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EESTI ELU reedel, 4. detsembril 2020 — Friday, December 4, 2020
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Tartu Ülikool celebrates its expanding global relations for the University’s 101st Year as Estonia’s National University Vincent Teetsov
A moment from Korp! Vironia’s Toronto virtual Kommerss.
Korp! Vironia celebrates its 120th Anniversary Vincent Teetsov In a year that has seen many cancellations and postpone ments, the eagerness for celeb ration and fraternity hasn’t been diminished. Least of all for Estonian academic fraternity Korporatsioon Vi ro nia, on the occasion of its 120th Aastapäev, (an annual commemoration of the frater nity’s founding). On November 26th, 1900, Vironia became the very first Estonian korporatsioon, at a time when Estonian students had limited options for gather ing together and speaking their language. It all began at Riga Polytechnicum. Though Tsar Nicholas II made Russian the official lan guage of the university in 1896, in 1890, German was the teach ing language, likely because many of the professors were German. By then, Eesti Üli õpilaste Selts (the Estonian Students Society) had been active for 20 years as a selts (society). However, Karl Ipsberg and Gustav Nurm envisioned a future in which the Chargierten Convent, a collection of six other German, Russian, and Polish-language fraternities, would allow an Estonian frater nity to join their exclusive association. Latvian fraternities were not allowed to be part of it either, which only changed in 1897 when Korp! Selonija was admitted to the Convent. The idea came to fruition at the turn of the 20th century, and as detailed in Jaan Meri’s his torical presentation during the online gathering, Estonian pat riotism was sustained with dedi cation over the decades. 80 members fought in the Estonian War of Independence, receiving 34 Vabadusristi (Cross of Liberty) medals, and many members were involved via other efforts. During the Soviet occupa tion, Vironia continued to be active abroad, including in Toronto. One memorable event of the past 50 years includes the 1970 celebration of Vironia’s founding, at Tartu College, which was just recently opened at that time. Meri remembers
this as Vironia’s second best anniversary party that he has been a part of. He explained, “The 1970 celebration could be thought of as the transition to a rejuvenated Vironia. The vast majority of the older members (from across North America) joined Vironia in Tartu or Tallinn and were born in Estonia.” In contrast, new members from the previous three years were all born outside of Estonia. Everyone watched old foot age of the weekend and remi nisced about the magnificent time that was had. And for all those who weren’t born yet, it was a chance to wish we could have been there to dance to the live band and speak with another generation of Estonians in Canada, who made our current opportunities possible. According to Meri, the best Vironia anniversary celebration was the 100th anniversary, in 2000, which was “the first larger get-together between Vironia in Eesti and Toronto.” Over one week, members celebrated in Toronto and Tartu, with a trip to Riga in between. Regular contact continues between Estonian and Canadian chapters of Vironia. The day after the Toronto chapter’s 2020 virtual event, there was also an Aastapäev event live streamed from Tartu. This year’s Kommerss was a chance to remember members who passed away in the last year, talk with good friends, sing, and listen to thoughtful kõned (speeches). Ants Toi went around the group and asked where everyone was calling in from, highlighting the wide geographical coverage of Viro nia’s membership. While the wish to be in Tartu that night was widely expressed, one member, Peeter Nieländer, was in fact tuning in seven hours ahead from Tartu. Dozens of people were there for what has been, and continues to be, a key date in the calendar. For many Estonian academic fraternities, sororities, and so cieties, November is an active and meaningful time of year. It’s a time to celebrate our togetherness, even if on Zoom.
