The Swedes who fled the USSR ☭ 🇸🇪 🇪🇪
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 20 ก.ย. 2024
- You may not think of Swedes when you think of Estonia (presuming that you think of Estonia), but looking at places names of a map of the Estonian island you may see names such as Sviby, Saxby, Diby and others. Swedes lived on many islands and along the coasts of Estonia for many centuries, until the majority of them left. I go to the island of Vormsi to see if there is any left (not really).
If you want more Estonian-Swedish Island content (who doesn't?) then enjoy this video of Ruhnu:
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You know what, as a Swede myself, I actually didn't know this about Estonia. Very interesting.
I guess googling about Gammalsvenskby will throw your hat off then :D
As a Swedish speaker in Finland, I have many times encountered Swedes that did know nothing about Swedish being spoken natively in other countries than Sweden. Swedish is an official language in Finland and is spoken in multiple areas along the coastline, with some cities and many villages with a majority of Swedish speakers. Thus governing, schools, etc. in these areas are in Swedish. Maybe the ignorance is due to the fact that Sweden tried to forget that it lost its eastern half in 1809.
I have read that Lenins Mother was a swedish jew. So swedes have lived in eastern europe for sure.
The Swdes in general do not know much about their own history. I read about a Finn who spoke with a Swede about something that had happened in Finland. That was during Gustavus III regn the Finn said. The Swede replied: Have you also had a King named Gustavus III?
It was not just in the bultic, there was swedish villages in ujraine and russia and even crimea.. Russia had swedish in every major city, swiss, belgians, dutch ect too.. In the baltic the swedish were colonists who had been there before the russians defeated the swedish but in other parts the russians incited them to migrate
When I did my military service in Sweden, a guy there had Estonian Swedish roots. We are still friends to this day.
Also there's Gammalsvenskby in Ukraine next to river Dnipro. Where Estonian Swedes where forcefully moved during the Russian empire.
They were not forcablebly moved to novorossiya land was offered to settlers
@@manchagojohnsonmanchago6367wrong. They where expelled from their lands
@@manchagojohnsonmanchago6367the Russians as always forcefully moved the civilians of Vormsi and ösel
@@saosaosson6139 no the russian empire opened settlement to protestant settlers from sweden, germany, holland and a number of other countrues. Settlers even settled in the caucasus. Swedes adn germans wrre the ruling classes in the baltic and in the 18th and early 19th century their total dominance of the land and over the daily lives of the baltic people caused a fair amount of tension between them and the natives. Russians were the dominant power but ithe baltic and finnland germans and swedes were the "masters" the russian empire offered land also for etronians to settle in weird places like abkhazia.
@@manchagojohnsonmanchago6367 Thousands of the swedes of Estonia was forced marched by Katarina the great down to Gammal svenskby in Ukraine. More than half died in the march and many more in the hardships and starvations of the early years resetling. A few hundred survived. The Swedish king sent a big steam boat there during the Soviet revolution to bring many of them to safety in Sweden. There are still old ladies there speaking swedish. But since they now are located on the frontline north of the river they are beeing bombed by the russians.
Interesting. I’m Estonian/Swedish living in Sweden 🇸🇪 🇪🇪
Same!
@@RedlineA2Y145 Coolt! Talar du bägge språk flytande?
My grandmother is from Vormsi/Ormsö. She is 96 years old and has a dialect. I would love to go there sometime
She must be one of the last people with that dialect. I know about a woman in Ukraine in "Gammelsvenskby" who speaks Swedish natively. Still, if you get a chance to record her talking, that could be very informative because as far as I know there are not many recordings of this historical dialect of Swedish.
Interview her and put it on TH-cam! You will regret not doing so.
It would be insanely valuable to the history of estonia, sweden and europe if you were to record her talking, please if you have the chance, do so!
yes as others have said, pls presereve her dialect
@@badmonkey2468 Not only the dialect but the trasure trove of information that must come with it! Ask about everything from life Back then to today and thoughts about the future! PLEASE 🙏🇸🇪
actually in nycko near haapsalu there is a high school where they learn swedish as a third language, and also in tallinn Gustav Adolf gymnasium... so there is some swedish-oriented education in estonia to help connect more with sweden.
in hiiumaa, vormsi and noarootsi there used to be a lot of swedes before ww2 but because they were closely connected with the sea and had ships, they mostly chose to leave stalin and go to sweden. so by today there is only some heritage stuff left behind, and the last "true" estonian swedes are sadly dying out. but quite a few swedes with old estonian roots are choosing to buy summer houses in nycko, vormsi, hiiumaa, or tallinn, or they move here after retirement, so they help re-swede the areas.
