Estonia. A Minority Russian Speaks Up.
The following is the only comment received from a Russian speaker in Estonia. It is highlighted here to provide balance.
You know, I am Russian, who lives in Estonia, I was born here and so was my mother. I am a teacher of Estonian language in Russian Schools, I am a citizen of Estonia and I have a child and husband.
I told you all that because Estonia is a very small country. It has a little more than 1 million people, about 300,000 or more are Russians, at least 150,000 don’t have a citizenship and has no right to vote and other rights are very limited for them. My husband, my mother, a lot of my friends are not citizens, but they were born here! Is this legal? Where else in Europe (except for Latvia) has such system? Maybe I don’t know?
Now, about Soviet soldier. OK, so many of you believe that everything what has a word ‘Soviet’ is bad, it is evil and there were not any good and of course all the Soviet soldiers were ‘ drunk thugs, who came in all those countries to kill, rob and rape?’ (That’s what our Prime-Minister think and says). So maybe they shouldn’t fight with fascism, as I understand there so many people in our world now, who think fascism was better than ‘Soviet’.
What is wrong with you people? The Russians suffered more than anyone in Europe in Stalin’s time and Stalin wasn’t Russian by the way. So how dare anyone to say (and in Estonia even fight with dead people) so many bad words about a soldier, who gave his life for nothing, not for money, not for goods just for our future. If you smile right now you are wrong, in our time it sounds even funny, but people of that time still believed in these ideas - to live for children’s future.
I turn to all Americans and all the people whose guys are in Iraq. Now, they don’t want this war, they don’t want to die, what if somebody did something like this about their memory? I am absolutely against the war in Iraq, but I would NEVER say any bad word about the soldiers who have been at war and especially about those who have died there! We can’t blame them, unfortunately, we all have politicians, who make bad decisions.
I read one story, which has shocked me: when fascists came into Holland and announced the victory and said they wouldn’t kill the king and his family and even let him live in his palace, but all the power will be in their hands. They told every Jew to put the Jewish star (I don’t know how it is in English) on them, so everybody could see “the dirty race”… it was awful …
I never thought that the whole world would be silent when somebody does the same thing in the 21 century… Please think about it, we all need help and all need to be saved, because the politics in Estonia by police’s hands doesn’t let the world to hear the truth. Excuse me for my English, I am not so good at that…
Here’s about of interesting facts about Estonia:
Most wanted Nazi war criminals . . .
Michael, I deleted this comment because I don’t think it’s helpful.
Sorry . . I very rarely delete comments, this goes too far back when most other people are commenting constructively about how to move on.
@Michael
i think you exaggerate on accusing whole estonia abut nazism. surely not all estonians joined nazi forces and there was surely some resistance movement. also not whole estonia is bad because some people cheer for opening of monuments to nazi soldiers. this was not official politics of official government. i surely hope the majority of estonians feel that way too. i don’t think that estonia is a typical nazi state, that is way too harsh accusation and not a truthful one too. but they sure have problems with understanding human rights and democracy.
hello, if you really were living in estonia, you would know that the riots had nothing to do with memories of war.
it was organized crime, financed and backed by you-know-who. how else could it be that the faces you see in the riot video clips belong almost exclusively to thugs, thieves and criminals known from local police tv ? how else would you explain breaking into the stores and looting in central town, carrying the most expensive mercandise ? while in other corners of town the crime rate has been nonexistant during these days ? did you notice that the one dead person was _stabbed_ ? have you seen police carrying knives anywhere ?
it was a criminal campaign, bought and paid for by certain interest groups, and this form of “riots” has been sponsored by these groups before.
this whole thing _began_ with war veterans gatherings quite a long while ago, but these veterans havent been seen around the monument grounds for a long time. the whole affair has long since ceased to be about war or memories of the dead, its a propaganda tool and the people involved wouldnt give a rats behind for the history
>>surely not all estonians joined nazi forces
About the same amount that served in SS served in Red Army, maybe more.lots of people died on both sides. lots of people fleed the country, some tried to remain loyal to their own country and fought a guerilla war from the bushes against any foreign army, but it was impossible to remain so while two big armies battled it out on our soil. you had to be on one side or another, or flee altogether.
but like i said, current events have little to do with history, although history is used as a propaganda shield. the people who are old enough to remember the war and the oppression dont have the will or strength to run around, burn flags and break into Armani stores.
Kert
I agree with you. Estonia is being exploited as a propaganda opportunity. But the dark forces are on both sides. And opinions, as we see in comments to this blog and others, are polarised.
‘Baiting the Bear’ is current NATO policy. Latvia, Poland and Estonia are being used as pawns. It doesn’t take a degree in Public Relations or Diplomacy to anticipate the consequences of deliberate provocation. And whether planting missile bases in Poland or desecrating a war grave, you couldn’t think up a better wheeze for poking the Bear with a stick. The timing - just before Victory Day in Russia - was quite deliberate too.
