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.
You never did answer the question, typical really, do you support Mugabi's cultural purification and land grab?
They're only following your philosophy of purifying their culture which was degraded by British colonials who did steal their tribal lands, regardless of what they did with them. Or does your philosophy only apply to the untermensch slavs, particularly Russians?
I beg to differ. You seem to be still showing a Soviet mentality when it comes to dealing with the rights of minorities.
He's the President, Founder and Sole Member of the Vladmir Putin Fan Club, USA branch. Anything "Dreamy Vlad" does is subject to less scrutiny and more praise in his eyes than anyone else.
Regards, Ivan
I do not respect the sovereignty of Zimbabwe because of the criminal regime.
Really? Never knew that, but it explains a lot.
If they are born in America, depending on the county/municipality they really don't have to speak much english. Many Cajuns speak no english, shall we kick them out? That is not American. Indians are also not required to learn English.
So your principles only extend to nations you like. Not surprising.
No kidding, there are parades glorifying the Soviet Communist Red Army all the time in Putin's Russia.
Which rightful owners, and it should be returned, but to which? The English imperial colonists or the natives who owned that land for thousands of years first?
Really? Prove it. Prove one statement I made to that effect. I'll be waiting along with Modernman for your proof. Lieing and libel is your second nature.
Yep. I support freedom for Latvians to require citizenship tests but not freedom for Zimbabweans to rape and murder and steal. I'm such a hypocrite.
I cannot believe you want to compare the Cajuns to the Russians in Latvia. Let's put it in some context, shall we? 1, the Cajuns are indeed more required to speak English than the Russians in Latvia were required to speak Latvian, at least until the fall of the Soviet Union. 2, the history is entirely different - the Cajuns settled in Louisiana, the Russians were bussed in by Stalin to obliterate Latvia as a nation. 3, the Cajuns do not set up a "Cajun Political Party" to skew Louisiana's politics to their interests - they either become Republicans or Democrats.
If you want to make stupid analogies, do try to get one that does come closer to the mark.
Ivan
The Zimbabweans are just working to preserve their culture from foreign imperialists who moved to their country while Zimbabwe was under the yoke of Great Britain. Why shouldn't they have the right to determine who gets to stay in their country?
As far as I am aware, no-one is seeking to confiscate the land or other property of the ethnic Russians in Latvia. A more correct Zimbabwean parralel would be if an African language, say Shona, was the official language of Zimbabwe and Mugabe had insisted whites learn it.
No, but Zimbabwe is another case where a government is treating two groups of people differently based on ethnic background.
Am I saying the Latvian government is anything like Mugabe's thugs? Of course not.
Just like a lefty to morally equate the British empire with the Soviet Union.
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