I do hope learning swedish will become more popular so that we could build more connections with sweden in the future though.quite a few of those estonians, as you see, are happy to have this heritage and incorporate it into local flags, house architecture, boat designs etc...
lycka till, dig video var bra
I as a swede do not think it is necessary to learn Swedish to interact and build connections to us (as long as we have English as common language)
@@rexxflash6112 Out of curiosity. may I ask what country you are from?
Sweden is more or less fully bilingual due to our size ( English moves/tv-productions are never dubbed wit the exception of productions for children) (Arnold Schwarzenegger did say "I'll be back" not "Jag kommer tillbaka") (a lot of the music produced in Sweden is in English)
Swedes exposure to English did not in any way diminish with the invention of World Wide Web :)
Swedish is as you may already know a germanic language (same with English). Estonian is part of Uralic language family (close to Finnish)
What Germanic Language would you recommend a Estonian to focus on A: English (360-400 Million Native speakers B: Swedish 11.1 Million Native speakers?
@@rexxflash6112 In my opinion you do show our Estonian friends absolute disrespect when you try to force them to speak Swedish because we did occupy their country for 100-150 years with an end three centuries ago!
@@rexxflash6112 and who are you quoting??! Not me any way!
@@rexxflash6112 I'm pretty sure that @mjfan653 do live in Estonia
I'm swedish and lived in Estonia a few years, lovely country
I randomly came across this video after having researched the history of the Estonian Swedes for a university project. Very cool! I am Swedish myself, and have been living and studying in Estonia for the past year. There are approximately 0 other Swedish students here, but I find this part of history very interesting. Sweden and Estonia are connected in so many ways. We have planned a trip to Hiiumaa and Haapsalu in the coming weeks, so I am looking forward to learn more. I have yet to visit Vormsi. 🇸🇪🇪🇪
Fantastic! That's really interesting to hear - Vormsi is beautiful in the summer and make sure you try to get to the Swedish church on Ruhnu too!
Ormsö*
Ormsö-swedish is fascinating. But even more fascinating is the Swedish of "Gammalsvenskby" in Kherson oblast, Ukraine.
The people in Gammalsvenskby are all of Estonian Swedish background.
This guy picks the most interesting places/people to visit. Deserves a lot more viewers.
I've listened to old Estonian Swedish recordings and their language was similar to archaic Swedish dialects still spoken in some places in Finland (like where I live). I can actually understand quite a lot of it (I'm sure we could have communicated in our dialects), whereas a speaker of standard Swedish probably don't understand much of it.
I do understand some of it, probably even most of it. I mean for finnish swedish i would say i understand pretty much all of it. Its just the way you pronounciate things that catches me off-guard and some words are really archaic a normal swede would not use. As for real Estonianswedish i would think jts even harder to understand as it probably never got modernized and unfortuneatly its a dying language if not dead already.
My grandmother was a Vormsi swede and fled to Gotland from Vormsi during WW2.
You should visit sometime, it's a lovely place. Although I'm sure Gotland is too.
@@dontlookeast Yeah I've been wanting to for some years now but never gotten to it. I talked with my mom about it a couple of days ago, we'll see. Definitely on the to do list.
Mine too but she fled to Stockholm
This is so fascinating, and also a bit sad. As a Swede I of course knew about swedes having lived in Estonia, in fact until quite recently historically speaking, but never knew much of the details. It saddeens me that the local variant (Vormsi Swedish) seems more or less extinct now.
Would have been fascinating to know if the Swedish diaspora and the Estonian one would have continued living peacefully side-by-side if it wasn't for the russians, or how thing would have evolved. I'm sure the Swedes weren't always looked upon as nicely either. In the end Estonia is for Estonians and no other. It gladdens me how fast the baltic state were able to integrate with the rest of europe after the fall of the Soviet Unuion.
