From: tammet@cs.chalmers.se (Tanel Tammet)
Newsgroups: talk.politics.soviet
Subject: Re: Baltic russian-speakers: small people's faith.
Date: 12 Dec 92 11:23:27 GMT
Organization: Dept. of CS, Chalmers, Sweden

In article <sorokin.25@ps1.iaee.tuwien.ac.at> sorokin@ps1.iaee.tuwien.ac.at (Zhenja) writes:
>The discussion of citizenship's problems in Baltic states in this 
>newsgroup has gone too far from the real people. Here is a concrete example, 
>that I am witnessing now.
>
>A Jewish young pair from Riga with a 5-year old boy.
>She was born in Odessa, he in Kiev (or vice versa, I do not remember).
>After finishing a KONSERVATORIA (sorry, do not know english equivalent) 
>they lived in Riga about 10 years.He worked as a singer (full classic 
>repertoire), she played piano and taught students in Riga KONSERVATORIA.
>When it became difficult to get enough funding for everybody, russian-
>speakers were first to be fired (naturally).Being musicians of a good level, 
>they found job in Vienna (not bad, since Vienna as cultural capital is 
>10-100 steps above Riga). They have foreign passports, issued by 
>"MID of Latvian SSR"(IMPORTANT!). Now they need to prolongate their 
>passports and they come to Latvian consulate. Result: since they are neither 
>"ethnic latvians", nor descendants of citizens of Latvian Republic before 
>1940, they are no more citizens of Latvia. They haven't got any other 
>citzenship, too. To get back to Latvia (passport expires), apply for 
>citizenship, learn language and so on will destroy all contracts they have 
>and make them unemployed, since they will not find job in Riga. Maybe, they 
>could become Ukranian citizens (there are no language requirements), but it 
>will definitely last a lot of time, too (because they've got only Latvian 
>foreign passport and Soviet passport with PROPISKA in Riga...).
>And now, what would you advice them, other than applying for asylim in 
>Austria? They have to decide NOW.

Indeed, this a very important case you have here. There are MANY persons
in the more or less same situation as the couple above. Moreover,
noncitizens in Baltic ountries, who have only the USSR foreign passports,
cannot use them for travel outside Baltics after a certain period.

Due to the problem above, Estonian government recently suggested other
countries to prolong the acceptability of Soviet passports issued on
the Estonian territory until next fall. 

This will only push the problem further away. Moreover, I do not 
really understand this temporary solution, for the following reasons.

Despite of the fact that the foreign passports above were issued by
the "MID of Latvian SSR", these are passports of the citizen of
USSR, not Latvia. The MID of Latvian SSR was an organization of USSR,
not the Republic of Latvia. How on earth can the government of the
Republic of Latvia (this is a hypothetical case with Latvia: the
temporary solution comes from Estonia) somehow prolong the passports
of the foreign country?

The immediate practical solution to the problem above stems from
the fact that Russia has claimed herself as the legal successor of
USSR and GUARANTEES the Russian citizenship to all the bearers of the
passport of USSR. Thus the couple above is entitled to the Russian
citizenship and the foreign passport of Russia. As they came originally
from Ukraine, I suppose that they also have a right for the Ukrainian
citizenship. Unfortunately, I am not aware of the Ukrainian policy on
the citizenship matters. Of course, the solution with going to the
Russian or Ukraine embassy and asking for the Russian or Ukraine
passport is unconvenient, and the machinery of getting the passport
might work slowly. This is just one of the unfortunate results of the
aggressive politics of former USSR. 
 
The general problem with the citizenship status of noncitizen residents
in Latvia and Estonia is that they as a rule are supposed to either
apply for the Latvian (Estonian) citizenship or register themselves 
as Russian citizens in Russian embassies, but mostly they have done
neither, not understanding the immediate need and preferring to wait
and see, what happens. Now come the problems with travel.

After a certain period of time, when Russia stops the registration of
her citizens (I think the deadline was next spring?), there will
be many persons in Latvia and Estonia who do not have a right for
more or less automatic citizenship for any country, entirely due to
their own careless attitude.

At that stage the only, albeit unwelcome solution, is to give them
documents stating that they do not hold any citizenship, but are
permanent residents of Latvia (or Estonia). According to international
law, such people are entitled to get the citizenship of their
country of residence, after a short period, and practically without
any restrictions. I do predict that this will actually happen.

>
>Morals.
>1) In international practice foreign passport IS AN IDENTIFICATION OF 
>CITIZENSHIP OF ITS BEARER. Everywhere in the world they are Latvians, but 
>no more in Latvia. Moreover, they are DEPRIVED of their citizenship, being 
>abroad. What strong resemblance does it have to the treatment of dissidents 
>in 1964..1986...

