ISSN 2029-2074
THE RUSSIAN POPULATION IN TALLINN, BUILDING OF THE BICULTURAL CITY
Vincent Dautancourt University of Paris VIII (France)
Keywords: Estonia, Tallinn, inter-ethnic relations, Russian minorities, elections. Pagrindinės sąvokos: Estija, Talinas, tarpetniniai santykiai, rusų tautinės mažumos, rinkimai.
Introduction
The issue of the integration of the non-Estonian population living in Estonia represents one of the main topics for scholars who are interested in this country. We know that about one fourth of the population declares itself as Russian (Estonian Russians include Russians, Ukrainians, and Bielorussians), speaking of nationality and that one third of the population speaks the Russian language as mother tongue. However, the numerous re- searches do not pay attention enough to the geographical distribution of this, or rather those populations. While speaking of the Russian popula- tions in Estonia, the plural having all its sense, one might speak as if the Russian community is equally distributed on the national territory. It is known as well that the northeastern part of Estonia hosts a popu- lation, which is mainly Russian or Russian-speaking. But in fact, the area hosting the most important part of those populations is the Estonian capi- tal. While 33.6 % of the Estonian Russians live in Ida-Viru county, 166,429 individuals, 43 % of the 386,561 Estonian Russians live in Tallinn (Rahvas- tik soo rahvuse ja maakonna… 2009). The fact that the Russian population represents 76.6 % of the northeastern county population (reaching 95 % in 40
urban areas versus only 41.7 % in Tallinn) induces a biased image of the geography of the Russian community elsewhere in Estonia. The aim of this paper is to show some of the characteristics of the situa- tion in Tallinn regarding the issue of the integration of the Russian popula- tion. The city of Tallinn presents a unique case as far as the ethnicity of its inhabitants is concerned, being the only territory in Estonia where Estoni- ans and Russians literately live side by side. The “promiscuity factor” should not be neglected when the integration process tries to increase the contacts between the both communities. This particular situation can be a starting point of a better understanding of the “others”, but also a source of greater frictions, for example the affair of the Bronze Soldier. Before any further development, it is essential to explain that this paper will rather study the Russians populations than one homogeneous commu- nity. Even if the Russians share a common language and a common culture, different criteria allow us to distinguish several groups. Using the language criterion, the relations to the Estonian community, to the State may be dif- ferent if one speaks the Estonian language fluently, a little or not at all. The citizenship of one person could also place him or her in three main differ- ent groups: the Estonian citizens, the Russian citizens and the stateless per- sons. It is though complicated to present who the Estonian Russians are, the groups being not separated one from another. However, this paper mostly uses the data concerning the ethnic Russians, other data remaining unavail- able for every example quoted.