Some aspects of telling political jokes in Soviet Estonia

Abstract

Despite the fact that information flow in Soviet society was controlled by the political authorities, there were many political jokes in Soviet Estonia. Most jokes during that era tended to be politically motivated as they mocked social conditions, leaders and other grotesque phenomena in the society. Even ethnic jokes had political subtext. In this article, I will look into the details and reasons for telling such jokes. Qualitative open interviews were conducted for the pilot study to gather information about joke-telling situations and justifications. The limited number of interviews (5 altogether) is enough to get hold of the concepts and emotions behind Soviet joke-telling in Estonia, and this will form the basis for my further research on the same issue.