Pechora County (Estonia)

The Estonian war of liberation , following the German occupation of the Baltic and the revolutionary events in Russia, did not confine itself to the Estonian ethnic territory. On March 29, 1919, a small predominantly Russian district town of Pechora, Pskov Province, was occupied by Estonian national formations. However, after a period of confrontation in Soviet Russia, the policy of ceding part of ethnic Russian territories to new independent states in exchange for recognizing the new government in Russia prevailed. On February 2, 1920, the entire Pechora district of the former Pskov province became part of independent Estonia under the terms of the Tartu Peace Treaty , becoming the only county with a predominance of ethnic Russians (65%) ^[1] . In the same year, large areas with a predominant Russian population were ceded to independent Latvia and (with less significant) to Finland.

Latvian-Estonian border

In 1923, Estonia again transmitted mainly the Russian by ethnicity part of the Lavrovsky volost ( est. Laura vald ) of the Pechora county of Latvia ^[2] and on June 1, 1924, this part was combined with part of the former Kalnapedza volost ^[3] ( Latvian. Kalnapededzes pagasts ), forming Pededzu parish ( Latvian. Pededzes pagasts ) ^{[4] [5]} . Initially, the volost board housed in the old school building of the former Kalnapedza parish, but due to the beginning of the school season, in the fall, it moved to the Kalnapedza manor ( Latvian. Kalnapededzes muiža ), from which it soon moved to houses rented from the peasants between Karaukov ( left ) . Kraukova ) and Snopova ( Latvian. Snopova ) ^{[6] [7]} . Later, these houses, with 3.5 hectares of adjoining land, are redeemed by the local government for development for the needs of the volost, and in September 1928, the volost administration moved to a newly built building ^[6] .

In 1935, the area of ​​the Pededz Volost of Valka County was 126.5 km², with a population of 3,040 inhabitants, including: 1,592 Great Russians (52.4%), 1,322 Latvians (43.5%) and 105 Estonians (3, 5%) ^[8] .

Major events during the period of joining Estonia

May 24, 1939 in the county center there was a catastrophic fire . Out of 650 city houses, 212 were destroyed by fire, about 1.5 thousand people were left homeless. Virtually the entire pre-Revolutionary wooden architecture was destroyed ^[9] . Some villages adjacent to Pechora, where several dozen houses burned down, suffered from fire ^[10] .

Volost division

The list of volosts, according to Estonian oikonyms in 1925, was as follows:

• Mae
• Jarvesuu
• Saatserino
• Meremäe
• Panikovitsa
• Laura
• Irboska
• Senno
• Vilo
• Kulje
• Petseri
• city ​​of Petseri

Inclusion in the RSFSR

The inclusion of Estonia into the USSR in 1940 did not lead to an immediate revision of the borders: the county continued to be part of the ESSR . Some soldiers of the former Estonian army went underground and after 1940 lived in anticipation of the German offensive ^[11] .

Years of the Great Patriotic War

In 1941–44, during the German occupation, he was subordinate to the Reichskommissariat of Ostland . During the Second World War, Estonian punitive divisions “ Kiteselite ” and “ Omakaitse ” acted on the territory of the county. They collaborated with the Hitler regime. Waldemar Kanna , a former lieutenant of the 7th infantry regiment of the Estonian army, became the commander of a detachment of 24 people formed on July 8, 1941, who became part of the so-called “ Landsalg ” - the Omokayts volunteer unit ^{[] 11]} .

Post-war years

January 16, 1945 ^[12] most of the county (8 out of 11 volosts, as well as the city of Pechora ) transferred to the RSFSR ^[13] . The small remaining units (20.9%) became part of the counties of Põlvamaa and Võrumaa of the ESSR , then again as part of independent Estonia (since 1990) ^[14] . The administrative center of the county was the city of Pechora (Petseri). At the same time, the predominantly Russian-speaking Pededz parish , which the 1st Estonian Republic transferred to the 1st Latvian Republic in 1923, remained part of the Latvian SSR, and then became part of independent Latvia.

