This longitudinal research explores morale, burnout and psychological well-being of ethnic Russians and native Estonians during compulsory military service in the Estonian Defence Forces.
Author: Merle Parmak
Differences in the dynamics of changes over the service period were observed. The results indicate that ethnic Russians enter military service with lower enthusiasm, but their enthusiasm increases significantly during the service. For ethnic Estonians, an opposite trend was identified – they are more enthusiastic in the beginning, but their optimism decreases during the service. The paper concludes that service in the national armed forces affects different ethnicities in different ways.
ICDS Occasional Paper-Merle Parmak-Morale and ethnicity in the military