The relationship of Estonian expatriates with their occupied homeland was problematical, especially at the time when opportunities for communication had only just emerged at the turn of the 1950's and 1960's. The expatriates had fled from their homeland in the face of real danger with the knowledge that the international public will intervene, justice will be restored and refugees will be able to return quite soon. Nothing of the kind happened and Estonians abroad had to settle in their host countries for a long time and thereafter to clarify for themselves their attitude towards their homeland. Very few people were permitted to travel out of Soviet Estonia in the 1950's and people who were allowed into the country were watched over just as closely. Mentality historians are interested in tracing the information that people exchanged among themselves about such matters. Finland's special situation, and pre-war contacts between Estonian and Finnish intellectuals led to the situation where Finland in particular became the primary ideological battleground between the expatriates and Soviet Estonia. The organising of Estonians, the publications and cultural activity they created in their new host countries was conspicuously active. Questions regarding the preservation of Estonian identity in a changing world were considered in the publication Vaba Eesti (Free Estonia), which was issued in 1948-1964 primarily in Sweden. This publication also related to culture created in the homeland with an open mind, unlike many orthodox expatriate publications. It was important for the authors of Vaba Eesti to combine the best part of Estonian culture created in two different ideological environments into a unified and progressive nationalist culture. Two letters from the years 1959 and 1962 from Rein Riitsalu, a contributor to Vaba Eesti who lived in Finland, to the editor of the publication Imant Rebane in Sweden are published below. The first of these letters mainly describes those ideological obstructions that had to be struggled against in order to introduce contemporary expatriate culture in Finland. The other letter illustrates the converse trend - an open attitude towards nationalist culture created in the Estonian homeland. Riitsalu describes in that letter a concert in Helsinki by the State Academic Men's Chorus that had come from Estonia, which was attended by Finnish President U. K. Kekkonen as well. Here he emphasises the meaning that partaking in nationalist culture from the homeland signifies for contemporary Finns and expatriate Estonian young people.
