Myths and tales about Estonia. Myth two: Estonians don't like Russians. Tearing off the Veils: What do Russians Think of Estonians? What do Estonians think of Russians? Estonia doesn't like Russians

Russians pay no more than the British or the French in the era of decolonization

English: Estonians are pushing us out of business and prestigious professions. They say: go back to Russian birches, accordion and vodka. Estonian: In the era of decolonization, the British or the French also lost power and privileges.

Interview with Ksenia Rykovtseva, 48-year-old Russian teacher of chemistry

Tomasz Bielecki: Why did you defend the Bronze Soldier?

Ksenia Rykovtseva: This is the last symbol of us Russians in Estonia. During the demolition of this monument, it was not about this or that assessment of history, but rather about the desire to humiliate the national minority. The authorities showed us once again that there is no place for us in Estonia.

- The symbol of the Soviet occupation is a rather unfortunate symbol for the Russian minority. . .

Let's not succumb to nationalist propaganda. The Bronze Soldier is a memorial to the young people who died in the fight against Hitler. Even the Germans do not demolish Soviet monuments in the former GDR, but here? This is an attack on the memory of our fathers, the memory of the Soviet victory over the Nazis, who killed so many millions of people in Europe.

Really, before the collapse of the USSR, you never heard that the Estonians consider the Red Army an army of colonizers?

In 1991, a few days before the independence of Estonia, monuments to Lenin began to disappear in Tallinn. In disputes with Russian friends, I advocated their demolition, because Lenin laid the foundation for a system that brought suffering to Russians, Estonians, and Poles. However, then I did not expect that someone could raise a hand on the monuments to those who fought the Nazis. . .

- When you moved here, did you have the feeling that you were an uninvited guest?

I came to my husband, whom I met in Moscow, that is, from the very beginning I felt at home. And husband? His father was assigned to work here in the 1950s. This is what our colonization looks like. By the way, don't exaggerate. Estonians were almost always either under the Danes or under the Swedes or under the Russians or Germans. . . None of the Russians had the impression that some great independence was being encroached upon here.

- Estonian Russians complain about discrimination, although they do not emigrate to Russia. Maybe it's not all that bad?

I'm a PhD in Chemistry, but so what? In order to obtain Estonian citizenship after 1991, I had to pass a language exam. I went to the courses and successfully completed them. I got a grade that didn't allow me to work at the university, but I could be a chemistry teacher. Now I learn that the authorities are reforming the examination system. I will have to go to the courses again, take it again.

How can? With the help of language barriers, they purposefully push us out of business and prestigious professions. They say: go back to Russian birches, accordion and vodka. Estonian teachers who teach at my Russian school receive a 15 percent bonus for harmfulness. What kind of harm? What, Russians are dangerous animals?

- But you're not coming back?

Who wanted to leave, left in the 90s. Okay, I admit, I make a lot more than I would be paid in Russia. It's safer here. I don't know what will happen in Russia in five years, but Estonia is still more predictable. I would not want to deprive my children of the right to have a European passport.

Conversation with Toomas Kiverik, 30-year-old Estonian, employee of an IT company

Tomasz Bielecki: Was it worth insulting the Russians?

Toomas Kiverik: Everyone knew that the transfer of the Bronze Soldier would cause a big gamble. But there are limits to moderation and political correctness. We are too small a people to magnanimously hush up those moments when the existence of our nation was threatened. We must remind ourselves of this as a warning for the future.

Stalinism was also in Poland. Ribbentrop and Molotov also divided your territory. You were also taken to Siberia, and political opponents of Stalinism were also destroyed in your country. Is it possible to talk about it non-radically?

We were a handful: compared to millions of Russians, Estonians are a drop in the ocean. And yet, we interfered with them. They wanted to Russify us. My grandfather served three years in the fifties, his brother was sent to the camp, my father did not become the head of the power plant, because he was not Russian. And they talk about discrimination today?

Attempts to rewind history and take revenge often end in new tragedies. The Russians are already here and demanding the rights of the national minority. . .

They have their own schools. They can get a passport if they only want to learn the language. What else do they want? The cult of their occupation? They say that, for example, they make up a significant majority in border Narva, so Russian should become the official language there.

