Russians in Estonia is a difficult and painful issue for the Russian-speaking residents of the state, since, being an ethnic minority, this group remains the largest, up to 30% of the total population of the country. The figures are calculated from the number of Estonian citizens. In fact, the percentage of Russians living in the country is much higher. These include indigenous people, as well as the population of Estonia in the third, fourth generation, who do not agree with the discriminatory legislation, which did not allow people to become citizens due to ignorance of the state language.
The history of Russians living in the country
Russians have been living in the lands of Estonia since time immemorial. It is noteworthy that the Estonians themselves call Russians Veneds (venelased). So the ancient inhabitants of the modern territory of Estonia called the ancestors of the ancient Slavs living in the lands from the Carpathians and the lower reaches of the Danube to the southeastern shores of the B altic.
Tartu, the second largest city in Estonia, the Russian name of Yuryev, was founded in the 11th centurythe retinue of Yaroslav the Wise, later he was under the rule of the Novgorod Republic, the Livonian Order, the Commonwe alth, Sweden, the Russian Empire, the USSR, Estonia. From time immemorial, Russians have lived in Narva, and during the entry of this city into Estonia, 86% of the Russian population lived here. More than 41% of the Russian population lives in Tallinn.
A large influx of refugees from Russia occurred after the 1917 Revolution. So Russians have always lived in Estonia. A lot of Germans and Swedes lived in the country until 1925, but the implementation of land reforms at that time led to massive bankruptcy and their departure from Estonia. The influx of the Russian population increased significantly in the post-war period, so, by 1959, the percentage of the Russian population was more than 20% of the total population.
Russian speaking population
In Estonia, in addition to Russians and Estonians, there is a Russian-speaking population, which includes Jews, Armenians, Ukrainians, Germans, Belarusians, part of the indigenous population. The Russian language has become native for many of them. Most of these people came to Estonia during the Soviet Union. Young people born after the 1990s mostly speak Estonian.
Persons without Estonian citizenship
In March 1992, the law on granting citizenship, adopted in 1938, comes into force, according to which, citizens are considered to be living in the country at the time of its adoption or their descendants. Overnight, more than a third of the inhabitants of the newly formed country turned out to be non-citizens, most of them wereRussians in Estonia.
This law was in effect for a little over a year, but this time was enough to hold elections to the legislative and executive authorities. As a result, the composition of the Estonian parliament consisted of 100% ethnic Estonians, which made it possible to pass laws directed against the Russian-speaking population. The Russian language in Estonia is becoming the language of private communication, since Estonian was declared the state language.
The status of non-citizens in Estonia is regulated by a law passed in 1993. The timing of its adoption was not chosen by chance. It was the time of privatization. Indeed, according to the newly adopted law, stateless persons cannot own property in Estonia. At that time, the Estonian media began to publish unflattering materials about Russia in order to justify actions against the Russians.
It was those who, according to the adopted law, received the status of "stateless person", owned most of the real estate, worked at enterprises that were subsequently privatized. Naturally, the employees of enterprises, mostly residents of other regions of the former USSR, declared non-citizens by law, were deprived of the right to privatization.
This led to the fact that almost all real estate, enterprises became the property of ethnic Estonians, today the owners of large businesses. Since non-citizens were limited in their ability to engage in entrepreneurship, the legislation left them the opportunity to open small eateries, cafes and shops. Subsequently, many were still able to obtain citizenship, but timewas missed.
Estonian domestic policy
The Estonian government, under the influence of mass demonstrations of the Russian-speaking population, international organizations, the UN, the EU, made some concessions. It, still believing that citizenship should be obtained through naturalization, went to weaken the requirements for obtaining it, which resulted in some simplification of the Estonian language exam.
But gradually, citizenship in Estonia for Russians became not the most priority issue. This happened due to the fact that the European Union allowed stateless persons living in this country to freely travel to countries that are part of the Schengen zone. In 2008, D. Medvedev followed the same path, allowing persons in this category to enter Russia without a visa. This is a definite plus, since it is very problematic for Estonian citizens to obtain a visa to Russia. Many were satisfied with the situation of non-citizens of Estonia. This does not suit Tallinn. Moscow, as always, prefers to remain silent on this matter.
But the UN, as well as the European Union, are concerned about the large number of stateless people, rightly believing that this violates the rights of a large part of the inhabitants of Estonia. Since 2015, children of Estonian non-citizens born in this country automatically receive citizenship, but, as the state government points out, their parents are in no hurry to obtain it. The Estonian government pins its hopes on the time, as a result of which the older generation will die out, thereby naturalization will occur.
Russia's position on the Russian question inEstonia
Relations between Moscow and Tallinn are at a freezing point. Despite the fact that 390,000 Russians live in Estonia, the policy of apartheid against them continues. The actions of the Russian government are purely declarative, which the majority of compatriots living in Estonia regard as treacherous.
In Estonia there is a falsification of history. This applies to a greater extent to the Second World War. It is openly said that the Nazi troops helped the Estonians to fight for the freedom of the country, representing the Russians as occupiers. The Estonian media speak of Russia not as neighbors, but as invaders, once again presenting the Russian-speaking inhabitants of their country as agents of Moscow, second-class people. You can often read that Russians are regulars in liquor stores (don't Estonians visit them?), badly dressed, backward, living their own life, incomprehensible to Europeans. Of course, this is not true. But the most important thing is to make an impression.
Moscow prefers to pretend that nothing bad is happening in Estonia. This partly explains why many Russians prefer to be "stateless" in the country where they were born, grew up, and do not rush to their homeland. First of all, because of the rather lengthy bureaucratic procedure for obtaining citizenship by ethnic Russians, which lasts for years. You have to go through humiliating collections of endless certificates and documents. And also because Estonia is their land, where they were born, where their fathers lived, for which their grandfathers fought.
