This post is way overdue, but better late than never.
At Pierson College’s Master’s Tea, Latvia’s ex-President Vaira Vike-Freiberga participated in a talk with the crowd constisting mostly of Yale grad students and professors. A couple of Russian undergrad students, including myself, were present.
In Russia, Dr. Vike-Freiberga is usually portrayed as a stern, anti-Russian leader who made miserable the lives of many Russians living in Latvia. I went to that meeting hoping that maybe Russian media actually exaggerated their portrayal.
Dr. Vike-Freiberga is a very charismatic, well-spoken lady who seems to be able to make the audience happy. In the beginning, she talked a lot about Latvian history and of it being annexed and occupied by the USSR. Most Russian media disagree with that, but I believe she absolutely right describing the Soviets as ruthless invaders. The USSR (NOT Russia) did invade Latvia. But a side note: isn’t’ this how most of the world history is made anyway?
Dr. Vike-Freiberga’s hostility towards USSR/Russia is sadly based on her country’s history in general and her family’s history in particular. At the same time, Russians suffered just as much (and, as one of the guest who was siding with the Latvians admitted in a private discussion after a talk, Russians had suffered much more). Her family was escaped to Germany to avoid the Nazis; my grandfathers, both in Russia and Ukraine, were killed in the concentration camps.
During her two terms at the office, Latvia joined the EU and NATO – which is a big achievement for a post-Soviet country. Well that’s all warm and fuzzy and the audience was feeling happy for a small nation re-gaining its national sovereignty and pride.
Things got heated when the issue of the Russians in Latvia was raised. 20% of the Latvian population are Russian. Many never learned a word of Latvian, because they simply never had to. Everybody (including ethnic Latvians) spoke Russian in the USSR, of which Latvia used to be part. Schools and universities were taught in Russian; office and government work was done in Russian. Latvian was one of the official national languages of the USSR — along with Russian. Any Russian speaker has as many rights to speak Russian in Latvia as he did to speak Latvian. Most preferred Russian though, since it was a lingua franca of all fifteen republics of the USSR. In many mixed Russian-Latvian marriages, Russian was a language of choice for spouses and children.
These days when Latvia is a sovereign state, there is a clear attempt on the government’s part to oust Russians and Russian speakers out of the country. This campaign was largely initiated by Dr. Vike-Freiberga, who (coincidentally, of course) possesses an interest in linguistics and Latvian folklore.
Now, in order to obtain a job, the Russians have to pass what Dr. Vike-Freiberga referred to at that meeting as ” a minimal language proficiency exam.” She also claimed that “if someone lives in a country, they should speak a language of that country.” That “minimal” exam requires fluency in a language. And most developed countries have either no state language (e.g., the U.S, where people manage to live without speaking a word of English and where speaking Spanish is often an essential skill for employment in some parts of the country), or state programs that allow immigrants to learn the language (Germany, Israel, you name it).
Interestingly enough, after my questions to Dr. Vike-Freiberga, several Yalies approached me to discuss the issue. Russia was often portrayed as “the evil one” in this case, but many Yalies changed their understanding of the matter after that meeting. Yay for breaking stereotypes!
I disagree on several points you raise regarding Russians in Latvia.
First of all, although you try to distinguish between the Soviet Union and Russia, the modern Russia clearly wasn’t a restoration of the Russian Empire of the 1917, but rather a consequence of the Soviet Union. On a shallow level, the link between the Soviet Union and Russia can be seen with the restoration of the Soviet national anthem with new words as the official Russian anthem. On a deeper level, Russian officials repeatedly stated that the Soviet Union debts were Russian financial obligations. Therefore, the difference between Russia and Soviet Union you’d like to emphasize is, well, absurd. The link clearly exists.