But where did they come from? After the war, Moscow forbade the Estonians to return to the restored Narva, which it was decided to make a Russian colony. They were sent to Estonia to work, and in the 1970s they were tempted by higher wages and living standards. After 1945, more than 90 percent of us in Estonia were, and at the time of the collapse of the USSR, a little more than 60 percent. So Russification went full steam ahead.

- Many Russians came here against their will. Why should they pay for it now?

They pay no more than the British or the French in the era of decolonization. They also lost power and privileges in the colonies and had to come to terms with this. Whoever wants to, let him stay, but he must understand that today Estonia is an independent country, and not a Russian satellite.

I think many Russians hope that our independence is temporary. They tell us that if Moscow stops using our ports, we will go bankrupt. They still scare us with the Kremlin.

You don't respect the Bronze Soldier, which is why the Russians accuse you of fascism. They compare you to the Nazis.

They use this argument against us and Latvians. Yes, in the memory of Estonians, the German occupation looks a little different than from the Polish point of view. The Germans treated the Estonian national movement more gently than the Soviet government. Some Estonian pilots in the German army even painted the Estonian flag on their planes.

However, no one glorifies this period in our country. At the square where the Bronze Soldier stood, the Museum of Occupation, both German and Soviet, has existed for more than a year.

Why did the controversy over the Bronze Soldier flare up so late, so many years after independence?

Probably one of the reasons was our efforts to join NATO and the EU. Moscow told everyone that we were Russophobes and should not be accepted. I think that earlier our authorities deliberately did not give her reasons for new slanderous statements.

ambl 02.05.07, 07:27

It's good that this barrenness did not settle with us. That would be the problem here.

borrka 02.05.07, 08:36

An interview with this teacher shows the Russian mentality better than the attacks of politicians like Luzhkov. "None of the Russians had the impression that some great independence was being encroached upon here."

That's all. Boundless chauvinism is the reason that this woman speaks through glass. Such they also are.

kucyk24 02.05.07, 09:31

Russians in Estonia are not a national minority, but the descendants of the occupying army and imperial officials. They can always return to their homeland.

jan_dreptak 02.05.07, 08:56

Estonians, Latvians and, to some extent, Lithuanians are already too patient. Instead of putting the Rusaks against the wall or taking them to Siberia, they allow them to have citizenship, but the Rusaks, as always, are not enough.

aotearoa 02.05.07

[. . .] Note that Poland got rid of most, if not all, monuments to the "Soviet soldier" a long time ago. Would you mind if in your hometown there was still such a "Vanya" on the main street?

l.o.r.t.e.a 02.05.07, 08:59

- "Whoever wanted to leave left in the 90s. Well, I admit, I earn much more than I would be paid in Russia. It's safer here. I don't know what will happen in Russia in five years, but Estonia is still more predictable "I would not want to deprive my children of the right to have a European passport."

Not only do they already live like in Christ's bosom, but no, give them European salaries and Russian monuments.

Understand, katsaps! Estonia is better than the Katsa-Bolsheviks, because it is ruled by people who are at a higher level of civilization than your Asian tribe.

02.05.07, 09:01

However, Russians are more than dangerous animals. These are beasts. And this lady has blinkers on her eyes, and she defends the old order. Before that, they (Russians) were effectively brought up in this great-power ideology of theirs.

tom1003 02.05.07, 09:02

It seems that a group of Russians - whatever one may say, citizens of the European Union - did not think of taking money to promote Russian culture in the same European Union. And they could do it successfully.

What they did with the support of Putin and the KGB gang from the Kremlin only worsened their image.

mikolajmikolajeviczmikolajenko 02.05.07, 11:07

- "Come back to Russian birches, accordion and vodka"

Yes, yes, yes, there are no birches or vodka in Estonia - you won’t find it in the daytime with fire! Chestnuts and palm trees grow in Estonia!

In the summer I was driving to Pärnu from Tallinn and picked up two hitchhikers along the way who pretended not to speak any language other than Estonian (knowing that I was a Pole!), in addition, they were drunk, and one was pregnant. No comment - that's Estonian culture.

