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Russian Communities in Estonia

(a historical overview)

Contents:

Various Russian communities have lived in Estonia over the last 1000 years of recorded history. These communities consisted of traders, religious and political dissidents and settlers. Until the last fifty years, these different Russian communities remained small despite the strong trade links, wars and conquests that have shaped Estonian–-Russian relations. This fact sheet details the long history of the Russian community in Estonia, focusing especially on the events prior to 1940, before Soviet russification policies dramatically altered the social and demographic landscape of Estonia.

Recorded Beginnings

The Russians have been the eastern neighbours of the Baltic nations for centuries. The westernmost towns of Russia, Novgorod and Pskov, were members of the Hanseatic League, like Tallinn and Tartu. Russian trade houses and churches in these towns have been mentioned in chronicles since the 11th century. The establishment of a Slavonic settlement in Estonian areas is closely connected not only with trade, but also with the spreading Christianity and military expeditions.

In 1030, Yaroslav the Wise organised a military expedition to Estonia and founded the town of Yuryev (Tartu) on the site of the Tarbatu stronghold. In 1061, Estonians took back the town. During the reign of Yaroslav the Wise the first Russian churches were founded. However, the territory of Estonia (and Latvia) was not christianised until the 13th century by German and Danish crusaders. Then a Teutonic State was formed in this area, bearing for centuries the name Livonia. This frontier between Livonia and Russia, situated in more or less the same place as the present eastern borders of Estonia and Latvia, for centuries divided the spheres of influence of two great faiths — first the Roman Catholic and Greek Catholic, and then, after the Reformation of the 16th century, the Lutheran and Orthodox. During this time economic relations between Livonia and Russia were strong. In the border areas there were some places with mixed Estonian-Russian populations and Russian merchants stayed permanently in Livonian towns.

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Ivan the Terrible and the 16th Century

By the beginning of the 16th century, Moscow had become a powerful principality interested in taking over Livonia. This led to the prolonged Livonian War, in the course of which Livonia as an independent state was destroyed. However, Sweden and Poland intervened in the fight for Livonia and the plans of Ivan the Terrible were thwarted. Finally, the entire Estonian territory was incorporated by Sweden.

It is hard to say how many Russians were in Estonia before the 18th century. In addition to the merchants living in towns, written sources from the 14th century also mention Russian villages on the western shore of Lake Peipsi, a large lake on the border of Estonia and Russia. The Russian population shrank considerably after the Livonian War but began increasing during the Swedish reign near the end of the 17th century. Seventeenth century Swedish court records show several dozen villages with Russian names in the northeast of Estonia in Alutaguse. Russians could have formed about a quarter of the population around Lake Peipsi. In all, however, Russians formed less than 1 per cent of the total population. Peter the Great and the 18th century.

At the beginning of the 18th century, Tsar Peter the Great carried on Ivan the Terrible's quest to conquer Livonia and finally succeeded. According to the Nystad (Uusikaupunki) peace treaty in 1721, Russia took Estonia from the Swedes. However, with the same peace treaty Russia guaranteed a special status to the Baltics, implying legislation, judicial authority, a system of self-government and education significantly different from that in Russia. No large-scale russification occurred until the end of the 19th century. The ethnic composition of the local population remained the same, the main means of communication were still the Estonian and German languages. Several military settlements and villages of exiles from the Russian Empire were established, but they lived an isolated life.

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Aleksander the Third and the 19th Century

The impact of the new Russian settlers started to be felt in the 19th century. In 1802, the University of Tartu, founded by Swedish king Gustav Adolf in 1632, was reopened. A department of Russian language and literature was founded at the university, followed by a department of comparative grammar of Slavonic languages. Due to the special status of the Baltic region, Tartu developed into a significant centre of Russian progressive thought as there was much more intellectual freedom than in Russia.

Besides German and Estonian newspapers, three Russian newspapers and a magazine were published in Estonia. During this time a great variety of societies and associations were started (Charity Society, Gymnastics Society in Tartu, Music Association and Polytechnical Association with special courses in Narva, a literary circle in Tallinn, to name a few).

