From: avg@rodan.UU.NET (Vadim Antonov)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.soviet
Subject: Re: "democratic" Estonia
Date: 10 Sep 1992 15:32:33 -0400
Organization: Berkeley Software Design
NNTP-Posting-Host: rodan.uu.net

In article <1992Sep10.082353.17398@nntp.hut.fi> f33012l@puukko.hut.fi (Janne Kivel{) writes:
>However, don't expect everyone to trust your observations with 
>the same faith as you.

I don't. I'm merely expressing my opinion. I'm not a politican
to force others to share my opinions.

>>It still does not make it less stupid to reject speaking English (or
>>Russian).
>
>I wouldn't blame the people who reject the language introduced by force,
>would you?

I do not blame them for it, but when they're starting to bash people who
won't learn *their* language it becomes, well, strange. I see no
difference between Communist forceful introduction of Russian language
and the present forceful introduction of Estionian language by the
"democratic" government. Again, even under communism nobody ever got
expelled for knowing no Russian.

Even though the reason may be irrational. Of course, you
>are a member of big nation, which might make it hard for you to understand.

>Then explain to me why so few of the Russians in Estonia speak Estonian
>or know anything about Estonian culture and tradition.

Probably because they spent to small time to absorb the local culture --
it typically takes hundreds of years. In my few visits in Latvia i
learned how to speak simple things like "hello" and "thank you" and
my wife picked traditional Latvian knitting patterns. And we're both fans
of the Riga balsam :-)

Atfer all you can't argue that learning Estonian can be as rewarding as
learning English or German. The typical approach to the local traditions
of Russian settlers is not to interfere and pick useful bits. That's why
regions which were under dominion of the Russian Empire like Caucasus,
Central Asia or Far East have hundreds of local cultrures rather
peacefully coexisting. The main danger to the local cultures is their
eventual dissolution in the "mainstream" culture. Still, it has nothing
to do with "forceful introduction".

>The language requirement, when enforced strictly, can be considered,
>as you put it, a violation of human rights. I never said Estonian
>government made a wise decision when passing such a law. And nobody is
>threatened to be expelled, it's only a question of citizenship.

Well, i agree with you on the doubtful merits of that law. A side note:
if you're not a citizen, you're an alien, right? If you don't want
to move out, you will be expelled -- and nobody can say it's unlawful.
The Estonian government seems to not recognize permanent residence
criteria and base its citizenship law solely on ethnicity which is
universally considered a kind of racism. No wonder people are
really upset about it.

>But seeing the situation only as "evil Estonians oppressing poor Russian
>minority" is a gross exaggeration and simplification. If the conditions 
>that led to the present situation are not taken into account, one may
>be tempted to share the same opinion as you have.

Argh. If someone kills a random pedestrian on a street he'll be
put in a jail despite the facts of his personal history or his personal
feelings. And pepole in Russia who supported independence of Baltic
republics (and i supported and still support it) are quite aware of 
the history. Unfortunately, the local ex-communists (disguised as
nationalists nowadays) took over and continue to seek enemies. It
does not matter who you hate if you're hating, right? I can't stand
seeing how do they blind people with hatred, and i wouldn't like to see
a new Yugoslavia in Baltics (and in Yugoslavia the initial tensions
were quite milder... it's scary). People are failing to see that their
enemies not Russians, Jews or whatever else but their own chauvinists.
In fact, the current situation in Estonia looks like that on the wave of
anti-communism the very same ideology took over. A local Party boss and
a present nationalistic governor have the same thing in common -- they're
both ready to find an enemy to sacrifice to make "legitimate" their
power obtained in an unfair game (a really democratic government wouldn't
fear to allow everybody to vote, right?). It's basically not an ethnic
conflict, but it has a potential to growing into such when the people
will forget who and why started the story (as in Yugoslavia everything
started from the reluctance of pro-democratic Croatia to yield to
neo-communist central government of Miloshevich -- and now they're
killing people simply because they're Serbs or Croats or Muslims;
and note that they even have the one common language!)

Basically, Estonian nationalists play in the team with Russian nationalists
in a struggle to secure their power -- it's a pity they're on the top
in Estonia. Fortunately they're far from the power in Russia -- otherwise
that small patch of land we call Estonia would be ruins by now.

Politics is a dirty game.

--vadim
Newsgroups: soc.culture.soviet