The Possibility of a Different World

I asked Ilves what created the room for imagination in Estonia. He suggested that it was Finnish television. During the period of Soviet occupation from 1944 to 1991, many Estonians were able to rig up receivers to watch broadcasts from their next-door neighbors, which remained unoccupied, albeit terrorized, by the Soviets. Finnish and Estonian languages are mutually intelligible, and this meant that Estonians could watch Finnish news. This wasn’t all, though, Ilves pointed out: they could also watch “Dallas,” “Dynasty,” “Knight Rider,” and other American shows, in English with Finnish subtitles. (This was also a great way to learn English.) Ilves is no fan of American television shows from the nineteen-eighties, but he appreciates what they symbolized for the people watching them behind the Iron Curtain. They meant that an entirely different world was possible. Estonians, it seems, still know that, and this spurs the imagination.

Why Estonia Was Poised to Handle a Pandemic by Masha Gessen

Addendum: "Role of the Beatles in the Mongolian Democracy"