No. The passport of USSR is an identification that its bearer is the
citizen of USSR. Look into one of those passports! Any bearer is 
deprived of the citizenship of USSR, due to the fact that USSR is no
more. Uncomfortable it may be, but there are practical solutions  
(eg. registering as citizens of Russia or Ukraine) for your unfortunate
friends, as mentioned above. Otherwise, if neither Russia nor
Ukraine would accept them as citizens (but they do, so this is 
hypothetical), your friends would have a status of not having any
citizenship, and would thus be eligible to the citizenship of
their country of current residence (Austria) in a short term
(few years, I guess).

>
>2) Balts insist to be heirs of 1918..1940 Republics. But they are also heirs 
>of "Soviet republics", too, since otherwise all contemporary economic life 
>has no legal base. That's why citizenship of Latvian SSR necessarily 
>have to be prolonged to the citizenship of Latvian republic. This satatement 
>does not apply to the people living in Latvia, since they have only Soviet 
>citizenship.

I do not understand why does the contemporary economic life have
no legal base, unless Baltics are heirs of "Soviet republics". Say,
Estonia has a certain set of laws at moment, accepted by the legit
parliament and government. It is another thing that many of those
laws come from Soviet times, are unsatisfactory, and are being
gradually replaced. 

And, of course many people living in Latvia (I suppose 60% or so?)
do not have "only Soviet citizenship" which was forced on them
during or after WWII. They also have a citizenship of the Republic of Latvia 
created during WWI.
 
>
>3) Such policy of Latvian ruling circles is a policy of double standard: 
>they take everything they benefit from, but try to reject the problems which 
>come along. This is a policy of cinical politicians, but not of responsible 
>governments and legislators. It is the same, as complaints of Ukraine, which 
>did want to have a part of Soviet property abroad and to be treated as heir 
>of the USSR along with Russia, but did not want to pay debts. 

No. Baltics claim NOTHING of Soviet stuff, except things built during
the Soviet occupation which are on their own territory. Baltics DO NOT claim
anything previosuly Soviet abroad, differently from Ukraine.

>4) As usual, the results of current policy are exactly opposite to the aims:
>population of the bad-educated and ill-cultured russian-speaking townships 
>nearby communist "giants of industry", whom Balts want to push away, will 
>not leave, because they haven't got a place to go. To the contrary, such 
>people like I mentioned, go away, because they can find a good job 
>elsewhere. Could it be the desired effect to get rid of the best people 
>(unless you are a communist, of course)?

You are exactly right up here. The reasons are purely economical. Also
Latvians and Estonians finding wellpaid jobs elsewhere, are leaving.
This is very, very unpleasant. But what can the Baltic countries do,
except building the economy up again?
 
>To my opinion, playing this nationalist game is extremely dangerous to 
>Latvians and Estonians. 
>First, they create a big part of unloyal population (it was more loyal 
>before: remember, how many russian-speakers voted for independance? The 
>pair which I was talking about, did it too...). Since the worst days of 
>economic crisis are still to come, they are facing Moldavian example: very 
>strong influence of pro-soviet elements within russian-speakers. 
>Really, if you did not elect this parliament, why should you support its 
>activity? The parliament and govt are in the same position: the only support 
>they have comes from citizens, and naturally, they  experience a strong 
>pressure to solve problems at the expense of scapegoats. This is a fertile 
>soil for Nevzorov's and NASHI's.

You are absolutely right. It is dangerous. It is just that I cannot
see any major, yet legit alternative. The thing to be done (and it is
being done) is to pursue active reconciliatory politics, simplify
the naturalization laws, guarantee noncitizen residents equal economic rights
with citizens, pass laws of cultural autonomy, invite noncitizen
residents to apply for the citizenship, etc.
 
>By the way, I remember that I heard once in August-September, that in 
>Latvia only citizens can take part in privatisation. Could anybody comment 
>this topic?

Unfortunately, I cannot. If true, it is a most dangerous policy.

>Second, their policy of "civilized" ethnic cleansing or "civilized" revenge 
>will sooner or later become evident to the international community, and they 
>will loose their image of innocent victims of communism, which they used to 
>deploit last years with 200% effectiveness.

Well, I disagree 100%. There is no, not even "civilized", ethnic cleansing
or revenge. Noncitizen residents are NOT driven back to where they came 
from. Instead, they are invited to apply for the citizenship, if they
want to, and guaranteed residence with equal rights (except electing
the parliament, serving in the army, analogous) to citizens, if they wish
to retain (or take up) some other citizenship. 

Regards,
	Tanel Tammet