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.
I guess you missed the part about the 15th Latvian SS Legion exterminating some 40,000 Latvian Jews and another 40,000 Jews from Berlin who were shipped to Latvia for extermination, while the concentration camps were being set up. These fine chaps also took part in blowing up Warsaw, block by block, after liquidating the Ghetto.
But hay, they deserve yearly government sponsored parades. /sarcasm
bump, more appologists for the Latvians and their parts in the liquidations of Jews and Slavs.
Everyone that disagrees with you is a Nazi, got it. Please enlighten us about how well the Jews fared in the glorious Motherland.
That is true in the United States, but is not true everywhere in the world. In most countries (at least, those where I know the laws) the child has the same status as the parent. So, an illegal alien parent has an illegal immigrant child, and so on.
The specific case of Latvia is not an easy one. Sure, you can say it's racism to deny citizenship to ethnic Russians - and there may be an element of that. But it's also true that they were an occupied nation for 50 years, and Soviet Russia promoted migration to Latvia as part of a strategy to destroy Latvian nationalism. It is not really unreasonable for the now free country to take countervailing steps.
Honestly, I thought their solution seemed fairly moderate. They don't ban Russians from being citizens - but they insist they apply, learn Latvian, and demonstrate a knowledge of Latvian history. In short, they allow them to become citizens, as long as they show they intend to be Latvian, not Russian, citizens.
Now, you'd made reference to a different policy for Europeans. That wasn't mentioned in the article. Can you provide more details?
Drew Garrett
"Good friend"Tailgunner Joe"I am polish person----- many polish persons do life in Litwa Litwa do not have problem why Litwa atack this Russia persons this person is Litwa person""I was born here,"" time is time life is life my country Poland Litwa Ukraine itp....this is slowianie today is today Thank you
4 years not 40, they lost the war. Their plan was a bit more ambitious, maybe you heard of the Thousand Year Reich?
Yes, every nation under Nazi germany practiced democracy. Yup. But if you're splitting hairs between Nazi Germany and present Germany why aren't you splitting hairs between Soviet Russia and modern Russia? Hmmm?
"giving Germans or Spaniards who reside there for 6 months the right to vote?"
This is due to EU accession
"many Poles, who were born on territories, that used to be German before WW2, and now belong to Poland. And - as far as I know - it's quite easy for them to get a German passport"
Are they ethnic Poles or are they Poles of German ethnicity? Its pretty easy if they are the later - many Volksdeutsche from all Eastern countries have and continue to migrate to Germnay; I wasnt aware of it being possible for Poles from former German lands to. Unless I guess they were Poles who were formerly German nationals in the pre-WWII days? There are quite a few of those still around I guess.
"Old grugdes might die hard but this is out and out racism in a supposed republican system"
What races are involved?
Interesting! I hadnt really thought - ethnic Polish formerly German nationals - about that, but it makes sense.
Ok, so these people born in an EU nation do not have the same rights as all others born in EU nations?
Baltic race and the slavic race.
I thought that was what this thread was about - obviously they do not as they are not Latvian citizens and thus not citizens of an EU country. T
he debate is not why Germans get to vote but whether Latvian language test requirements for Soviet-era migrants are desirable/unfair/reasonable/racist or other.
Bravo!
jb6 spews communist politburo propaganda at every opportunity like a true party apparatchik.
As the article mentions, many of these people are not immigrants. They were born in Latvia and have lived their entire lives there.
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