Tyyliä ja korkeutta!

Kaupunkisuunnittelu ja kaupunkiunelmat 1900-luvun alun Tallinnassa

Abstrakti

At the beginning of the 20th century, Estonia, like
most of European nations, faced the turmoil of
industrialization, urbanisation, and social change.
Economy was booming especially in Tallinn where
Estonians gained the political rule in the city council
for the first time replacing the Baltic-Germans. The
article analyses the discourse in Estonian newspapers
raised by the rapid urbanisation and political change.
In the discourse Estonian nationalism, modernization,
social justice, and city planning were closely linked.
The discourse reveals a dichotomy in Estonian
nationalism. On one hand, the city planning was
considered an effective way of transforming the
future Tallinn into a modern, European metropolis.
On the other hand, traditional nationalists idealised
the countryside instead of the city. However,
there was a bold effort to realize the vision of
modern metropolis. The city of Tallinn launched an
international city planning competition won by a
Finnish architect, Eliel Saarinen with his utopistic and
grandiose plan, called the Great Tallinn.