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Article: RUSSIAN IS HARD TO FORGET IN ESTONIA
- Article from:
- The Boston Globe (Boston, MA)
- Article date:
- April 20, 1998
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 1998 The Boston Globe. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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TARTU, Estonia -- "Sprechen Sie Deutsch?" asked Daina, the
museum guide. The American visitor did not speak German, or
Estonian, Daina's native language. And Daina spoke little English.
There was only one way this conversation was going to work.
"Oh, no, not Russian, anything but Russian," Daina cried, in
fluent Russian. Daina did not want to speak the language that she,
like many Estonians, equates with five decades of Soviet oppression
of her homeland.
So Daina spoke in broken German as she showed her visitor the
museum, a faithful replica of a 19th-century Estonian merchant's
house nestled among the ruins of Tartu's Old City.
It is a humble exhibition, -- a collection of ordinary ...