Everything about Baltic Russians totally explained
The term
Baltic Russians is usually used to refer to the
Russian-speaking communities in the
Baltic states:
Estonia,
Latvia, and
Lithuania.
The term "Baltic Russians" doesn't imply a separate ethnic subcategory among the Russians. It came into use in the context of discussions of their fate after the
collapse of the Soviet Union. Therefore, Russians living in the
Saint Petersburg area and the
Kaliningrad Oblast are usually excluded, as they live within the current administrative boundaries of
Russia. The Russian minorities of
Finland and
Poland, despite the fact that they live in countries by the
Baltic Sea coast, are not considered "Baltic Russians" because they live on territory that wasn't annexed by the
Soviet Union after the
Second World War.
History
Most of the present-day Baltic Russians are migrants from the Soviet era and their descendants, whereas only a relatively small fraction of them can trace their ancestry in the area back to previous centuries. The term "Baltic Russians" was rarely ever used before the end of the Second World War. Prior to
1945, there was no common "Baltic Russian" identity that would somehow cover the Russians living in Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia, and at the same time distinguish them from, for example, Russians living in Poland or Finland.
According to official statistics, in
1920, ethnic Russians made up 7,82% of the population in independent Latvia, growing to 10,5% in 1935 .. The share of ethnic Russians in the population of independent Estonia was about 4%, of which about half were indigenous Russians living in the areas in and around
Pechory and
Izborsk which were added to Estonian territory according to the 1920 Estonian-Soviet Peace
Treaty of Tartu, but were transferred to the
Russian SFSR by the Soviet authorities in 1945 . The share of ethnic Russians in independent Lithuania was even smaller, about 2%.
Following the terms of the
1939 Molotov-Ribbentrop pact, the
Soviet Union annexed Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania in 1940 . After Germany attacked the Soviet Union in
1941, the three countries quickly fell under German control. Some Russians, especially Communist party members who had arrived in the area with the initial annexation, retreated to Russia; those who fell into German hands were treated harshly, many were murdered.
As the war drew to a close, the Soviet Union resumed its occupation of the Baltic states in
1944-
1945.
United States and other Western countries didn't recognize the legality of the
Soviet occupation and annexation of the Baltic nations (
Stimson Doctrine), and retained continued official relations with the diplomatic representatives of the Baltic states until the restoration of independence of the three nations in
August 1991.
Immediately after the war,
Stalin carried out a major
colonization and
de facto Russification campaign in what were now the three Baltic Soviet republics. Many of the Russians, along with a smaller number of other ethnic groups, who migrated from USSR to the Baltic countries, arrived to rebuild the heavily war-damaged economies of the Baltic countries. Mostly they were factory and construction workers who settled in major urban areas, as well as military personnel stationed in the region in significant numbers due to the border location of the Baltic countries within the Soviet Union. Many military retirees chose to stay in the region, which featured higher living standards compared to most of USSR. (This would lead to bitter disputes with Russia regarding the issue of their military
pensions after the dissolution of the Soviet Union.)
After Stalin's death in
1953, the flow of new migrants from other Soviet republics slowed down due to different policies on urbanization, economy and other issues of
Lithuanian SSR than were those carried in the
Latvian SSR and the
Estonian SSR. The flow of immigrants didn't stop entirely in Lithuania, and there were further waves of Russian workers who came to work on major construction projects, such as power plants.
In Latvia and Estonia, less was done to stop the Russian immigration. By the 1980s Russians made up a third of the population in Estonia, while in Latvia, ethnic
Latvians made up only about half of the population. In contrast, in 1989 only 9.4 % of Lithuania's population were Russians.
Some of the Baltic Russians, mainly those who had come to live in the region not so long before the three countries regained independence in 1991 and had families elsewhere, emigrated to
Russia and other countries in the beginning of the 1990s. In
Latvia and
Estonia those who remained have faced problems with acquiring local Latvian and Estonian citizenships (see
Citizenship section).
Current situation
Baltic Russians live mainly in cities.
In Lithuanian capital
Vilnius they make up 14.43% of the population, in Lithuania's third largest city
Klaipėda 21.65% of inhabitants are Russians. Other cities of Lithuania (including second-largest city
Kaunas) has a smaller percentage of Russian population, while in most towns and villages there are very few Russians (with the exception of
Visaginas town). 6.3% of Lithuania's population are ethnic Russians.
