I usually don't embed YouTube videos on this blog, but for this translation of an interview with Nashi-in-Estonia Kommisar Mark Sirõk from Thursday's Eesti Ekpress, I thought After the Fire's 1983 hit, "Der Kommisar" wholly appropriate.
Sirõk is between a rock and a hard place in life. He loves Russia, but he lives in Estonia, where mostly Estonians live. He wants to lead a consequence-free youth movement, as it is in Russia, but he finds himself in Estonia, where if you help incite a riot, you can actually go to jail.
Mark found himself in this situation after the nonsense in April, where young Russian fantasies of confronting 'fascists in Estonia' -- also known as Russian-speaking policemen and women -- came true for two nights before the authorities turned off the tap and prohibited sales of alcohol, which strongly reduced the bravery level of these grandsons of the Red Army.
When he's not out shacking up with Nashi cuties, Sirõk enjoys wearing Hawaiian t-shirts, listening to Tchaikovsky, and fighting the good fight against fascism, which is obviously rearing its evil head all over the world right now. Politically, he leans towards Keskerakond,I have decided to just translate some key sections of Mark's interview, and I recommend having the YouTube playing while you read for the full effect.
Do you acknowledge the Estonian state and constitutional polity?
Yes, naturally. I support all of what is written in the constitution. But I don't like the rewriting of history. History is what it was, not what is written by Mart Laar. Right now is this moment when Estonia forgets its own old heroes and searches for new ones, but I think it will come to remember both.
Does the 24th of February mean anything to you?
Yes, this is Estonian Independence Day.
Have you celebrated it?
I have gone to watch a parade. I really like it when something is happening in the city. In addition to Estonian holidays, we also celebrate Russian holidays.
What kind of republic is Estonia?
Generally speaking, this is really a democratic state, but after the April events ... At school the director said to me, do you want to shut up or get expelled from school? Then this came to my mind, that what kind of country is this, what kind of democracy, what kind of freedom of speech?
Did you vote in elections in Spring?
No, my birthday was a bit later.
But will you go next time?
I don't know exactly, but I hope so.
What party do you support?
It's hard to say at the moment, but when I think about it, then I would support Keskerakond.
Why?
Their politics are more or less normal. They aren't from the right and aren't from the left. They defend the interests of both Estonian and Russian speakers.
***
Are the Soviet Union and European Union similar?
Also in the Soviet Union they had freedom of movement, like they have in the European Union.
Sirõk's Nashi companion Roman Jelfimov answered the question this way --
Every union means that a part of independence is lost. Are we agreed? Some decisions are now made in Brussels, not in Tallinn. Of course, they both have their own pluses. Let's discuss this more after 10 years.
Is Nashi an anti-Estonian movement?
Not at all. We are anti-fascist, not anti-Estonian.
26 kommentaari:
The original song is from Falco, Austria. RIP. This song is belonging to another genaration. ;-)
The Nashi crap here is rewritten history as the song is.
Also in the Soviet Union they had freedom of movement, like they have in the European Union.
This is wrong in so many ways that it's downright brilliant.
Thank you, jens-olaf, for preventing me from having to go Austrian nationalist. Not that I necessarily think that it reflects too well on Austria that it let Falco loose on the world .. :D
The original:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17QGYkFJj9M&mode=related&search=
Sorry bros, but the twin punches from "Rock Me Amadeus" plus the 1985 film of the same name scarred me as a child. Falco will not be served on this blog.
Oh, that's bad... really like his music :)
But on the interview - the quote ari gives shocked me as well, don't understand why he speaks out such a lie - everybody knows that's not true.
Well, I guess he meant that there was freedom to travel within the Union. If you were from Estonia, you could relatively liberally travel to Georgia.
A pretty retarded comparison, though. Try to imagine the European Union prohibiting Danish citizens to travel anywhere outside of the European Union, with the exception of a handfull of states that are politically close to the EU - Norway, Switzerland, Iceland and Croatia, for example.
I really feel sorry for these two kids. Its so sad to read their answers.
Hey, someone should explain here how much freedom of movement you had in the Soviet Union. Didn't you need to register and get a permit before you could go to Georgia? Actually a friend told me that as a foreigner he had to go to see the KGB each time he wanted to leave Tartu, where he lived with his Estonian wife. And in modern Russia you need to do paperwork in order to go hiking to Karachevo-Cherkesia close to the Georgian border.
Returning to the post, they obviously tried to answer in a civilized way. This is not the way that they write their own leaflets. However, the fact that he brought a Estonian flag to Seliger is a good sign. It means that they are aware of how much they have messed up in Estonia already.
