From: dleschin@FEDS66.PRIME.COM ("", Dmitri Leschiner)
Newsgroups: talk.politics.soviet
Subject: Re: Enigmatic double citizenship in ESTONIA
Date: 3 Oct 92 01:09:14 GMT
Reply-To: "talk.politics.soviet via ListServ" <TPS-L@indycms.iupui.edu>

> Date:         Thu, 1 Oct 1992 10:06:26 GMT
> From: thietaniemi@CC.HELSINKI.FI
>
>
> I see your point, it looks convincing to me. But has it any other implications
> that these (possibly non-existent) Estonian citizens that became refugees in
> Russia after the Stalin occupation could win their case when they wanted to
> maintain even their Russian citizenship? Is this only an "academic" question?
>

Well, it depends of definiton of what "refugee" is.
With at least some definitions worth consideration, they are certainly _not_
"non-existent".

Is is well-known fact, that during Stalin times for many people the best mean
of surviving was to keep as low profile as possible - to beware of prestigious
occupations, for instance - and also to change their lifestyle as much as
possible, including professional ties, place of living, etc.

It is explained by the fact that arrests were often (most often?) drawn by
mass criteria and causal relationships with alreasdy arrested people - like
kinship, friendship, work together, even neghbourness. For Estoninas, for
example, it may certainly in many cases been safer to live somewhere in Russia,
then in their Estonian home, where everybody knew them. Especially it was true
for people who was already arrested and than released (I'm not sure whether
it was frequent case for Estonians, it was so often enough for Russians, who
served, say, 10 years, then were released, and if they keep living somewhere
near their former labor camp, they will most probably survive; if they will
try to move closer to their native places, they would most probably be arrested
again - as 'suspicious' element - the explanation is that near labor camps
zones virtually all were 'suspicious' (already arrested once), and than the
probability of selective arrest was lower). That mechanics is described in
creat details by Solzhenitsyn in Archipelag GULAG.

Does these persons qualify for definition of refugee? Certainly they are not
"political refugees" in classical terms. But de facto, yes, it is some kind
of refuge, taken by political reasons, for salvation of life. So I think
they rather should qualify.

If they DO qualify - than this question is by no means "academic" one, since
I think the number of descendants of such people, currently living in Russia,
should be in amount of _tens_ of thousands. So they are a huge source of people
holding Estonian citizenship which is shared with Russia - the country with
which Estonian goverment tries to avoid this possibility the most, as it seems.


>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------
> BTW, The Finnish state president Koivisto is visiting the sunny Uzbekistan
> today. Yesterday the Uzbeks treated him with kumys, which must have
> caused him a unique case of hangover.
>

Oh, well, why?? Did you try kumys? You don't like it?
It's unusual, I agree; might be for Finns even more,
but is it so vomit-causing indeed? Or you think he got
ehough of it to become completely drunk:)? Actually, I guess,
adult man must drink about 5 liters of kumys to become drunk.
I'm not sure Mr. Koivisto possess such a big desire to this beverage...

Cheers,
za vashe zdorov'e

Dmitry