Russians make up almost a half of the population of
Riga, the capital of Latvia. In the second largest city
Daugavpils, Russians make a majority of population. Today about 29% of Latvia's population are ethnic Russians.
In
Estonia, most live in
Tallinn (36.86% of city's population are Russians) and the major eastern cities of
Narva (86.41% of inhabitants are Russians) and
Kohtla-Järve (69.68% of inhabitants are Russians). Overall, Russians make up 25.78% of Estonia's population (35.45% of the urban population and 5.90% of the rural population).
Russians used to settle in larger cities because many industrial workers were needed there. In all three countries, the rural settlements are inhabited almost entirely by the main national ethnic groups, except some areas in eastern Estonia and Latvia with a longer history of Russian and mixed villages. The Lithuanian city of
Visaginas was built for workers at the
Ignalina nuclear power plant and therefore has a Russian majority.
Citizenship
After regaining independence, Latvia and Estonia passed
citizenship laws on the basis of legal continuity of their statehood, automatically recognising citizenship according to the principle of
jus sanguinis for the persons who held citizenship before
16 June 1940 and their descendants. Persons who arrived after the occupation of 1940 and their descendants may obtain citizenship through
naturalisation. This policy affects not only ethnic Russians, but also those ethnic Estonians and Latvians who emigrated from these countries before independence was proclaimed in 1918. Knowledge of the respective local language and history was set as a condition for obtaining naturalised citizenship. However, the difficulty of the initial language tests became a point of international contention, as the government of Russia, the
Council of Europe, and several
human rights organizations claiming that they made it impossible for many older Russians who grew up in the Baltic region to gain citizenship. As a result, the tests were altered, but certain percentage of Russians in Latvia and Estonia still have
non-citizen or alien status, and feel they're regarded with suspicion, under the perception that they're deliberately avoiding naturalising.
The language issue is still contentious, particularly in Latvia, where there were
protests against plans to require at least 60 % of lessons in the state-funded minority-language high schools to be taught in
Latvian (in the first version of the Law on education — 100 %).
In contrast, Lithuania granted citizenship to all its residents of the independence redeclaration day willing to have it without requiring them to learn
Lithuanian. One and probably the main reason that Lithuania took a less restrictive approach than Latvia and Estonia is likely that whereas in Latvia ethnic Latvians comprised only a small majority of the total population, and in Estonia ethnic Estonians comprised about 62 percent, in Lithuania ethnic Lithuanians were about 80 percent of the population. Therefore, as a matter of voting in national elections or referendums, the opinions of ethnic Lithuanians would likely carry the day if there were a difference in opinion between Lithuanians and the larger minority groups (Russians and Poles), but the ability of the indigenous ethnic majority to carry the day was less certain in the other two Baltic countries, especially in Latvia.
Some representatives of ethnic Russian communities in Latvia and Estonia have claimed discrimination by the countries' authorities with these calls frequently supported by Russia. On the other hand, Latvia and Estonia deny discrimination charges and often accuse Russia of using the issue for political purposes. In recent years, as the Russian political leaders have begun to speak about the "former Soviet space" as their
sphere of influence, such claims are a source of annoyance, if not alarm, in the Baltic countries.
Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania have since 2004 been members of
NATO and the
European Union (EU) and this provides a counterbalance to Russia's claims to speak for the interests of ethnic Russian residents of these countries. Furthermore, both Estonia and Latvia, after they'd become candidates for EU membership, to satisfy a precondition for their admission to the EU, adjusted their citizenship policies in response to EU monitoring and requests. Claims of discrimination in basic rights by Russians and other minorities in the region may have less efficacy now than they did during the years when the Baltic countries' membership applications were still pending with the EU.
Political parties
There is a number of political parties and politicians in the Baltic states who claim to represent Russian-speaking minority. In Latvia it's
For Human Rights in United Latvia which has one seat in the
European parliament held by
Tatjana Zhdanok, as well as more moderate
National Harmony Party. In Estonia there's a similar
Constitution Party. These political parties support Russian language rights, granting citizenship to all residents of Latvia and Estonia and tend to be left-wing on other issues.
References and notes
Further Information
Get more info on 'Baltic Russians'.
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