Re-educating teachers: ways and consequences of Sovietization in Estonia and Latvia (1940–1960) from the biographical perspective

This article is based on a comparative analysis, juxtaposing archival and oral historical sources, to identify changes that took place in the teaching profession in the annexed Baltic States. Attention is paid to the generation of Estonian and Latvian teachers, born in the 1920s–1930s and trained as Soviet teachers in the 1940s–1950s. Their transformation into ‘Soviet people’ included acceptance of Soviet values and rejecting the inherent ones. Therefore, the research focuses on the course and outcomes of reeducation of teachers pursued by the Soviet authorities up to the early 1960's.