At the end of the 1830s, construction of Russian Orthodox churches began in Eastern Estonia to encourage the immigration of Old Believers (Russian Orthodox followers who resisted or remained unaffected by church reforms in Russia). In Estonia, the local Russians welcomed the influx of Old Believers, who were persecuted in Russia. Russian missionaries, educated for work in the Baltic countries, started to arrive. In the middle of the 19th century, the Riga Diocese and seminary were formed. About the same time, the Kuremäe nunnery was established in the northeast of Estonia.

In 1881, Aleksander III was crowned the Tsar of Russia. He was the first Tsar not to sanction the Baltic privileges stated in the Nystad Peace Treaty, thus abolishing the special status of the Baltics. Russian was proclaimed the official language in Estonia, causing an increased influx of Russian civil servants. School teachers who did not speak Russian were dismissed and replaced with new ones imported from Russia. Until then, only the Aleksander Gymnasium in Tallinn and some schools in the border town Narva offered an education in Russian.

The activities of Russian intellectuals in Tartu boomed in the 1880s. The Russian Students' Society and the Learned Literature Society were founded. A private university with departments of medicine, physics and chemistry was opened in 1908. Higher education courses in history and languages for women (with a department of law) were started.

With the construction of railways, economic ties between Russia and Estonia increased. Also, during the 19th century, Tallinn, Haapsalu, Kuressaare and Narva-Jõesuu developed into fashionable resorts favoured by many Russian actors, singers, artists, writers and scientists who enlivened local cultural life.

According to the population census of 1867, more than 8500 Russians were living in Estonia. In 1881, the number of Russians was 16 000, forming about two per cent of the entire population.

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World War I and its Aftermath. The Establishment of the Republic of Estonia

The number of Russians in Estonia increased before WW I, when Peter the Great's port was built in Tallinn. With the outbreak of war many Estonian Russians went to fight on the front line. Estonia as a rear area was loaded with military hospitals.

In 1918, both ancient competitors for the Baltic area — Germany and Russia — were on the verge of collapse. For the Estonians, a historic opportunity to regain their independence arose. Sovereignity was declared on 24 February 1918, although it still had to be defended in the two-year War of Independence against imperial Germany and communist Russia.

In the turmoil of the final days of the war, Russian institutions were evacuated to Russia. Part of the Russian population left Estonia, fearing Germans and nationally minded Estonians. The ten months of German occupation in 1918 brought a further exodus of the Russian population.

According to the Tartu Peace Treaty of 1920, Estonia not only regained Narva, where the Estonian population dominated, but gained also the right bank of the Narva River and Petseri county in the south-east. Both areas were not administrative part of Estonia during tsarist reign, and had a mixed Russian-Estonian population. Thus, in 1922 about 92 000 Russians (8.2 per cent of the total population) were living in Estonia. Forty per cent of the total Russian population inhabited Petseri county, 26 per cent lived on the shore of Lake Peipsi and near Narva, and 20 per cent in larger towns. The rest were dispersed across the country. This proportion remained almost the same until the beginning of World War II.

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Emigrants from Russia

In addition to the indigenous Russian population, there was a large number of Russians living in Estonia in the 1920s who did not have Estonian citizenship. They were soldiers from the Northwest White Guard Army who had stayed in Estonia and refugees from Bolshevik Russia. The Petseri area with its monastery and pre-bolshevik atmosphere particularly attracted several famous emigree Russian cultural figures, including among others Bunin, Shalyapin, and Kuprin. Refugee committees were organised. The American YMCA and the Red Cross helped the refugees in every way. They published their own newspapers and formed educational and sports associations. In the beginning of the 1920s the YMCA supported three emigrants' gymnasiums - in Narva, Vaivara and Haapsalu. The Russian emigrants in Estonia had their own organisations and took part in congresses in Paris, Prague and Belgrad. (Unfortunately the documents concerning the emigrant associations were destroyed during the Soviet bombing raid in Tallinn in 1944.)

To some extent, the emigrants' activities were directed towards Russia. In 1922 the Bureau of Aid for Russian Famine Victims was organised in Tallinn and Narva. At the beginning of the 1920s a significant Russian party, the Essers, used Estonia as their operating base. Its leader Viktor Tshernov lived in Estonia for some time and published political literature and a newspaper directed at an audience in Russia. There were two other major Russian parties active in Estonia: the Monarchists and the Savinkov party (supporting the use of terror in the fight against Soviet power).

