ORAL HISTORY: MIGRATION AND LOCAL IDENTITIES - Academia

Migration and Totalitarian RegimeFigure 3.The demolition of a 5-story house built approximatelyin the 1970s on 6 th of July 2005 on the corner of Vahtra (maple;formerly Varese—not crow but a historical political figure)and Olevi (character from the national epos; formerly Comsomol)Street. Photo: Anu Printsmann).242Still, the situation is different in different parts of town. Monofunctionalparts of town that accommodated mainly workmen havesuffered more severely, one of them being Sompa. Its local acronym isСамое Опасное Место После Америки, meaning in Russian: TheMost Dangerous Place after America. Evaluations can be easily readinto local micro-toponyms like the Siidisuka (silk stocking) district,where directors and upper clerks lived before World War II, but wherenow nothing remains of its former glory. An old lady from PunaneStreet always wrote “Järve” in the headings of her letters, never Kohtla--Järve or anything else. Her granddaughter often used the nameGrimetown, but never Järve (MK: Letters S1 1957-1964; see Jaago,et al., 2008).