Russians in Estonia: Leave Soviet Repressions in the Past (41)

Published: 08.09.2011 11:25

The ghost of Joseph Stalin still stands in the way of mutual understanding
( Photo: Postimees/Scanpix )

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A recent study by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington-based think tank, found that 71 percent of Estonia's native Russian youth "want to end discussions of the repressions of the Soviet era," including that of the mass deportations of Estonians to Siberia.

The surveyors polled native Russian youths between 16 and 29 years of age, of whom 43 percent believed that the debate over repression is harmful to Estonian society.

Researchers also polled their peers living in Russia, where only 45 percent of those questioned felt a need to leave discussions of Soviet atrocities in the past; 18 percent agreed that constantly raising the subject is harmful to their country.

The study concluded that 60 percent of ethnic Russian respondents living in Estonia agreed that the collapse of the Soviet Union "was the greatest geopolitical tragedy of the 20th century,“ and that half of Estonia's ethnic Russians believe that Stalin did more good than bad. Among ethnic Estonian respondents, 85 percent agreed that Russia should apologize for occupying their country - versus 8 percent of Russians in Estonia, who showed considerably less enthusiasm for an apology than their peers living in Russia.

Seventy percent of Estonia's ethnic Russians said the Russian government should intervene on behalf of Russians in Estonia whose rights are violated.

 

Ingrid Teesalu

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Comments (41)

  • W

    08.09.2011 12:24

    Poll results like these raise a host of other questions. Unfortunately, there seems to be little information available anywhere in English on Estonia's Russians. Does anyone know of relevant writings on the subject? I'd really like to understand more about their perspectives, as well as the other (less obvious) ways in which their lives differ from that of ethnic Estonians.

  • Onu

    08.09.2011 13:38

    "Seventy percent of Estonia's ethnic Russians said the Russian government should intervene on behalf of Russians in Estonia whose rights are violated." Are their rights violated, or do they only claim that their rights are violated? The article seems to have taken a stand for the former opinion. So here is a suggestion for the investigative reporter: Go out and find those violations! If you find them, it would make for a great scoop. Otherwise it would be good for the climate between ethnic estonians and ethnic russians to stop debating this particular issue.

  • AV

    08.09.2011 14:09

    Knut - just out of curiosity, how would you react, if a survey had been carried out in Germany, concluding that 60 percent of respondents agreed that the collapse of the Third Reich "was the greatest geopolitical tragedy of the 20th century,“ and that half of them believe that Hitler did more good than bad.

  • Foreign Estonian

    08.09.2011 15:05

    I want to like Russians. I don't want to hold a grudge against them. I want to forgive them. But it is ridiculous, uninformed nonsense like this that causes me problems in getting what I want. Russia fxxxed Estonia over, Russia killed millions, and that is historical fact. Germany apologized. Germany paid. When will Russia? A simple "Oops, sorry for that" would do a world of good for improving relations in Estonia. It would allow both sides to move on. For now, it seems like Russians are behaving this way because deep down inside, they know their grandparents' government was as bad as the Nazis'. My German friends feel the same way. I don't have many Russian friends, because they don't know how to apologize. Who wants a friend like that?

  • avatar

    knut_albers

    08.09.2011 16:15

    Well, AV, this is (almost) the conclusion of those Estonians that claim that the Estonians fought on behalf of the Germans for liberation, freedom, independency. The same conclusion for those, that claim Estonians and Russians that fought on behalf of the Red Army. These quite same arguments of both camps for different regimes simply make me stunned, because this needs to be understand: Both camps of supporters of criminal regimes claim to have freed Estonia. From what? Neither under the Nazis and under Communism Estonia was freed. N-O-T A S-I-N-G-L-E D-A-Y. And the generation involved that ultimately led to Estonia's re-independence in the nineties (almost entirely without violence), had nothing to do with the events of World War II. But in Estonia is apparently only room for two views (the Estonian right-wing position and the Russian left-wing position as stated above).

  • rommi

    08.09.2011 16:55

    Not being able to vote is not a violation of rights? Only in Eastern Europe...

  • mart mang

    08.09.2011 19:10

    In the end, Estonians feared the Russians more than the Germans.

