Baltic Russians

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Baltic Russians are ethnic Russians who live in the Baltic states: Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.

The term "Baltic Russians" does not imply a separate ethnic subcategory among the Russians. It came into use in the context of discussions of their fate after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Therefore, Russians living in the Saint Petersburg area and the Kaliningrad Oblast are usually excluded, as they live within the current administrative boundaries of Russia. The Russian minorities of Finland and Poland, despite the fact that they live in countries by the Baltic Sea coast, are not considered "Baltic Russians", because these countries were not annexed into the Soviet Union during the Second World War.

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[edit] History

Most of the present-day Baltic Russians are migrants from the Soviet era and their descendants, whereas only a relatively small fraction of them can trace their ancestry in the area back to previous centuries (see History of Russians in Lithuania, History of Russians in Latvia and History of Russians in Estonia). The term "Baltic Russians" was rarely ever used before the end of the Second World War. Prior to 1945, there was no common "Baltic Russian" identity that would somehow cover the Russians living in Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia, and at the same time distinguish them from, e.g., Russians living in Poland or Finland.

After the First World War, ethnic Russians made up about 10-11 % of the population in independent Latvia, according to official statistics[1]. The share of ethnic Russians in the population of independent Estonia was about 8%[citation needed], of which about half were indigenous Russians living in the areas in and around Pechory and Izborsk which were added to Estonian territory according to the 1920 Estonian-Soviet Peace Treaty of Tartu, but were transferred to the Russian SFSR by the Soviet authorities in 1945. The share of ethnic Russians in independent Lithuania was significantly smaller (about 2%)[2].

Following the terms of the 1939 Molotov-Ribbentrop pact, the Soviet Union annexed Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania in 1940. After Germany attacked the Soviet Union in 1941, the three countries quickly fell under German control. Some Russians, especially Communist party members who had arrived in the area with the initial annexation, retreated to Russia; those who fell into German hands were treated harshly, many were murdered.

As the war drew to a close, the Soviet Union resumed its occupation of the Baltic states in 1944-1945. United States and other Western countries did not recognize the legality of the Soviet occupation and annexation of the Baltic nations (Stimson Doctrine), and retained continued official relations with the diplomatic representatives of the Baltic states until the restoration of independence of the three nations in August 1991.

Immediately after the war, Stalin carried out a major colonization and de facto Russification campaign in what were now the three Baltic Soviet republics. Many of the Russians, along with a smaller number of other ethnic groups, who migrated from USSR to the Baltic countries, arrived to rebuild the heavily war-damaged economies of the Baltic countries. Mostly they were factory and construction workers who settled in major urban areas, as well as military personnel stationed in the region in significant numbers due to the border location of the Baltic countries within the Soviet Union. Many military retirees chose to stay in the region, which featured higher living standards compared to most of Russia. (This would lead to bitter disputes with Russia regarding the issue of their military pensions after the dissolution of the Soviet Union.)

After Stalin's death in 1953, the flow of new migrants from other Soviet republics slowed down due to different policies on urbanization, economy and other issues of Lithuanian SSR than were those carried in the Latvian SSR and the Estonian SSR[3]. The flow of immigrants did not stop entirely in Lithuania, and there were further waves of Russian workers who came to work on major construction projects, such as power plants.

In Latvia and Estonia, less was done to stop the Russian immigration. By the 1980s Russians made up a third of the population in Estonia, while in Latvia, ethnic Latvians made up only about half of the population. In contrast, in 1989 only 9.4 % of Lithuania's population were Russians.

Some of the Baltic Russians, mainly those who had come to live in the region not so long before the three countries regained independence in 1991 and had families elsewhere, emigrated to Russia and other countries in the beginning of the 1990s. In Latvia and Estonia those who remained have faced problems with acquiring local Latvian and Estonian citizenships (see Citizenship section).

[edit] Current situation

Baltic Russians live mainly in cities.

In Lithuanian capital Vilnius they make up 14.43% of the population, in Lithuania's third largest city Klaipėda 21.65% of inhabitants are Russians. Other cities of Lithuania (including second-largest city Kaunas) has a smaller percentage of Russian population, while in most towns and villages there are very few Russians (with the exception of Visaginas town). 6.3% of Lithuania's population are ethnic Russians.

Russians make up almost a half of the population of Riga, the capital of Latvia. In the second largest city Daugavpils, Russians make a majority of population. Today about 29% of Latvia's population are ethnic Russians.

In Estonia, most live in Tallinn (36.86% of city's population are Russians) and the major eastern cities of Narva (86.41% of inhabitants are Russians) and Kohtla-Järve (69.68% of inhabitants are Russians). Overall, Russians make up 25.78% of Estonia's population (35.45% of the urban population and 5.90% of the rural population).

