From: sommar@enea.se (Erland Sommarskog)
Newsgroups: talk.politics.soviet
Subject: Articles on Narva
Date: 28 Jul 92 21:26:47 GMT
Reply-To: "talk.politics.soviet via ListServ" <TPS-L@indycms.iupui.edu>

Enclosed are here three articles on Narva. The first one appeared in
The Baltic Observer in their July 16-22 issue. The text seems to come
from BNS (Baltic News Service, a news agency). The Baltic Observer
is a weekly English-language paper, printed in Riga.

The other two articles appeared in the Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter
Sunday July 26th, and are written by their Baltic correspondent
Mert Kubu. The first is the main article, the other is labelled
"Background". Translation mine.


    NARVA RESIDENTS HOPE TO VOTE ON TOWN'S STATUS

    Residents of the town of Narva in Northeastern Estonia have
    launched a petition drive on the future fate of the town, which
    has been the hot spot on ethnic tensions following Estonia's
    gaining its independence last year.

    On July 9 the Narva town council rules to start collecting
    signatures for an appeal to call a local referendum. Narva,
    located on the border with Russia, is populated almost entirely
    by non-ethnic Estonians.

    As of yet, no specific question for the referendum has been set,
    although variants range from "Do the laws of the Republic of
    Estonia infringe upon the rights of the non-Estonians?" to
    questions such as "If the laws of the Republics of Estonia are
    infringing on the rights of non-Estonians, then do you consider
    it necessary to change the national status of the town?"

    According to Vladimir Chuikin, Chairman of the Narva Town Council,
    the question would get its final wording at a Town Council meeting
    after "people's attitudes have been elicited."

    "By collecting signatures we wish to draw the attention of the
    republic's leadership to Narva's problems. After that we will
    turn to the Supreme Council in order carry out the referendum,
    he added.

    Chuikin didn't rule out the question of seeking independence for
    the town either within Estonia, Russia or Sweden, since, according
    to the Town Council chairman, each of the three have historical
    grounds for authority over the town.


Here's the first article from DN:

    NARVA'S RUSSIANS FEARS ESTONIA

    NARVA  The atmosphere at the passport control on the bridge is
    slightly irritated. Some twenty cars are queueing to enter
    Estonia. You can hear loud protests on Russian over the costs
    to cross the border.

    But the Estonian border guards are steadfast. By now they have
    heard most possible curses. If you don't have a visa in advance,
    you have to apply for a quick visa and pay for it. But then you
    need a documented reason to visit Estonia. An ordinary one-time
    visa costs 25 Estonian crowns (12 Swedish crowns).

    For the nurse Olga Urbans, 40 years old, it is not a problem. She
    lives in Narva has a permanent permit who cost her eleven rubles.
    8.000 inhabitants in Narva, who work on the other side of the river
    or who have summer cottages or garages there, have such permits.
    All other Narva inhabitants only have to show the passport.

    Together with the daughter Tachana, 18, and the son Roman, 12, Olga
    has been over to Russian Ivangorod to buy sugar.

    DIFFICULT TO GET A JOB
    Does she who is a Russian feel discriminated, like a second-class
    citizen in Estonia? The Russian parliament has claimed that in a
    statement.

    - This far they have not made any differences between Russians and
    Estonians. Neither is the right to vote a main thing for me. But on
    the other hand I am fearing the unemployment and then we are the ones
    who are hit the first. Russian doctors without an Estonian exam already
    have difficulties to get a job, Olga says.

    - Where Narva should belong? To Russia of course, she thinks.

    "Eesti vabariik" (Republic of Estonia) it is written with capital
    letters on Vladimir Kuznetsov's business card. He is vice chairman
    in Narva's city council. Also for one more month deputy in the old
    parliament in Tallinn.

    Vladimir Kuznetsov receives me in his office in the town hall at
    the Petri Place, just a stone's throw from the historical fortress
    of Hermansborg, close to the border control.

    PREDOMINANTLY RUSSIAN
    Narva is a city with 80.000 inhabitants. Only 3.000 are today
    Estonians, all other are Russian-speaking. Almost everything is
    Russian. The language you hear in the street, the signs. But
    it has not always been like that. During Estonia's previous
    independence before WWII around 70% of the people in Narva were
    Estonians.

    Vladimir Kuznetsov himself grew up in a children's home beyond Ural.
    His parents died when he was two. He became a civil engineer in
    Leningrad.

    - My home country? It is Narva and Estonia, he says.

    DN: What is he and his Russian friends in the town hall in Narva most
    most dissatisfied with?

    - That we do not automatically become Estonian citizens. Without
    citizenship we don't have any rights. According to the new constitution,
    only Estonian citizens are granted hospital care and unemployment
    compensation. We are fearing that foreigners will be without. Neither
    may we form political parties. We are not eligible, and we may not
    vote.

