SUBCULTURES AND THE EMERGENCE OF THE ESTONIAN NATIONALIST OPPOSITION 1945-1990

It is widely recognized that subcultural organization provides fertile soil for the development of social movements. There has not, however, been a systematic analysis of how different subcultures may be config ured and what characteristics may encourage or inhibit mobilization. T his paper takes an initial step in that direction by suggesting a typo logy of subcultures based on the degree of congruency of subcultural v alues and behaviors with the those of the dominant culture. We examine two subcultural types which are particularly relevant to social movem ent development: accommodative subcultures and oppositional subculture s. By drawing on interviews with activists in the former Estonian Sovi et Socialist Republic, we specify the conditions by which accommodativ e and oppositional subcultures exist and are successfully transformed into social movements. We trace the evolution from an accommodative su bculture under Stalinist terror to an oppositional subculture as state repression lessened under Krushchev's liberalizations, to mass mobili zation of the Estonian independence movement in the late 1980s.