Boroda you forget that I've visited most of the places you talk about. I've met the people in question and a few of them I know quite well.
The estonians well enough to know they're not nazi or even overtly nationalistic. The whole country is at least a decade or two still back in the standard of living even though thier economy advanced leaps and bounds immediately the iron curtain rose.
You think people enjoy being bullied by secret police? When they have to be afraid of speaking out thier opinnions? Or not being able to travel freely out of the country?
Not having western products available, only low quality russian substitutes? Having to live in appartment flats that were drawn directly from the party textbook. Empty monuments of insanity, every row of houses INdiscernable from eachother, only competing in the decadence of thier state.
I never really understood it before I walked two blocks in the suburb and realized I got lost. Where ever I looked every house looked the same, repugnant and stale, broken windows hanging on hinges and busted up doors with lada carcasses lying down in the yard. All of the sudden I felt afraid, I realized I was in a world very much different from the one I was used to. In a world of hopeless poverty where each man did nothing but fought for his survival.
In a world where I as a tourist was nothing but a walking target for someone in despair.
Immediately I started locating street names and numbers from the walls of the houses. Most had been ripped off along with anything that a human could possibly reach. Fortunately I saw a landmark from which I could find my way back to the family that was giving me room&board. I didn't even think of it when I left that I should really mark the place I started from to my mind.
This first visit to soviet union occupied estonia left a permanent impression to my mind. Untill that I had seen only stories and movies, none of them came even close to the truth.
For the first time I realized what it was to live in a country that was like a giant prison. People were struggling to keep thier sanity through art and activity. The estonians have always been proud for thier artistic background and central european history. Even though I was young back then, I could see how the situation pressed the people mentally.
Back then I was convinced I saw the worst decadence any place today could have. That changed when I passed the russian border for the first time, about 10 years later.
