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.
So, black Zimbabweans don't have the right to protect their "Language, Borders and Culture?"
The colonists from Britain were not specifically bussed in to obliterate African cultures, firstly. Second, those who are in Zim now have accepted Zim's laws. Third, there is no white political party in Zim - they have joined the largely African Movement for Democratic Change. Fourth, you are being disingenuous in suggesting any culture is being preserved by Mugabe's theft - it's just to reward his cronies with economic benefits. Just like your friend jb6, if you're going to make a stupid analogy, try a better one.
Ivan
Early peoples
Silesia was inhabited by various peoples belonging to changing archeological cultures in the Stone Age, Bronze Age and Iron Age.
The Lugii, Lygii or Ligii (also Lygians, Lugians) were a tribe of likely Celtic or Germanic origin living in procimity of Silesia (modern Poland) north of the Sudetes mountains between Oder and Vistula rivers.
The Lugii or Lygii had earlier Celtic La Tene elements and were actually recorded as a part of the Vandals in Magna Germania, which included territory of later Silesia (named for the Silingi-Vandals). Ptolemy records the continuation of these Germanic tribes. It is possible that the city of Legnica (Liegnitz) in Silesia was named for Lug, Ligo.
The connection between the Lugii and the Slavs is controversial. Some recent authors connect them with Slavs, some with Germans, and still others claim that the Lugii were a compound tribe, or confederation of tribes of different ethnicity. Lugii are probably connected to Lingones, a Celtic tribe in Transalpine Gaul (modern France) and Cisalpine Gaul (northern Italy).
The Vandals were an East Germanic tribe that entered the late Roman Empire, and created a state in North Africa, centered on the city of Carthage. The Vandals probably gave their name to the province of Andalusia (originally, Vandalusia), in Spain, where they temporarily settled before pushing on to Africa.
The Goth Theodoric the Great, king of the Ostrogoths and regent of the Visigoths, was allied by marriage with the Vandals, as well as with the Burgundians and the Franks under Clovis I.
According to Tacitus, in the 1st century Silesia was inhabited by a multi-ethnic league dominated by the Lugii/Lygii. Also part of this federation were the Silingi, most likely a Vandalic people, that lived south of the Baltic Sea in the Elbe, Oder, and Vistula river area. [edit]
Middle Ages
Early documents mention a couple of tribes most probably living in Silesia. The Bavarian Geographer (ca. 845) specifies the following peoples: Slenzanie, Dzhadoshanie, Opolanie, Lupiglaa and Golenshitse. And a document of Prague bishopric (1086) mentions Zlasane, Trebovyane, Poborane and Dedositze.
In the 9th and 10th centuries the territory later called Silesia was subject to the Moravian and then Bohemian rulers of the neighbouring area covered by today's Czech Republic to the south.
About 990 Silesia was incorporated into Poland by Mieszko I (although some historians are moving the date to 999 and the rule of Boleslaus I, duke of the Polanie and later king of Poland). During Poland's fragmentation (1138–1320) into duchies ruled by different branches of the Piast dynasty, Silesia was ruled by descendants of the former royal family.
In 1146, senior duke Wladislaus II acknowledged the overlordship of the Holy Roman Empire over Poland, but was driven into exile. Seventeen years later, in 1163, his two sons took possession of Silesia with imperial backing, dividing the land between them as dukes of Lower and Upper Silesia. The policy of subdivision continued under their successors, with Silesia being divided into 16 principalities by the 1390s.
In 1241 the region experienced the Mongol invasion. Mongols, after looting the Lesser Poland entered Silesia causing widespread panic and mass migrations. They looted much of region and after brief, unsuccessful siege of Wroclaw castle (they were reportedly fended off by blessed Cheslav's miraculous fireball) they defeated combined forces of Polish and guest knights at Legnica. Achieving that, they returned to their homeland with captives. Ruling Silesian lords decided to rebuild their cities according to latest administrative developments, founding or relocating some 160 cities and 1500 towns with codified German law in place of settlements governed by older, customary Polish laws. They also compensated recent population loss by inviting foreigners - mostly from the Holy Roman Empire. This, and ruling classes adopting German culture, caused considerable ethnic tensions in Silesia. Also, in second half of 13th century various knightly orders settled in Silesia - Knights of the Red Star was first but soon followed by Hospitaller and Teutonic Knights.
In 1335, Duke Henry VI of Wroclaw and the Upper Silesian dukes recognized the overlordship of the king of Bohemia (John of Luxemburg). The last independent Piast duchies in Silesia ceased to exist in 1368, although the Silesian branch of the Piast dynasty went extinct only in 1675. From that time Silesia indirectly became a part of the Holy Roman Empire, as Bohemia was itself an autonomous part of the empire. Silesia remained part of the lands of the Bohemian crown until 1740, under kings of Czech, Polish and German dynasties.
Under the emperor and king of Bohemia Charles IV, Silesia and especially Wroclaw gained greatly in importance, and many great buildings and large Gothic churches were built.
Between 1425 and 1435, devastation was caused by the Hussite rebellion in Bohemia proper — Silesia remained largely Catholic, however. The Hussites turned against German population and especially Upper Silesia returned to the Slavic language.
[edit] Early Modern Period
The Protestant reformation took an early hold, and most of Silesia became Lutheran. In 1526 Ferdinand made the elected crown of Bohemia an inherited possession of the Habsburg family. In 1537 the rulers of Brandenburg and Silesia concluded an inheritance treaty, but it was vetoed by the emperor Ferdinand I.
