The room was filled with curiosity when a resident of Narva, on the Russian border, confronted the Estonian Defense Minister with fears that Russia “needs to save its compatriots.” For some viewers, it marked a loosening of the complex ties between Russian-speaking and Estonian speakers in Estonia.
Defense Minister Kalle Laanet came to “Russia of Estonia” for a town hall press conference on Monday to address residents’ concerns in the aftermath of the war that began in their neighbor. Would there be shelters in case of bombing? How could the friction between Ukrainian refugees and local Russians be prevented?
“We have 70,000 gray passports in Estonia, we have 80,000 Russian citizens in Estonia,” Margarita Källo, a Narva native of Tartu University, told Laanet. “I see it as a big problem, first of all for Estonia, for our security.”
After the Soviet occupation, the Estonian government took a hard line against the inhabitants who were considered to have been imported from the USSR to work in the Baltic states’s industries – and decided to require knowledge of the Estonian language in order to obtain Estonian citizenship. Many never managed or preferred to maintain the travel flexibility offered by statelessness. The issue has been emotional and controversial for years. About a quarter of Estonia’s 1.3 million people are Russian-speaking.
Ten days after Vladimir Putin’s Russia’s war on Ukraine, a cautious Defense Minister Laanet stressed the importance of keeping all Estonians united regardless of their language or nationality, adding that the war in Ukraine could justify “To look at the matter differently”.
Change of values
The simmering mistrust between the speakers of Estonia and Russia has been playing out in Narva for a long time. This is shaped by the wounds inflicted by the Soviet occupation on the Estonians, the flooding of the country’s independence for Russian-speakers, and decades of ubiquitous Russian media.
In Estonia’s third largest city, many in Narva tend to look closer to their nearest neighbor to the east than to the Estonian capital – although residents do not want to return to Russia.
Until recently, nearly 3,000 people walked or drove across the “Friendship Bridge” that connects Narva with its Russian sister city, Ivangorod, daily. The bridge accommodates friends and relatives visiting or heading to St. Petersburg and Russian trucks carrying goods to the Narva Industrial Park. Russian propaganda is just as easily filtered on Narva on the airwaves.
The war in Ukraine has not only reduced traffic to a few cars and buses full of Russians fleeing the country and Ukrainians to the war – but has also caused profound changes in some Russians’ perceptions of Estonia, says Dmitry Teperik, CEO of Center for Defense and Security (ICDS) in Tallinn, the capital of Estonia.
Teperik has been following the behavior of Estonian-speaking Russians on social media since February 24. In Narva, he says, a “small but real group of residents in favor of Putin with toxic views” coexists with a large group of residents who are largely indifferent to current events.
But the war was the catalyst for a new group of Russian ethnic groups to publicly claim their pro-Ukrainian and pro-Western European identities. “Russians who support Ukraine have won the spotlight,” Teperik said. “They have gained more courage.”
“This is important,” he added, “because it is not just about Ukraine but about a ‘significant change in the values of freedom, of democracy in the face of support for authoritarianism.’
Sergei Stepanov, former publisher of Russian for many years Narvskaya Gazeta who now works for the Russian-language public radio station Narva in Estonia, says Monday’s public debate on “gray passports” was important and the attendance was a welcome sign that “people want to get information from real sources, not from Russian television propaganda “.
Margarita Kallo feels that the “stateless” status of so many Russian-speakers in Estonia makes people feel unwanted – and that they could be pushed towards a “mentality and propaganda of the Russian Federation because they felt unwelcome” in the EU.
“I think that’s one of the reasons why, in Narva, there are confused emotions.”
The issue is controversial: Others believe that Russia is using the “gray” passport issue as a tool to divide Estonia’s various ethnic groups.
Sea of change
In 1944, the Soviet army repulsed the Nazi Germans. The Soviet “victory” for the Estonians heralded a dark chapter in the Soviet occupation. The Narva Estonians were displaced – many were lost in Siberian labor camps – and replaced by workers from other Soviet satellite states. With independence, the Russian-speakers lost their identity. As Estonia turned west, some in Narva remained in tune with Moscow.
In 2014, many Narva residents supported the Kremlin’s move to annex Crimea and defend its “people” in Donbas.
In Narva, a few Ukrainian flags adorn the streets as in Tallinn. As 30,000 Estonians flooded the capital’s Freedom Square in an anti-war rally, Narva residents were largely left at home. “People are silent, they are afraid,” said Roman Vikulov, a local reporter for a Russian-language weekly. “There is not much room for discussion here.”
Aleksandr Hobotov, who works at Narva, says the war in Ukraine has broken the “glass wall” between Estonian and Russian speakers.
“Eight years ago, it was clear that a section of society had a view and the Russians had a different opinion, the Russians were in favor of Russia, the Estonians were in favor of Ukraine. Today, everyone understands that it is not Russia’s war, but “Putin’s war.”
Hobotov’s wife is Russian and her family, who live in Siberia, are afraid to speak out against the war amid the Kremlin’s crackdown on dissent.
“Russian-speakers have a lot to do with Russia, it’s a big fight for everyone,” Hobotov said. “Families are divided.”
Ready to defend Estonia
The war encouraged some Narva residents to take a step unthinkable just years ago: to join Estonia’s thriving volunteer defense force. The force, known as the Kaitseliit, is made up of about 15,000 combat-trained personnel, including cyber experts, who are ready to report to the Estonian defense forces in the event of a national crisis.
With a tiny permanent army of 3,000 members and given the recent history of the occupation of Estonia, the volunteer force testifies to Estonia’s “whole society” approach to defense.
Aleksandr Pavlov, who joined the league in 1996, says some of his friends were fans of Putin – but has since noticed a change after the war in Ukraine. “After the invasion, views changed. A world is gone,” says Pavlov.
After visiting several countries, Russian speaker Ivan Dmitrijev says he has joined the force, citing his pride in Estonia as a boost. “I feel Estonia is the best,” said the 20-year-old student, one of a growing number of Russian-speakers who have joined the Narva 300-man league in recent years.
Dmitriev is used to navigating between Russian and Estonian cultures, but the Narva Bridge reminds him of where he wants to be: “There is a bridge and 200 meters away there is Russia,” where, he says, the roads are bored, buildings are dilapidated. , store shelves empty.
“No one is waiting for you there.”
Edited by: Stephanie Burnett
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