Perceptions of Nature, Expressions of Nation:

Perceptions of Nature, Expressions of Nation investigates the role of conservation-based civic societies in defining Estonia''s relationship with the natural world. It links the natural and built worlds, cultural and national constructs, and historical memory. It also analyzes the power behind Estonia''s 1980s independence movement, sparked as it was by outrage at Moscow''s continuing colonialist policies. The project emphasizes the central role that Estonian nationalists and conservationists of the pre-Soviet era played in developing an enduring, unique, and pervasive national environmental ethic, one that ultimately proved to be a focal point for resistance to Soviet rule. The study uses historical precedent to illustrate how Estonia''s conservation-based civic institutions had, over time, successfully linked the concept of nation with that of territory and environment. Although the political and social developments analyzed in this book took place in the tiny republic of Estonia, one must not forget that by the late 1980s this small nation had become a political force whose impact on Soviet (and world) history was out of all proportion to its size.

Robert W. Smurr, Ph.D. has been a member of the faculty at The Evergreen State College since 2000. The National Science Foundation, the American Council of Learned Societies, the International Research and Exchanges Board, and the Fulbright Foundation supported his doctoral investigation of Estonia''s politically powerful environmental traditions.