The second "Defenestrations of Prague", in 1618, sparked the Thirty Years' War, caused by attempts of the Catholic Habsburg ruler to restore Catholicism and stamp out Protestantism. After the end of the Thirty Years' War, the Habsburgs greatly encouraged Catholicism, and succeeded in reconverting around sixty percent of the population of Silesia. By 1675 the last Silesian Piast rulers had died out.
In 1740 the seizure of Silesia by Friedrich II of Prussia began the War of the Austrian Succession, which ended in 1748. At the end of this war, Prussia had conquered almost all of Silesia. (Some parts of Silesia in the extreme southeast remained possessions of Austria.) The Seven Years' War (1756–1763) confirmed this result. Silesia became a province of Prussia. In 1815 the area around Görlitz was made a part of that province in an administrative reform.
[edit] Silesia in Germany
Silesia became part of the German Empire when Germany was unified (1871). There was considerable industrialization in Upper Silesia, and many people moved there. A majority of the population of Lower Silesia, including its capital, Breslau (today: Wroclaw), was German-speaking. However, there were areas, such as Opole county or Upper Silesia where a larger proportion or even a majority was Polish-speaking and Roman Catholic. In Silesia as a whole Poles were about 30% of the population. The Kulturkampf set Catholics in opposition to the government and sparked Polish revival in the province.
After Germany's and Austria's defeat in World War I the Austrian parts of Silesia were divided between Poland and Czechoslovakia. In the Treaty of Versailles it was decided that the population of German Upper Silesia should hold a plebiscite in order to determine the future of the province, with the exception of a 333km2 area around Hultschin (now Hlučín), which was in 1920 granted to Czechoslovakia, despite having a German majority. The plebiscite between Germany and Poland, organised by the League of Nations, was held in 1921. The outcome was 706,000 votes for Germany, and 479,000 for Poland. However, in the southeastern areas which were the backbone of economy and industry, there was a strong majority for Poland.
After the referendum, there were three Silesian Insurrections, and as a result of them the League of Nations decided that the province should be split and areas that voted for Poland should become an autonomous area within Poland, organised as the Silesian Voivodship (Wojewodztwo Śląskie). Silesia was then reorganised within the two Prussian provinces of Upper and Lower Silesia.
In October 1938 Cieszyn Silesia (the disputed area West of Olza river, so called Zaolzie - 906km² 258,000 inhabitants) was retaken by Poland from Czechoslovakia, in accord with the Munich Agreement.
Germany took possession of these parts of Silesia again in 1939, when the attack on Poland marked the beginning of the Second World War. The Silesian Poles were killed or deported, and German settlers were brought to their homes subsequent to these atrocities.
In 1945 all of Silesia was occupied by Soviet troops; by then a large proportion of the German population had fled Silesia, but many returned after the German capitulation. Under terms of the agreements at Yalta and Potsdam in 1945, most of Silesia east of the rivers Oder (Odra) and Neisse (Nysa) were transferred to Poland. Most of the surviving Silesian Germans, who before World War II numbered about 4 million, were forcibly expelled. A small part of Silesia surrounding the city of Görlitz remained part of the German Democratic Republic and is now part of the Federal State of Saxony in the Federal Republic of Germany.
[edit] Silesia after WWII
The industry of Silesia was after rebuilt after the war, and the region was populated by Poles from other areas (mostly by Poles who were themselves expelled from lands annexed by the Soviet Union). Today more than 20 % of the entire population of Poland lives in Silesia
BTW, weren't you the one who came out in favor of the SS on another thread? Very telling.
If they wanted whites to learn about Shona and other bantu cultures in schools and to learn Shona (if it were the official language - which it isnt) I don't think that would be so awful.
Lithuania is fortunate that there are not that "many" Russians that settled there during the occupation. On my travels there, it appeared that the two ethnic groups were getting-along. Latvia is in a tough spot, because it is in danger of losing its national identity, which is what the Soviets wanted all along.
Yup, just betray the Free, Independent, Democratic and Sovereign Poland to the EU bureaucrats for a bag of silver, girl.
Your British history is lacking, most of the Cajuns were force settled there from Canada after England won the French-Indian wars.
No, they were just offered land confiscated from the black tribes. Reality, aint it something?
We are such awful kkkapitalist running dogs.
LOL, I know perfectly well what it says in Wikipedia. Lugii's origins are rather obscure - noone really knows what ethnicity they really were. Most of sources I know claims them being of Celtic origin. Other tribes like Slenzanie, Dzhadoshanie, Opolanie and Golenshitse cited by Bavarian Geographer happen to be purely Slavic tribes, too. Pity you don't know what their names mean. They derive from Western Slavic roots in case you didn't know. Most of all, please mark the fragment where it says it Silesia was German since the IV century. I'll be waiting...Regards.
70% Latvians vs 30% Russians/Ukrainians/Jews/others and the Latvians are afraid of loosing their culture? Please.
Ahh the master of the strawman strikes again.
Since when truth is ridiculous? jb6 stated Silesia was German since 1600 years ago, which was a childish silliness. And you are making a fool of yourself defending ignorance. Please lecture me on the history of my country. I am always eager to get to know something new from such a honorable his-storian.
You prefer the nazi strawman? It's not considered the most persuasive argument around these parts.
Or die, I suppose. What do you propose we do in the US with certain groups, such as Black Americans, that cannot join the majority? What should be done with the Roma minorities in Eastern Europe?
For example in both Poland and Russia freedom of speech in American meaning doesn't exist.
There is no such thing as an "American" freedom of speech. Freedom of speech is a universal concept, it is just that some governments (such as Poland and Russia, according to you), have chosen to deny their citizens that right.
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