Russians used to settle in larger cities because many industrial workers were needed there. In all three countries, the rural settlements are inhabited almost entirely by the main national ethnic groups, except some areas in eastern Estonia and Latvia with a longer history of Russian and mixed villages. The Lithuanian city of Visaginas was built for workers at the Ignalina nuclear power plant and therefore has a Russian majority.

[edit] Citizenship

After regaining independence, Latvia and Estonia passed citizenship laws on the basis of legal continuity of their statehood, thus granting automatic acquisition of citizenship according to the principle of jus sanguinis only for the persons who held citizenship before 16 June 1940 and their descendants. Persons, who arrived after the occupation of 1940, or their descendants may obtain citizenship through the naturalisation. This policy affects not only ethnic Russians, but also these ethnic Estonians and Latvians, who don't apply to the principle of jus sanguinis. Knowledge of the respective local language and history was set as a condition for obtaining naturalised citizenship. However, the difficulty of the initial language tests became a point of international contention, as the government of Russia, the Council of Europe, and several human rights organizations objected that they made it impossible for many older Russians who grew up in the Baltic region to gain citizenship. As a result, the tests were altered, but certain percentage of Russians in Latvia and Estonia still have alien status, and feel they are regarded with suspicion.[citation needed]

The language issue is still contentious, particularly in Latvia, where ethnic Russians have protested against plans to require 60 % of lessons in the Russian high schools to be taught in the national language instead of Russian.

In contrast, Lithuania granted citizenship to all the people (willing to have it) who lived in the republic at the time of gaining independence, without requiring them to learn Lithuanian. One and probably the main reason that Lithuania took a less restrictive approach than Latvia and Estonia is likely that whereas in Latvia ethnic Latvians comprised only a small majority of the total population, and in Estonia ethnic Estonians comprised about 62 percent, in Lithuania ethnic Lithuanians were about 80 percent of the population. Therefore, as a matter of voting in national elections or referenda, the opinions of ethnic Lithuanians would likely carry the day if there were a difference in opinion between Lithuanians and the larger minority groups (Russians and Poles), but the ability of the indigenous ethnic majority to carry the day was less certain in the other two Baltic countries, especially in Latvia.

Some representatives of ethnic Russian communities in Latvia and Estonia have claimed discrimination by the countries' authorities with these calls frequently supported by Russia. On the other hand, Latvia and Estonia deny discrimination charges and often blame Russia for using the issue for political purposes. In recent years, as the Russian political leaders have begun to speak about the "former Soviet space" as their sphere of infuence[4], such claims are a source of annoyance, if not alarm, in the Baltic countries.

Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania have since 2004 been members of NATO and the European Union (EU) and this provides a counterbalance to Russia's claims to speak for the interests of ethnic Russian residents of these countries. Furthermore, both Estonia and Latvia, after they had become candidates for EU membership, to satisfy a precondition for their admission to the EU, adjusted their citizenship policies in response to EU monitoring and requests. Claims of discrimination in basic rights by Russians and other minorities in the region may have less efficacy now than they did during the years when the Baltic countries' membership applications were still pending with the EU. In a sense, the three countries "passed the test," and they do not have to repeat it.

According to the Estonian Statistical Office, ethnic Russians comprised 25.7% of the population in 2003. As of February 2007, the Population Register of the Estonian Ministry of the Interior reported that 8.7% of Estonia's residents have undefined citizenship and 7.7% have foreign citizenship[5].

[edit] Political parties

There is a number of political parties and politicians in the Baltic states who claim to represent Russian-speaking minority. In Latvia it is For Human Rights in United Latvia which has one seat in the European parliament held by Tatjana Zhdanok, as well as more moderate National Harmony Party. In Estonia there is a similar Constitution Party. These political parties support Russian language rights, granting citizenship to all residents of Latvia and Estonia and tend to be left-wing on other issues.

[edit] References and notes

  1. ^ Data on population of Latvia in 1920-1935
  2. ^ Stasys Vaitiekūnas "Lietuvos gyventojai per du tūkstantmečius"
  3. ^ Stasys Vaitiekūnas "Lietuvos gyventojai per du tūkstantmečius"
  4. ^ See Vladimir Socor, "Kremlin Refining Policy in 'Post-Soviet Space'," Eurasia Daily Monitor (Feb. 8, 2005) at http://www.jamestown.org/edm/article.php?article_id=2369222.
  5. ^ Estonia: Citizenship

[edit] See also

[edit] Notable Baltic Russians

Famous modern Baltic Russians include:

[edit] References

  1. ^ Data on population of Latvia in 1920-1935
  2. ^ Stasys Vaitiekūnas "Lietuvos gyventojai per du tūkstantmečius"
  3. ^ Stasys Vaitiekūnas "Lietuvos gyventojai per du tūkstantmečius"
  4. ^ See Vladimir Socor, "Kremlin Refining Policy in 'Post-Soviet Space'," Eurasia Daily Monitor (Feb. 8, 2005) at http://www.jamestown.org/edm/article.php?article_id=2369222.
  5. ^ Estonia: Citizenship
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