Name me at least one Estonian writer or composer! At least on the scale of Dostoevsky, Bulgakov or Chekhov? Or a composer of the class of Mussorgsky or Tchaikovsky? [. . .]

star15 02.05.07, 11:49

Do you know a hare who knows at least one foreign language at a level that allows you to not only buy vodka and ask a whore about the price? Even your "philologists" know foreign languages ​​surprisingly poorly - I'm not talking about the accent :) There are always jokes about this.

tallinn 02.05.07, 11:54

Writer: Jaan Cross. Among the candidates for the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Composer: Arvo Pärt The most that neither is the elite of modern music.

I can tell a couple of stories too. Here, for example, is about how one morning in front of the University Library in Tartu I raised one such Russian-speaking one - drunk as hell - and helped him climb the stairs, and what an impression this made on one professor of anthropology, whom I just took around Tartu. . .

________________________________________

("The Jerusalem Post", Israel)

("Postimees", Estonia)

The materials of InoSMI contain only assessments of foreign media and do not reflect the position of the editors of InoSMI.

Russians in Estonia is a complex and painful issue for the Russian-speaking residents of the state, since, being an ethnic minority, this group remains the largest, up to 30% of the total population of the country. The figures are calculated from the number of Estonian citizens. In fact, the percentage of Russians living in the country is much higher. These include indigenous people, as well as the population of Estonia in the third, fourth generation, who do not agree with the discriminatory legislation, which did not allow people to become citizens because of ignorance of the state language.

The history of Russians living in the country

Russians have been living in the lands of Estonia since time immemorial. It is noteworthy that the Estonians themselves call Russians Veneds (venelased). So the ancient inhabitants of the modern territory of Estonia called the ancestors of the ancient Slavs living in the lands from the Carpathians and the lower reaches of the Danube to the southeastern shores of the Baltic.

The second largest city, Russian name Yuryev, was founded in the 11th century by the retinue of Yaroslav the Wise, later it was ruled by the Novgorod Republic, the Livonian Order, the Commonwealth, Sweden, the Russian Empire, the USSR, Estonia. From time immemorial, Russians have lived in Narva, and during the entry of this city into Estonia, 86% of the Russian population lived here. More than 41% of the Russian population lives in Tallinn.

A large influx of refugees from Russia occurred after the 1917 Revolution. So Russians have always lived in Estonia. A lot of Germans and Swedes lived in the country until 1925, but the implementation of land reforms at that time led to massive bankruptcy and their departure from Estonia. The influx of the Russian population increased significantly in the post-war period, so, by 1959, the percentage of the Russian population was more than 20% of the total population.

Russian-speaking population

In Estonia, in addition to Russians and Estonians, there is a Russian-speaking population, which includes Jews, Armenians, Ukrainians, Germans, Belarusians, and part of the indigenous population. The Russian language has become native for many of them. Most of these people came to Estonia during the Soviet Union. Young people born after the 1990s mostly speak Estonian.

Persons without Estonian citizenship

In March 1992, the law on granting citizenship, adopted in 1938, comes into force, according to which, citizens are considered to be living in the country at the time of its adoption or their descendants. Overnight, more than a third of the inhabitants of the newly formed country turned out to be non-citizens, most of them were Russians in Estonia.

This law was in force for a little over a year, but this time was enough to hold elections to legislative and executive bodies. As a result, the composition of the Estonian parliament consisted of 100% ethnic Estonians, which made it possible to pass laws directed against the Russian-speaking population. The Russian language in Estonia becomes the language of private communication, since Estonian was declared the state language.

The status of non-citizens in Estonia is regulated by a law passed in 1993. The timing of its adoption was not chosen by chance. It was the time of privatization. Indeed, according to the newly adopted law, stateless persons cannot own property in Estonia. At this time, the Estonian media began to publish unflattering materials about Russia in order to justify actions against the Russians.

It was those who, according to the adopted law, received the status of “stateless person”, owned most of the real estate, worked at enterprises that were subsequently privatized. Naturally, the employees of enterprises, mostly residents of other regions of the former USSR, who were declared non-citizens by law, were deprived of the right to privatize.