It certainly seems like a bit of history that could do with a bit more celebrating in Sweden (but I could be wrong here)
Sweden, after all, were just another coloniser of Estonia. A spade is called a spade after all.
Judging by the centuries of coexistence, I'd say it'd go alright-ish. Perhaps a dispute here and there, but overall they treated each other amicably. Swedes had their own representative in Estonian Riigikõgu (hope i spelt that right) etc. Since we swedes actually cared about our 'brothers across the baltic sea', the soviets actually made a newspaper called "Sovjetestland" and sent one or two copies to the party headquarters of the Vp(K) in Stockholm.
On another island, Sareemaa (Ösel in Swedish) is a Viking Age ship burial, the buried men where born in Sweden and died there around 750 AD.
I saw, I think in the 90's, in the Finnish television a Swedish document, where a (then) middle aged Swedish-speaking man, who had fled the Soviet-occupied Estonia as a child, coming with his Swedish family to meet his elderly father, who had stayed in Estonia. From what I can remember, I got an impression, that there were more Estonian Swedes in Nuckö, (in Estonian Noarootsi, "Rootsi" meaning Sweden in Estonian), a part of the continental Estonia facing Ormsö/Vormsi, than in Ormsö/Vormsi itself. Of course this was the situation about 30 years ago, I don't know if there are any Swedish speakers left there, either.
In any case, I've been told, that the Estonian which was spoken in Estonia resembled most the Swedish spoken in Finland and Gotland.
Unfortunately I don't think there are many if any att all left. I was there in 2019 to see my grandfathers roots (he fled as a 12 yr old child with his entire family in 1944) His entire village was no more since most of it had been burned down my soviet soldiers in the mid-late 40s, the only thing left were the holes dug for the wells and the stone stepps of the estonian swedish school. He was a part of the estonian-swedish cultural preservation assembly in stockholm, sweden. They recently published a book about the (if i remeber correctly) around 2000 people who fled during the second world war. I don't have the greatest understanding of how the situation was during the cold war, but according to my grandfather, his relatives and from my visit there. It seemed like there wasn't any still living there.
I also was told that it was most similar to Finland Swedish, but yes in general the mainland had and indeed still has a bit more stuff. There are a few older generation on the mainland for who Swedish was at least a second language in the house (if not first language) but yeah, not many and they are aging. There is a (government?) school in that area that teaches standard Swedish to the students.
It is very cool that you have covered both this and the Levonians. I did not know that the place still had signs in Swedish. I have been to Estonia 5 times, but 4 times I only visited Tallinn. Guess I need to plan a 6th trip.
amazing channel. As I swede i did not know about this.
Now it feels like one should explore and document this more.
This was awesome, as a Swede there’s a special place in my heart for Estonia. 🇸🇪❤️🇪🇪
I get very happy for the common history that so many countries share around the Baltic Sea area. As a Swede, I would like our school system to take advantage of the cultural wealth that exists, before it completely dies out.
It is with a sad heart to see that the Swedish state does not realize the importance of preserving history and common cultures, despite the fact that there are so many countries and people in these areas who share a common history with each other.
As a genealogist, I have roots through countless siblings in most of the neighboring countries. From my family history this comes via the countless wars that have been through the ages. Will be excited to research wider once I'm done with my basic research on straight downhill path.
Thank You, this was really interesting! I hope the language from the Island will be preserved.
I was in the area about 5-6 years ago and it was fascinating to suddenly see all the Swedish place names. Spoke to a Swede with Estonian roots who had a summer house there and he told me that sadly no one with Swedish as mother tongue were alive anymore. The museum was unfortunately closed the day I was there.
As a half Swede, this is super interesting to see and know more about
Few Swedes left on the islands today. That you even managed to find any is crazy.
Hope Vormsi Swedish is preserved digitally so we can remember it atleast 🥺
Man, I discovered your channel a couple of days back through your vid on Livonia, and I have to say your vids are awesome. I had no idea about things like Livonia, Kingdom of Torgu (created by mistake lol), or Estonian Swedes.
It’s nice to have another Bald and Bankrupt-like channel on yt. Keep up the good work, I hope your channel will get more views because you honestly deserve it.
Thanks, those words mean a lot! I'm sure we'll get there and I'm just glad people who enjoy it have started to find it! Cheers
Very nice to see you talk about my country, greetings from Estonia.
