The excerpt making the rounds is the following, the Swiss paper asked Ilves why Russian wasn't an official second language of the Republic of Estonia, and Ilves deflected it with a short history lesson and a laugh. "Don't ask me ridiculous questions." I've heard this stuff before, a million times. Sometimes Estonian leaders deflect to Germany when these questions are tossed in their direction, "There are X many Turks in Germany" ... To which the German mind silently processes, "Yes, but they're Muslims ..." and then moves onto the next question. This time Ilves trotted out the Occupation rhetoric, but there was a gem in the rough.
Toome näiteks: me okupeerime teie maa ja pärast 50 aastat ütleme, et te peate eesti keele ametlikuks keeleks tegema.
"How about we occupy your country and after 50 years tell you that you have to make Estonian your official language."
Now that was splendid. One can imagine the Swiss journalist's mind silently processing, "Yes, but you are a small insignificant country that couldn't occupy another if it tried, well, maybe Latvia ..." but then conveniently moves on to the next question. It also got perhaps a few people to think about things a different way.
As president of Estonia, Ilves has to walk a tightrope when it comes to the "Russian question." On one hand, he's got the right wingers, not to mention segments of the exile community, who fervently resent the presence of Soviet-era migrants and their descendants on the holy soil of the fatherland. On the other hand, a plurality of those Soviet-era migrants and their descendants are Estonian citizens today, and their membership in the Estonian body politic does not need to be qualified, especially by their own president. So, basically, no matter what Ilves says, he's bound to piss off somebody.
Still, I think of these questions as opportunities missed. Why isn't Russian your second official language? Simple: because it does not need to be. First of all, Russians are an official minority -- go consult your Law on Cultural Autonomy for National Minorities (1925, 1993). "National minority cultural autonomy may be established by persons belonging to German, Russian, Swedish and Jewish minorities and persons belonging to national minorities with a membership of more than 3,000." This names Russians as an official minority. It does not qualify them by what year they arrived to Estonia. Russian is the language of instruction of 20 percent of Estonia's public schools. And what are the first foreign languages most pupils, regardless of background, learn in school? Russian and English.
Honestly, I don't know who is Russian and who is Estonian anymore. A good number of my daughter's classmates have Russian surnames, and yet their parents seem as Estonian as one can be. Our publishing house has published books written by Andrei Hvostov, Vahur Afanasjev, Maria Kupinskaja: they're all Estonians too.
The arguments about protecting the Estonian language during the Singing Revolution were coached in terms of ethnic national survival. But in the 22 years since Estonia reverted to having one national language, Estonian has become the default language among those with Estonian and German and Swedish and Russian and Ukrainian and Italian backgrounds. The inhabitants of Estonia have in a way become Homo esticus. This is not a new process. Estonia has a way of luring people in and assimilating them. And if you stand on a hill in Harjuimaa on a breezy day, and put your ear to the wind, you can hear that giant sucking sound ...
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foreigners insisting on estonia's tinyness and insignificance in comparison to russia or russian language really fail to understand the estonian mindset.
such worries about cultural existence are what have made estonians so insistent on language as THE pivotal part of their national identity.
the idea (usually from ignorant, self important western regions of the EU) that they should roll over and just accept their roll as a russian speaking oblast just make estonians more determined.
a good thing, i think.
I edited the article for clarity.
If you stand on an hill in Ida-Viru County you can hear the sucking sound of pressure for the removal of educators who support upper secondary school language reform -- the changeover to Estonian as the language of instruction in some high schools.
Invasion metaphor was not very õnnestunud. Sigtuna is trembling. But Ilves has made the point before regarding cultural minorities (along the lines of "ethnic Russians can do just about everything that their Estonian ilk can" - which I think is true)
Local Russians were very angry on Ilves for this interview: http://rus.delfi.ee/daily/estonia/ilves-russkij-kak-gosudarstvennyj-ne-zadavajte-smeshnyh-voprosov.d?id=63110560
Wasn't Switzerland occupied by Austria? Or was it the Holy Roman thing back then?
Oh yeah, and by the French. Ilves could have picked a better example.
