Gene, thank you for your comments and thank your passionate defense of Estonian Nazis and discrimination.
I spend a great deal of time in Estonia and would say that the situation with citizenship is certainly worse now than it has ever been 10 or 15 years ago. Also I have not yet met a Russian speaker who does not consider himself or herself to be discriminated against because in actuality they all are victims of daily relentless discrimination. In fact I've been discriminated against all the time in Estonia as it is the only place in the world so far where one is harassed for being Russian or Jewish or perceived to be of inferior background or race. As I've lived in the USA, Austria, Germany, France and now am resident of the Czech Republic, I must say that Estonia's case is special. In fact as I've also spent some time in Latvia I would attest that the situation there is far milder. Estonia is a Nazi statelet. Furthermore because Estonia is explicitly an ethnic enthocracy, an ethnocracy, people are discriminated against even they somehow obtained ethnofascist statelet's citizenship. Russians are paid one third less or half the amount of what so-called Estonians get for the same work. Today's Estonia is apartheid state. Its only attractiveness to the EU and the NATO - and why it was so speedily absorbed is to get a bargaining card in the game against Russia as well as reserve a launch pad for aggression - everyone recognizes that the state is not democratic - when a third of people can't vote because they are of wrong origins and can't speak their own language or use it in store signs (unlike English, which as the language of the Nazidoom's chief protector is not discriminated against).
All this said let me debunk one assertion here: Estonia "restored" (somehow miraculously) its "independence" in 1991 and people who were not of "Estonian" descend were denied citizenship because they never had any. Well, Estonia was granted independence as a Soviet Republic due to the clause in the Soviet Union's constitution which permitted succession - from Russian and any logical point of vew, Estonia is a new state that appeared in 1991 and its independence was granted (not fought over, not "regained") under that explicit condition. I have not yet met a Russian speaker, even one who by descent is a citizen of so-called Estonian republic (and I met some incredible people with ten or more generations linked to the territory that is now called Estonia) who hold a different vew. Furthermore Estonian Republic to which ethno-Nazis refer is not an ancient country that was a restored but ethnocracy created with the help of Bolsheviks. It ceased to exist forever when it peacefully joined the USSR, post factum Nazi groans notwithstanding, and the state that was appeared on the map in 1991 - as a result of Gorbachev's and Eltsin's historic crime no doubt - had nothing to do with that interwar statelet either physically, historically, demographically or in fact visually - it was a totally different territory. Ethno-Nazis pretend that they can just take the Estonian SSR and put in some drawer. I understand that the ethno-Nazi backers and the evil empire behind the ocean support the notion as it is essential to their ongoing anti-Russian crusade, but any impartial observer would agree that the position is absurd (and ethno-Nazi backers know it).
Two positions exist. One is held by Estonian ethno-Nazis (say collectively 900 000 people) and their Cold War sponsors - US, Britain (350 or million) and perhaps someone else though West European countries all recognized legality of Estonia's (or territory that is now Estonia) presence in the USSR - either explicitly as Austria when it signed the State Treaty or by signing Helsinki Accords (that recognized validity of borders within Europe, the post WWII Westphalia) - this is the view that you put forward (Estonian independence restored, descendants of the interwar ethnocracy got citizenship, others - well tough luck).
The second one is that Estonia was a constituent, self-ruled part of the USSR , a member republic and not an occupied state. That view is held by Russia, China, India, most of Latin America and I would used to be held by most of Western European states and all states of course in Central Eastern Europe, but it is Russia's job to call them all to account on the issue, one by one. So say we'got - 3.5 - 4 billion people. Opinions of 350 million (by representative citizenship) versus 5 billion.
You - like the English Wikipedia which is controlled by ethno-Nazis and the CIA - it is - propagate the view held by Estonian ethnofascists and their anti-Russian American backers (which by citizenship would represent like 5% of humanity at most) while neglecting to say that another portion of humanity (at least 90% or so?) and another party in the dispute - Russia (again same Russia - 900 000 Estonians versus 145 000 000 nominal Russians) hold an opposing view.
Only opinion of one side - that of the ethnocracy miraculously resurrected from the history's garbage can -is presented as if it were the only truth.
And it is not. Thanks for coming. Although I am busy I'll try to be writing more about Estonia, about language discrimination, deliberate destruction of historic heritage and what to do about it.
As a foornote - My opinion on the matter is clear. If Estonia can restore its independence to the point of 1918 and claim that the history began at that point, Russia can and should do say and turn the clock back to 1913. Just five short years what a difference make.
Thank you for your response.
ReplyDeleteI will try to address one issue here: independence.
You claim that " Well, Estonia was granted independence as a Soviet Republic due to the clause in the Soviet Union's constitution which permitted succession - from Russian and any logical point of vew, Estonia is a new state that appeared in 1991 and its independence was granted (not fought over, not "regained") under that explicit condition." Most Estonians (as well as Latvians and Lithuanians) would disagree. The three countries were the objects of political manipulations orchestrated from Moscow that resulted in their legally elected governments being ousted and replaced by Soviet-picket puppets who had Soviet handlers, all on June 17, 1940. Thus was a revision of the cynical and failed attempt to do the same thing to Finland in late 1939 (the Terijoki "government" under exiled Finnish communist Otto Ville (Вильгельмович) Kuusinen. The summer of 1940 saw the beginnings of the sovietization of the three societies, and rigged elections saw them "apply" to join the USSR in early September, "requests" that were granted. The period between September 1940 and June 22, 1941, when Nazi Germany attacked the USSR, saw the decapitiation of all three societies: industrialists, political leaders, and intellectuals were arrested or killed, tens of thousands of ordinary Estonians, Latvians, and Lithuanians were deported to Siberia. Their militaries were liquidated. It is hardly surprising that many initially greeted the Nazis as liberators, or that the Nazis eventually providedEstonia and Latvia with fledgeling defense forces as they were withdrawing. Most Western countries did not recognize the incorporation of the Baltic countries into the USSR in 1940 or 1944 as legitimate, and governments in exile functioned for all three countries until independence was restored.