This led to the fact that almost all real estate, enterprises became the property of ethnic Estonians, today the owners of large businesses. Since non-citizens were limited in their ability to engage in entrepreneurship, the legislation left them the opportunity to open small eateries, cafes and shops. Subsequently, many still managed to obtain citizenship, but time was lost.

Estonian domestic policy

The Estonian government, under the influence of mass demonstrations by the Russian-speaking population, international organizations, the UN, the European Union, made some concessions. It, still believing that citizenship should be obtained through naturalization, went to weaken the requirements for obtaining it, which resulted in some simplification of the Estonian language exam.

But gradually citizenship in Estonia for Russians became not the most priority issue. This happened due to the fact that the European Union allowed stateless persons living in this country to freely travel to countries that are part of the Schengen zone. In 2008, D. Medvedev followed the same path, allowing persons in this category to enter Russia without a visa. This is a definite plus, since it is very problematic for Estonian citizens to obtain a visa to Russia. Many were satisfied with the situation of non-citizens of Estonia. This does not suit Tallinn. Moscow, as always, prefers to remain silent on this matter.

But the UN, as well as the European Union, are concerned about the large number of stateless people, rightly believing that this violates the rights of a large part of the inhabitants of Estonia. Since 2015, children of non-citizens of Estonia born in this country automatically receive citizenship, but, as the state government points out, their parents are in no hurry to obtain it. The Estonian government pins its hopes on the time, as a result of which the older generation will die out, thereby natural naturalization will occur.

Russia's position on the Russian question in Estonia

Relations between Moscow and Tallinn are at a freezing point. Despite the fact that 390,000 Russians live in Estonia, the policy of apartheid against them continues. The actions of the Russian government are purely declarative, which the majority of compatriots living in Estonia regard as treacherous.

History is being falsified in Estonia. This applies to a greater extent to the Second World War. It is openly said that the Nazi troops helped the Estonians fight for the freedom of the country, representing the Russians as occupiers. The Estonian media speak of Russia not as neighbors, but as invaders, once again presenting the Russian-speaking inhabitants of their country as agents of Moscow, second-class people. You can often read that Russians are regulars in liquor stores (don't Estonians visit them?), badly dressed, backward, living their own life, incomprehensible to Europeans. Of course, this is not true. But the most important thing is to create an impression.

Moscow prefers to pretend that nothing terrible is happening in Estonia. This partly explains why many Russians prefer to be "stateless" in the country where they were born, grew up, and do not rush to their homeland. First of all, because of the rather lengthy bureaucratic procedure for obtaining citizenship by ethnic Russians, which lasts for years. You have to go through humiliating collections of endless certificates and documents. And also because Estonia is also their land, where they were born, where their fathers lived, for which their grandfathers fought.

Ethnic segregation?

How do Russians live in Estonia? This question is difficult to answer unambiguously. If you look from the point of view of material well-being, then, probably, it is no worse than in Russia. Although in the European Union Estonia is a poor agricultural country. Otherwise, there would be an exodus. But things will not come to this, since more than one-third of the country's population is Russian-speaking. As studies by scientists from the University of Tartu show, in Tallinn, as in other cities of Estonia, the movement of residents from one region to another has become more frequent, while Russians settle with Russians, Estonians with Estonians.

In the capital, local ethnic groups try to settle in the city center (Põhja-Tallinn, Kesklinn, Kalamaja) and suburbs (Kakumäe, Pirita, Nõmme). Although the central region of Pyhja-Tallinn is populated by Russians by more than 50%. Russians prefer to move to areas where there are national communities. Basically, these are sleeping panel areas.

There is a division into groups on a national basis. It turns out that Estonians do not want to live next to Russians, who are not particularly eager to live next to Estonians. Separation along national lines, artificial isolation between citizens, which is called "segregation", is growing. All this is fraught with serious consequences, which can manifest themselves at any moment, as soon as people realize that Russia is not their helper, but that the members of the Estonian government have “bitten the bit”, feeling NATO behind them. This is also understood in the European Union, where they do not want to solve another difficult problem. Ordinary people live peacefully, not wanting confrontation.

