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The process of transition in Estonia has been accompanied by a conflict between the desire to adopt Western models of welfare in terms of values, beliefs, and ideology, and the actual attitudes, habits, lifestyles, knowledge, and work skills inherited from the former Soviet system. How is the general process of transition reflected in the K. Special School, which has existed since the Soviet era? This article attempts to show what is going on at the institution, how 'new' and 'old' ideas and methods of operation that are used by staff coexist, and the consequences of that coexistence. In the totalitarian Soviet system, the institution under study was an organic part of the system. So far, the intention of combining welfare ideology with a total institution has not produced the expected results. To achieve real change, the institution should be thoroughly reorganized-it should cease to be a total institution. This is not only true for Estonia-studies on Western total institutions reach the same conclusion (see, for instance, Kelly 1992;Wardhaugh et al. 1993). The empirical data presented here were gathered in 1997 during fieldwork that formed part of an ethnographic research project. 2