Russia has sent out a signal to everyone – ‘don’t mess with us in our own backyard’. This is enough.
Nadia the green-eyed Russian waitress whispered conspiratorially, ‘‘They don’t like us, you know. The Estonians, they think we are occupiers.’’ She glanced over at the other bar staff and continued, ‘‘but we are not. We were born here, this is our land, can’t you see the great Orthodox cathedral – if we came here with Stalin, who do they think built that?”
Nadia, by the way, is having a smoke, dressed in traditional Estonian dress at a tourist trap that is flogging ‘‘real rustic Estonian cooking’’ to hundreds of tourists, who, like me, are in Tallinn for a few days. Although conflicted – making a living as an Estonian, while simultaneously hating Estonians – Nadia represents part of the problem we saw exposed in Georgia. The problem for the West is the hundreds of thousands of Russians who found themselves, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, trapped in countries that couldn’t stand them.
In Georgia the issue is Ossetia and Abkhazia, but here in the Baltic the issue is the 40 per cent of the Estonian population who consider themselves Russian.
There is a similar but not quite so large minority in Latvia, Lithuania and, of course, the big one – Ukraine. There are also significant numbers of Russians in the Muslim republics of Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan. These are all potential powder kegs, if Moscow chooses to light the flame.
Whether the Kremlin wants to do this is anyone’s guess. However, here in Tallinn it is easy to see how a more expansive Kremlin might go about its business. Among the Estonians there is a tremendous amount of insecurity at the moment.
Many are now questioning the wisdom of last year’s move to tear down a monument of a Soviet soldier, which, for Russians here, symbolised the great Russian sacrifices made to defeat fascism.
For Estonians, the monument represented a triumphalist reminder of the Russian annexation of Estonia after World War II. Last year, the Kremlin expressed its disapproval, but did little else. However, today’s Moscow is a very different beast than it was 12 months ago.
Many years ago, in a bizarre effort to learn Russian, I spent three months living with a Russian family in the outback of Russia. The town — Novi Ruza – was a nondescript hamlet some 80 miles from Moscow. Word went around that there was someone from ‘‘outside’’ living in the village.
On the second morning, as I walked down the street, the babushkas who cleaned the footpaths shouted out to me, ‘‘Eh, Gitler!’’ Russians pronounce H like G, and later the family explained to me that the last foreigners the old people had seen were defeated German soldiers retreating from the Red Army, practically running through the village in the general direction of Berlin.
As far as the old babushkas were concerned, I was simply another foreigner, and given my red hair I must have been a Hitlerite!
Not far from the village – indeed the place’s only claim to fame – was Borodino. In Borodino, Napoleon’s Grande Armée was defeated as it slugged its way to Moscow in 1812.On the second week of September each year this glorious Russian victory is celebrated. Back in 1990 when I witnessed this strange spectacle, I also saw, for the first time, a strange bearded group of young men standing under a banner which read ‘Bog s nami’, which means ‘‘God is with us’’.
These were the Russian, not Soviet, nationalists dressed like Orthodox priests. It’s worth remembering that this was before the collapse of the Soviet Union, and such displays of religion could lead to a few years in some gulag or other.
Yet they were there, flaunting their beards and their religion in a supposed atheistic state. Quite apart from their religious beliefs, these young men were part of an ancient Russian tradition shared by the great Russian writers Pushkin and, more recently, Solzenhitsyn, which is Orthodox first and European second. This view of the world dates from the 12th century and the Crusades.
The defeat in Constantinople of the great Orthodox Christian patriarch at the hands of our Crusaders constitutes for traditional Russians the beginning of a battle between Russian Orthodoxy and our version of Catholic and, later, Protestant Christianity.
Although it seems strange, particularly in an economics column, to discuss such issues, these divisions are fundamental to understanding how this part of the world operates.
When you stroll down the streets of Tallinn, you are obviously in Europe. But it’s not western Europe. The echoes of all these unfinished battles, these displaced peoples and these scores yet to be settled, are everywhere. This city is Hanseatic. It was built by Danish and, then mainly, German traders.