On the afternoon of Sunday November 29th, via Zoom, the 101st anniversary of the University of Tartu as Esto nia’s national and Estonian language university was cele brated. Academic life has changed dramatically in the era of COVID-19. But tech nology enabled the event to succeed, demonstrating that connections to the university and the Estonian language remain robust in North America. This anniversary was com memorated side-by-side with the involvement of väliseesti külalisprofessoor (visiting pro fessor from the Estonian dias pora), David Ilmar Lepasaar Beecher from the University of California, Berkeley; a pro fessor of history and political science. The visiting professorship’s pilot project was established in November 2018 and is made possible through the financial support of the Estonian Stu dent’s Fund in USA Inc., the University of Toronto Chair of Estonian Studies Foundation (Tartu College), and the Univer sity of Tartu Fund in Toronto. Peeter Einola, the Chair of Estonian Studies Foundation and Director of the University of Tartu Fund, created the idea of the program with the late Tartu Ülikool rector, Volli Kalm. As indicated by Einola in his opening statement, the pro fessorship was designed to “contribute to the development of Estonia by promoting higher education.” The professorship has enhanced the Englishlanguage humanities curriculum and increased the international visibility of Tartu Ülikool. Prof. Beecher has extensive experience at universities in the United States and in Europe, in the fields of history and global studies. Arguably, his position as a väliseesti intellectual am bassador launched with his doctoral thesis “Ivory Tower of Babel: Tartu University and the Languages of Two Empires, a Nation-State, and the Soviet Union”, which brought atten tion to the history and concerns of Estonians when it was de clared the best doctoral disserta tion of the history department at UC Berkeley. Based on all of this, he has brought his global experience and expertise to the University of Tartu’s Johan Skytte Institute of Political Studies. In the past semester, prof. Beecher has been active in seminars, an ex hibition, in addition to teaching two courses. One of these is “The History of Russia and Europe Since 1700.” According to the University of Tartu, the publication of a monograph based on his doctoral thesis is also an upcoming possibility. The event commenced with
greetings from Peeter Einola and prof. Anne Agur, of the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Medicine. She reminded us that we all possess a connection to the University of Tartu as it is an enduring leader of deve lopment for Estonian society through knowledge, language, and culture. Following the opening state ments, the Chamber Choir of the University of Tartu, con ducted by Triin Koch, virtually performed the classic ode to the Republic and academic life, “Gaudeamus Igitur”, eliciting participation from all those watching. University of Tartu rector, Toomas Asser, spoke warmly of the connections between Tartu and North America, while Peeter Einola and prof. Andres Kasekamp introduced the lec ture, noting the key themes of prof. Beecher’s work – langua ges, universities, cities, and countries. Prof. Beecher built a com prehensive web of philological, historical, artistic, and auto biographical reflections in his lecture. At risk of oversimplify ing the fascinating associations he has made with the concepts of home and exile, there are a handful of key ideas that one should know about. Home is fragile. Prof. Beecher’s child hood home in the northern Californian forests of Bonny Doon was surrounded by raging wildfires this last summer. His mother Merike’s family had to leave their home in Tartu in 1944, becoming displaced persons. 76 years later, prof. Beecher welcomed friends to his new home in Karlova, with in walking distance of what had been lost by his family. At the same time, prof. Beecher’s pa ternal grandfather was famous American anaesthesiologist and Harvard Medical School re searcher Henry Knowles Bee cher. The younger Beecher grew up in a position where he began to ponder the precarious nature of identity. Is identity defined by language, as political scien tist Rein Taagepera declared when he said “Oleme keelerah vas. Ilma keeleta seda rahvast pole” (“We are a language nation. Without language, this nation does not exist.”)? Or does Estonian identity centre around the country where one lives, as author Tõnu Õnnepalu proposes? Is there something in between for those with limited connection to their ancestral language or country? Prof. Beecher painted the picture of home and exile vividly with the Biblical story of the Tower of Babel. Just as in this story, the people of the world began to speak different lan guages and were widely dis persed, the Estonian diaspora spread across continents at a
Väliseesti külalisprofessor, David Ilmar Lepasaar Beecher. Photo: vemu.ca
time when new countries were being born. There were 50 countries in existence in 1900. In 2000, there were approxi mately 200. However the diaspora is not solely a story of Estonians be ing scattered around the world. Prof. Beecher also showed how the University of Tartu has become a refuge for other dias pora, who made it their home. Significantly among them was renowned scholar Juri Lotman, who coincidentally made his home in the same building in Tartu where David Beecher’s family had resided. The uni versity is like the acropolis for Estonian thought, just as The School of Athens was a pillar of Ancient Greek thought. After the lecture, prof. Kasekamp led a Q&A session with prof. Beecher. To conclude the afternoon, viewers sang along with the Chamber Choir once more, for the Estonian national anthem. The evening and the profes sorship showed the university not only as a national insti tution, but one that draws re searchers, professors, and stu dents on an international level. This visiting professorship continues as well, with the an nouncement of David Beecher’s successor to be made on December 1st, as part of the university’s anniversary celeb rations. A special thank you is extended to Piret Noorhani, Johanna Helin, and Taavi Tamtik of VEMU, without whose support the event would not have been possible. If you wish to see another similar version of prof. Beecher’s lec ture in English, you can watch it here (https://www.youtube. com/watch?v=VBIxB7SI8QM). To watch the event for yourself if you missed it, visit the VEMU Youtube channel (https://www.youtube.com/user/ VEMUESC).
ESTONIAN LIFE