Unlike Estonia Switzerland is a federal country, a confederation having 4 official languages German, French, Italian, and Romansh. Unlike Estonians their identity is not based on a language. So I bet the Swiss journalist had no idea what Ilves was talking about.
I suppose this is another case of a "rights" (citizen rights, human rights) narrative conflicting with history and tradition.
Most minority rights are not really "necessary" in the sense that people can actually do without them (and in Estonia even opt for cultural autonomy), but still, making the language of a large minority group co-official in one way or another is the rule in most (not all) European countries - and it takes an extra effort to argue against it with Finland being next door.
This is not to say that I would support nation-wide co-official status for Russian. I would not. But I would rather argue against it with historical facts: In Finland both language groups are fully integrated and have centuries of history together. In Estonia, two thirds of Russians arrived within a generation and still form a parallel society in many places. Surely not in Viljandi or Tartu, but rather in Narva and Tallinn. Therefore, integrating them with knowledge of Estonia and Estonian is more important.
And from the point of view of Realpolitik, it's a fact that these two thirds actually arrived because of an illegitimate occupation. They are not to blame, of course, but this background just speaks against Russian.
Since Russian is only confined to a few cities, the situation is also unlike Finland. But I could actually imagine a future about a generation from now where the Russian element could be fully integrated, and maybe the third of it that chose Russian citizenship would actually have emigrated to a Putin-free Russia.
By then, I personally wouldn't see a problem of making Russian co-official locally, in places like Narva and Tallinn, so citizens could communicate with the authotities in it, also de jure.
Things like bilingual street signs would seem quite out of place to me, though, since the original language of these cities is Estonian, whereas in Swedish Finland it is actually Swedish.
I know there are more opinions about this...
@ Troels-Peter:
The original language of these cities is German. :)
Well, my point is that the state is defending the perception that it does not support minorities or minority languages, when it fact it does. Why else would the Estonian president's website be available in Russian? (http://president.ee/ru/index.html)
And not only Russian: quite a lot of kroons/euros have gone to protect regional languages/dialects. I was recently in a gas station in Võru where there was a big sign, in Võru language, that alerted customers that the staff spoke Võru.
The idea that Estonia is some sort of mini France is not true.
@Giustino: I completely agree. It's actually a very interesting subject.
@Temesta: Well yes, from the 13th century onwards. But surely Estonian must have been spoken before then...
There weren't real cities before that.
Right. They must have been Estonian-speaking villages - like the rest of Harjumaa/Virumaa to judge form the village names in Liber Census Daniae: http://et.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taani_hindamisraamat
But surely their becoming cities coincided with German immigration. German street signs would be cool in a way. But that would be for historical reasons since no one is left. Actually I remember seeing one in Tartu.
One of my daughter's classmates comes from a German speaking family. And German is the third foreign language students learn. But would German street signs be so different? "Schloss" Street instead of "Lossi," "Mynch" Street instead of "Munga", "Wallgraben" Street instead of "Vallikraavi." The Russian names were just transliterations. They have a few "indigenous" names for places (such as Yuryev for Tartu), but most of the rest are just the Estonian name spelled in the Cyrillic alphabet. Which means bilingual street signs would be for those people who can't read the Latin alphabet ...
Most interesting. Now that I come to think of it, I once met a young Latvian whose mother tongue was Low German. So there are a few German Balts left. Have they got some sort of organisation in Estonia?
I was of the impression that the law on cultural minorities in referring to Russians as an official minority in the State of Estonia was making reference to Peipsi järv coast old-believers not to the children of Soviet migrants, most of whom weren't Russian but from non-Russian SSRs.
Any experts on law like to clarify this point that Justin has raised? (Purely for interest of course. I agree that Russian-speakers are catered for by the state in terms of linguistic and cultural provision. Case in point, just got a bilingual Estonian-Russian information leaflet delivered in my door today about the census.)
Often it seems like the broader picture with this "Russian as an official language in Estonia"...or Latvia gets missed. If Russian was an official language in Estonia/Latvia it would become automatically an official language of the EU, meaning...you know what I mean. All laws, every official EU document would need to be available in Russian. So, what are the chances the EU would want to have Russian as one of its official languages? You tell me...
