Posted on 03/27/2005 10:41:36 PM PST by jb6
In a park in the Latvian capital Riga, a small group of protesters gathers, all Russian, some wearing paper hats inscribed with the word "Alien". Latvian police carry out a small, bureaucratic piece of harassment. With a tape, and much officiousness, they measure the distance between the demonstrators and the nearest public building, a school on the other side of the road.
The protest is two metres too close, so the police move it a little further down the path.
The protesters don't mind. They are there to object to a much greater injustice.
More than 450,000 Russians and native Russian-speakers - out of a total Latvian population of 2.3m - are classed as "non-citizens" because they have failed (or refused) to take a test in Latvian language and history, which would allow them to have citizenship.
This was local election day, and they were protesting about the fact that as "aliens", despite having lived in Latvia all their lives, they had no right to take part in the elections - whereas citizens of other EU countries could vote if they had lived there for a mere six months.
"I was born here," said one young man. "I pay the same taxes as Latvians. Yet I'm not allowed to vote for the politicians who spend those taxes."
"I'm here to protest against the government's policy of dividing society along ethnic lines," said another.
The fate of the non-citizens - who account for 20% of the entire population of Latvia - is a complex one.
Soviet migrants
When Latvia gained independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, it granted automatic citizenship to those who had lived in the first independent Latvian state - between 1918 and 1940 - but not to those who immigrated here after the war, when Latvia was occupied by the Soviet Union.
Latvia suffered hugely under Soviet rule.
Thousands were arrested and sent to Siberian labour camps, or executed, during the Stalin years.
MEP Tatjana Zdanoka uses her position to highlight the issue Later, hundreds of thousands of Russians, Belarussians and Ukrainians flooded into the republic under a deliberate policy of Russification. The Latvian language was squeezed out of official use.
Latvians were resentful citizens of the USSR. By 1991, they comprised only half of the population of their own country, while in Riga only a third were Latvian.
Even today, Russian is heard as commonly as Latvian on the streets of Riga.
But the government is determined to revive the Latvian identity. It says its policy towards Russians who immigrated here during the Soviet period is aimed not at punishing them for the sins of the Soviet regime (as some suspect) but at ensuring that they learn Latvian and integrate fully into society.
In order to naturalise, Russians must take a test in Latvian, and pass an exam about Latvian history - in which they must "correctly" answer that the country was occupied and colonised, not liberated, by the Soviet Union in 1945.
Many of the Russians at the demonstration on election day said they found that psychologically difficult. They said they wanted to integrate (and many could speak Latvian), but they found the idea of applying for citizenship humiliating.
"I lived here - same as them - and I was a citizen of the USSR," said a middle-aged woman. "They deprived me of my citizenship, and now I must apply to become one! I just won't do it."
Separate, but together
Tatjana Zdanoka is Latvia's only Russian member of the European Parliament and uses her position to publicise the position of the Russian minority.
She says her mother, who has lived in Latvia for 60 years and worked here for 45 years as a schoolteacher, has no right to vote.
"She is 83 and has bad eyes. Of course she's not capable of taking any kind of exam."
Facts about Latvia Latvia was independent from 1918 to 1939 After World War II it was a part of the USSR It regained independence in 1991 700,000 Soviet-time migrants and their children became non-citizens By the time Latvia joined the EU in 2004, this figure had dropped to around 450,000 Latvia's total population is 2,3m (including non-citizens)
Igor Vatolin, a journalist on the newspaper Chas and a Russian rights activist, said the Latvian Popular Front, which led the fight for independence at the end of the 1980s, promised citizenship to everyone living in the republic.
"But they reneged on that - even though thousands of Russians voted with them in favour of independence in the referendum of 1991," he said.
There is no ethnic strife in the streets of Latvia. The two peoples live peacefully together. But politicians on both sides, and in Russia itself, stir things up.
Moscow rarely misses a chance to complain at international meetings of Latvia's "human rights abuses", while the head of the Latvian parliament's foreign affairs committee, Aleksandrs Kirsteins, has described the non-citizens as "civilian occupiers".
