Everything is wonderful : memories of a collective farm in Estonia

Just like it was taken for granted that houses could be abandoned and slowly decay, so it was taken for granted that people died in prisons, and that it was possible that no-one would really ever know the cause of death. This is the nature of totalitarianism. In 1993-94 Sigrid Rausing completed her anthropological fieldwork on the peninsula of Noarootsi, a former Soviet border protection zone in Estonia. Abandoned watch towers dotted the coast line, and the huge fields of the Lenin collective farm were lying fallow, waiting for claims from former owners, fleeing war and Soviet and Nazi occupation. Rausing's conversations with the local people touched on many subjects: the economic privations of post-Soviet existence, the bewildering influx of western products, and the Swedish background of many of them. In Everything Is Wonderful Rausing reflects on history, political repression, and the story of the minority Swedes in the area. She lived and worked amongst the... Just like it was taken for granted that houses could be abandoned and slowly decay, so it was taken for granted that people died in prisons, and that it was possible that no-one would really ever know the cause of death. This is the nature of totalitarianism. In 1993-94 Sigrid Rausing completed her anthropological fieldwork on the peninsula of Noarootsi, a former Soviet border protection zone in Estonia. Abandoned watch towers dotted the coast line, and the huge fields of the Lenin collective farm were lying fallow, waiting for claims from former owners, fleeing war and Soviet and Nazi occupation. Rausings conversations with the local people touched on many the economic privations of post-Soviet existence, the bewildering influx of western products, and the Swedish background of many of them. In Everything Is Wonderful Rausing reflects on history, political repression, and the story of the minority Swedes in the area. She lived and worked amongst the villagers, witnessing their transition from repression to freedom, and from Soviet neglect to post-Soviet austerity. In 1993, Sigrid Rausing, A Young Student Working On A Phd In Anthropology, Went To Spend A Year Living In Estonia, A Remote Baltic State That Had Just Gained Independence From The Recently Collapsed Soviet Union. Armed With A Notebook, Rudimentary Estonian, And A Clunky Laptop, She Arrived In The Peninsula Of Noarootsi, On Estonia's North-western Tip, And Made Her Way To The Village Of Purksi, The Place That Would Be Her Home For The Next Twelve Months. The Collective Farm -- Former Owners -- The Russians -- The New Reality -- The Mercy Of God -- History -- Dear Comrades -- Winter -- Normal Life -- Everything Is Wonderful -- Swirls Of Dust -- Summer. Sigrid Rausing.