Naturalization in Estonian

The country has experience of this event from 1920 to 1940. The Baltic Germans and Swedes were subjected to it. Historically, they were the owners of the land. Estonians living in rural areas bore the surnames of their masters. After the adoption of the Rules of the Estonian Language in 1920, the government took a tough course of assimilation of Germans, Swedes, who, not wanting to learn the Estonian language, left for their historical homeland.

Assimilation was carried out by the Seto people living in Estonia before the annexation of the territory located in the Pechora district of the Novgorod region to Russia. In addition, Estonianization of surnames was carried out. The government cannot now conduct rigidly open naturalization, as this will cause misunderstanding on the part of international human rights organizations, as well as local Russian-speaking movements. Therefore, this process is designed for a longer period, for 20 years.

Russians in Estonia today

Independence, acquired in 1991, leads to the fact that the Russian language is deprived of official status and becomes a foreign language. But the situation that is developing around this issue does not suit the Estonian government at all, since Russian speech can be heard almost throughout the country. The language is used at the household level, in advertising, trade, and services. It is not used in full force at the state level, although there are Russian-language websites of many state organizations that exist on budget money. In addition, the Russian-language Internet, the media, cultural organizations and much more are used not only by Russians, but also by Estonians.

In addition to Russians, citizens with Russian passports, as well as non-citizens, permanently reside in Estonia. Therefore, in many municipalities where non-Estonians make up more than half of the population, the provision of public services in the language is allowed. If everything is more or less clear with the citizens of another state, then non-citizens who have permanently resided in this country for several generations are infringed in their rights.

It is quite difficult for a Russian citizen of Estonia to get a good job, and for a non-citizen it is almost impossible. Work in Estonia for Russians is only at industrial facilities, in the service sector, trade, and catering. Civil service, most of the privileged and well-paid professions fall under the list where knowledge of the Estonian language is mandatory.

Education

The Estonian government understands that as long as there are educational institutions in Russian, full naturalization will not occur. This applies in particular to high schools and universities. Therefore, a complete translation of these educational institutions into Estonian is being carried out. The problem of the Russian-speaking intelligentsia is quite acute. Russian schools in Estonia are closed.

The fact is that in the post-war period, industrial enterprises were actively built in the agrarian Republic of Estonia. This is due to the presence of ports on the Baltic Sea. Estonians, being mostly rural residents, could not provide them with labor force. Therefore, qualified workers from other regions of the USSR came to work at the enterprises. They mostly had working specialties.

Studying in Estonia for Russian children in Russian schools is prohibited. The Russian private universities operating in the country are mostly closed or are in danger of disappearing. Without the intelligentsia, in particular the humanities, it is rather difficult to preserve Russian traditions in Estonia. Schoolchildren who study all subjects in Estonian, and their own, native, as a foreign language, optionally getting acquainted with Russian literature, the history of Russia, simply assimilate, dissolving in the mass of Estonians, who still will not accept them as their own. This is what the Estonian government is counting on.

How Russians are treated in Estonia

Estonians, like any other nation, are composed of different groups of people, including nationalists. For many reasons, the issue of preserving the nation is very acute for Estonians. Fear of assimilation by another, more powerful nation is pushing the Estonian government to take unpopular measures that violate human rights.

Russians in Estonia are treated differently, some are bad, some are good. The point here is not in ordinary people, but in state policy aimed at assimilation of the Russian population or at squeezing out those who resist this process. Another thing is Russian tourists in Estonia. Wanting to develop tourism as a profitable part of the economy, they are making every effort to create conditions for a good holiday.

The place of the Russian language is increasingly occupied by English, which sooner or later will become dominant. The negative results in this regard are felt by the larger nations: the Germans, the French and other Europeans who resisted Americanization, having powerful economies that provide funds for the preservation of their own culture, investing them in their own cinema, literature, theater and so on.

