye" (as in " yes") in place of the plain 'E' (as in "

end End, END, Ending, or variation, may refer to: End *In mathematics: ** End (category theory) ** End (topology) **End (graph theory) ** End (group theory) (a subcase of the previous) **End (endomorphism) *In sports and games **End (gridiron footbal ...

") — turning ''

Eesti Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe, Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea, sea across from Sweden, to ...

'', ''eestlane'' (singular) and '' eestlased'' (plural) into ''Jeesti'', ''jeestlane'', and ''jeestlased'' (Estonian spelling). This also happened with other words beginning with the

'E'.

Party makeup

wrote, the membership of the

Communist Party of Estonia The Communist Party of Estonia ( et, Eestimaa Kommunistlik Partei, abbreviated EKP) was a subdivision of the Soviet communist party which in 1920-1940 operated illegally in Estonia and, after the 1940 occupation and annexation of Estonia by the ...

(CPE) in the year 1946 was 52%

Russians , native_name_lang = ru , image = , caption = , population = , popplace = 118 million Russians in the Russian Federation (2002 '' Winkler Prins'' estimate) , region1 = , pop1 ...

, 27% local Estonians, and 21% "Yestonians".

was distrustful of local communists (also known as " June Communists"); and by 1952, the upper ranks of CPE had eventually become occupied by Russians and Yestonians. During the Khrushchev Thaw, the number of ethnic Estonians in the CPE gradually increased, especially in lower ranks, but still in 1966, the CPE Central Committee had only about 27% of local Estonians. Another demographic distinction between native and "Russian" Estonians was age. In hopes of gaining more autonomy within the Soviet Union, many young Estonians joined CPE around the year 1956, while Yestonians were mostly of older generations.

References

{{Ethnic slurs Pejorative terms for European people Estonian culture Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic Anti-communist terminology Social history of Estonia Estonian dialects Indigenous politics in Europe Soviet internal politics Estonia–Soviet Union relations Demographics of Estonia

Accent

Party makeup

See also

References