Estonian ethnographers undertook two expeditions to visit the Votians, a kindred people of Estonians, in 1942–1943, when all of Estonia and the greater portion of Ingria were occupied by National Socialist Germany. The ethnographers had the permission of the German Army and security agencies, which provided assistance to the ethnographers. This is an intriguing occurrence in the history of Estonian ethnography, which has not hitherto been comprehensively studied.

The primary source for this article is the fieldwork diaries of the scientists (the ethnographers Gustav Ränk and Ilmar Talve, and the linguist Paul Ariste) who participated in the expedition. I have additionally used memoirs and archival sources.

The expeditions of the Estonian ethnographers to the Votian villages took place in the wake of the campaign initiated by the German security agencies for registering Ingria’s non-Russian peoples, yet substantively they were practically not at all associated with that registration campaign. These expeditions did not serve the interests of Nazi Germany in any way whatsoever. Instead, they were guided by the established academic interests of Estonian ethnographers. Estonian ethnography of that time was primarily interested in traditional Estonian folk culture. As far as was possible, they also turned their attention to other Finno-Ugric peoples, primarily Baltic Finnic peoples. Estonian ethnographers were not able to study kindred peoples east of Estonia in the 1920s and 1930s because the Republic of Estonia was at loggerheads with the Soviet Union. In the course of the Second World War, the opportunity to go to Ingria to conduct field work suddenly opened up for them and they took advantage of it. Votians – the people that are linguistically closest to (northern) Estonians – were chosen as the subject of study. Since this was a small people that was shrinking, the researchers had to hurry because it was not known what kind of fate awaited the Votians. Votian culture had to be studied in its natural environment before it was too late. The Estonian scientists were mainly interested in old, archaic cultural phenomena. They were hoping to find something from Votic villages that had already been lost in Estonia, which had modernised more rapidly. Contemporary cultural manifestations, which were considered to be affected by Bolshevism, did not fascinate Estonian researchers. As an exception, quite a lot of attention was paid to the process of the linguistic and cultural Russification of the Votians, which was exceedingly disagreeable for Estonians who were aware of their kindred peoples. Soviet nationalities policy was considered the primary cause of the assimilation of the Votians.

Estonian nationalism influenced all the Estonian researchers who went to Ingria. Their attitude towards the Soviet regime was clearly negative. Their attitudes towards the Nazis were similarly critical in general, yet they varied more. For instance, University of Tartu Professor of Ethnography Gustav Ränk regarded the Nazis somewhat more leniently that the others because he saw the German Army as the only force that was capable of defending Estonia and all of Eastern Europe against the Bolsheviks.

Generally polite and friendly relations developed between Estonians and Votians, yet fear and distrust could nevertheless also be felt in the background on the part of the Votians. Highly educated gentlemen from Estonia operated under the protection of the German occupying authorities, and by far not everyone liked that, even though they did not explicitly let on about it. The fieldwork practices of the Estonian ethnographers in the wartime Votic villages naturally did not really meet the present-day standards of professional ethics, yet their work has to be considered in its own time. The subject of study was still more of a source of information rather than a partner in dialogue for the ethnographers of that time. The research work of the Estonians is not known to have brought any negative consequences for the Votians.

These wartime expeditions turned out to be surprisingly productive. Fifty, ethnographic objects, nearly a hundred drawings, and over a thousand photographs were added to the collections of the Estonian National Museum as a result of those expeditions. The ethnographic notes taken by Ränk and Talve also made their way to the collections of Estonian museums. Ränk published a whole series of research articles and ultimately also a monograph on the theme of Votians when he lived in exile. Talve’s monograph on Votic folk culture was published several decades after his field work. Talve had similarly gone into exile. Several articles by P. Ariste are also on Votic ethnology. This is in addition to the works by J. Mägiste in the field of linguistics and the works by J. Aul in the field of physical anthropology.