The demise of the Soviet Union brought many of these ethnic groups to the worlds attention because there were given their own state. Others, such as the Chechens and Adkhazians, came to the attention of the world through their fight for independence. The majority, including the likes of Ossetians in the Caucasus and the Tuva on the Mongolian border remain obscure.
The smallest ethnic group to gain (or regain as Estonia sees it as they had independence between the world wars) was Estonia, which possesses a mere one million native speakers. As an inheritance of Soviet efforts, approximately 400,000 ethnic Russians now also reside in Estonia, many of whom still don’t possess citizenship because they cannot pass the required language tests.
Tallinn is the beautiful medieval Estonian capital. Founded by Baltic Germans from the Sword of the Brethren it remained a predominantly German town until the later part of the 19th century when feudalism was abolished and precipitated a flood of Estonians into the city.
Tallinn’s history is still beautifully preserved in its buildings the old merchants’ house complete with the winches to raise and lower their goods into their third story storerooms. In fact, in the center of the city along the narrow, winding cobbled streets, it is hard to imagine that it was ever part of the Soviet Union. The new city also seem to point to Estonia’s future. Recently built, futuristic looking glass buildings, which look like they have been designed by the hippest new Norwegian designer, make up the new city center where the country’s business is conducted. Today, however, the ethnic make-up of the city is much different than in medieval times and approximately half of the 400,000 resident of Tallinn are Russian while the other half are Estonian.
The difference between the Russian and Estonian population is visible from the clothes they wear to their general attitude. In most of the places in the center of town, which are run by Estonians, I was greeted with politeness and often a slight smile. I was shocked when, after arriving on the overnight train from Moscow, I walked up the city walls to find a woman smiling at me at nine in the morning asking me “wouldn’t you like to buy a postcard, or have a free map.” I, having no Estonian currency, took the free map. Estonian people’s English, even the elderly’s, was impressive and people seemed glad that I had come to visit their country. On several occasions they mentioned that they had had Soviet occupation, and that they were very happy it was over.
The Russian minority, however, have retained their Russian heritage. I was greeted in the bus station by an older Russian woman with bleached blond hair with the familiar Chto? or What? The Russian population also appears to follow Moscow’s latest fashions. High heel boots, red lipstick and really short skirts easily point out the Russians. On the other hand, the Estonians seem to take their fashion queues from their linguistic brothers to the north, the Finns. Nordic hip seems to be the style of the day. North Face jackets, plastic glasses and dreadlocks are very popular.
Other aspects of Estonian culture are less savory. Everywhere it seemed was talking about the rebirth the of the Estonian coffee tradition. The coffee being mediocre in Moscow, I was looking forward to sipping cheap cappuccinos in Estonia. The coffee I paid a shocking two dollars for everywhere I went tasted like bath water, and the three-dollar cappuccinos only tasted marginally better. In fact, I think the Nescafe predominant in Moscow quite a bit better.
On a serious historical note, I was shocked to note that Estonians viewed their temporary liberation by the Nazis from the Red Army with happiness and was amazed at the deep hatred that all the people on the videos in the museum felt toward the Russians. In the Museum of Occupation; the Nazi occupation was seen as a time great relief. Displays in the museum depict Estonians being drafted into the Nazi army seemingly with no remorse at all. Of course, things were much better for the Estonians under the Germans, who, unlike the Russians, didn’t deport thousands of Estonians; however, the lack dialogue about the evilness of the Nazi regime was scary. Of course, the Estonians, much like the Slovaks, epitomized being stuck between a rock and a hard place and perhaps, like the Slovaks, they are not ready for a genuine discussion of their wartime actions, but I do hope a more critical approach comes soon.
When Antonina's husband died several years back, she didn't know how she would survive with her 200 dollar a month pension. An Estonian lady, one of her neighbors, worked for a accomodation agency, and told her she could put up tourists. Now, in her one bedroom apartment (what a Russian would call a two-room flat), Antonina sleeps on a pull-out sofa when she has guests.
After the smile we started talking a bit and Antonina's expression changed. She isn't happy about putting up guests, as she forthrightly told me. However, she feels like she has no other recourse. Like any good Russian grandma, she worries. With all the crime she sees on television these days she doesn't know who will walk through her door. In the course of my stay I heard many horror stories. She, however, stresses that most of the tourists who stay with her are good. She had an Italian guest, though, who brought a prostitute back to her apartment.