Untrue. When a country enters the EU they can only apply for one of their official languages to be an official working language of the EU. Seeing as Estonian and Latvian are only official in one country, even if Russian were to be official in those countries, Russian would still not be an official working language of the EU.
Is every document in Brussels really translated into every EU member language?
I mean really?
Wow!
No wonder this Tower of Babel is starting to crumble. It is unsustainable. It is actually pretty biblical. It will crumble.
:-)
No it isn't. English and French are the everyday working languages with German to a minor extent. As the EU has expanded the use of English has also expanded. French used to be the de facto working language but now it is English.
The EU has 23 de jure working languages but in reality English is the working language.
It is the legislation that must be translated and EU bodies must respond to a correspondance in the same langauge if it's in one of those 23. Everyday documents aren't translated.
In February I will move to Estonia. I have been studying Estonian for two years now. In September I started studying Russian. I think it could be useful.
@ Troels-Peter: The German family has an odd lineage. From what I understand, they are "Germanized" Estonian exiles who repatriated in '91. They operate a farm in the countryside, a little island of German-speaking farmers surrounded by Estonians. I did meet a Baltic German lady once who went on and on about what losers Estonians are and how the sun shone from Mannerheim's arse.
@ Temesta: It depends where you live. Russian is handy in Tallinn, sure. But a lot of people speak English in Tallinn too. If they smell foreignness, they'll switch to English. It's annoying
In general, I just got a letter from the Estonian Statistical Office in three languages: Estonian, Russian, and English.
It depends where you live. Russian is handy in Tallinn, sure. But a lot of people speak English in Tallinn too. If they smell foreignness, they'll switch to English. It's annoying
In my personal experience, if they see you struggling with the Estonian, they switch to Russian. Which is indeed annoying, since I don't understand a word of it.
And even when you speak English, they still try to switch to Russian...this is why I do my best to get by in Estonian.
Of course, a lot of Tallinners speak English, I'm not denying that. I guess I'm just unlucky enough not to cross paths with them much.
There weren't real cities before that.
Viljandi had a castle and was a commercial center for its surrounding areas. Maybe it doesn't sound too awesome today, but in the beginning of the 13th century and compared to recently established Riga? Probably quite decent.
I was of the impression that the law on cultural minorities in referring to Russians as an official minority in the State of Estonia was making reference to Peipsi järv coast old-believers not to the children of Soviet migrants
Well, the law says nothing about the birthplace, if that's what you meant. It says that "the right for cultural self-government" (really awkward term if you ask me) "can be exercised by persons originating from German, Russian, Swedish and Jewish minorities and from the minorities that number over 3000 persons."
I was of the impression that the law on cultural minorities in referring to Russians as an official minority in the State of Estonia was making reference to Peipsi järv coast old-believers not to the children of Soviet migrants, most of whom weren't Russian but from non-Russian SSRs.
Any experts on law like to clarify this point that Justin has raised? (Purely for interest of course. I agree that Russian-speakers are catered for by the state in terms of linguistic and cultural provision. Case in point, just got a bilingual Estonian-Russian information leaflet delivered in my door today about the census.)
The law was authored in 1925 by a social democratic government. Back then, Estonia's minority groups were rather centralized, they had inhabited the same areas for a long time, were linked through family and religious connections, and the autonomy law basically gave them the rights to oversee and administer their own cultural affairs.
It was reinstated in 1993 as part of the restoration of the prewar republic. Again, smaller, centralized minorities -- Estonian Swedes, Ingrian Finns -- have been able to take advantage of the law. But for Russians it is a real problem because there are so many of them, about 300,000, meaning that technically, the could be 100 different Russian groups seeking autonomy. The Ministry of Population Affairs was wrestling with this issue before SDE was sacked in 2009 and the post unfilled.
That being said, Russian is a de facto "official" language of the Estonian state, as is English it seems, Russian for the locals, English for everyone else. Estonian, though, is the only language that has special constitutional protection, meaning it is the job of the state to protect the Estonian language. I don't think it should be the job of the Estonian state to protect the Russian language.
Yet, if the Russians were to apply for cultural autonomy, I suppose the state would have to do that - ?
It's indeed an interesting case with those German-speaking Estonians not identifying as German Balts. Are there other examples of this group?
"Viljandi had a castle and was a commercial center for its surrounding areas."
