The Bronze Soldier incident in 2007 was a flashpoint in Estonian and ethnic Russian tension and differing narratives of Soviet actions in WWII.
TALLINN — After 20 years of Estonian independence, ethnic Russians and other minorities continue to face discrimination according to the United Nations and European Union.
A UN Human Rights Council report from 2007 said little concrete actions was being taken on issues such as the statelessness of ethnic Russians and the language policy.
The depth of the problem was also addressed at the European Union’s Equality Summit in Stockholm in November where many top EU and non-governmental organization officials said the Baltic states are failing to uphold human rights and equal treatment of minorities.
Discrimination is ignored in Estonia
Marju Lauristin, a professor at the University of Tartu, is concerned that discrimination is not dealt with enough in Estonia, and even using the word discrimination is taboo.
“In most of European countries there is a minister, and many different programs dealing with this issue,” Lauristin told Baltic Reports. “Estonia is not yet an mature democratic society, and is lacks people who would dare to handle this issue.”
Lauristin considered a the word discrimination as another problem as many people don’t even know what that word means.
“Discrimination means when the laws don’t apply to all people equally,” told Lauristin.
The first law handling discrimination issues, the Equal Treatment Act, came into force only in Jan. 1, 2009.
Meanwhile cases of discrimination continue to make headlines. In Sept. 2009 Eiki Strauss, an orthopedic surgeon in Kohtla-Järve, a small town in northeastern Estonia, threw a 14-year-old boy’s passport in to the trash can because the boy did not speak Estonian. Strauss argued in the explanatory letter that the because the boy did not speak the state language, he therefore should not hold Estonian citizenship. The incident, which happened in a region of Estonia where Russian is widely spoken.
Maksim, 28 of Tallinn, is an ethnic Russian information technology worker and asked that his last name not be used. He told Baltic Reports that it is harder to get a job for him than ethnic Estonians he knows, and getting a national passport is a difficult process.
“I don’t have any other homeland besides Estonia, Russia is not my home,” Maksim said. He still carries an alien passport.
Discrimination is not limited to ethnic Russians, of course. Nuno Antas, 28 from Portugal, lived in the small town of Võru in southern Estonia in 2007, working as a volunteer at a day care center for disabled people.
Nuno once received a threatening letter that read: “We know what you’ve been doing here! Leave us Estonians alone and go away from our land! You are not welcome here, and we’re following you.” Another was addressed to him on the rate.ee social networking website, saying, “You do not belong in Võru, you f****** nigger. You must die!”
The source lies in history
Researchers point to Estonia’s history of foreign subjugation as a primary source of antipathy toward other ethnicities.
Estonia has been a hot spot for foreign invaders throughout history, ruled by Sweden, Denmark, Germany and Russia.
Most recently, from 1945 until 1991 the country was a Soviet republic. More than 80,000 people were deported to Siberia for various reasons and education was carried out in Russian.
Nature of Russification disputed
A legacy of the Soviet era is the large Russian ethnic minority, and why they ended up in Estonia is considered a source of the friction.
Some researchers, such as Kristina Kallas, an analyst and board member of Institute of Baltic Studies, discount the more widely-known theory on Stalin’s Russification policies brought the ethnic Russians to Estonia and instead point to economic factors.
“The members of the Communist Party and solders were less than 5 percent of the migrants, most of the migrants were usual blue-collars, miners and factory workers with 9th grade education,” Kallas told Baltic Reports. “I am not pushing over the claim that Stalin had other intentions as well besides industrialization, such as Russification, but the Russian workers had no instructions for that.”
Kallas explained that the Russian laborer, just like an Estonian, was also the victim of Soviet policies and was sent to work in the Baltic country without their consent.
“Stalin wanted to industrialize and the heavy immigration came with it,” Kallas said.
This historical narrative is disputed. Tõnu Tannberg, a history professor in University of Tartu said that he does not agree with Kallas’ statements.