Ethnic segregation?
How do Russians live in Estonia? This question is difficult to answer unambiguously. If you look from the point of view of material well-being, then, probably, it is no worse than in Russia. Although in the European Union Estonia is a poor agricultural country. Otherwise, there would be an exodus. But things will not come to this, since more than one-third of the country's population is Russian-speaking. As studies by scientists from the University of Tartu show, in Tallinn, as in other cities of Estonia, the number of people moving from one district to another has become more frequent, while Russians settle with Russians, Estonians with Estonians.
In the capital, local ethnic groups try to settle in the city center (Põhja-Tallinn, Kesklinn, Kalamaja) and suburbs (Kakumäe, Pirita, Nõmme). Although the central region of Pyhja-Tallinn is populated by Russians by more than 50%. Russians prefer to move to areas where there are national communities. These are mainly sleeping panel areas.
There is a division into groups based on nationality. It turns out that Estonians do not want to live next to Russians, who are not particularly eager to live next to Estonians. Separation along national lines, artificial isolation between citizens, which is called "segregation", is growing. All this is fraught with serious consequences, which can manifest themselves at any moment, as soon as people realize that Russia is not their helper, but that the members of the Estonian government have “bitten the bit”, feeling NATO behind them. This is also understood in the European Union, where they do not want to solve another difficult problem. Ordinary people live peacefully, not wantingconfrontation.
Estonian naturalization
The country has experience of this event from 1920 to 1940. The B altic Germans and Swedes were subjected to it. Historically, they were the owners of the land. Estonians living in rural areas bore the surnames of their masters. After the adoption of the Rules of the Estonian Language in 1920, the government took a tough course of assimilation of the Germans, Swedes, who, not wanting to learn the Estonian language, left for their historical homeland.
The people of Seto, who lived in Estonia before the annexation of the territory located in the Pechora district of the Novgorod region, underwent assimilation. In addition, Estonianization of surnames was carried out. The government cannot now conduct rigidly open naturalization, as this will cause misunderstanding on the part of international human rights organizations, as well as local Russian-speaking movements. Therefore, this process is designed for a longer period, for 20 years.
Russians in Estonia today
Independence, acquired in 1991, leads to the fact that the Russian language is deprived of official status and becomes a foreign language. But the situation around this issue does not suit the Estonian government at all, since Russian speech can be heard almost throughout the country. The language is used at the household level, in advertising, trade, and services. It is not used in full force at the state level, although there are Russian-language websites of many state organizations that exist on budget money. Besides,the Russian-language Internet, the media, cultural organizations and much more are used not only by Russians, but also by Estonians.
In addition to Russians, citizens with Russian passports and non-citizens permanently reside in Estonia. Therefore, in many municipalities, where non-Estonians make up more than half of the population, the provision of public services in the language of the national minority is allowed. If everything is more or less clear with citizens of another state, then non-citizens who have been permanently residing in this country for several generations are infringed on their rights.
It is quite difficult for a Russian citizen of Estonia to get a good job, and for a non-citizen it is almost impossible. Work in Estonia for Russians is only at industrial facilities, in the service sector, trade, and catering. The civil service, most of the privileged and well-paid professions fall under the list where knowledge of the Estonian language is mandatory.
Education
The Estonian government understands that as long as there are educational institutions in Russian, full naturalization will not happen. This applies in particular to high schools and universities. Therefore, a complete translation of these educational institutions into Estonian is being carried out. The problem of the Russian-speaking intelligentsia is quite acute. Russian schools in Estonia are closing.
The fact is that in the post-war period in the agrarian Republic of Estonia, industrialenterprises. This is due to the presence of ports on the B altic Sea. Estonians, being mostly rural residents, could not provide them with labor force. Therefore, qualified workers from other regions of the USSR came to work at the enterprises. They mostly had working speci alties.
Studying in Estonia for Russian children in Russian schools is prohibited. The Russian private universities operating in the country are mostly closed or are in danger of disappearing. Without the intelligentsia, in particular the humanities, it is rather difficult to preserve Russian traditions in Estonia. Schoolchildren who study all subjects in Estonian, and their own, native, as a foreign language, optionally getting acquainted with Russian literature, the history of Russia, simply assimilate, dissolving in the mass of Estonians, who still will not accept them as their own. This is what the Estonian government is counting on.
How Russians are treated in Estonia
Estonians, like any other nation, is composed of different groups of people, including nationalists. For many reasons, the issue of preserving the nation is very acute for Estonians. Fear of assimilation by another, more powerful nation is pushing the Estonian government to take unpopular measures that violate human rights.
Russians in Estonia are treated differently, some are bad, some are good. The point here is not in ordinary people, but in state policy aimed at assimilation of the Russian population or at squeezing out those who resist this process. Another thing - Russianstourists in Estonia. Wanting to develop tourism as a profitable part of the economy, they are making every effort to create conditions for a good holiday.
The place of the Russian language is increasingly occupied by English, which sooner or later will become dominant. The negative results in this regard are felt by the larger nations: Germans, French and other Europeans who resisted Americanization, having powerful economies that provide funds to preserve their own culture, investing in their own cinema, literature, theater and so on.
In Soviet times, the Russian occupiers, according to the Estonians, did not apply such measures to the local population that the government of this country uses today in relation to the Russians, for whom this country, by the will of fate, became native. Estonian schools, theaters worked, books, newspapers and magazines were published. The state Russian language coexisted with Estonian. In the institutes, along with the Russians, there were Estonian groups, where they studied in their native language. Signboards in shops, documentation of local authorities were understandable to Estonians and Russians. Estonian could be heard everywhere. In Russian schools, they studied it without fail. Every effort was made to develop the indigenous language.
