Estonia is a small country in north-east Europe near the Baltic Sea. Historically this territory was continuously under the power of more influential neighbors. When it finally gained its independence,two major national groups appeared: an ethnic Estonian majority and a Russian-speaking minority that had to co-exist with each other, both with different national identity and abounding in memories.This paper researches Estonian national identity and cultural memory through the prism of major historical commemorative events during the past three decades.

This research aims to analyze how significant memory events and the clearest articulations or performance of societal memory politics have affected Estonia's two major identities. Also, to understand what effects on the development of the Russian-speaking minority had those significant memory political events, how those were received, and what kind of memorial perceptions those events/campaigns created among the majority and the minority. To do this, a theoretical framework on national identity vs. self-identity and the interconnection of media and communicative memory/cultural memory was introduced and compared with the situation in Estonia during the past three decades. Further, this thesis aimed to find the Estonian majority and the Russian-speaking minority attitude within those terms. Qualitative content analysis was applied to analyze the events and data from mass media.

Results have shown that the Estonian majority and the minority did have different national identities formed by differences in communicative memory/cultural memory, which resulted in confrontations and misunderstandings during the past three decades. Despite this, there remains, in large part, ashared set of goals - forgive, forget, re-evaluate and accept - paving the way for future collaboration.Multidirectional memory as well as communicative memory and cultural memory as a foundationare crucial elements in constructing public identity and forming a worldview and value orientation.