Second of all, Latvian language and citizenship laws are not ethnically centered, they don’t target ethnic Russians. Russians living here ought to be able to communicate in Latvian and ought to be able to pass basic language test required for naturalization. It’s not that hard. As a Russian living in Latvia, I have many friends who passed the test with a snap. What prevents majority of the people to pass the test is not its complexity, but the humility it requires. Some Russians here believe they deserve citizenship of a country they claim no allegiance to. This is why they refuse to pass naturalization. A pride stands in a way. So it’s not that the Latvian government makes complicated laws to prevent Russians from naturalization. It’s that Russians themselves believe they deserve it and will not humble themselves by taking a basic test and pledge allegiance to the country they claim as their home.
There are, of course, Russians who inherited citizenship, who were citizens of the inter-war Republic, like my own family. They’re not required to pass the test. However, my grandmother who lived most of her 75 years in Latvia speaks no Latvian. How can one explain that? You hint as that saying that Russianwas lingua franca in the Soviet Union, but Latvian and Russian were not on the same level. Big languages tend to overrun smaller ones. Russian overruns Latvian. English overruns Gaelic in Ireland, for example.
Another point – Russians did indeed suffer greatly under Stalin. However, if Latvians have many commemoration days on their calendar, Russians have none. On June 14, for example, Latvians will remember those people who were deported by the Soviets in 1941. On June 17, Latvians will remember when the Soviet tanks rolled in to their country back in 1940 and took away their independence. Russians generally don’t participate in those even though many Russians were deported and many Russians lost their freedom when the Soviet arrived here.
One of the Russian newspapers Segodnya distributed worldwide to the Russian expat community was published in Riga and was shut down after the Soviets arrived. An ethnic Russian who owned a movie theater chain in the Baltics was sent to Siberia where he died. Russians here don’t remember that at all. And looking at the official rhetoric of the Russian officials in Russia proper, Russian government doesn’t remind the population about those terrible bloody years. It’ eager to move on. To forget. And those who forget are abound to repeat it, which sends paranoia chills down any Latvian’s back.
On May 9, ethnic Russians gathered in Riga under the Russian national flag to remember those who died in the war. Why not Latvian? Because local Russians, even those with citizenship, feel no connection to this “toy kingdom” known as the Republic of Latvia. That’s the core problem that goes beyond the language requirements.
Thanks for taking your time to write such a long and extensive reply, Aleks. I sincerely appreciate it.
This post was never meant to be a complete expose of a current political situation and the complex relations between two countries. It was meant to be a brief outline of what happened at that meeting at Yale.
Yes, Russians (aka the Soviets) did do some terrible things to Latvians and other nationals alike. And yes, Russia is very unwilling to admit that. I, on the other hand, agree that we ought to apologize to Latvians for what happened. But things like that would never happen in world politics — would the US ever apologize for invading Iraq, for instance?
And since my post was centered around that certain meeting, I just blogged about how disheartening it felt to be there in the audience and listen her blame everything on the Russians. Russia this, Russia that — I am sorry, but it was not a James Bond movie, and we are not some great evil empire that needs to be blamed for every problem Latvia ever had. It also seems that Madam Ex-President is very biased against Russia due to personal reasons, which is, of course, not a suitable quality for a real leader.
I am glad to hear that it’s easy to pass that language proficiency exam. If it is truly so, I apologize and take my words back. The way it is portrayed in the (mostly Russian) media and the way I hear my friends describe it, it’s not so easy to pass it. The truth is out there, I guess.
As for commemorating sad events in the history of the USSR — with the political course the new leadership is taking, it is not going to happen. I personally think it’s a great idea to at least remind people in national TV about what we did to the ex-Soviet republics, but we are ultra-super-uber patriotic these days, and no, it is sadly not happening (can say that for sure, since I am interning at TV/radio). I doubt the government is “eager to move on” though, I’d say it’s eager to go back to being a glorious empire and taking over small nations.
You made many important points in your comment, and it’s difficult for me to address all of them (have to run). However, I am glad you pointed out some things of which I was not aware and made me re-think the situation. My only question would be: you seem to be pretty happy in Latvia, but is it the case for all Russians living there? I get to hear about some pretty bad discrimination from my friends who reside in Latvia.
Let’s see if the HTML tags work here.
Russia this, Russia that — I am sorry, but it was not a James Bond movie, and we are not some great evil empire that needs to be blamed for every problem Latvia ever had. It also seems that Madam Ex-President is very biased against Russia due to personal reasons, which is, of course, not a suitable quality for a real leader.