As the most northern part of the Hanseatic League, it was part of the complex trading arrangement that stretched from Estonia to Bruges in Belgium. This trading arrangement – the forerunner to the free-trade EU – dominated Europe for three centuries.
Its cities were trading outposts that bought and sold goods from the hinterland – the large interior parts of Europe connected by a network of rivers where few foreigners ever ventured. The port cities were the cosmopolitan centres of the old empire, and given the stunning architecture, it’s safe to presume that the people here in Tallinn never thought their great city would ever be anything other than a trading city. It was the gateway to Russia, the axis between Europe and the vast continent. Why would that ever change?
We now know that it did change and it did so violently.
The question Russia’s action in Georgia poses is whether it might happen again. For many Russians there is unfinished business in what they term their ‘‘near abroad’’, which covers the Baltic states, Ukraine and, of course, the Caucasus.
The prospect of any aggressive Russian action is remote because at the moment our interests and Russia’s coincide in trade and a mutual financial conundrum in the face of Asian global competition.
Furthermore, the people in power in Moscow, despite the naive caricatures peddled by the western press, are not idiots. Russia has sent out a signal to everyone – ‘‘don’t mess with us in our own backyard’’. This is enough.
It does not mean the Red Army will not roll again, but it implies that from now on, Europe and America have to deal with Russia as an equal. In the past 18 years, we have dismissed the Russians. This was not healthy. Today, after Georgia, the situation has changed.
Mutual respect will be much less dangerous than western condescension towards Russia. Although it doesn’t seem so at the moment, the people of Tallinn are probably safer to do as they please now than at any time in the past two decades.
The Russians have spoken; the West has listened. The status quo is strengthened and Nadia can feel confident again without being threatening.
Hi David, The “mini-war” going on between Georgia and Russia is a case of Moscow showing to the world that it is still a world power and a veto-member of the UN security council and that it still has deployable nuclear weapons in its back pocket. As the US can do an Afghanistan and an Iraq, so Russia is saying that it can do those types of things too. Albeit they aint going to go the full hog on Georgia and they didnt go about it the right way procedurally with the UN etc. Also, Georgia is not part of… Read more »
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“it’s safe to presume that the people here in Tallinn never thought their great city would ever be anything other than a trading city. It was the gateway to Russia, the axis between Europe and the vast continent. Why would that ever change? We now know that it did change and it did so violently.” Could we suffer the same fate ? – from being a bustling gateway to Europe for US and other foreign Companies, to being an isolated backwater, as we were up until the nineties. We need some serious thinking and a visionary leader to escape such… Read more »
Russia certainly has unfinished business! Given during the USSR Lifespan, there are millions of ethnic russians scattered across the former territories. I even remember several years back that Russian President Putin said “The greatest disaster The Russian people have suffered since the break-up of the soviet union, is that millions of our fellow country are now scattered and isolated in numerous pockets without our protection”. Latvia has a 20% population of Russians, if what might be the case…….. Scenes like what is happening in georgia will continue. Something like this happened in 1938 in the Sudetenland of Czechslovakia (Which had… Read more »
The end of the Cold War was considered by some observers to be the ‘End of History’. Capitalism and the American way of life had triumphed; all that remained was a bit of tidying up. Then Islamic fundamentalism reared it head; China, and now Russia also emerged as adversaries to western hegemony. Our old friend History is stirring again, and we need to take an 18th century view of the world. It is a world in which Neutrality is no longer a viable option and we have no choice but alliance with USA, distasteful though this may be. The Poles… Read more »
The Americans are behind this along with their Israeli mates. Georgia is the aggressor and it is connected to the age old fight over oil and the supply of oil. The Russians for once being painted as the bad guys they are not. Usually they are but in this conflict it is not as cut and dried as it is presented. I still cannot understand too how Estonia was allowed into the EU when they refuse passports to ethnic Russians who were born in Estonia but are registered as “aliens”. In the modern EU you are not European until the… Read more »
B, they’re not waving nukes around Poland – it’s only a defence system against missile attack. There’s no comparison with what went on during the cold war when the Russians tried to install ballistic missiles in Cuba aimed at the US, while the Americans had missiles in Turkey aimed at the USSR – this is purely a defensive shield and the Russians appear to be humiliated for what ever reason.
