From: verbit@coolidge.harvard.edu (Mikhail S. Verbitsky)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.europe,talk.politics.soviet
Subject: Re: Happy end for the ESTONIAN question (Was: Est
Date: 20 Dec 92 06:00:13 GMT
Article-I.D.: husc3.1992Dec20.010014.18712
Organization: Sozialistische Patienten Kollektiv

In article <1992Dec19.131827.1@cc.helsinki.fi> thietaniemi@cc.helsinki.fi writes:
>In article <1992Dec15.182203.18540@husc3.harvard.edu>, verbit@birkhoff.
>harvard.edu (Mikhail S. Verbitsky) writes:

[ I deleted even more than I wanted to due to extremely bad telnet
lag MIT-Harvard today ]


>>        The question is,
>> 	do Estonian powers share their goals with militant
>> 	nationalists? 


>WHO is a militant nationalist in Estonia? What does he/she do?


	This is an easy question. I know zillion cases
	when people were assaulted in Estonia by young
	hooligans due to their Jewish looks or unability
	to speak Estonian. The example. N. N. Konstantinov,
	well-Known Moscow pedagog and actvist, once
	arendated some square kilometer of landing from
	Estonian kolkhoz south of Tartu. From 70-ies till 90-ies
	students of mathematical high-schools from all Soyuz
	lived there through summer and worked on the fields,
	built the homes for his camp and studied mathematics.
	The camp was extremely charitable organization, students
	built everything there themselves and Konstantinov
	supported Estonian independence - needless to say
	that the day when Estonia became independent 
	was the end for his camp.

	Of course, this story is *not* a case of militant
	nationalism - only a setting for a case.

	The case was (I personally know a guy who 
	spent several weeks in a hospital as a result
	of this story) that several boys from this
	camp were going down from the little hill
	where some village nearby of camp was located.
	Unexpectedly, about 20 Estonian youths were
	running on them from the hill and beaten
	all of them without a word in explanation.

	This is a typical case. For example, a Jewish
	girl from 57 school who studied philology
	at Tartu's University told me that she is happy
	to be blond as all non-Estonian students with dark
	hair are being regularly beaten by similar
	hooligans - with only reason that they
	are not Estonians! 

	Are you content, Tapani?


>Empty accusations. I see that you fear such a scenario. But do not
>mix up your prejudices and reality! I have never heard the words
>"not ethnically clean" in Estonia.

	You mean, that they don't speak English? I'm sure
	there is Estonian equivalent - something like
	"colonialist-free". Ask Tanel.

>Facts: when the Europe suffers from neo-nazis and xenophobia,
>Estonia is surprisingly clean from such phenomena. At least,
>still is. I am deeply pessimistic in this respect: there
>will be some skinhead activism in Estonia (as in many surrounding
>countries, like Finland :-(

	Skinheads are not necessarily Nazi. This movement initially
	was an extrapolation of mod movement in England,
	and was militantly anti-racictic. Note that the
	ska revival in England was a part of skinhead movement,
	and that ska in primarily black music. Skinhead
	rock group Madness is militantly ant-Nazi.

	The contrary is also true. There are no skinheads
	in Russia or Estonia, while there are lots
	of fascistic nationalists.


>The situation is totally different in Estonia (which has no
>record of ethnic violence as a mass phenomenon. The civil war
>can only be imported in Estonia. Who might be apt to do such
>a thing? What do you think?

	Who imported a Civil War in Yugoslavia? Germany,
	CoE and Croatian diaspora. Who will import
	a war in Estonia? Russian nationalists, Estonian
	diaspora and CoE...

>For me it's enough to state that there are two ways to solve
>the national question: the Finnish way and the Yugoslavian way.

	Yes, I admire Finnish bilingual politics too.
	Hope you are right that the same will happen 
	in Estonia. We need for this some sanity from
	both sides. I never hoped that Russian nationalists
	will express themselves sane. Unfortunately,
	the same comes true for Estonian authorities.


>"Rabidly nationalists" are empty words again. Who thinks
>and does what?

	You read Tannel articles on Estonian
	bilingualism? I think that some of his writings
	pretty well qualify for "rabidness".


>The Estonian diaspora was caused by the occupation of SU.

	Sure! Therefore they hate Russians and add their
	share of insanity to the problem. Note also that
	big part of them has collaborationist ancestry
	and those guys still dream of Third Reich 
	golden days. The same goes for Ukraina and Croatia,
	of course.

	Misha.