    DN: But if you learn a little Estonian, you will soon become citizens.
    To learn 1.500 words isn't so much, is it?

    TOO HIGH REQUIREMENTS
    - The requirements are much too high. You may not do many errors in
    the test. Retired persons should be relieved completely. Exception
    must also be made for us here in eastern Estonia. The youth will
    anyway learn the language.

    DN: You have made threats of violence. Union leaders have said that
    blood will flow in Narva, here like in Moldavia.

    - We in the leadership are doing everything to lighten the atmosphere.
    Before we decide if we are to have a referendum in Narva, we will first
    ask the people if they want such a referendum.

    Is there really a risk for a bloody conflict in Narva?

    The sociologist Sergei Gorohov, 36, is manager for the governmental
    information and sociological examination office in Narva. He is
    Russian, born in the city. He has applied for Estonian citizenship.
    We find him in his office, which is two floor higher up in the town
    hall.

    - The same men are ruling Narva as during the communist era. The
    tragic is that they are governing after old, Bolshevik ideologies.
    It is devastating. If they decide that blood will flow, it will be
    so. But if they are allowed to stay at the power, nothing will happen.

    SWEDISH SOVEREIGNTY
    - They would even accept Swedish sovereignty of they only were to
    remain at the power.

    Sergei laughs at the mere thought.

    Isn't his outspokeness then dangerous for him personally?

    - I usually get murdering glances when I meet the camarilla in
    the stairs here in the town hall. Also, I was certainly one of
    the 71 names on the black list in Narva which would have been
    neutralized if the August coup last year had been successful.
    But I have to stand it, I guess, says Sergei Gorohov and shrugs
    his shoulders.

    The Camarilla are the chairman of the council Vladimir Tsuikin,
    the mayor Vladimir Mizui, former first party secretary Vladimir
    Malkovsky. They are all on holiday. And so Vladimir Kuznetsov,
    who in the meanwhile are running things, Sergei explains.

    - I usually say that if you are at the power in Narva your first
    name should be Vladimir, explains Ahto Siig.

    FIT OF RAGE
    Ahto is an Estonian free-lance journalist, living in Narva. It is
    he who reports about the scandals of the town, big as small ones,
    to the Estonian newspapers in Tallinn. His texts are tough and
    the Russian fathers of the town, who usually get them translated
    to Russian usually flies into small rages when they meet.

    WAY OF SMUGGLING
    Together with Ahto we go to inspect the secret smuggle way over the
    Narva river. Hidden behind a ramshackle factory are the rests of an
    old concrete plate. At low-water cars can pass over here.

    But to Ahto's surprise the Estonian border troops have discovered
    the secret passage. Behind a cliff an Estonian border guard turns up.

    - Stop! Here no bastard comes over, shouts Maanus, 19, who turns
    up behind a stone. He's waving harshly with the machine gun and asks
    for identification.

    What his last name is, he does not want to reveal. In a bush his
    buddy is hiding. The gun he has laid aside. He his hugging a girl.
    Maybe she is Russian.

This the "background" article:

    GREAT RISKS FOR UNREST

    The situation in the Russian-Estonian relations is very tense.
    Despite the promises in the Helsinki declaration in the Helsinki
    declaration about a time schedule for fast exodus of the ex-Soviet
    troops from the Baltics, the Russian delegation didn't move an
    inch on the bilateral negotiations outside Tallinn in the passed
    week. Earliest in 1997 would the last troops leave Estonia was
    the message. President Yeltsin's promise about the retreat in
    next year one had only read in the papers, the head of the Russian
    delegation said.

    For a little more than a week ago, the Russian parliament passed
    a sharp statement against the Balts. In the declaration, primarily
    the Estonians, for violations of "the human rights" by not auto-
    matically give 600.000 Russian-speaking Estonian citizenship. The
    Estonians answers that the citizenship law is one the most liberal
    in Europe and that the new constitution has been reviewed and
    approved by international expertise.

    What even more has aggravated the situation is that Estonia from
    July 1st introduced visa requirements for people living in Russia.
    Under the first week 2.000 persons were refused at the border. The
    average now is 200 persons a day. The population on both sides of
    the Estonian-Russian borders, Latvians and Lithuanians do not need
    a visa.

    With the visa requirement the Estonians want to stop unwanted immi-
    gration the borders and make it more difficult for Russian maffia
    groups to operate in Estonia.

    Russia has answered with introducing a visa requirement for Estonians
    who wants to go to Russia.

    Particularly Narva is today a power-magazine. The Russian leaders in
    the city are planning their own referendum. There is a great risk for
    violent demonstrations.
--
Erland Sommarskog - ENEA Data, Stockholm - sommar@enea.se
Dabras Laiks!