Certainly the Soviet Union is to be blamed for some of our problems. Latvia went from an economic engine of the 1940 to a Soviet province. Granted, some problems here are of ethnic Latvians’ own making, but I won’t bore you with those.
You also also forgetting that Madame Ex-President was the only Baltic President to attend the May 9 celebration in Moscow in 2005, in spite of her own personal thinking, or even the heat that she received from Latvians here.
Regarding your question, I think Russians are happy here, or at least generally happier than they would have been if they had chosen to go back to Russia. The Russian government’s compatriot resettlement program of two years ago was an utter failure and actually showed that Russians would much rather live in Europe than in their historical motherland. Sure, large number of people are leaving for the greener pastures of Ireland and Britain. The open European market allows for that, but that’s a good thing. At least, it’ll force our politicians to do something about economy because the government is interested in bringing them back.
But generally, I think being a citizen of the EU member Latvia offers far more opportunities in Europe than being a citizen of Russia.
Yes, Russians (aka the Soviets) did do some terrible things to Latvians and other nationals alike. And yes, Russia is very unwilling to admit that. I, on the other hand, agree that we ought to apologize to Latvians for what happened. But things like that would never happen in world politics — would the US ever apologize for invading Iraq, for instance?
Iraq is too soon. We can talk about special privileges for Native Americans in the US as a sign of regret for their oppression, for example. We can talk about perpetual guilt of the Germans in the wake of the Second World War. We can talk about British Empire releasing its former colonies and developing a relationship of the equals among them. Russia, on the other hand, seems perpetually paranoid that the West is out to get it, or to mess around in its back yard. It finds it difficult to allow countries make their own choices because it knows full well if countries could do that, they’d rather turn to the West than to Russia.
Sad to hear that Russia is not to remember its victims of the Stalin regime.
Good luck with your internship.
You also also forgetting that Madame Ex-President was the only Baltic President to attend the May 9 celebration in Moscow in 2005, in spite of her own personal thinking, or even the heat that she received from Latvians here.
We actually spoke about that at that meeting; she explicitly stated that she showed up only to put Russia to shame so that the Russian government wouldn’t be able to blame the Baltic leaders for the lack of disrespect, etc.
And yes, the EU citizenship is way greater than having a Russian passport. I am stuck with the latter myself; since I have to travel a lot for school and work, it makes life extra-difficult when getting visas. This conversations makes me wish I were a Russian living in Latvia, so that I could go to Oxford/Cambridge almost for free…
Also, it doesn’t make sense to expect Russia to apologize to the Latvians etc (I emphasizes that I think it should), when the ethnic Russian victims of the Stalin regime are not commemorated. Two of my great-grandparents (one ethnic Russian, another ethnic Ukrainian) were killed in the concentration camp. The government never bothered apologizing — and there are millions of Russians with family stories like that.
Sure, she went because she had hoped to make the voice of ethnic Latvians heard in the Kremlin. She even gave a history book on Latvia as a present to President Putin. But Russia still sees former Soviet countries as its sphere of influence. It’s more obvious with Ukraine than with the Baltics. But think of words used in the Russian media to describe former Soviet Union like “near abroad” (whatever that means), Russians living here are “Russian compatriots.”
I agree that it doesn’t make sense to expect the Russian government to apologize if it doesn’t commemorate the Stalin crimes, although it doesn’t hurt to try. However, I would expect ethnic Russians in Latvia to commemorate victims of the Stalin regime, if they claim that a) Russians suffered as much – if not more – than Latvians at the hands of Soviets; b) Latvia is their home for ever and ever. Otherwise, these arguments are just rhetoric.
As a side note, today, President Medvedev said Russia will support Russian-language press abroad, presumably he also meant the Russian press in the Baltics, but the press here is more free and independent than their Russian colleagues. It seems if the Russian-language press here were to write similar articles about Russian government as they do about the Latvian government, they’d be shut down the next day. And this is another benefit of living in Latvia.
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