My favorite answer is when one of them said he had to wait 10 years to be able to compare the EU and the USSR. That shows the speed of their brains. What does he intend to do in ten years? Count the number of families deported by the EU? The number of statues of Robert Schuman in downtown Tallinn? Hilarious.
And what about Tartu? Foreigners could not visit the city on a common visa, and who else?
Oh yes, foreigners had altogether very many restrictions in visiting places outside Tallinn. Tartu was almost closed because of the military airport.
spaze_maze that could be a Nashi song:
Fehlfarben: "Es geht voran!" Same time as Falco:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cln1ohztdm0&mode=related&search=
Oh, we loved it.
The situation in Estonia considering the freedom of movement was relatively good, you could move relatively easy within the Soviet Union. I've heard that in some parts of Russia people in collective farms didn't have even passports so that they couldn't move to bigger cities.
Let's not forget that while you could travel to other places in the Soviet Union, you couldn't actually move there - not without the government's permission. Getting registration in desirable places like big cities was a massive problem. Countless (and very good!) novels have been written around the human drama of propiska.
These kids have a messed-up understanding of what exactly the EU's freedom of movement rules are about.
I just read Jaanus Piirsalu blog about life in Russia. Propiska is alive and well. That means that people from some Medvezhnaya Zhopa cannot move to bigger cities. If they do, they'd be harassed and denied services.
So if these malchiks truly care about their personal freedoms, their nice clothes, their mp3 players, their tusovkas with rebyata and all the other cool things in life they may care about - they better hoist that Estonian flag even higher. Here and in Russia.
Let's not forget that while you could travel to other places in the Soviet Union, you couldn't actually move there - not without the government's permission.
There were ways to convince the authorities to relocate you. For example, if you published a magazine espousing bourgeoisie values, you could get an all expenses paid trip to Siberia (!)
which was called 25+5 - meaning after living there the sentence, you had no right to return to your homeland, except in coffin.
And the Siberia sentences were given also in 80ies - remember Jüri Kukk. However, the later times they didnt used labour camps which were more or less the concentration camps of Adolf, but prisons and hospitals for mentally disabled.
And the Siberia sentences were given also in 80ies - remember Jüri Kukk.
Heiki Ahonen did time back then. Now he oversees the occupation museum. How splendid.
That might have been a pre-requisite or minimum qualification for the post.
Wow, they charged Arnold Meri with genocide. I didn't know he helped deport people. Crazy.
He'd make an excellent curator at the Okupatsioonimuuseum, wouldn't he?
That should be his sentence.
Just to show that they are indeed right and that the whole world has indeed gone fascist, I'd really like these nashis to read this anti-Russian propaganda article in today's 'Washington Post' written by Obersturmfurher Masha Lipman: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/21/AR2007082101418.html?hpid=opinionsbox1&sub=AR
Ah, give them five years -- university educations and experiences will fill in some of the nuances. At 17, they're maybe a little young to be going on the record on the big picture topics. For their own credibilitys sake. I mean at 17,in 1991, right before my first visit to Estonia, I believed life in Soviet times had always been as bad as it was under Stalin.
If Rüütel is esimene Arnold, and Oksmaa is is teine Arnold, who exactly is Arnold Meri?
Arnold Meri is the only surviving Estonian "Hero of the Soviet Union". There were just a few of them, to start with (unsurprisingly), so he enjoyed kind of iconic status in Soviet times.
Understandably, the loss of status and stained past made him land in pro-Soviet camp and he has been quite vocal. He also actively supported rumours of KGB past of Lennart Meri (IIRC his cousin). No pity for these guys.
So could we call him the real esimene Arnold? I know who he is. He is the one Estonian guy wearing a Red Army uniform and saying 'sbasiba' to everybody every May 9.
NASHI is no differen't from youth groups in the USA during the "Peace, Love, Dove, Beads, Insencense, And Roman Saldals" day in the USA.(1960's & 1770's.)
Their actions in Estonia, however were totally unaceptable. I can give you a link to video's of the idiots that perpertrated this event. The organizers only received a token sentence. They should have received a minimum of 15 years in an Estonian prision for their actions.
Basically they are all "PUNKS."
They follow Putin. Putin is destroying the Russian people for his own power and fortune. Forget the Soviet Union... it is dead! USSR is a forgotten piece of history in the world. It has been dead since 1991 when Gorbechiev or whatever his name was eliminated the communist party and destroyed and dis-mantled the KGB in Russia.
NASHI wants to revive this. NASHI is nothing more than the equivolent of skinheads in the USA.
Most of them faggots... most of them drug addicts... most of them...
...never mind... it gets too graphic for me to continue my dialog here.
These are extremely stupid kids.
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