In Soviet times, the Russian occupiers, according to the Estonians, did not apply such measures to the local population that the government of this country uses today in relation to the Russians, for whom this country, by the will of fate, became native. Estonian schools, theaters worked, books, newspapers and magazines were published. The state Russian language coexisted with Estonian. In the institutes, along with the Russians, there were Estonian groups, where they studied in their native language. Signboards in shops, documentation of local authorities were understandable to Estonians and Russians. Estonian could be heard everywhere. In Russian schools, they studied it without fail. Every effort was made to develop the indigenous language.

In preparation for the final of the Estonian Song contest, which took place on February 21, 2015 in Tallinn, the Estonian Radio and Television (ERR) released several videos, one of which can be considered a visual aid for Estonian children, how and in what language they should communicate with Russians. The main idea is to speak Russian only with tourists.

According to a BaltNews correspondent, young actors - a boy and a girl - were involved in the creation of the product. In the course of the story, a Russian boy who ended up in Tallinn tries to find his way to the nearest store and, with a corresponding request, turns to an Estonian girl. In Russian, of course. Ignorance of the Estonian language causes indignation of the interlocutor, who in a defiant manner recommends the guest to learn Estonian or to leave for Russia.

Already about to leave, the little Estonian learns that the Russian boy is not a local, but a tourist who has arrived from Russia. The girl instantly changes her tone and already in Russian explains to her peers where and how to get through. The idea behind the video is that in Estonia you can speak Russian only with tourists!

Note that compared to last year, the number of Russian tourists in Estonia has decreased by almost half. In January, 26,000 Russians stayed in hotels and hostels, which is 45% less than in the same period in 2014, according to the Estonian Department of Statistics.

This decline could not be compensated for by an increase in the number of tourists from European countries, although the number of tourists from Latvia, Lithuania, Finland and Asian countries increased somewhat. The cost of an overnight stay in Estonian hotels has not changed over the year, and averaged 34 euros per day. In January, 900 Estonian hotels and hostels offered their services.

Given the hostile nature of Estonia's policy towards Russia, as well as the deployment of new NATO units and military exercises near the Russian-Estonian borders, Russian tourists rightly fear that they will not be treated unfriendly due to the use of the Russian language and because that they came from Russia. There is every reason to think that our tourists will certainly encounter this. This is due to the way the Estonian state treats its Russian-speaking residents and education in Russian, how it evaluates the results of World War II and the role of Estonian fascists in the war, as well as the facts of desecration and dismantling of monuments.

The Estonians themselves try to explain the situation in the following way. In their opinion, the fact is that Estonia is not Belgium or another distant Western European country, for which Russia is a distant land. The Estonian government believes that Estonia was occupied by the Soviet Union, which is expressed both in the sensational transfer of the Bronze Soldier monument to Soviet soldiers, and in the deliberate restriction of the scope of the Russian language, and in the failure to grant citizenship to the Russian-speaking population of Estonia.

Regarding the attitude that a tourist from Russia who comes to Estonia will feel for himself, the opinion of representatives of the tourism industry is as follows. Most likely, this will be a cold-polite attitude on the part of the attendants, and tourists from Russia will most likely not feel any particular friction or unpleasant moments.

Estonia is trying to sit on two chairs: on the one hand, the restriction on the rights of the Russian-speaking population is sustainable. on the other hand, business seeks to pursue a policy of attracting Russian tourists. To do this, information centers provide reference literature in Russian. Travel portals on the Internet have a Russian version. Most cafes have a menu in Russian. At the same time, Russians should not forget about the unpleasant experience of traveling in the modern Baltics, including Estonia: “we do not serve the occupiers”!

In general, Russian in Estonia is understood by the older generation who studied it at school, and young Estonians communicate with foreigners in English. In the tourism sector in the state, as a rule, there is a local Russian-speaking employee to communicate with the Russians. Sometimes waiters, sellers can be found with special badges with flags indicating the languages ​​​​in which they can communicate, including Russian. In general, we believe that even if a tourist from Russia does not encounter open rudeness, alienation and hostility will certainly be felt by him - Estonians always single out Russian tourists from among the rest. Most likely, it will come back to haunt them ...

