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Originally Posted by Linda16
Estonian government does not refuse to grant citizenship to the abovementioned group. The citizenship has to be applied for.
So, basically for getting Estonian citizenship one has to live in Estonia at least for five years, be loyal to Estonian state, have permanent legal income and to know basic Estonian. These terms are not very difficult to follow.
Estonian Russians are not discriminated.
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Many of these Russians have been living in Estonia for several generations now; yet they are unable to obtain Estonian citizenship. Like I said, 35% of them currently posses no citizenship of any nation at all. Explain to me what the problem is then. Do you really think not automatically granting citizenship to normal Estonian Russian families who have been living in Estonia for generations after the Estonian independence was the humane thing to do? I think it isn't. They've become victims of the situation.
Russians are not discriminated? Russians have difficulty getting jobs, loans etc. As for my personal experience, I met with little but hostility from Estonians when I was in Tallinn with my (Russian) ex-fiancée (to meet her relatives). Speaking Russian got us a whole lot of dirty looks. I think denying the problem is not going to help the situation your country is in. A lot of people feel they're being treated rather badly. They feel alienated. They felt so years ago, and I imagine it's not gotten much better since the Estonian government removed the Bronze Soldier. And I must say I get the impression, from what I've seen there myself, that they are right.
Now of course people are always going to use different ways to react to a situation like this; some people use violent, others become overachievers, etc. People who belong to the group/class that is in control are usually going to pretend the problem either does not exist, or they're going to blame it on some cultural or ethnic defect (a la, those Russians, they're all violent and lazy). This reaction is a human defect I guess. It's the same in pretty much every country.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Linda16
As for the Lihula monument - it was moved by the Estonian authorities and is now in the museum. The fact that some Estonian men fought against Soviet army with Germans, is part of our history. However, these men fought in a separatate division and their ideology was neither Nacional Socialism nor fascism, but they fought for their own country - Estonia. The goal was to resist Soviet troops and establish independent Estonia - like Finland managed to do. There is another thread - General discussion about Russia - where haku and simon are thoroughly and objectively explaining Estonia's history.
It's a very sad statement to be heard. Estonia is a souvereign independent country, member of NATO and EU. Our state exists and is steady.
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Objectively explaining the history of a country is impossible. Study history and it's the first thing you will learn. History is a discussion with an end. Only dictatorships establish "objective" histories that consist of "truths".
The monument, which is not IN the museum, but near it, and was removed twice, under international pressure, because the Estonian government did not get the message the first time, depicts an estonian in an SS uniiform, pointing his gun towards Russia. It's an aggressive message of hatred towards Russia and of admiration for the Nazi regime. Surely whoever created it could have come up with something better than a soldier in an SS uniform pointing his gun to Russia. If it had been erected in 1941, it probably would have been a lot less disgusting. But erecting a monument heroically portraying an SS-soldier, 60 years after the fact, after all those horrible crimes of the Nazi regime have become known to everybody, it's just wrong, and it tells a lot about the perception of history of those who have endorsed this monument.
And being member of the EU and NATO has absolutely nothing to do with having a right to exist, does it? It's certainly not going to change the minds of those Russian Estonians your government has alienated. I agree with you on one thing; it's a sad situation.