Estonian Cultural Heritage
About the author: Christina Hill-Carias ’22 is an FSI Global Policy Intern with the International Centre for Defence and Security. She is a graduate student in Russian Studies from Stanford University.
Estonia has a prolific museum culture — Tallinn, the capital city, is littered with informative and exciting museums on a variety of topics like its nation’s maritime history to its KGB museums. Two museums that I was able to visit during my internship, which I would recommend for any tourist, are the Museum of Occupation in Tallinn and the National Museum of Estonia in Tartu.
Although I visited both places as a tourist, I found that my visit gave me more comprehensive understanding of the place that I was conducting my internship and therefore made me a better intern. By understanding Estonia’s history, especially in how they choose to portray it, I was able to bring that knowledge to my political articles that I wrote for the International Centre for Defense and Security.
Other museums I visited were the Kumu Modern Art Museum (which acted as the set for the Oslo Freeport in the 2020 movie Tenet) and the Kadriorg Art Museum, which is in the former summer palace of Russian Emperor Peter the Great. The art collections in both museum gave me insight into how Estonia has changed as a country and what exactly they find important to display to visitors.
My experience in Estonia’s museums was a lesson in the value of cultural heritage to a country. The artifacts and objects are national treasures that make up their country’s identity. I would recommend anyone to go and visit them!