There’s always a ‘rent a crowd’ for any demo. And of course, lawlessness destroys any argument of those with genuine grievances. The Bader-Meinhof group used this tactic for years to discredit everyone from football supporters to protest movements.
If you follow my earlier article, my criticism is mainly levelled at the EU. Estonian grievances are understandable, but the EU’s position is morally indefensible. Leaned on by NATO, it did not police its own laws, leaving minorities with no alternative but to take their grievances to the streets or the barricades.
I agree with you also that history (misunderstood and largely rewritten) should be irrelevant in a society that wants to move on. But again, it’s being used as a tool to manipulate the mob.
The EU could rise above this debate but doesn’t appear to have the intellectual capacity. Only NATO agendas.
Thanks again for your comment.
Non-citizens in Estonia have the right vote in local elections, actually, and their other rights are not especially limited — and if they want citizenship, the naturalization process is rather liberal. As to “where else in Europe” such systems exist– other than the Baltic states and Georgia, no internationally recognized European nation-states were forcibly incorporated into the Soviet Union, where they were kept against their will for half a century and colonized. Estonians and Latvians nearly became minorities in their own countries. Citizenship in Estonia has nothing to do with ethnicity — those who lack it never had it. If they were born in Estonia prior to 1991, they held Soviet citizenship. Those born since can get citizenship regardless of their parents’ citizenship, without naturalization. Over 100 000 Russians chose Russian citizenship.
[...] Itching for Eestimaa writes: “With the issue of the Estonian government’s decision to relocate a Soviet war memorial to a military cemetery de facto concluded — though the repercussions will no doubt linger for years — the situation at the Estonian embassy in Moscow has become the new focus point of this contest of wills.” Estland posts pictures of the Tallinn monument at its new location (text in German). At Copydude’s blog, an ethnic Russian living in Estonia posts a plea for help and inspires yet another heated discussion in the comments section. Share This [...]
You fail to mention the fact that Estonia has free language courses for Russians to help them learn Estonian. Everyone has the right to apply for a citizenship they only have to know basic Estonian. Tell me a European country that doesn’t require the new citizens to have basic language skills?
And why do you think that the memories of the dead was better looked after next to a busstop (where the statue used to stand) rather than at the cemetary where the statue stands now?
And to accuse Estonia of faschism … come on! I have seen comments claiming Estonia holds big nazi parades waving SS flags and etc. Does anyone really believe that? How absurd can you get? Both nazi and soviet flags are forbidden in Estonia. But no-one said anything when russian veterans and some Russian youth took out Soviet flags in front of the memorial. We resented it but tried to understand. But last year the russians who were celebrating in front of the memorial (again with soviet flags) attacked the Estonian flag. I think estonians had the right to be outraged. A lot of the people demanded the goverment to dismantle the monument because it became a place for annual insult. The goverment decided only to move it (ca 2 km) out of the city centre to a cemetery. And you still scream that estonians resent you and deprive you of your rights?! I am sorry but there are some limits.
The only fact given in this posting: more than 150K people having no citizenship, is wrong. Actual number is around 110K.
I would really like to ask the question from this teacher: if her husband has been living his whole life in estonia, why doesn’t he become Estonian citizens? Language exam surely cannot be a problem with a teacher at home.
like in usa or even in russia if someone wants to be a citizen he/she must learn the language of the country in a level req. Russians in estonia mainly live in the eastern part of the country where about 90 precent of the people are russians. So they think that they dont need estonian language. our immigration laws are similar to the laws of usa,uk,sweden,finland,latvia,lithuania,poland,germany.
So if someone is saying that estonians are discrimnating russians.
NB:faschism is not nazism faschism was in italy not in germany nazism means nationalist so nashi( prokreml organisation) is actually nazis lol
sry about bad english
Im Estonian born here and all i can tell is that the riot’s what happened in tallinn were a maor crime and vandalism ,
i agree that those who took part of it were D*ckheads who didnt know even the reason the are doing it all organized by a
punch of old evil war veteran’s.
But that doesn’t mean that every russian war veteran is supposed to be a bad evil bastard who wants to kill or rape everyone. and about the estonians joining the SS Or Soviet union , they had no choice or ofcourse escape or something and the SS was evil thats what everyone know’s but about soviet union only person who had some to blame at was Stalin rest of the soldiers just HAD to do what he says or quit the army and be marked as a traitor and get executed for betrayng the mother Russia.
Sorry for my bad english and i hope you can understand what im trying to say here.
im Estonian and born here , and all i can tell is that the riot what happened in tallinn was a major crime and vandalism ,
just cause i had so many mistakes at the beginning