It took me a while before I realised "Vormsi" is Ormsö. In Sweden we always say Ösel, Dagö and Ormsö. never hard those namens (even of vormsi is close enough to get it means Ormsö (snake-island)).
Hey fo what its worth this is the most interesting and eye opening video I've watched in a long time (and youtube is full of interesting stuff) I am as a swede totally oblivious to the fact that swedes lived in estonia, and Id so so much loved to speak with a vormsi swede. Man, thank you for this video, you have made an internet stranger really really happy! THANK YOU!
Fantastic! If you ever go (and you should!) get in touch with the museum and they might be able to tell you what days the elder Estonian Swedes might come in
This island has a deep rich history I recommend you research and find out about. These are my people. The Aibo people. The people were Pagan, then Lutheran, then some became Russian Orthodox. Several people on the island joined the Russian Orthodox church around 1886 during one of the occupations. For the most part the people were left alone and their culture thrived. The real name of the island is Ormsö and it is over 1,000 years ago that it was settled by coastal vikings / Swedes. The last names were not assigned until 1835, but they kept their father's first name as their last even until the early 1900's. The history of the island goes back to the viking times and the island changed hands many times with Sweden, Germany, Russia, and now Estonia, but they were always Swedes until 1944 when most of them were evacuated to Sweden when there was a war with Russia and Russia agreed to let them go to Sweden. Only about 700 Swedes remained on the Island at that time until there were just a few. Most returned to Sweden over the years. It is a deep rich island and you only covered the surface.
The earliest record mentioning the Estonian Swedes is from 1294, and there is no archeological or whatsoever evidence about any Scandinavian settlements in Estonia prior to the conquest of Estonia by the Danes and Germans in the 1200s (instead, there are sources about how the Swedes tried to invade several times from ca 600 to 1220, and how badly it ended for them). Most of the Swedish settlements, however, date back to the time after 1343, when many Coastal Estonians left to Finland after the failed uprising. With the exception of Ruhnu, the Swedes came from Swedish speaking areas in Finland.
The Swedes made an agreement with Nazi Germany in 1943, that Swedes, except young men who were targeted by forced mobilization, can emigrate to Sweden. With the Soviets, there were no agreements, and who didn't leave before the Soviets returned, couldn't go anywhere (but could get into Siberia or Kazakhstan, though). As being a Swede was discouraged by the authorities, as well as counting that the Soviets dictated that any kid not speaking Estonian as his first language has to go to Russian-language school (what was usually more away from home), the next generations faced rapid assimilation.
These Russian Orthodox churches were built all over the Russian Empire as part of the 19th century Russification program of the Baltic provinces. The whole of Estonia is full of exactly such churches built on the basis of a standard project.
Along with their construction, Estonian, Livonian and Latvian language schools were liquidated. If it had lasted even one decade longer, we would no longer exist here, just as there are no Karelians and Ingers on the other side of the lake Peipus.
These Russian Orthodox churches are a remnant of the Russian Empire's Russification program in the Baltic provinces.
Man Im flabergasted, I just have to write a second comment appreciating your work, I'm so great full to get to know/get a first insight into this aspect of swedishness. Thank you once again!
Wow, thanks a lot! Really appreciated.
Beach Swedes - Rannarootlased, that's how we call them here in Estonia.
My Grandparents on my mother’s side both had a Swedish grandparent each from the Swedish families living along the coast, one was from Viimsi near the capital, and another from the island Hiiumaa. As far as I know both stayed behind when the war came, though they were already quite old and didn’t live much long afterwards. My Grandparents both fled to Sweden when the Russians came
Cool to hear that, I live in Viimsi at the moment and I have a distant Aibofolke ancestry. Didn't know Viimsi had Estonian Swedes living there, I do know of Nargö and Wrangö. Do you know exactly where she lived?
I feel bad for the finns who fled to the ussr after the civil war. Ofc they were in the wrong to rebel in the first place, But they didnt know Most of them would meet a sad end in the gulags. Stalins paranoia is unmatched.
Why was it wrong to rebel?
@@frisianprideworldwideThey were fed a lie.
@@Fistfury42 what lie?