Did they or did they not threaten Poland with a nuclear strike if they hosted missiles?
David overlooked one major difference between the Russian interest in the Baltic States and Georgia ie. Georgia is Europe’s preferred route for the pipelines carrying oil and gas from the Caucasus to Europe. For a number of years, Russian policy, under Putin, aims to take over all oil and gas production/sales/distribution directed to Europe. Examples the attack on Yukos, the taking-out of the stakes of major western oil companies in the development of Russian oil/gas fields, Gazprom offering to buy gas from the ‘stans, Algeria etc. Russia can constrict the the Baltic states and Ukraine using gas supplies – just… Read more »
Excellent article in today’s UK Times.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article4525885.ece
Observer> Soon Russians maybe in Eastern Ukraine and elsewhere in Central Asia will demand to be repatriated with the Russian Federation……… more territories might be invaded to reclaim these diaspora communities. As I mentioned above, the key to understanding the issues in Georgia, Russia the caucuases and elsewhere is that this is an area which is pockmarked with ethnic groupings created through the millenia of people moving, colonisation, etc. It is very fragmented. Dont just think of a single set of Russian people that have expanded into former soviet states and have not gone back home. It is much more… Read more »
Being the excellent chess players that they are, Russians are seeing weakness in the once unstoppable western hegemony. Look at how Putin slots in – 10 years ago, the country was a basket case with a poor self view. People’s sense of pride in their own country and themselves was at an all-time low and a few ruthless oligarchs (former well placed administrators) move in and become billionaires overnight at the expense of the region. Putin represents a clean-cut, strong arm that a) gave the country a new nationalist focus, b) leverage show trial methods to bring down the oligarchs… Read more »
On a slight tangent – you’re bizarre attempt to learn Russian may turn out to be ahead of the curve.
The biggest world languages are roughly – English, Mandarin, Spanish, Russian, Arabic?
I think it makes sense that, if we Irish have property investments in Eastern Europe – that we might as well learn the language.
If Russia is going to be a major force economically and politically – then Russian should be taught in schools.
доналл
Thank you MK for mentioning those facts,
I still have reservations about what might come next from Russia………. The Russian Federation is of course and has always been a very diverse place but these peoples are all relatively similar.
I think the fact that there are so many scattered russians around the former USSR and that if similar situations that occur in georgia appear where one population wants to be part of its motherland, then scenes like this will probably occur again.
If the country that you were born in refuses you a passport then its easy to build resentment towards that country. @Dónall Garvin “I think it makes sense that, if we Irish have property investments in Eastern Europe – that we might as well learn the language.” Speak Russian in Poland and see how far that gets you. Probably a beating. I don’t think we the Irish can lecture anyone on the integration of a former aggressors population. We kicked them out, ripped out their infrastructure and bitched and moaned for 100 years about how we had nothing. It is… Read more »
Actually speaking German in Poland is what really gets you into trouble these days. Poles feel a little safer with the other guys. Everyone wants to speak English. Rule Brittannia!! :)
A few points about your article: The 40 percent of Russians in Estonia are the result of the Soviet’s plantation scheme. (Does “plantation ring a bell? Well it should!). Nevertheless, while Estonia was saddled with foreigners by the Soviet conqueror, modern Ireland is doing it voluntarily. And guaranteed, the same problems that are today taking place in Estonia are in store for Ireland. Keep posted for developments – they won’t be pretty! As an American patriot, I am very happy with events in Georgia. This has shown that the Empire (The American Neo-Conservative Empire of Creative Destruction) has no clothes.… Read more »
My Estonian flatmate wasn’t planted. She was born in Estonia to Russian parents. She was called an alien and was required to learn Estonian or leave. Her passport was marked Alien and her movements were restricted.
So if this is allowed in Estonia will we be allowed to have Traveller passports and restrict them too?
