Exhibition: ‘Happiness is upon us! Long live collective farming!’

Exhibition: ‘Happiness is upon us! Long live collective farming!’

10:00-18:00 every day in the Pulga Farm barn until 28 September

The name given to this exhibition is a somewhat ironic quote from the propaganda-infused Kolhoosilaul or ‘Collective Farm Song’, which featured in the film Valgus Koordis (‘Light in Koordi’), released in 1951. Unfortunately, the reality of life at that time was a far cry from the bed of roses it was made out to be in the song. For country people, the Stalinist period marked the end of private farming and the transition to Soviet-style collective farms. Many people today don’t understand how all this came about – how locals hastily established collective farms out of fear of being deported, what kind of information space these people lived in, what choices they faced and how collective farm work was done – so the subject deserves more detailed examination.

The exhibition sheds light on these lesser-explored topics, looking at rural life during the Stalinist era largely through the eyes of those who lived through it. The exhibition also creates a conceptual link within the permanent exhibition at the Open Air Museum between Sepa Farm (which tells the story of the early difficulties faced by such farms) and the collective farm apartment block (which dates from the period of so-called ‘flourishing socialism’).

Exhibition compiled by: Maret Tamjärv (Open Air Museum researcher and curator) & Heiki Pärdi (senior researcher)

Designer: Krista Lepland

Sponsors: Ministry of Culture (sectoral research and development budget) & Estonian Cultural Endowment