One
of the best sources for
scholars on the Estonian-Swedish communities is the newspapers. This
index is an attempt to make the newspaper available to the larger
research community. Sovjet-Estland in particular is difficult for scholars
to locate, and the few collections available are typically incomplete.
This is a preliminary index, and more issues are to be added as they
are digitized. All of the newspapers are in Swedish, and formatted as
PDF files, which will open in a new window. Kustbon ("The Coastal Resident") was the
primary newspaper of the
community, published in Estonia from 1918-1940 (with a brief
interruption in 1935 and an overlap with Nya Kustbon in 1936). The Swedish People's Party
(Svenska Folkpartiet), a political party in Estonia, published the
newspaper from 1918-1935. Following the coup by Konstantin Päts
and the outlawing of political parties, Nikolai Blees began publication
of Nya
Kustbon ("The New Coastal
Resident") as in independent
venture. In 1936, the Friends of Swedish Cultivation (Svenska Odlingens
Vänner, or SOV) obtained permission from the new government to
resume publication of Kustbon - largely as a cultural vanguard,
rather than the political nature the first newspaper followed. However,
Blees was unwilling to concede control, and continued publishing Nya Kustbon throughout 1936 in direct competition
to Kustbon and SOV. Neither publication had
sufficient revenues on its own (even when not in competition), and
Blees folded his newspaper at the end of the year.
The arrival of the Second World War
led to the suspension of Kustbon in 1940. The Communist Party of
Läänemaa Province in Estonia published the Swedish-language
newspaper Sovjet-Estland ("Soviet-Estonia) for the community
from 1940-1941,
stopping publication as the German military moved into the region.
There was no newspaper publication
during the German occupation of Estonia (1941-1944). Most of the
Estonian-Swedes
relocated to Sweden during the German occupation, and in 1944 Kustbon reemerged, this time published in
Stockholm for the newly settled Estonian-Swedes. The Committee on the
Estonian-Swedes, chaired by Sigurd Curman, originally published the
newspaper, turning over publishing duties to the new Svenska Odlingens
Vänner in August 1945.
Newspaper
Index