“Of course the process was affected by economic and demographic reasons,” Tannberg told Baltic Reports. “However, it would be naive to consider that the change of population’s ethnic composition wouldn’t have been pleasing for Moscow.”
Vahur Made, historian and deputy director of the Estonian School of Diplomacy called Kallas’ arguments cynical.
“From a historian’s point of view this text is so cynical that it is even hard to comment it in a reasonable way,” Made told Baltic Reports.
Made insisted that Stalin’s decisions cannot be certified by population statistics and would need an access to Russian archives which Estonian researchers practically do not have.
“Russia has widely used its colonizing politics and is using the technique in the present, routing the Russians to non-Russian regions,” told Made.
I am a foreigner, living in Estonia for 1 /2 years. Previously, I lived in Russia for 14 years. It is well known that all ethnic Russians in Estonia, and for that matter from around the world, have been invited back to live in the motherland. The vast majority have chosen to stay where they are. The fact of the matter is, life is extremely more difficult, more oppressive and less democratic in Russia than in Estonia. I know ethnic Russians who have learned Estonian and pursued an education here. Recently I asked one of them if she had experienced persecution or a sense of being looked down upon or being discriminated against. She is 22 years old and said she had never experienced this even once. In you article, you give very isolated incidents to justify your claims, including an anonymous letter to a Portuguese citizen (which really has nothing to do with the point of the news piece). You will always be able to find isolated incidents like this, in any country, but it does not back up the articles claims at all. The adult ethnic Russians who are citizenless, are that way by choice. They can become citizens one of two ways: learn the Estonian language, or move back to Russia. They choose to do neither, unlike my friends who relate more to their new nation than to their ethnic background and have become citizens and don’t experience discrimination. If one wants to live in Estonia and embrace their old cultural habits rather than embrace the country that graciously allows them to live here, than I am sorry, but they must face the consequences of their decision. For anyone who thinks it is so bad living here, the nice thing is that they can leave and try to do better elsewhere. Another thing that failed to be mentioned was crime statistics. With approximately 30% of the population being ethnic Russian, almost 80% of crimes are committed by them. This cannot but help to lend credence to anti Russian ethnic thinking, can it?
Dear John,
Thank you for your provocative post, and I’d like to thank you for using Baltic Reports as a news source.
This is certainly a controversial issue that needs careful analysis, and I appreciate your viewpoints.
In response, I would certainly agree that yes, there are ethnic Russians in Estonia that feel they have not experienced discrimination. We spoke to some.
However, many of the ethnic Russians that are “stateless” would argue that it’s not by choice and is a form of discrimination as many were born in Estonia or lived there for most of their lives after being more or less ordered to move their by Soviet authorities. Others have lived in Estonia for many generations. The EU and UN position on this and the language policy is mentioned in the article, in addition to several other examples of what some call discrimination, so I don’t think it’s fair to say we only used isolated examples.
I think the Portuguese citizen’s experience is relevant given that it involves the treatment of an ethnic minority, which is the topic of the article.
As for those dubious crime statistics you mentioned, I fail to see how that justifies ethnic xenophobia.
This is one of many human rights reports on Estonia you may find interesting — http://www.cidcm.umd.edu/mar/assessment.asp?groupId=36601
Anyway thanks for the input on this most contentious of subjects, though and I hope you continue to read our articles.
Regards,
Nathan Greenhalgh
Editor
Baltic Reports
Dear Nathan,
Given that the Baltic states had the highest standard of living within the Soviet Union, with Soviet immigrants given preferential housing and employment over the native population (did you know Narva was ethnically cleansed of Estonians who originally comprised 65% of the population before the war to make way for these migrants), the notion that these people were “forced” to move to Estonia is somewhat far fetched. Given the circumstances the Estonians have been extraordinarily accommodating.