How are we going to have the same problems as Estonia? The situations are incomparible.
quote “Many are now questioning the wisdom of last year’s move to tear down a monument of a Soviet soldier, which, for Russians here, symbolised the great Russian sacrifices made to defeat fascism. For Estonians, the monument represented a triumphalist reminder of the Russian annexation of Estonia after World War II. Last year, the Kremlin expressed its disapproval, but did little else. However, today’s Moscow is a very different beast than it was 12 months ago” 1. The monument was not “torn down” – it was tactfully relocated to a more appropriate location. 2. “Last year, the Kremlin expressed its… Read more »
1. The monument was not “torn down” – it was tactfully relocated to a more appropriate location.
2. “Last year, the Kremlin expressed its disapproval, but did little else” – the Kremlin orchestrated an attack on the Internet infrastructure of the Estonian Republic. This attack lasted over three weeks.
“In Georgia the issue is Ossetia and Abkhazia, but here in the Baltic the issue is the 40 per cent of the Estonian population who consider themselves Russian.” As Guistino points out in his blog, the number 40 is rather outdated and flat out wrong. The number of ethnic Russians in Estonia is at 25 per cent, most of whom opted out for Russian or Estonian citizenship. B says, “My Estonian flatmate wasn’t planted. She was born in Estonia to Russian parents. She was called an alien and was required to learn Estonian or leave. Her passport was marked Alien… Read more »
If you are born in the country are you not a citizen?
Hardly any Irish people can speak fluent Irish. I bet there are a few fascists who would love to kick us all out of here for not knowing the language.
My flatmate speaks Estonian and has an Estonian passport. Why not subject ALL Estonians to the same conditions of citizenship.
“If you are born in the country are you not a citizen?” Not really. In Ireland, for example, that law was recently changed. I recommend reading more about principles of Jus sanguinis and Jus soli as two major legal principles what determines citizenship. Different countries make different laws and follow different principles. “My flatmate speaks Estonian and has an Estonian passport.” An Estonian alien passport, I presume? If so, nothing stands in her way to pass citizenship test and obtain citizenship. She just chooses not to do it. “Why not subject ALL Estonians to the same conditions of citizenship.” But… Read more »
FULL Estonian passport.
Why were they allowed to join the EU with this going on?
In Ireland we passed a bad law. Nobody is safe here now.
“Why were they allowed to join the EU with this going on?”
The European courts and organizations have not found the citizenship law contradicting any European laws and conventions.
Maybe it has not been challenged in the courts yet.
I don’t agree with having an EU with second class citizens. It is not in the spirit of the union.
Other than factual inaccuracies already pointed out, the article is missing the core of the puzzle. By scratching the surface the author comes to conclusions that are only possible if you talk to one side only who in this case has been Nadia. What about Katja, the Russian girl that had learned Estonian, applied for the citizenship , got it and signed up to help the Estonian police during the Bronze Soldier pro Soviet riots in Estonia that turned into looting etc. ? And what about Mari, an Estonian girl who just would like to live in peace, who doesn’t… Read more »
To : ”b” regarding citizenship. all your statements are very familiar and I’m sorry to point it out: it’s because I’ve heard it from “Radio Moscow” several times. “They were allowed to join NATO and the EU” because according to “Radio EU”, the 50years of Soviet occupation of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania was never recognized de jure. Meaning all Soviet time immigrants are looked at as regular immigrants in any country that need to apply for the citizenship or residence permit or leave the country, up to you. Choosing a citizenship is a personal choice, you can’t give it anybody unless… Read more »
“I don’t agree with having an EU with second class citizens. It is not in the spirit of the union.”
But therein is the problem. They’re not second-class citizens. No second-class citizen has an opportunity to become the first-class citizen. Non-citizens in the Baltic states have that opportunity. It’s called naturalization.
re:Dan Hayes said, on August 18th, 2008 at 10:30 pm American patriot, eh! Sure buckwheat, tell me another story. You may want to read Mark Steyn’s book “American Alone” for a view of the different view of the world. Long term, Russia is the sickest as the life expectancy of the average male is 59 (while Russian women live to Western ages; i.e., late 70’s). China, your empire to be has a different problem: the one child policy of China over the last 30 years has resulted in a 120 to 100 ratio of men to women (130 rurally where… Read more »
North Korea has the worlds largest flagpole. You can see if from the South Korean border.
Brian Cowan has been seen urinating upwards on it.
Very interesting article. Thank you.
Was David a teenage communist?
No mention of the needs of democracy in this rebalancing act.
