Nugin has studied the so-called "winners' generation" born in the 1970s. Their stories betray a measure of chance or randomness. "People often use expressions like 'I happened upon' or 'I was walking down the street' or 'I was invited' etc." Of course, people made their own decisions and took initiative also in the 90s, but because the world of opportunities and possibilities that had opened up seemed so vast, it felt like things just happened to you," the researcher said, adding that it was still up to the person whether to capitalize on the opportunity.

"Political ideology got turned on its head too. People had to take responsibility, had to cope by themselves, as there were almost no social benefits. The prevalent mindset was very much that everyone made their own luck and needed to rely on their own agency," Nugin said.

Nugin's research involves people who were going through a transition during a transitional time, meaning they were in the process of becoming adults. "Many said that they couldn't understand why their parents were so worried. It all seemed exciting to young people who hadn't yet settled down. Talking about people in rural areas – the collective farms were falling apart – there were quite a few social disasters. So people tend to idealize the period a little, and many social and age groups were delivered serious blows."

The generation that got off to a good start in the 1990s has often been referred to as the "winners' generation." "It is an overexploited term, and there is a lot of debate over where to draw the line and who those winners were. It always depends on the prism you're looking through and the exact time period," the social scientist noted.

Entrepreneurial freedom also brought great change. According to Nugin, there was a lot of optimism but also naivety associated with it. "I've heard stories of students sneaking into the teachers' lounge to type up a letter to Bill Gates in poor English and send it using the principal's fax machine. There was a lot of this kind of naive optimism about doing big business."

People are often reluctant to hark back to the period of stabilization in the mid-1990s that also brought with it financial difficulties. "While everything had seemed so festive and positive before, this had changed by 1995. Looking if only at crime, it took me by surprise that 81 explosions killing ten people were registered in 1995, while around 500 people lost their lives in traffic. These are some pretty appalling figures. A slight disappointment followed the recent euphoria," Nugin said.

The researcher noted that the Estonian elite was quite youthful at the time. "Since no one knew how to make it in the new system, young people with the courage to change and make decisions got a leg up. Older generations got caught in the gears," she said. "Alcoholism exploded along with the number of suicides – as things that aren't talked about as often."

Nugin believes that what we should emulate about the 1990s is optimism and a measure of naivety and interest in new things. Things to leave behind include blind faith in cowboy capitalism and attitudes according to which the strong will survive, while the weak are to blame for their poor fortunes.

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