Estonian citizenship laws are not based upon ethnicity. Anyone, regardless of ethnicity, who can trace their roots to the pre-war republic automatically received Estonian citizenship. Estonia had a sizable Russian minority before 1940, some 10% of the population, all of them received citizenship automatically. Note that ethnic Estonians are also affected by this, those who emigrated from Estonia before the establishment of the Estonian republic in 1918 (some 60,000 emigrated to the USA in 1905 alone) also have to apply for citizenship too. On the other hand, some 10,000 ethnic Russians in Pskov region aoutomatically received Estonian citizenship by virtue of the fact that they or their parents came from a region that was once a part of the Estonian state before 1940.
Estonia is governed by the rule of law. The Estonian republic of 1918-1940 continued to subsist de-jure during the Soviet occupation. Incorporation of Estonia into the Soviet Union remained illegal because accession to that union was contrary to the 1938 Estonian constitution which required a popular referendum to be held before acceding to any supra-national union, and none was ever held.
So a certain sector of the population in Estonia had in effect dual citizenship, de-jure Estonian citizenship and de-facto Soviet citizenship. On the other hand, those who imigrated to Estonia only held Soviet citizenship and with the dissolution of the Soviet Union that Soviet citizenship became non existant, thus they became “stateless”.
Estonia could have imposed citizenship to all those “stateless” people, but is it right that the government impose something that an individual may not necessarily want? So the Estonian authorities instead gave these people the right to choose: do they want to be Estonian or Russian citizens? Subsequent developments vindicated this approach, since a third has adopted Russian citizenship and a third has adopted Estonian citizenship. Those that remain “non-citizens” do so out of a variety of reasons, including avoiding conscription into either the Russian or Estonian army.
Dear Martin,
Thank you for you interest in Baltic Reports, and I encourage you to subscribe so you can stay updated on the latest news from this region.
I thought you made many fair points, especially about the ‘de jure’ status of Estonia during the Soviet occupation.
But certainly you can’t deny that migration from one republic to another in the Soviet Union was restricted and/or forced and there were policies to move Russians to the periphery of the U.S.S.R. including the Baltic states, especially during the post-WWII years.
Most historians agree with Tannberg and Made’s statements in this article, noting that Russian was favored in schools over the local languages because under Stalin the Kremlin switched from fearing Russian cultural hegemony as a threat to empire’s stability to local “bourgeoisie” nationalism. Teachers and administrators from other parts of the Soviet empire were assigned jobs there for this reason. Until the 1990s thousands of troops, who typically originated from other parts of the Soviet empire, were permanently stationed in the Baltic states. So saying that many ethnic Russians ended up in Estonia not by their own choice is hardly “far-fetched” given the consensus among most historians, including those that disagree with Tannberg and Made like Kallas.
As for the choices of becoming a citizen or not, some would argue these stateless people are choosing this and some do not. Baltic Reports is examining the issue with this article and will likely continue to do so, as it remains a major challenge and source of ethnic tension for Estonia and Latvia.
Regards,
Nathan Greenhalgh
Editor
Baltic Reports
Hi everybody
I by chance opened this page and have read the article about Ethnic Russians and some comments. I don’t want to discuss about how bad or good to live in the past and present Estonia by national minorities. I have experience and know how the people feel when they discriminate and really sorry for them. East European people bear and forbear instead people who came to the European countries from Africa Asia and constantly request they rights but any way. In my opinion if national minorities live in Estonia years and years the ethnic people and current legislation/ regulation, have to give national minorities equal opportunity and consideration, give everyone chance to study Estonian language for free and it’s doesn’t matter how long it’s take 1 or 3 years as it’s did and probably still doing European countries but initially they gave a chance to study Estonian for free only a limit category of people for very short period of time (a few months) that means they initially considered to move most of national minorities from the country doesn’t matter how long you live there. I don’t know any another country where when you study language because you want to get a job and be citizen of that country and after exam you could get one out of six categories. 6 categories!?!?! It’s really ridicules and nonsense. It’s . . .