I expect Germany will soon be manufacturing nukes.
Lets be clear, there wasn’t any Russian aggresion against Georgia as it is portrated by the pro-neocons propaganda machines FoxNews, SkyNews, CNN, BBC, etc. What happened in South Ossetia was another Georgian invasion of Ossetian (Alanian) land which initially invaded by Georgia (in 1920) after collapse of Russian Empire. Since then Ossetia, who joined Russian Empire 25 years earlier than Georgia, was split by Georgians in two parts: North Ossetia and South Ossetia (occupied by Georgia). At that time happened the first wave of genocide and ethnic cleansing against Ossetians by Georgian military when they killed almost 25% of all… Read more »
V says: “Also I should mention that approximately 52% of Ukrainian citizens are ethnically Russian”
Wikipedia says: “ethnic Ukrainians make up 77.8% of the population. Other significant ethnic groups are Russians (17.3%)…”
Take your pick, dear reader!
I query two of V’s assertions 1. Stalin was ethnically a Georgian jew. If this is true, what of the report that Stalin actually spent time (how long?) studying to be a Christian priest? 2. casualties arising from Georgia’s attack on 8 August 2008. A report in yesterday’s Financial Times (21 August 2008) stated that Civilian deaths put at 133. I reproduce the report in full “A Russian commission designed to look into allegations of ethnic cleansing and genocide by Georgia in the breakaway enclave Of South Ossetia says that Georgian forces killed 133 civilians in a bombardment starting August… Read more »
to Donal O’Brolchain: 1) Although Stalin (Joseph Dzhugashvili) was ethnical Georgian jew there is no clear indication whether he ever had any connection with jewdaism religion. Apparently he was converted into christianity. 2) In some of the Russian mass media there were reports coming from South Ossetian government that they already account for 1,492 civilian casualities, however, only 133 bodies already fully recognised and documented while the others still go through recognition process. The process is slow as 10 South Ossetian villagies were completely flattered by Georgian army with all (or almost all) civilians killed and now requires a lot… Read more »
“Although Stalin (Joseph Dzhugashvili) was ethnical Georgian jew there is no clear indication whether he ever had any connection with jewdaism religion. Apparently he was converted into christianity.” That’s the biggest mount of horse manure I’ve ever read. Stalin a Jew. How do you figure? Where is the evidence of his Jewishness? Was it his mother? Well, no. She was Georgian. Was it his father? Although the identity of his biological father is a subject of speculation, his nationality is not. How far do you go into his genealogy to find some kind of Jewish blood in his? To Abraham?… Read more »
to mishko: All numbers (and information about history) in respect of so-called state of Ukraine in Wikipedia are falsified as those numbers now are the part of Ukrainian ultranationalists/and American anti-Russian propaganda machine for creating one unitarist Ukrainian nation (and presenting it in such way to the rest of the world). Prior to collapse of the USSR statistics indicated that approximately 27 millions (out of 52.5 mln) of citizens of Ukrainian SSR were ethnically Russian and additional 3 mln were other minorities, while Ukrainians had only 12.5 mln. However, when Ukrainian ultaranational separatists on command from Washington broke away these… Read more »
corrected: to mishko: All numbers (and information about history) in respect of so-called state of Ukraine in Wikipedia are falsified as those numbers now are the part of Ukrainian ultranationalists/and American anti-Russian propaganda machine for creating one unitarist Ukrainian nation (and presenting it in such way to the rest of the world). Prior to collapse of the USSR statistics indicated that approximately 27 millions (out of 52.5 mln) of citizens of Ukrainian SSR were ethnically Russian and additional 3 mln were other minorities, while Ukrainians had only 22.5 mln. However, when Ukrainian ultaranational separatists on command from Washington broke away… Read more »
to Aleks: 1) There is no such a nation as Georgian-this is just the package in English language to the West. Georgia, locally known as Sakartvelo or Kartli, represents multiple independent nations/ethnic groups (i.e. Swans, Megrels, etc) with own very old cultures, languagies, traditions and even sometimes a very old hatred towards each other. For me current Georgia (or Sakartvelo) should be a federation or confederation, so no other nations would be abused and killed by currently rulling ethnic group. 2) As regards to Stalin – the name Joseph is Jewish, his surname Jugashvili translates as Son of a Jew,… Read more »
Thanks V. I think you have put a bit more perspective and balance to this discussion. I had actually read a similar account in a French website that deciphers what the media says and also denunciates the propagandas.
