During its initial phase from 1989 to 1994, it was an avant-garde artistic movement with emphasis on futurism and characterized by parody, absurdity and provocative statements.
In the second phase, starting with the First Ethnofuturist Manifesto in 1994, the focus shifted to the ethnic elements, foregrounding folklore, borealism and the issues of the Finno-Ugric peoples.
[2] Ethnofuturism contains a cultural and civilisational dimension that helps cement a geopolitical block of countries from the Baltic until the Black Sea.
[4] The social background of ethnofuturism was connected with the Singing Revolution movement in Estonia in the late 1980s, after which the philosophy was developed by the nationalists of the Baltic region willing to unify and create a common civilisational platform.
[5] Ethnofuturist philosophy has been popular among politicians of the Conservative People's Party of Estonia and the National Alliance from Latvia, most notably Ruuben Kaalep and Raivis Zeltīts.