Paul
Goble
Staunton, February 6 – Over the last
two year period for which statistics are available, only 37 ethnic Russians
moved from Estonia to the Russian Federation despite Moscow’s program for
resettling what it calls “compatriots” and the regular complaints of Russian
officials that Estonia is oppressing its ethnic Russian minority.
In today’s issue of the Moscow
newspaper “Novaya gazeta,” journalist Vyacheslav Ivanov suggests that it is
important for everyone to understand why despite the oft-reported problems of
ethnic Russians in the Baltic countries, “the majority of Russians there prefer
to live in Estonia” than to return to Russia (novayagazeta.ru/society/67143.html).
Ivanov begins his article by
recounting what happened when in the summer of 1994, the Russian Drama Theater
in Tallinn put on Chekov’s “Three Sisters.” In that performance, actors dressed
like Soviet officers left the stage at the end when the sisters talk about
going “to Moscow, to Moscow!”
Their departure was met with
thunderous applause, not because the performance was especially noteworthy but
because it occurred when Russian troops finally left Estonia after it recovered
its independence – and those applauding were not so much Estonians and ethnic Russians
living there who viewed their withdrawal as a positive step.
To be sure, Ivanov continues, some
ethnic Russians did leave – about 27,500 a year between 1991 and 1996. Most of
these people were either retired military personnel and their families or
civilians who “for various reasons considered it impossible for themselves to continue
to live in independent Estonia.”
After 1996, the number of those
departing began to decline precipitously to less than a thousand a year in the
early 2000s. And in 2011, the number of ethnic Russians arriving to live in
Estonia exceeded, admittedly by a small percentage, the number of those
departing or dying, Ivanov says.
Today, 1,315,000 people live in
Estonia. About 70 percent of them are ethnic Estonians, approximately 26
percent ethnic Russians, and the rest “representatives of other nationalities.” In 1940, non-ethnic Estonians constituted less
than 10 percent of the population and their number included Old Believers who
had been living there since the 17th century.
Urmas Ott, an Estonian television
host, once told him, Ivanov continues, that “Estonians at the beginning of the
1990s especially after the withdrawal of Russian forces from Estonia very much
hoped that if not all ethnic Russians then their absolute majority would do the
same.” Now, it is different, although Ott said Estonians remain a “patient” and
“tolerant” people.
“Perhaps,” Ivanov suggests,”
precisely these qualities of the ‘titular’ resients of Estonia are in a well-known
sense a guarantee of the preservation of the balance between the two language
communities. Not the main and not the only but one of the key factors.”
Another factor is that ethnic
Russians living in Estonia have been profoundly affected by Estonian values:
They are very different from their compatriots elsewhere, by their “greater restraint”
and “greater moderation in their views. Although,” he adds, “from the point of
view of Estonians, it wouldn’t be a bad thing if they were even more so.”
A major social-political problem in
Estonia, the Russian journalist continues, is the existence of a large number of
residents who are without citizenship and the large number who are citizens of
a foreign country, in this case, Russia.
Many in Estonia and Europe consider what Tallinn has done in this area
far from “far-sighted,” but not everything is as it appears.
There are approximately 330,000
ethnic Russians in Estonia. About 120,000 of them have Estonian citizenship,
about 100,000 are citizens of the Russian Federation, and about 100,000 are
non-citizens who have many but not all the rights of those who are citizens of
Estonia.
But at the same time, Ivanov
continues, these non-citizens who carry what are known as “gray” passports have
in a certain respect “more rights than do the citizens” of either of the other
countries. They can go to Russia without a visa, something Estonians cannot;
and they can go to the European Union without a visa, something Russian
citizens cannot.
That is a considerable advantage as
is the fact that Estonia even in Soviet times was distinguished by a relatively
high standard of living. That still makes it attractive, but other “non-material”
qualities are almost certainly more important. These include an independent
judiciary which protects people even when they act in ways that some Estonians
don’t like.
Many in Russia followed the 2007
case of the “Bronze soldier” monument whose removal from the center of Tallinn
to a military cemetery sparked protests. But far fewer are aware that some of
those arrested at the time later won their cases in Estonian courts – or that
such vindications are far from unique.
Ivanov concludes that “the situation
of the Russian-speaking minority in Estonia is far from ideal.” Unemployment is
higher among Russians there than among Estonians, and pay is lower for them
than for Estonian citizens. But what is important is that activists in Estonia
are constantly raising these issues and often winning their cases.
That is one more reason why ethnic
Russians in Estonia aren’t moving back to Russia where activists have far fewer
victories and where the courts have far less independence than they do in
European Estonia.
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