It seems indeed that Georgia stroke first (thing that a lot of Western media fail to report) and also that South Ossetia did vote for independence several times but Georgia refused to acknowledge that fact. Yes, things are never as clear cut as they seem…
My last name means A Little Wedge, what does that tell you?
Joseph’s official father, Vissarion, or Beso, was an Ossetian cobbler, who didn’t get along with his son. So for your contention that Stalin was a Jew based on his name and his father’s lineage to stand, it would have to withstand a test of his father’s name as well. Vissarion is not a Jewish name. If you care to provide evidence who in Beso’s family was Jewish and how they were related, I’m all ears. But as it stands, it’s a pile of poo…
Re: There’s no such nationality as Georgian. That too is questionable. Sure, I’d buy a federation argument as many nationalities live there. But – Germany was not a single state until the end of the 19th century, Italy was populated by many different peoples until as recently as the end of the 19th century. Are you telling me there’s no such nationality as German or Italian?
to Aleks:
1) I’ m here not to discuss the Jewish (or Stalin) question, I’m here to discuss the genocide of South Ossetians by Georgian military and the tricks of dirty pro-American TV propaganda, so, please don’t try to shift the discussion away.
2) As regurds to Stalin’s roots you can stay with your opinion I would stay with mine. In the same way I can say that your words “it’s a pile of poo”…
“I’m here to discuss the genocide of South Ossetians by Georgian military and the tricks of dirty pro-American TV propaganda, so, please don’t try to shift the discussion away.” Sure, but admittedly, your knowledge regarding Stalin’s nationality undermines your credibility, wouldn’t you say? We could discuss the “genocide” — big words for the death that so far is only in a couple of hundred — of South Ossetians. I question the accusation of genocide. Clearly, if the ultimate goal was the extinction of all South Ossetians, the number of dead discovered by the Russian authorities right now would have been… Read more »
to Aleks: 1) Germany is not as much united as it seems from outside, neither is Italy. 2) While the nations/ethnic groups in Western Europe are generally peacified, in Georgia (apart from South Ossetia and Republic of Abkhazia) right now there are small clashes and conflicts between other ethnic groups which are heavily punished by Georgian secret service, police and military. There are indications that people of Dzhvaks (ethnically Armenian), Pankisi (ethnically close to one of the Chechen clans), Swanetia (Swans), Megrelia (Megrels), Adzhara (Adzharians) want to break away from remaining Georgian territoriy. So I wouldn’t consider Georgia as a… Read more »
To V: 1) It’s not the question whether Germany is united. It’s the question whether there’s such a nationality as Germans. You remember your original assertion that there’s no such a nation as Georgians because they’re made up of many different nationalities, right? Well, applying that assertion to Germany, you’d have to concede that, according to you, Germans aren’t really a nationality. Or did I get it all wrong? 2) Yes, Georgia isn’t united. But that’s not what I’m questioning. I’m questioning this sentence, “There is no such a nation as Georgian-this is just the package in English language to… Read more »
to Aleks: as regards to the genocide and ethnic cleansing in South Ossetia you have to remember that: 1) the population of South Ossetia prior to this 4th wave of genocide was very small (as many thousands of South Ossetians flew to North Ossetia during previous waves of genocide). According to different sources pre-2008war South Ossetian population was estimated between 70 & 75 thousand. 2) During this 4th wave of South Ossetian genocide another 34 thousand flew to North Ossetia and up to 2,000 were killed. Also were killed in action at least 200 South Ossetian police, military and volunteers… Read more »
to Aleks:
yes, thats right, there is no such one united nationality as Georgian, as I’d said before, in Georgia there are multiple nations with different local names. Currently the power in the country is controlled by the people (ethnic group) from the areas reasonably close to Tbilisi (the capital). That nation/ethnic group now accepted the western name “Georgians” pretending that in Georgia there is one united nation. However it is not.