The increase in the share of Estonians and Latvians in the Pskov province began in the nineteenth century. The Pskov landlords then began to sell empty and unsuitable lands suffering from landlessness (due to the spread of German latifundia in Livonia and Estland) to Latvians and Estonians freed from serfdom. So, in 1890, only four Estonian families lived in Pechora, and by 1914 there were already about 150 people. And according to the 1922 census, Estonians (including the Setos ) accounted for 33.8% of the city’s population.

The share of Estonians has grown everywhere in the Eastern Prichudye . The Gdov and Luga counties of the St. Petersburg province have become especially attractive for migrants from the Baltic states. In 1897, the proportion of Estonians in Gdovskiy district reached 10.5% (15,278 people out of 145,573 residents of the county) (The first general census according to an analysis was 1903), and by the beginning of the 1920s Estonians were 11.05%. (16 882 people) (Zolotarev, 1926). In the Luga district, the share of Estonians was less: in 1897 it was 3.6% (4,805 people out of 133,466 people in the county), and in the early 1920s it rose to 5.1%. (9 021 people). In addition to Estonians, the share of other Finno-Ugric peoples was also noticeable in the Luga district. According to the All-Russian population census of 1897 in the same Luga district, 0.75% of the population (1,001 people) were Finns , and another 0.5% (635 people) were Izhorians ^[15] .

During its short history as part of the Republic of Estonia, the population of the county has experienced a number of dramatic changes in the field of language and national policy. So, since the Russian population prevailed in the county, until 1934 both languages ​​— Russian and Estonian — were equal, and both names (Pechora and Petseri) were official. In 1919, the first Russian-Estonian school opened here, the traditions of which are continued at the Pechora Linguistic Gymnasium . At the same time, given the fairly prosperous economic situation in the county until the beginning of the 30s, it experienced rapid population growth. However, the establishment of the Päts dictatorship was accompanied by the policy of Estonianization : the Russian language was deprived of official status, the Russian branch of the Pechora School was closed, and most of the Russian toponymy, including street names, were replaced by Estonian. This caused a certain discontent of the Russian intelligentsia ^[16] . The share of Estonians, including the Setu , in the city of Pechora has increased dramatically, from 22% to 56%, although the Russians as a whole retained a considerable advantage. Unemployed Russian white emigrants from Narva, the former czarist intelligentsia from Pskov , various entrepreneurs, clergy, especially old believers, as well as pilgrims from Russian diasporas of Western European countries, rushed to this border and mostly Russian-speaking county ^[16] . However, the Estonian police persecuted both sympathizers of the Soviet communists and Russian monarchists. As a result, the emphasis was placed on the economic development of the region, but also with an ethnic bias in favor of the Estonians. Zemsky chief Johannes Reintalu reformed the bureaucratic apparatus Pechora. Also common land tenure of Russian villages was liquidated and volost reform turned out to be favorable for Estonians and Setos, which increased their importance in volost self-government ^[14] .

40% of the Russian population of interwar Estonia were residents of Pechora County ^[16] . The first census of the county’s population was conducted by the Estonian authorities in 1922. ^[1] A total of 61,000 people were counted, of whom 39,000 (64.9%) identified themselves as Russians , 15,000 inhabitants (25.5%) identified themselves as Setu and 6.5% are actually Estonians ^[17] . Considering the fact that the ratio of the Setu to the Estonians proper in the region in 1922 was 3 to 1 ^[14] , the Estonian authorities set a course for the Estonian Setu.

According to the 1934 census, Russians in the county made up 65.06% of the population (39,321), Estonians and Setos - 32.36% (19,560), Latvians - 2.29% (1,384), and others - 0.29%. In contrast to the RSFSR , the Orthodox Church at the initial stage was not subjected to persecution. However, the language rights of the Russian-speaking population were gradually curtailed ^[16] . In 1925 , a law on cultural autonomy was passed in Estonia, but he ignored the Russian national minority as if it did not exist.

