FW: A Fight Latvia Didn't Ask For
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Wilma Teness
Mar 2, 2012, 4:42:19 AM3/2/12
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Wilma
From: aprie...@gmail.com
Date: Wed, 29 Feb 2012 17:58:16 -0500
Subject: A Fight Latvia Didn't Ask For
To:
Wilma
From: aprie...@gmail.com
Date: Wed, 29 Feb 2012 17:58:16 -0500
Subject: A Fight Latvia Didn't Ask For
To:
- LETTERS
- FEBRUARY 22, 2012 The Wall Street Journal
A Fight Latvia Didn't Ask For
As an American living in Latvia, I read Kira Savchenko's
appraisal of the referendum on making Russian the second national language with
surprise and alarm ("A
Fight Latvia Doesn't Need," op-ed, Feb. 17). She seems to paint
native-Latvian speakers as bigoted bullies who want to limit the integration of
an ethnic minority. The reality I've experienced in Latvia is quite different.
As Ms. Savchenko notes, the majority of Russian-speaking Latvians "settled" in Latvia after World War II. But that settlement was part of a coordinated plan by the Kremlin that included deporting a significant number of Latvians to Siberia. When those Latvians who survived deportation were allowed to return after Stalin's death, many found other people living in their houses. These wounds are still fresh.
Ms. Savchenko contends that the Harmony Center party was excluded from the current governing coalition, thus destroying what "wobbly integration had been achieved over the last decade." Yet one of the main stumbling blocks toward including Harmony in the current government was their continued refusal to acknowledge the Soviet period of Latvian history as an occupation. The United States, in contrast, never recognized that the Baltic States were part of the Soviet Union.
The potentially violent nationalist parties that Ms. Savechenko mentions do exist, but they did not win a significant portion of the vote in the last parliamentary election. The current government consists of a three-way coalition between two centrist Latvian parties and one far-right party, which was brought in after the negotiations with Harmony fell apart. If far-right parties gain more traction in Latvia, that will become a point of concern, but today they more closely resemble France's National Front-an irritant, not a threat.
Ms. Savchenko asks that we view the debate concerning closing "minority-language schools" as an act of hostility, but the issue can also be viewed through the lens of a small culture-Latvian has fewer than two million native speakers-trying to defend itself against incursions of all kinds, and certainly not just from the Russian language. Before I was able to get married in Latvia, for example, I had to wait while the Latvian National Translation Office decided on the spelling of my American name. Here in Latvia I'm "Kristofers RīŋŊbers."
Ms. Savchenko is certainly correct when she says that "Russians' and Latvians' interests do not clash." Latvia would do well to follow Germany's example of providing low-to-no-cost integration programs with an emphasis on learning the national language for non-native speakers. And native Russian speakers living in Riga could do a better job of understanding why the May 9 celebration commemorating victory over the Nazis can be difficult for native Latvian speakers, who view that date as the start of an oppressive and often brutal occupation by the Soviet Union.
Both Latvian and Russian native speakers can make strides toward understanding each others' positions. But it is unfair to characterize the desire to keep Latvian as the country's single national language as bigotry.
Christopher Rieber
Riga, Latvia
As Ms. Savchenko notes, the majority of Russian-speaking Latvians "settled" in Latvia after World War II. But that settlement was part of a coordinated plan by the Kremlin that included deporting a significant number of Latvians to Siberia. When those Latvians who survived deportation were allowed to return after Stalin's death, many found other people living in their houses. These wounds are still fresh.
Ms. Savchenko contends that the Harmony Center party was excluded from the current governing coalition, thus destroying what "wobbly integration had been achieved over the last decade." Yet one of the main stumbling blocks toward including Harmony in the current government was their continued refusal to acknowledge the Soviet period of Latvian history as an occupation. The United States, in contrast, never recognized that the Baltic States were part of the Soviet Union.
The potentially violent nationalist parties that Ms. Savechenko mentions do exist, but they did not win a significant portion of the vote in the last parliamentary election. The current government consists of a three-way coalition between two centrist Latvian parties and one far-right party, which was brought in after the negotiations with Harmony fell apart. If far-right parties gain more traction in Latvia, that will become a point of concern, but today they more closely resemble France's National Front-an irritant, not a threat.
Ms. Savchenko asks that we view the debate concerning closing "minority-language schools" as an act of hostility, but the issue can also be viewed through the lens of a small culture-Latvian has fewer than two million native speakers-trying to defend itself against incursions of all kinds, and certainly not just from the Russian language. Before I was able to get married in Latvia, for example, I had to wait while the Latvian National Translation Office decided on the spelling of my American name. Here in Latvia I'm "Kristofers RīŋŊbers."
Ms. Savchenko is certainly correct when she says that "Russians' and Latvians' interests do not clash." Latvia would do well to follow Germany's example of providing low-to-no-cost integration programs with an emphasis on learning the national language for non-native speakers. And native Russian speakers living in Riga could do a better job of understanding why the May 9 celebration commemorating victory over the Nazis can be difficult for native Latvian speakers, who view that date as the start of an oppressive and often brutal occupation by the Soviet Union.
Both Latvian and Russian native speakers can make strides toward understanding each others' positions. But it is unfair to characterize the desire to keep Latvian as the country's single national language as bigotry.
Christopher Rieber
Riga, Latvia
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