@@frisianprideworldwide It wasn't wrong to rebel, but people who believe in capitalism think so. Unfortunately the Soviet Union wasn't a socialist society for real.
@@frisianprideworldwide USSR/Communism.
I enjoyed the footage from Haapsal. I am glad the beautiful railway platform seems well maintained and that the museum of the coastal Swedes is alive and kicking. We were there shortly after the Soviet occupation formally ended. However, there were still Soviet/Russian troops and guarded Soviet missiles well within sight. The Paldiski base of nuclear submarines was still inaccessible and onshore nuclear reactors not dismantled.
Oh wow! great to hear about this!
Interesting video about the coastal Swedes in Estonia.
Aparently there are still today some Swedish towns even in Ukraine, close to where the fighting is going on now, where the people take big pride in having Swedish roots
Yeah Gammalsvenskby is known for its Swedish Estonian links. They have been there since 1700s and have been resisting the Russian occupation
This is something that the schools don't Teach you. As a dane i know that northern livonia Has been a part of denmark at some point. I believe when the swedes came they fled to denmark. There was probably something like Voomsi Danish at some point.
I´m swedish and i found out thanks to ancestry dna i have almost 20% estonian roots
Join me, as I do what bald and bankrupt missed doing around here
I've been rumbled!
thanks for vid sir
The best thing about this video is the blue Soviet flag in the picture. What does it mean? Capitalist socialism - like in China? :D Or some specific Swedish (or Estonian) capitalist socialism? :D
Yeah I just made it myself - changed the red of the Soviet flag to the blue of the Swedish flag
Similarly there was the Pomor trade by Norwegians and Russians trading fish for flour and timber among other things up north in the Murmansk area. This went on for hundreds of years until the Russian Revolution. Some Norwegians got stranded inside Russia, they had settled in Russia but after the Soviet Union was established the borders were closed. This only became known after the end of the cold war.
Yeah, I'm sure I watched a video/read an article on Norwegian/Russian traders language!
Didn't Stalin forcibly transfer a lot of Estonian Swedes to Ukraine? To Gammalsvenskby, where the older population still speaks an old form of Swedish
Yes, either that or to camps. A lot of the estonian swedes fled to sweden before being deported. I own a book about it and thousands of Estonian swedes were smuggled on ships to sweden, including my grandfather.
Gammalsvenskby predates the Stalin and communist governments I think by a few hundred years. They are still going but with the Russian occupation the village is struggling. I’ve heard that gammalsvenskby has been quite rebellious to the Russians occupation since 2022
@@wilstewart5743 , I actually didn't know that. Thanks, you taught me something I didn't know
There's also Gammalsvenskby in Ukraine.
Lindström here:)
The true tragedy here is Runö
4:40 As a swede i find it funny that the grammar is incorrect here
No grammar errors, just that they wrote the older sounding "eget dricka", instead of what's more common in Sweden today, "egen dricka".
At most it would be a spelling error, but its not that either, it's most likely a dialectal difference.
Så ta med dig drickat och sätt dig i farstun!
@@osobaum du har säkert rätt , skulle inte veta eftersom jag inte är 100 år gammal
Touché 😂@@bogiesmigforl1
Men du borde fråga morsan, innan du skriver så självsäkert på nätet nästa gång. Jag vill ju inte prata om dig som om du är dum, men jag brukar inte ljuga för din mamma!
@@bogiesmigforl1 Det heter fortfarande "drickat" på rikssvenska, om det är slang för vatten som i en sjö eller havet - "ramla i drickat".
Minor mistake
another bald adventure begins
The Sweds on Ormsö was from Öland witch was transfers by Danish King.
Åter till konungariket
Time to bring our brothers and sisters back under Swedish rule.
Я давно знал,что Вормси был шведский остров. Петр 1 отвоевал его у Швеции.
Guess they goose stepped on over
"Dont look east". Today, do not look at west since west is in decline and Russia rises up.
Sure lil bud
if russia is so powerful why haven't they won against ukraine yet?
Seeing the last remnants of the Swedish empire, bit sad that it's nothing but a memory now and not a single mainland swede(myself included) had any clue about Vormsi
0:05 Eastern Europe is not just Russia
Besides that Estonia is in the North of Europe, not the East, I think cultural ties to Sweden and Finland speak to that