Yestonians

Yestonians (Estonian: jeestlased [ˈjeːstlɑsɛd], singular: jeestlane [ˈjeːstlɑnɛ]; Russian: естонцы, romanized: yestontsy) was a derogatory epithet for historically ethnic Estonians brought from Russia to Estonia after World War II to staff the political structures of Soviet Estonia with cadres loyal to Moscow. While their ethnicity was Estonian by descent, they grew up in the Russian/Soviet environment, which meant that for many, the primary language was Russian (the ethnic Estonian language was a second language), which made them prone to apply Russian-language pronunciation rules in their Estonian-language speech.

The term thus relates to and derides the heavy Russian accent of these people and their practical inability to speak Estonian. In particular, the word "Estonians" was mispronounced from eestlased to jeestlased [yeestlɑsed], due to the iotation of the letter E characteristic in Russian, serving as the origin of the epithet.

While some of them tried to Estonianize, such as Ivan Kebin, who renamed himself to Johannes Käbin and notably improved his command of Estonian, most others remained Russian by culture and language.

In the 21st century the term jeestlased is also applied to Russian migrant workers in Estonia.