When I have started read John’s comment straight away came in my head just one question: you lived in Russia for 14 years and in present live in Estonia? Hmmm?! 14 years it’s a long period of time, he aware about situation with national minorities in Estonia, came there 1/2 years ago and want say in Estonia everything is fine, all problems in national minorities self and as a matter of fact they can move back to Russia. My just one question: WHY HE MOVED TO ESTONIA?? I’m not sure his answer would be honest because here just 2 answers about which better be quiet, first he move because this country only the platform to move in the future under any sauce to Europe or he is Estonian who took this name for any reason. Where I currently live I don’t know % of the national minorities and % of the crime by ethnic people and minorities. Do you understand what I mean?
He said “learn the Estonian language” but Most of minorities haven’t jobs and hardly find money to pay for own or renting property, study second language is not the matter of one course length for very short period of time. My wish for everybody to be strong in this not easy live.
“He said “learn the Estonian language” but Most of minorities haven’t jobs and hardly find money to pay for own or renting property, study second language is not the matter of one course length for very short period of time. My wish for everybody to be strong in this not easy live.”
Most minorities who live here were born here. Its not possible for your kids to NOT go to school. Are you telling me these poor poor Russians cant find Estonian schools for their children in Estonia? And as far as I know Estonian courses are free for Russians if you want to join( sing up for example at http://www.ngo.ee). Their only problem is that they still think they live in Soviet Russia and act accordingly. Some of them find the fact that they need to study the official language discrimination, apparently after years of occupation and destruction its Estonians who are bullying them. Of course, as we all know Estonia is TOOO big, and there are TOO many of us in this world.If someone here thinks Russians actually like Estonians, they are wrong.
As an Estonian I am disappointed with this article and I dont think an outsider should be writing articles like this anyway. What do you even know?
As an American, I believe in equality among people, so, SERIOUSLY, this whole anti-Russian minority movement needs to end. It’s flat out embarrassing to read.
The war’s been over for decades. Move on already!
PS. Some very appalling examples in the article-especially dealing with the minor. Indeed, very sad.
Some very interesting points in the article and the comments:
Saale:
– “Are you telling me these poor poor Russians cant find Estonian schools for their children in Estonia?”
Exactly. Russians are not welcome in Estonian kindergartens or Estonian schools. More than three Russian children are not allowed in one group, and in the territories like Narva there are less than 5 percent ethnic Estonians, so Russians simply have nobody to speak to in Estonian. Funny as it sounds, it is not easy to study Estonian in Estonia. My son studied in 1994-2006 and his Tallinn-located school could not find a skilled teacher of Estonian. Is it normal that children in any country cannot speak the language of the country after 12 years in a local school? It seems to be a State program to prevent Russians from studying Estonian. Remember, in Soviet time any Estonian graduate spoke almost fluent Russian? This is what a sound linguistic policy means.
Article:
– “More than 80,000 people were deported to Siberia for various reasons and education was carried out in Russian”
Where are the figures from? AFAIK official numbers approved by serious historians are 9000 deportees in 1940 (most of them former Russian officers) and 22000 in 1946, which gives 31000 total.
In ESSR (like in any of the 14 SSRs) Estonians studied in Estonian from nursery, then through kindergartens, secondary and grammar schools up to universities and academies. Besides they had special privileges to enter even the best Soviet universities without entry exams and studied their free of charge (of course). The first thing that the independent democratic Estonia did was to prevent Russians from access to power (by switching one third of the population off the elections) and to education (by stopping Russian-language State-funded higher education without any transition period).
I want to be clear: I am not pro-Soviet apologist. The USSR had a lot of defects and not many lamented its death. But the new Estonia is an ethnic-oriented country, built by Estonians and for Estonians. It has very little to do with democracy, human rights or tolerance towards minorities. “I dont think an outsider should be writing articles like this anyway. What do you even know?” – says Saale. We know, Saale, that if you want to be (not claim to be) a European society, you should share the European values. National snobbery is a bit out of place here, I am afraid.