Wasn't this castle built by the Sword Brethren? Before there was a hill-fort on the same site.
It's indeed an interesting case with those German-speaking Estonians not identifying as German Balts. Are there other examples of this group?
People have different identities. You can be Jewish and Russian speaking and an Estonian.
@Temetsa
Ancient people of Sakala had their own fortification on the other side of the lake, you know where the deep bit is in the lake, just across from there, so they used to stare each other as in |Mexican stand-off. The Germans built their one in even grander style, the ruins of which can still be seen today, to show off their alledged dominance and as far as I know they both co-existed for some time. So next time in Viljandi Ordulinnus, just look at the forest across the lake, where the Estonian fortification was, and think back how intimidating it all must have looked like! History is amazing, isn't it?:)
Just wanted to add, people wondering why Viljandi was so important in the first place? Rivers both coming in and going out of Lake Viljandi could carry ships back then.So you could load your ship in Lubeck, Germany for example and could sail non-stop to Tartu. Also the terrain round the rivers was hardly accesible and one of the few places you could actually capture the ship, and it's booty, was Viljandi. And it was important to Germans to secure the trade routes as Estonians were well known pirates back then.
Actually, that's a thing I've been wondering about. Apparently water flowed from Viljandi Lake in both directions in medieval times, so ships could sail all the way through the country. I don't know anything about hydrology, but that must be an unstable situation. Does anyone know how long this was the case? Was it maintained artificially? And how big were the ships? I imagine barges.
Just curious.
After I reading the post I have only one phraise I want to say: What the fuck?
I also study Russian because it is a beautiful language and because Russian culture is fascinating.
"After I reading the post I have only one phraise I want to say: What the fuck?"
What ever for? Does it make you horny?
Ships have keels. Name me one river in Estonia that would be deeper than say 10 feet or so to carry a seagoing vessel with a keel. It is all fairy tale. There was no Lubeck to Viljandi sailing. Ever.
Ships have keels. Name me one river in Estonia that would be deeper than say 10 feet or so to carry a seagoing vessel with a keel. It is all fairy tale. There was no Lubeck to Viljandi sailing. Ever.
So it's a myth, then. Interesting.
I still wonder whether smaller boats or barges would have been able to sail through.
Thinking of officializing Russian without a consideration for history is indeed near-sighted. And with Russian also as de facto necessary language in so many situations, what is to be gained by it?
If there is one space in which Estonian should be the default language, it's Estonia. Just as Russian is in Russia, despite the existence of local minority languages which can even be larger in absolute numbers than the entire Estonian population -- think of Tatar or Mordvin (Erzyan-Moksha).
No, it's not a myth. Check this out - http://www.riverland.ee/550 . Theres plenty online just google stuff and keep in mind that all these little rivers going towards P2rnu today, were once all one river - the Great Emaj8gi. Also, someone mentioned that water from lake Viljandi once ran on both directions, well, it did. As there was a third river, Tänassilma, that carried water from lake V8rtsj2rve. And when V8rtsj2rve flooded it also flooded lake Viljandi and all of the ancient valley was under water for several months of the year. I'm sure I've seen medieval drawings/carvings somewhere having proper ships at bay near the Viljandi Castle. I couldn't find anything online unfortunately. Maybe someone could pop down to the museum curator, at Viljandi Museum, and clarify this and post back here, please?!
Thanks for the link, interesting.
I know it's a bit off topic here, but it keeps intriguing me how a river can flow both ways for centuries. I would have thought that this was a rather unstable situation and that it would soon become less navigable in one direction.
So the Tänassilma used to flow into Lake Viljandi from the Võrtsjärv? I suppose the water flowed both ways from the Võrtsjärv then.
@Giustino - It is true that there are/were not many places in Estonia with a Russian name different from an Estonian one (add Tallin with 1 "n" and Pernov to Yuriev).
But I find very funny and confusing those places wirh endonyms and streets in 2 languages: Helsinki/Helsingfors, Bolzano/Bozen, Koper/Capodistria etc.
And besides I find terrible that in my smallest country I should divide the writings of my language with Russians, who in 1992 wanted to give a German name to their 2nd largest city: "Sankt-Peterburg".
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