The county continued to remain the least urbanized in Estonia: only 6.6% of its population lived in the town of Pechora even after a period of rapid growth in the county center in the 1920s . It is noteworthy that due to the high birth rate of the rural Russian population of that era, its share as a whole in the county practically did not change even in the conditions of independent Estonia. All ethno-linguistic changes mainly boiled down to the Estonianization of the Setos, primarily the Setus youth, among whom the Estonian literary language was actively introduced through the school education system. According to the 1934 census, the total non-Russian population in Petserimaa remained almost unchanged compared to 1926, but the absolute number of Setos decreased to 13,300 people (by 22%) due to an almost equivalent increase in the share and number of people who named ethnic Estonians. At the same time, due to the active relocation of Estonian officials with their families, ethnic Estonians became the majority of the population in the city of Pechora (Petseri). By 1931, the share of Estonians here reached 51.3%, by 1934 - 54.8%, by 1937 - 56.9% (2,257 people) ^[18] . And this increase in the share of Estonians was achieved mainly by the Estonianization of the local Setu: by 1937, the Setu share in Pechora itself dropped to less than 3% (119 people) ^[12] . The share of Russians in the city of Pechora decreased from 63.2% (1,272 people) according to the 1922 census to 41.0% (1,745 people) in 1934, although their absolute number in the city increased significantly (by 37.2%) ^[1] . However, during the interwar period, only Estonians in the city were city leaders , and only Estonian parties won the local elections.

In the 1920s, both Russian and Estonian versions of the city name were used on an equal footing in Estonia. In the 1930s, with the growth of authoritarian and nationalist tendencies in the republic, the Russian version was ousted from use - not only in official documents, but also in the Russian-language press only Estonian oikonyms were allowed to use ^[19] . In 1935 , even after half of Russian Päts came to power, the names of city streets in the township of the county were also revised, with a number of Russian place names replaced by Estonian ones ^[20] .

Unlike Soviet Russia, churches and monasteries in the 1st Estonian Republic were not destroyed, but freedom of religion for all citizens was declared only formally. All minority religions and cults of the Russian and Setukez communities were persecuted or were subject to a series of prohibitions.

In the 1930s, the Estonian authorities stepped up pressure on the Russian Orthodox Church: they began to actively promote the new calendar, and the Seto from the Orthodox parishes forced them to become Lutheran . Lutheran services in Russian began to be held in Pechory, as Russian remained the Orthodox language among the Orthodox Setos. Then all the Setos were declared Estonians, who were forbidden to enter Russian-speaking parishes ^[14] .

In the de-Russification of the Russian Orthodox Church, the Estonian authorities began to coordinate their actions with the Finnish ones. In Estonia, the de-Russification of the Orthodox Church was quickly elevated to the rank of state policy. From Estonia to Finland, the priest Herman Aav , who was appointed Bishop of Karelia and Vicar of Archbishop Seraphim in November 1923, was “discharged”. With him, the Valaam Monastery plunged into the atmosphere of "disagreement and litigation" ^[21] . Since 1925, the Russian Orthodox services on Valaam have been translated into Finnish.

In 1940 , on the eve of joining the USSR , the Estonian authorities planned to return education in Russian, but the Second World War prevented this. The need for concessions has disappeared after the inclusion of most of the area in the RSFSR . Accordingly, the flag and coat of arms of the area have been changed. After joining the RSFSR, collectivization was carried out at an accelerated pace ^[22] .

After Estonia gained independence, from 3 to 10 ^[23] thousand residents of the region were able to obtain Estonian citizenship based on Estonian land ownership documents valid from 1918 to 1940 ^[24] . Estonia has abandoned its territorial claims on the area at the time of joining NATO .

• Abreni County