  • Serg

    08.09.2011 20:05

    TO: knuts_alberts Well, I don't really know the situation in Estonia that well, but is it really safe to assume that 60% of ethnic Estonians consider the collapse on Nazi Germany a tragedy? I don't think so. The issue is that if you leave Estonia aside and look at other far away countries with ethnic Russian population (Ukraine for instance) the situation is quite similar (and messed up), in a sense that too many ethnic Russians think like Stalin & USSR too much.

  • EY

    08.09.2011 20:51

    TO; Rommi All Estonian citizens, including naturalized citizens, are entitled to vote at general and local elections in Estonia. All foreign subjects, who have lived in Estonia for at least five years, including citizens of Russia and other former Soviet republics, are entitled to vote at local elections. So what are you complaining about? That citizens of other countries are not entitled to elect Estonia's parliament? Where in the world can you find a state where foreign citizens are allowed to elect that country's parliament?

  • Rolf W.

    08.09.2011 21:05

    @W There is a bunch of literature about Russians in Estonia. For example David Laitin "Identity in formation" (1998), includes qualitative analysis, also Pami Aalto: "Constructing post-soviet geopolitics in Estonia" refers to the Russian community, Brüggemann, Karsten: "Narva and the Baltic Sea region" mainly German but also several english articles, Andersen, Eric Andre: " An ethnic perspective on Economic reform. The case of Estonia (1999); Clemens: "The baltic transformed", There are also books about minorities in Eastern Europe that offers articles about Estonia. also the Journal of Baltic Studies and the Journal East European Politics and Societies as well as Nationalities Papers offer sometimes interesting articles about the minorities in Estonia (Baltic states) The journals are available at Rahvusramaatukogu:)

  • reader

    09.09.2011 10:51

    "43 percent believed that the debate over repression is harmful to Estonian society. Researchers also polled their peers living in Russia, where only 45 percent of those questioned felt a need to leave discussions of Soviet atrocities in the past." last I checked, 45 is bigger than 43. admittedly, 18 is less than 43 (as the story continues) but this just raises to question the capabilities of the language/logic editor. In any case, being myself an Estonian I do think it's unfair to ask the young Russians in Estonia to be responsible for something done generations ago, also to their ancestors. Many of the Russians who ended up in Estonia didn't choose to come here, they were "relocated" same as the Estonians to Siberia. Well, maybe not in cattle wagons and they were allowed to bring their possessions and family along and were given slightly better accommodation than the indigenous population but that doesn't change the fact that the Soviet worker had extremely little say in WHERE he/she would work. But that's the individual Russians living in Estonia. The actions of the Russian government in Russia are a completely different story - if they want to be a successor of the Soviet Union geopolitically then they ought to take the responsibilities of the past as well and apologise.

  • observer

    09.09.2011 15:16

    Excellent post reader. I agree the article is not written very clearly, quite confusingly in fact, but my understanding is the figures have to be compared as follows: "71 percent of Estonia's native Russian youth "want to end discussions of the repressions of the Soviet era,"" vs "only 45 percent of those questioned felt a need to leave discussions of Soviet atrocities in the past;" (Russia) and "43 percent believed that the debate over repression is harmful to Estonian society." vs. "18 percent agreed that constantly raising the subject is harmful to their country." (Russia). Which is interesting as it shows Russian youth in Russia are more open by a WIDE margin to discussing/acknowledging Soviet crimes. Why is that? Why the huge discrepancy? Is it because the Russian youth in Estonia feel that bringing up these past crimes is simply a means for the Estonian majority to persecute/discriminate against them? I can certainly imagine every time another politician starts up about the "Soviet crimes" the Russians here roll up their eyes and switch off the television/turn the page/switch the radio off as they no doubt feel it's an attack directed at them. The only way you are going to counteract such views as in this article is to make it clear, as Reader does very well in his post, that the problem is with the Russian government, not with these people who for the most part had very little control of where they were sent.

  • language and logic

    09.09.2011 15:53

    admittedly, 45 is less than 71.

  • W

    09.09.2011 16:07

    "Half of Estonia's ethnic Russians believe that Stalin did more good than bad"... Wow. To reach that conclusion your allegiance to national ideology really has to exceed your allegiance to humanity.

  • Bilbo

    12.09.2011 04:22

    I believe it's time for Eastern European nations to move on and let go of all the hate with regards to the Soviet Union. We know horrible things happened but Estonia has a new generation of citizens that must look forward to the future. Those times have passed and if Eastern Europe and the Baltic states want to integrate to the developed world,then they need to look ahead and not look back into the past.

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