From Nature Romanticism to Eco-Nationalism: The Development of the Concept of Estonians as a Forest Nation

Abstract

Forest plays an important role in many North European national identities. The Estonian example is one of the extreme cases as Estonians consider themselves a forest nation, the claim being backed up with references to both history and contemporary data. The article explores diachronically the formation of this motif in the Estonian national narrative and studies the nuances of intellectual and social history that have shaped the development of the concept from ethnic nature to eco-nationalism.