From the Soviet standpoint the events of 1940 and i944 may have been a peaceful annexation, but from the standpoint of most Balts it was an illegal occupation, with the legal govenrments being forced into exile. All three nations regard the current countries as continuations of the pre-war republics, not as newly emerged political entities, such as Uzbekistan and Moldova. Constituting the majorities in all three countries, they have the right to determine the requirements for citizenship and legal residency.
The second issue I would like to comment on is discrimination.
ReplyDeleteAll countries make a distinction between citizens and non-citizens, some even distinguish between natural-born as opposed to naturalized citizens (cf. the controversy about whether or not Barack Obama, who was born with dual American and British citizenship, meets the constitutional requirement of being a "natural born citizen". Whether this is regarded as "discrimination" is primarily an emotional issue.
Estonia distinguishes between citizens and non-citizens, but not as strictly as many other countries. Non-citizens, for example, are allowed to vote in local elections and, for a transition period of almost ten years were allowed to serve on the police force. Estonian citizenship is not difficult to obtain, in addition to which children born to non-citizens after 1991 can apply on their own for citizenship when they become sixteen. There have been a few unpleasant incidents, mostly in Tartu, when Estonian skinheads harassed foreign-looking exchange students, but this has been dealt with effectively by the authorities. Tallinn is too cosmopolitain and dependent on tourism for this type of nonsense to be tolerated.
This is quite different from the situation in Moscow and St. Petersburg. In Moscow people of swarthy complexion are regularly harassed by skinheads and "patriots". An African-American marine in civilian clothing was beat up rather badly by a bunch of racist skinheads at an open-air market in Moscow a few years ago. In St. Petersburg a dormitory housing foreign students was torched with several students being killed, and at least foregn student was pushed off the platform in front of an oncoming metro train and killed recently.
Russia places far more restrictions on foreigners, what with visas, passport registration, restrictions on residence and movement than Estonia does. Obtaining Russian citizenship is a more complex and drawn-out process than is obtaining Estonian citizenship, and the knowledge of Russian required for Russian citizenship is higher than the knowledge of Estonian required for Estonian citizenship. Russian-speaking residents of Estonia can interact with the authorities and receive information from the government in Russian, a service not provided for the thousands of Estonian speakers, many of them the descendants of the victims of the 1941 and 1948 waves of deportation, living in Russia.
Hi Gene, I would try to write separate posts to "shed some light" on the issues of
ReplyDeletea) independence and b) discrimination
Later - I first have to do some work.
Just a quick note on "Most Western countries did not recognize the incorporation of the Baltic countries into the USSR in 1940 or 1944 as legitimate, and governments in exile functioned for all three countries until independence was restored." I am unware of any recognized legitimate or elected Estonian, Latvian or Lithuanian government in exile. As far as I know the legations of the ethnic states, set up by the CIA, operated in New York (in the Rockefeller plaza in case of Estonia and Latvia) and I am unaware that any state aside from the USA and Britain - obviously enemies of the Soviet Union and of Russia - did not recognize validity of incorporation of the three interwar ethnic states - in fact every single nation that signed Helsinki Accord legalized the validity of the borders as established including the territories of Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian Soviet Socialist republics as the constituent members of the USSR. Likewise I am sure that on purely hypothetical if you give collective Estonians the right to restore "their" state as it existed in 1918, with all constituent minorities included in the territory (more on that late), you would not deny Russians the same right of restoring their state as it existed in 1913 or in fact just a year before 1918 to the Czar Michael (who followed Nicholas II, who wasn't the last Russian Emperor) or the Russian Republic of 1917 in which case the territory of today's Estonia are just Russian governorates and the so-called Estonians are just a small ethnic minority within Russia. Considering the events I witnessed here during last 20 years, I do hope that this minority will not be dealt with leniently after ethnofascist Estonian statehood is extinguished. As it seems that you just retyped your response from either an Estonian propaganda booklet or from a number of preset formula, a more expensive commentary would be due. I think this "project" is important because although the issue is discussed in Russia (by private individuals, historians and bloggers) at length, in the English-speaking world only the Estonian and Latvian ethno-Nazis are represented - for a number of benign reasons not all of them have anything to do with the CIA or the fact that the Baltic statelets are instrumental in US and NATO anti-Russian strategy. Another note that you stress the word Western - like in the phrase most Western countries - did that or did this as if it were to add some weight. Well, for a Russia it doesn't. I can't see how Britain (as only Britain and US had some kind of CIA-funded Estonian legation) would matter more than China or why British position (a homicidal has been colonial power) is of greater significance than that of India. Both India and China fully recognized integrity of the USSR. Neither Britain or USA were democratic in the late 1940s or are democracies today - not - America's monopolization of democracy religion notwithstanding, that I would give any more legitimacy to a regime based on the ritual of elections as opposed to say a hereditary monarchy.
Just a few corrections - typos and to my peculiar defect of thinking faster than I can type.
ReplyDeleteIn respect to the legation set up by CIA the one was Estonia was in the Rockefeller plaza (because I was there) and I have no idea where Latvian "mission" was housed by the Cold War operators.