From: ptrei@bistromath.mitre.org (Peter Trei)
Subject: Re: "democratic" Estonia
Organization: The MITRE Corporation
Date: Thu, 27 Aug 1992 19:50:38 GMT

     Trying hard to ignore the flames...

     While I refer throughout to Estonia, the following also applies
to the other Baltic States, and to other former colonies.

     Lets take this by stages.

     1. I think we all agree that a nation has a right to control who
can immigrate to it's territory, and exclude foreigners for whatever
reason it sees fit. All nations worth living in do this - the only
ones which don't are nations to which no one in their right mind would
immigrate.

     2. The Soviet occupation of the Baltic states was an illegal act,
set up by the Molotov/Ribbentrop (aka Hitler/Stalin) pact. This is a
matter of historical record, and was admitted by the Soviet government
before it fell. 

     3.The puppet occupation governments set up by the Soviets were
therefore also illegal.

     4. Many Soviet citizens emigrated to Estonia during the period
of occupation. This was in violation of Estonian law, but Estonian law
was ignored by the illegal occupation government.

     5. The Soviet (evil :-) empire has now fallen, so the legitimate
Estonian Government (and Estonian law) have now returned to the
country.

     6. Violations of Estonian law (such as illegal immigration)
committed under the protection of the illegal occupation government
remain violations of Estonian law.

      If you disagree 3 or 6, then you have to accept that other
actions taken by occupying forces - such as the execution of Soviet
partisans by the Nazis - were legal. I don't think you do.

     7. Therefore, the Estonian Government has a perfect right to
expel foreigners who illegally entered Estonia during the Soviet
occupation. Please remember that non-citizens do not have equal rights
with citizens - they can't vote, and have no automatic right of
residency.  In an act of generosity, a process has been put into place
to permit those who assimilate to earn citizenship.

     Anyone have any problems with the logic above?

     The following is much more arguable...

     The fate of children of these illegal immigrants born on Estonian
soil is a separate and more difficult matter, and one for which I do
not have a good solution.

     Many countries (but by no means all) consider anyone born on
their soil automatically citizens.

     In the case of Estonia, there was never any intention on the part
of the parents that they or their children should become "Estonians".
Rather they were "Soviets" or members of their parents' nationality.

     These facts, that the parents were in the country illegally, and
without any intention of assimilation on their part or that of their
children, seems to place these people in a different position than
that intended by the "citizenship by location of birth" idea.  Their
situation is more like that of the Taipans of China, the Italians of
Libya, the French of Algeria, and the Moors of Spain. All of these, as
their supporting empires fell, were expelled as non-citizens from the
place they had been born, despite having lived there for generations
(and in the case of the Moors, centuries).

     From this I would argue that the process of decolonization
frequently includes the ability (if desired) of the newly freed nation
to expel people who arrived under the flag of the occupying power,
along with their direct descendants. This is simply restitution of the
situation prior to the invasion.

     As far as I am aware (I may need correction on this), Estonia is
NOT proposing to expel anyone - only to deny naturalization to those
who refuse to assimilate.

[      Does anyone have good figures for the number of Soviets who	]
[ emigrated to Estonia during the occupation, and the number of their	]
[ descendants born on Estonian soil? 					]

     I'll be interested in seeing people's comments on this.

							Peter Trei

PS: Try watching "The Battle of Algiers". - a great film, regardless
of what you think of the sides involved.

Newsgroups: talk.politics.soviet