On the other hand, the Soviet Embassy in Tallinn was quite active in establishing propaganda stations to call the remains of the Northwest Army back home. However, the Soviet embassy restrained its activities after being involved in the attempted communist coup in Estonia in 1924, and later on had no significant influence with the local Russian population. All the above mentioned parties terminated their activities in Estonia by 1927.

It is difficult to establish the exact number of emigrants with alien passports in Estonia in the 1920s. Many left, but a number stayed and acquired Estonian citizenship in the middle of the 1930s, especially those who owned property.

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Russian-speaking Citizens in Estonia 1920 — 1940

The life of Russian-speaking Estonian citizens became livelier after the signing of the Tartu Peace Treaty 1920. The first to form associations in 1920 were doctors, teachers and lawyers. In the same year, the Russian National Union was formed. This Union had representatives in the Estonian parliament.

In 1919, by a government resolution, a Russian Secretary of Culture and Education was employed at the Ministry of Education. On his initiative Russian educational and charity societies were formed in eastern Estonia. In 1923 these societies established a union. The number of participants in the yearly congresses of the Union of Russian Educational and Charity Societies increased steadily. Among the events organised by the union were a yearly Russian education day, the "Russian exhibition" of 1931 in Tallinn, and two nationwide Russian song festivals in Narva and Petseri. The union arranged, for example, events for Mother’s Day and Book Day, competitions and advanced training courses. It founded libraries, children's playgrounds, amateur theatres, choirs, orchestras, and sports societies. It assisted building community centres with communal funds. The union had branches in towns and in the countryside. It published calendars and collections of articles on Russian education days, a yearbook (started in 1927) and an agricultural journal (started in 1930) which contributed to the economic development in the Russian areas of Estonia.

In 1922, the Society of Russian Students in Estonia was founded. It had branches in Tallinn and Tartu which united various students' societies and corporations. There were Russian schools and gymnasiums in Estonia. The Central Association of Russian Pupils, organised in 1920, was represented three years later in eight gymnasiums and four town schools. By 1940, the number of Russian-speaking pupils had decreased, but there were still four gymnasiums left. In 1930 a Russian department was opened in the Tallinn Teachers' College. In the same year, the Russian Private Commercial School was started. In 1927 Russian adult education courses were organised in Tartu, later followed by similar courses in Tallinn and Petseri.

The first Russian scout group in the territory of Estonia was formed in Narva in 1912. Following the liquidation of the scout movement in the Soviet Union in 1926, New York became the centre of the Russian scout activities and it had its sub-branches in Narva and Petseri. These participated in various gatherings in Estonia and Latvia.

There were also professional dance and theatre studios and a ballet school. The wave of emigration had carried Russian actors to Estonia. In Tallinn, in 1926 an association called "Our Theatre" was founded to create a professional Russian theatre with a building of its own. In Tartu, a Russian theatre which was formed in the pre-war period continued its work. There were also amateur theatres in Narva and Petseri.

Besides the short-lived periodical publications of the 1920s, two major Russian newspapers — "Vesti dnja" and "Russki vestnik" were published in Estonia. There were also several publishing houses. The Russian Orthodox Church in Estonia was granted autonomy in 1917. The highest orthodox authority in the territory of Estonia was the Estonian Diocese Council, which declared its direct subordination to the Moscow Patriarch. However, due to persecution and the state control the repression of orthodox clergy in Russia, the Estonian Orthodox Church passed under the jurisdiction of Constantinopol in 1923, and started to use a new church calendar. In 1940, there were 50 orthodox congregations in Estonia, with both Russian and mixed Russian-Estonian membership. Old Believers had 7 congregations in the area of Lake Peipsi and 2 congregations in Tallinn and Tartu.

In 1925 the Estonian parliament passed the Cultural Autonomy of Ethnic Minorities Act which affirmed the right of all ethnic groups in Estonia to preserve their ethnic identity, culture and religious convictions. The law was applied successfully by local German and Jewish communities. The Russians, however, (like the Swedes) already had a rich cultural life including schools and churches in their native language before the Cultural Autonomy Act was enforced. Thus they did not formally use their rights to cultural self-government. However, they implemented it through municipal councils where they, in some cases, had a majority, especially in eastern Estonia.

