Estonia’s large Russian-speaking minority used to be taught in Russian. The government has responded to Russia’s invasion with a reform to end this. Now, lessons will only be taught in Estonian.
Estonia’s large Russian-speaking minority used to be taught in Russian. The government has responded to Russia’s invasion with a reform to end this. Now, lessons will only be taught in Estonian.
When Russia occupied Estonia and other countries, they deported a large number of locals to Russia. That served the purposes of decimating local populations, decreasing resistance, giving the Russians hostages, and also giving them slave labor for their work camps. And then they moved in a bunch of Russian civilians to run the government in various levels, and insisted that all official business be conducted in Russian. The local Russian “elites” got special privileges, including special schools and special stores. There was some acculturation, but they generally had their own groups and didn’t spend more time accommodating the locals, expecting the locals to conform to them instead.
When the Soviet Union fell, the previously-occupied countries were left with these families who had cultural ties with the Soviet Union, but who had been living locally for like 50 years. It was generally decided that those who wanted to repatriate could and the rest could remain; most people decided to remain.
In most places, the resurgence of local language and culture also accommodated the remaining Russian elements; documents were available in both languages, schooling could be in either language, etc. The countries didn’t want to offend Russia, didn’t want to truly upset their Russian neighbors, and it was easier to ignore it and focus on developing their countries. They figured the remaining Russians would eventually fully acclimate locally.
However, the local Russians have some resentment against the locals, as they’ve mostly lost their previous privileges, they have nothing to return home to, and they’ve had stressed relations with their local neighbors. In short, they didn’t really want to acclimate, nor did their neighbors fully trust them. That left fairly insular communities of cultural Russians in previously occupied countries.
Russia has been using the existence of those communities to invade it’s neighbors.
At this point - 80+ years since occupation and 30+ years since liberation - the “local Russian” population has had plenty of time to acclimate. If they haven’t yet, that’s their problem. For these countries, standing up to Russia and reducing future pretexts for invasion is significantly more important than a disgruntled minority who has little intention of integrating and who is already disconnected.
And? How is that the fault of the children going to school today?
Where’s the problem with children learning the language of their country in school, if they don’t learn it at home?
This is not about having Estonian language classes for them, it is about putting them in classrooms for all subjects in a language they don’t speak.
Their families have had eighty fucking years to learn Estonian. What makes you think that “further accomodation” in Russian will give them any desire or impetus to learn the language?
Why punish children for things their parents and grandparents did?
Why punish the rest of Estonian society? Why continue to isolate children who can’t speak the local language?
You remind me of people arguing that America is an English-speaking country and those filthy Hispanics should just learn the language.
Estonia has a two-tiered education system. As mentioned in the video, in the Russian-speaking schools, students don’t perform nearly as well as in the Estonian-speaking schools. I’m optimistic that eliminating the language barrier would solve that, and students would be better off.
Also, in Estonia, the Russian-speaking group is a limited number of students (unlike in America, where there’s a regular, constant influx of migrants). The transition will be difficult, but at least the problem has an end in sight, and it’s only a generation or two away. In America, it would go on forever, which is why I wouldn’t support it in the U.S.