Referring to the opinion "Stupidity as a political statement" (TBT 652) ("Apparently many members of the Russian-speaking community that have spent most of their lives in Estonia are deliberately refusing to learn the language.") I'd like to say something different. I have been living in Latvia for more than 40 years and this issue is close to me and rather sensitive. I started learning Russian at the age of eight, it was generally mandatory then, but in the last years of secondary school we already learnt by heart Russian classics such as Pushkin, Lermontov a.o. in original. It must be said right away that the language situation today is totally different. It is like a paradise.
At the beginning of the 1980s Russian people who could speak Latvian and did so could be counted on fingers. In order to recall concrete personalities I have to strain my memory. But there were very few and it was almost a rule. Our Russian language and Russian literature teacher Jelena Pavlovna never spoke a word of Latvian and it was matter-of-course. If you had to order some service or do some shopping you almost inevitably had to speak Russian. At that time to address some Russian in Latvian was almost unthinkable, it would be outspoken, even shamelessness. You could easily get slapped in the face. There were sad jokes of real life, e.g. when Russians have said to Latvians: "Do speak human language" or, "Don't speak that dog's language."
The problem is that Russians in both Estonia and Latvia are not a minority in the classical sense. If there are 55 percent of them in Tallinn, then there are less than 40 percent of Latvians in Riga. If in Narva, the third biggest Estonian city (66,000), there are about 3 percent Estonians, then in Daugavpils, the second biggest Latvian city with a population of about 110,000 there are around 17 percent Latvians. Let's recall that in 1939 there were around 77 percent Latvians in Latvia, but in 1991 's less than 52 percent. One very important point is that there was no bipolarity or two communities in the First Republic of Latvia. After 1991 Latvians step by step recovered their nationhood but Russians gradually lost their privileges which they enjoyed in all spheres of life in all Soviet republics. Up until then they were the core nation; it even said so in the anthem of the SU.
Maybe this is this reason why I know almost no Russians who would not want the U.S.S.R back, although fortunately I have met some. Therein lies the main point of my disagreement with the author of said article. Really, there are hundreds of thousands Russian-speakers just in Latvia who barely know the state language at all, besides the major part was born here. Yes, it is a conscious attitude when people refuse to learn the state language, but it is not a political demonstration, at least in most cases. That's the way it has been for decades since the end of World War II. According to the notorious Orwellian formula, some are more equal than others. For Russians to learn the languages of local republics has always been superfluous but after 1991 's cumbersome and humiliating, especially in Latvia, where everybody knew Russian.
I've heard how some Russians boasted of not knowing Latvian in spite of living here for decades. I've read in local Russian newspapers calls for Russians everywhere and always to speak only Russian. J. Pliners, one of the leaders of FHR in the United Latvia, has said that the restoration of national minority schools in Latvia was a mistake (thus presuming it's splitting Russian-speakers). I've read numerous allegations of Russian authors whereby they excel their nation, e.g. that Russian language is the richest in the world; that Russian is the language with most publications in the world, that half of the ancient Romans were Russian ancestors a.s.o. My former neighbor maintained that most scientific and technical discoveries were made by Russians. It could be continued in the same vein. Since times gone by, Russians have positioned themselves as a special nation although they are not a nation in it's formal sense because usually a nation is based on common cultural, political and a.o. values and traditions, and not only on one bare language (not knowing other one).
Gundars Sondors,
Latvia
