019 - Corridor Coach 1H - residential
Accommodation: 9 old person’s compartments, attendant’s compartment + store (dual-language hymn books)
List of Occupants: 1H-1 (Ingvaar Ingvaarssens), 1H-2 (Jaako Jaankavnas), 1H-3 (Kriistjaan Knuutssens), 1H-4 (Valentiin Vikkturavskas), 1H-5 (Magnuus Moortenssens), 1H-6 (Kriistov Krapp), 1H-7 (Kaarel-Kriistjaan Knuutssenssens), 1H-8 (Griigur Gripp), 1H-9 (Mattuus Moortenssens), 1H-10 ( Friidriika Flopp, warden)
Initially, Motherland Rebirth and National Reawakening asserted that their followers spoke different languages. “Noorskii” was supposedly a Slavonic tongue, “Nooriisk” a Nordic one. There is no evidence to indicate they were ever distinct entities, the odd dialect word aside. It’s a distinction no one now draws. Extremists in both movements insisted it was also a matter of alphabet or “iijiki”. And so a faction within MR employed the Cyrillic alphabet, while another in NR used a runic one or “rooniiks”. Only a tiny minority of citizens ever mastered either and the idea was soon forgotten. Differences were also expressed through religious allegiance. Those emphasising the Western Slavonic tradition were drawn to the Athenian Church while those looking to our Nordic roots favoured the Lutheran one.[1] Divisions in our country, then, were less a question of ethnicity, more a state of mind. Neither group ever sought to subjugate or exterminate the other. Civil war between the competing nationalist movements in our country was never a possibility. This is not the Balkans, after all.
Consider Jaako Jaankavnas, occupant of Compartment 1H-2. Jaankavnas identifies with the Slavonic tradition and insists upon writing his name “Яако Яанквас” (he even claims to think in Cyrillic). In this regard, he is unusual. Fifty years of rule from the east were enough to make most of my fellow countrymen sick of the sight of that alphabet.
[1] And indeed “Lutherania” was the name initially favoured by NR for an independent state.