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World War II

The conclusion of Molotov–Ribbentrop pact, which was one of the final factors unleashing World War II and the subsequent Soviet annexation in 1940, changed the lives of the Russians in Estonia as well. A certain part of those emigrants who had fled from Bolshevik Russia left as early as 1939 for Germany, joining the Germans moving out of Estonia. Many of the remaining emigrants were murdered or deported by Soviet regime. The former newspapers in Russian were replaced by new ones. Public organisations were closed. In the spring of 1941, all the most outstanding Russian public figures were arrested; many were killed. Very few of them returned later from Siberia. In March 1941 a ’voluntary act of union’ of the Estonian Orthodox Church with the Moscow Church was signed under the pressure of Soviet authorities. The entire Estonian political and social infrastructure was destroyed and replaced with Soviet institutions, followed by a carefully planned influx of Soviet colonists.

Many recent Russian immigrants left Estonia with the outbreak of war in 1941, fearing German troops. However, a number of Russian war prisoners, refugees and forcefully recruited labourers were brought in from Russian territory during the German occupation in 1941 – 1944. Some newspapers and magazines were published in Russian. Many of these people were later repressed by Soviet authorities. Some of them remained in Estonia.

In addition to Soviet partisans making their appearance in Estonia in the beginning of 1944, an underground organisation of Russian emigrants called the "National Labour Union" operated here.

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The Aftermath of World War II and the Results of the Soviet Occupation in Estonia

After the German withdrawal from Estonia in 1944 the repression started in 1940 continued on an even larger scale. As a result of the mass deportation of March 1949, Estonian Russians migrated. The inhabitants of Narva were not allowed to return to their native town and the town was populated with Soviet colonists. In 1945–1980 mass colonisation by the Soviet Union increased the Russian population in Estonia drastically. The colonists commonly viewed the local Russians as anticommunist. Afraid, and sometimes even ashamed of their Russian origin, Estonian Russians started to call themselves Estonians.

During the Soviet period, Russian villages in eastern Estonia underwent profound changes. Young people moved to towns and few retained any connections with their home villages. Most of them live in Tartu, Narva and Tallinn, a smaller part in Russia. The settlements on the islands in Lake Pskov, belonging at present to the disputed border area (Kolpino island), are virtually non-existant.

A special group in the Estonian population was formed by these Estonian Russians who were deported to Siberia and returned. Having contacted their friends abroad, they obtained literature and distributed it among liberal-minded people in Estonia and in Russia, contributing to the spreading of free thought.

Currently the influence of the pre-war Russian population of Estonia is small compared to that of the later immigrants. However, there are some effective groups like the Union of Slavic Educational and Charity Organisations, which has declared itself the legal successor of the pre-war Union of Russian Educational and Charity Societies. The Union promotes cultural activities among the Russian population. It has branches in the Lake Peipsi area and has organised two large singing festivals in 1991 and 1993. It also arranges lectures on Estonian history and culture and organises various exhibitions. The union has founded the "Russian Research Centre" and started to publish the magazine "Vyshgorod".

In 1988, the Society for the Protection of Russian Cultural Monuments was started. During its five year existence the Russian Cultural Society has formed a great variety of professional and research associations. Many of them operate without any official registration. A representative of the society takes part in the activities of the "Round Table" initiated by the President of Estonia. "The Round Table" also includes a member of the Representative Assembly of the Russian Population in Estonia. Besides these organisations there are a number of smaller cultural societies.

This survey includes the history of the Russian minority in Estonia from the 11th century to the present. It is easy to draw a distinction between the small, historic Russian communities who have lived in Estonia for centuries and the hundreds of thousands of Russian immigrants who arrived after World War II as a result of Soviet russification policies. From 1940 – 1990, the Russian-speaking percentage of the population jumped from eight to forty percent, and one quarter of the ethnic Estonian population fled, or were deported or executed. Prior to the Soviet occupation of Estonia in 1940, various small Russian communities contributed to the vibrant multi-cultural life in Estonia. The Estonian Government's policies of cultural autonomy for ethnic minorities (now restored) ensured the preservation of many aspects of Russian culture. Despite recent history, these traditions of tolerance and acceptance of others provide the foundation for future good relations for all minorities living in Estonia.

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This fact sheet is published by the Estonian Institute in May, 1997 and is intended to be used for reference purposes. It may be freely used in preparing articles, speeches, broadcasts, etc. No acknowledgement is necessary.