2018-01-18T08:18:20+05:00 koleso obozreniyaNegative / CrimeEvents, commentsRussian tourists, EstoniaWhat can Russian tourists expect in Estonia? In preparation for the final of the Estonian Song contest, which took place on February 21, 2015 in Tallinn, the Estonian Radio and Television (ERR) released several videos, one of which can be considered a visual aid for Estonian children, how and in what language they should communicate with Russians. The main idea is in Russian...koleso obozreniya koleso obozreniya [email protected] Author TuZhur travel magazine

February 16th, 2012 10:56 am

Estonian schoolchildren about Russians and the Russian language

Russian schoolchildren about Estonians and the Estonian language

Very self-explanatory stuff. Ordinary schoolchildren from one Russian and one Estonian gymnasium were asked to make films about what they think about their neighbors in the republic ... The result is obvious - Estonians know only one word - Russians must, Russians are obliged. Watch the film carefully, there are a lot of significant moments - for example, the teacher's confession that Russians cannot or do not want to organize normal teaching of their native language. Children after such a school simply do not know how to write in Russian. At all. And this is an unusual school, 15% of Russian children tried to implant it there. A moment. when the authors blurt out the true goal - not integration. what about assimilation? So, look carefully.

And for schoolchildren of the Russian gymnasium - it is expected. Even children see all the injustice of the treatment of Russians in this republic, and although with apprehension, they talk about it. They already understand, at that age, that "Estonia is for Estonians." Here Russia for Russians is extremism, and Estonia for Estonians, apparently normal ... But the Estonians are the same Albanians who snatched a piece from Serbia. And now Kosovo is for the Albanians. So, with the connivance of the authorities of the USSR and the Russian Federation in the 90s, which allowed the separatists to occupy and separate part of the Russian land, this is where nationalist lawlessness takes place. The Baltics are Russian Kosovo.

I was asked here whether it makes sense to visit Tallinn for Christmas, and how they treat Russians there. Over the past three days - about ten people, I think. Let me answer here, okay? Meaning - it has, to the Russians - excellent. Because Russian tourists make small Estonia half of the budget.
A few years ago, native Estonians somehow didn’t really reflect this, and were more focused on tourists from Europe. No, ours were generally treated kindly then. But, for example, hotel staff or waiters who not only speak their native language and speak English, but also a few words in Russian - this was a problem, administrators and waiters of the Soviet conscription retired, and young people did not consider it necessary to learn Russian. In general, it is logical. But friends had a couple of problems when they could not explain themselves at lunch or at a gas station.
Russian has been taught in recent years. They try. On my last visit to the coffee shop where I usually have lunch (and I prefer to speak Russian there, it’s more convenient for me), a new bartender boy appeared. I came to him in Russian, he came to me in Estonian, well, we agreed in English in the end, that's not the point. The next day. I enter a coffee shop. The boy smiles at me from behind the bar, like the sun, and shouts across the hall: “Hi! What do you want today?!" And it is clear that he is very proud of himself: here, they say, he learned it! For the first time in my life, when the bartender was with me on “you”, but I was really touched, honestly. Clearly the man was trying.
And others are also trying - sellers in shops, porters, taxi drivers ... They really do everything to make us feel at home, only better. And they do it right, I think. No one is so willing to spend and shop on trips as our people, on average we spend three times more than European tourists. The same Estonians published data according to which a European spends 100 euros per weekend in Tallinn, at best, while Russians do not leave less than 300 in stores. Naturally, in these stores they smile at you from the doorway, they are happy as a family, and any whim for your money, because not loving you as a family means undermining the budget of the republic, which is already not rich. Thank you, everyone understands this perfectly.
In fact, everything said above applies not only to Estonia. In general, in Europe, our tourists have become much more adequately treated. The Spaniards, over there, almost without exception learn the language, in Malaga, if I’m not mistaken, signs in Russian are installed centrally, and they are also right, with the money that we leave with them for the season, a single Spain, if it pulls hard, can comfortably winter.
And - if someone opens his mouth about the fact that the Russians drink, commit excesses, and so on - then at least look at the Germans (about the Finns, who are wheelchairs rolled up to the St. Petersburg ferry, because they are so drunk that they cannot move on their own, I am completely silent). They drink worse than ours, but at the same time they sting)