Antonina is representative of many of her age who look whisftully back to Soviet times. Antonina was unfortunate to be of the generation which was reaching retirement just as the Soviet regime collapsed. Work under communism was usually easy, and retirement, by all accounts, was something to look forward to. Though there were bread lines and things were scarce, people weren't reduced to begging, and then, of course selective memory recalls only the long summers at the dacha...
The first thing Antonina told me when I walked in the door was exactly how much money she had before and what she has now. Of course now there's more to buy, but there's no money to buy it with. Regardless, life is much more complicated now and older people just don't know how to make the transition.
Antonina is lucky. Prices are higher in Tallinn than in Russia, but the pensions are much higher. I didn't seem pensioners begging in Estonia like you do here in Russia.
I gave Antonina a big hug when I left.
*All of the Baltic countries have put in strict language laws that Moscow is very angry about. Schooling for the Russian minority in their native language is not allowed, and all Russian must pass language exams in order to receive citizenship.
There is no visa regime in place between Russia and the former CIS states (with the exception of the Baltics), so it is very easy for people from all over the former Soviet Union to come to Moscow. Salaries are exponentially higher, and, therefore, immigration is also very lucrative. Though residents of former CIS countries are legally required to register in Moscow, in reality the system is so corrupt that it doesn't work. Immigrants falsify registrations or simply just bribe the police when they are stopped for a document check.
The number of immigrants has been met with hatred by Muscovites, though, like in the U.S., these immigrants provide services that many Muscovites don't want to perform. Of course, these immigrants are perceived as dirty and violent. Muscovite Skinheads scrawls racist graffiti all over the aparment blocks with phrases like "Khachiky go home to your mountains." In both Slovakia and in Russia, it has appeared to me that other ethnicities has replaced the xenophobia once felt towards Jews.
I teach a group of super highly educated programmers at Paradigm, an Israeli owned (though you won't find this anywhere on their website) software firm that has developed a succesful and powerful set of tools for geophysical visualization. During class, we were discussing Victory Day, which had just been celebrated in Russia, and this led to a discussion about nationalism. Two of my students, one of whom is a Russian Jew, had just returned from a business trip to Herziliya outside of Tel Aviv.
My students' Victory Day reflections led to a discussion about the Caucasian problem in Moscow. The combination of talk about Israel and Caucasians led one student to say that no one really cares of feels hatred toward Jews anymore in Russia. A non-Jewish student then said that this hatred has just simply shifted and is now taken out on Caucausians. I then asked my students of there were any differences between the Jews and the Caucausians. Another ethnic Russian student answered that "Russians hate the Caucasians because they have refused to assimilate." The Jewish student made the obvious retort. Hatred during Soviet times, did not depend on assimilation. Xenophobia is a complex phenomena that I won't even attempt to explain. Howeverm, it is true that, like Jews, Caucasians have been very successful in Moscow, especially in the opening of markets, and the Russians don't liek it it when outsiders get ahead.
In response to to Ben's comments, on his site and on mine on my stupidity, his response is no less enlightening. The response 'whatever the market will bear' is a trite one because this statement assumes that markets work properly. If you come to Russia, you will realize, they don't. The fact remains that access to capital in Russia is next to impossible, so that foreign or companies with conncd former KGB) are the only ones that can buy Western software whereas this is impossible for local companies. It is true that the number of alernative applications for the Russian market is growing--though slowly. According to people who know much than me, they are doing this by charging very low licensing fees.
The road reminds me of a road I took from Managua out to the Nicaraguan coast. This particular road was paved in the 1950's and hadn't been repaved since. The Moscow-Petersburg road is in a similar state--more potholes than road in some places--except for this road connects two metropolises.
The road in most places is three lanes, which means one lane for each direction and one lane for whoever has the balls to be in it. Since Russian drivers don't take their lives too seriously, this means anybody who wants to pass the Жигули Zhiguli (read very old Russian car), goes into the middle lane, resulting in many a near head-on collisions.
So there I was going 170 kilometers and hour while avoiding cars trucks and potholes. I, of course, was the only one bothering to wear a seat belt. Quite an experience--worth doing once. Next time, however, I'll take the train.