He called for an agreement with the Russian government under which all the unwanted foreigners would be herded on to trains and shipped back to their "ethnic homeland" - with a brass band playing on the platform to see them off.
Latvia's two communities deserve credit for by and large ignoring such provocative statements. Despite the bitterness and insecurity on both sides, they have succeeded in forging a peaceful co-existence - somewhat separate, but together.
False comparison. They speak English and moved here voluntarily. Thus they are partaking and adding to the culture, not setting up a separate enclave within the country which hitherto was the "ruling elite".
Ivan
For people living in a country upon its foundation or secession from another country, citizenship IS an inalienable right.
You are a defender of Soviet Communist policies of ethnic cleansing and genetic eradication of the enemies of the state. You must be violently racist against Balts.
Like the Germans who lived in the East when it was liberated from the Third Reich? Defend them and explain why they should have been given citizenship by the nations "liberated" by the Soviets.
Please point out where I have ever shown any support for the Soviet government's policies of forced relocation.
You must be violently racist against Balts.
Nonsense. I'm quite happy to see the Baltic nations achieve their independence. However, their independence does not give them the right to mistreat people in their countries based on ethnicity. If the Baltic countries want to be part of the Western world, they cannot treat citizens differently based on ethnicity.
They are not mistreating anyone. They are doing them a favor. They are offering Latvian citizenship to people who were formerly Soviet, not Latvian citizens.
Sure.
Defend them and explain why they should have been given citizenship by the nations "liberated" by the Soviets.
Those Germans had lived there, in many cases, since the middle ages. If you're talking about the handful of Germans who moved there during the war, they were no more citizens than the German garrisons in those areas.
Now, if Germany had occupied those nations for generations, I would be in favor of German colonists receiving citizenship when the German empire fell apart.
Thus they are partaking and adding to the culture, not setting up a separate enclave within the country which hitherto was the "ruling elite".
By your standards and those expressed here by others, then should I take it you approve of English in Ireland being denied citizenship or Zimbabwe taking away English land? Same case except the English were the "overlords" in those countries and unlike the Russian and other peasants/factory workers forcibly moved to Latvia by the Soviets, the English came as willing colonists for free land (never mind who sat on it first).
In 1990, everyone living in Latvia was a Soviet citizen. When the USSR fell apart, therefore, every Soviert citizen living in Latvia became a Latvian citizen.
And there were Latvian citizens before 1991? Where? They were all Soviet citizens.
Latvia disagrees.
Like the Germans forced out of Silasia at gun point, where they've been living for 1000 years?
BTW I wouldn't mind If Poles in Lithuania or Ukraine had to pass this kind of test.
Yes, again, changing the subject. This thread is not about immigrants, it's about people born in Latvia and denied citizenship. Lets try to stick to the subject instead of morphing it into something defendable.
Maybe the Sorbs in Germany should be forced to apply for German citizenship?
I'm sure that all of them are fluent in German, so I don't see any need to apply for German citizenship, but It wouldn't be a problem for me If German government decided that they apply for German citizenship.
If you don't like my comments, you may hit report abuse button, boy.
Yes, let's, rather than go down idiotic tangents that you propose. Let's try something else - American conservatives say that if those of Middle Eastern origin, even if they are born in the country, should assimilate or be expelled - and they are right - because allowing them to set up Saudi Arabia in Detroit is dangerous for public safety.
The Russians in Latvia are worse. It is not unreasonable to ask them to speak the language of the country, which is Latvian - indeed, not any more unreasonable to ask that than it is to ask second generation Hispanics to speak English. It is not unreasonable to demand a certain understanding of the country's laws or traditions. And here is why - because it's not Russia, it's Latvia - and if they are going to live in one country, it's important to have one set of rules by which they are going to live together, and one means by which to communicate. I know that you can't deal with it, because you are the Vladmir Putin Fan Club (all one member of it), but that's really not my problem.
Ivan
"Latvia" consists of any Soviet citizens living within the borders of that country upon its independence in 1990.
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