For many young Australians a search for a cultural identity is part of the search for a personal identity. Being young in a young country can make you feel rootless, adrift. So it is not surprising that for some, the urge to discover our family history, to piece together all the parts that make us, takes hold sooner or later. For better or worse, Australia is a country defined by immigrants, and one group of immigrants who have contributed to this definition are those who escaped from the Eastern Block countries around the time of the Second World War.

Since the demise of the Soviet Union, young Australians have been trickling over to check out what was hidden behind the iron curtain, many are looking to reconnect family ties severed decades ago. Traveling to Estonia was my mission, Belarus and Bulgaria were the destinations for Kristefan Minski (Belarus) and Daniel Petrov (Bulgaria).

My Story

I always knew I wanted to go to Estonia one day. While I was growing up, Estonia, like many Eastern Block states, was occupied by the Soviet Union, and was officially Russian, but my grandparents defied this insisting Estonians were completely different. They also wouldn’t talk much about the past. This mystery surrounding Estonia surrounded a part of my history and it was too much a part of me to leave unexplored. I was also determined to live in Europe for a while, and thus began a seemingly impossible quest to get an Estonia passport.

I traveled to Estonia through Scandinavia, spending most of my time in the medieval capital, Tallinn. These days Tallinn feels like another Scandinavian city, but if you look closely, signs of Tallinn’s previous life emerge. One example is the size of the main ‘supermarket’, which is not much bigger than my local IGA in Melbourne.

For me, the wealth difference was one of the hardest things to deal with. I am so much richer than my Estonian relatives. Although unspoken, this was always at the back of my mind. I found I felt like a ‘poor little rich girl’ if I talked about difficulties in my life, but as if I were smug if I didn’t. Estonians are famously reserved so it was impossible to know how they reacted to either.

I felt the difference in cultures most acutely when I applied for an Estonian passport. It took hours to find where I had to apply (naturally an unmarked brown building). I stood in a queue of people holding passports, mostly Russian, that went for several meters before an official noticed I looked different. When he saw my Australian passport I was whisked aside and straight into an office where a woman with heavily accented English and startling bright lipstick informed me I ‘lacked certain documents’. This was the beginning of a three-year epic at the end of which I had a passport and a good understanding of Estonian bureaucracy.

It was interesting to see how discovering my roots affected me. I found lots of things I thought were eccentricities exclusive to my grandparents were actually Estonian characteristics. The smell of their kitchens, the habit of giving apples as gifts… Little things in my upbringing and personal tendencies make more sense. My taste for apples aside, I feel more secure about my tendency to be quiet. It really isn’t that I’m shy (not always anyway). Estonian’s don’t talk as much as Aussies and I guess some of that’s rubbed off.

Kristefan's Story

For Kristefan Minski of Gouldbourne NSW, it was his grandmother’s deteriorating health that made him realise that if he didn’t make the effort to discover his history now, he might never be able to. He describes growing up feeling Australian, but also ‘half from a totally different background’.

Tracing the route his grandparents took as they escaped from the Second World War in 1949 from Minsk through Lithuania, Germany and Italy to arrive in Australia, he recorded his experience in a documentary and blog, which you can read at http://grandmotherminski.blogspot.com/. Kristefan says his biggest challenge was the language difference, which caused a few awkward moments. The process of filming a documentary only added to the problems. He says ‘initially it was a difficult process. Some of these things were difficult to talk about. Certain subjects were no go’. On his blog he says

“The response is mixed and I think mostly of confusion. It is difficult for me due to the language barrier as I can’t explain what I am doing personally and have to rely on others.”

For Eastern Europe a democratic system is not a given, as we often assume it is in Australia. Kristefan describes Belarus as ‘in some ways the last dictatorship’, adding it is ‘politically quite unstable at the moment, and there is a sense of political fear’.

Asked if he feels different after the trip, Kristefan describes having made it as fulfilling. Now setting up his own media business in Sydney, he is still in regular contact with his relatives overseas, and the trip made those relationships closer.

Daniel's Story

Daniel Petrov, from Hobart Tasmania, had a very different experience. His father was a Bulgarian escapee of Communism, and returned to Bulgaria shortly after it declared independence in 1989, taking Daniel with him. Attending a local school and living with family, he experienced first-hand life in Bulgaria.

He spent about a year and a half in Bulgaria, in a town about 10 kilometers from the Capital Sophia. One of the things that stood out most for him is asking his father to take him to ‘the baths’. These are hot mineral springs baths formerly exclusive for members of the communist party. What blew him away was the relative decadence of the building – all plush carpets and marble. He told me about monuments remaining in tribute to the Communist era. Tension between the old regime and the new was ever present. He overheard old women on the bus talking about how in ‘those days the fridges were always full’. He explained ‘There were different rules for communists and non (communists). Communists could come and go more easily.’

Daniel forged closer relations with his Bulgarian family. He felt one difference was Bulgarians are ‘not materialistic, like the West is. They don’t have the money. They don’t travel.’ Daniel and his father were openly asked how much money they had and could he give any away, without embarrassment. ‘They were just very open about it.’

These days Daniel is doing teacher training back in Hobart, and says although he does feel Bulgarian, he definitely feels Australian. When I suggest that could be a useful skill to have in Bulgaria he laughs and tells me it’s a long way, but ‘I do want to go back again, to travel and meet my relatives again.’

The impression I am left with is that these journeys were all a bit like visiting your grandparents on a larger scale. You can see that they have less than you do. Things look and smell a bit different at their house but it’s a nice difference, a comforting older world. If Europe in general feels you’re your grandparents’ house then the Eastern Bloc countries feel like staying in your grandparents’ shack; that blend of comfort and familiarity and discomfort and strangeness.

For Eastern Bloc countries the weight of the previous Soviet occupation is ever present, with political instability and economic difficulties a reality. However these lands, their stories and their cultures (the gifting of apples included) are woven into the fabric of their descendents, us.

By Ruth Sowter