Estonia
Estonia is a parliamentary democracy. With its statehood widely recognized
as continuous for more than seventy years, the country regained its independence
in 1991 after fifty years of Soviet occupation. The constitution, adopted
by referendum in 1992, established a 101-member unicameral legislature,
a prime minister as head of government and a president as head of state.
In September the incumbent president, Lennart Meri, won a second term in
office after gaining the most votes in an electoral college.
In March, parliament ratified the 1950 European Convention on Human Rights.
The economy continues to grow steadily, with gross domestic product estimated
to have increased by about 3 per cent in 1996. Incomes are rising faster
than the rate of inflation, which stands at 23 per cent. Unemployment remains
fairly low overall-unofficially about 8 per cent-but is significantly higher
in rural areas.
The Jewish community of Estonia was founded by Jewish conscripts in the
army of Tsar Nicholas I (1825-55). In 1922 the Jewish population numbered
over 4,000.
In the 1930s the pro-fascist group Omak-aitse rapidly gained in influence,
demanding curbs on Jewish commercial activities and a quota on Jewish university
students.
Omakaitse units assisted the Nazi invasion in July 1941 and were active
in the rounding up and slaughter of Jewish men. The Estonian so-called self-protection
movement (Selbstschutz), acting under the supervision of the Nazis,
shot Jewish men, women and children. In January 1942 the Nazi leadership
reported that 936 Jews had been killed and that Estonia was "judenfrei".
The Nazis also used Estonians in the running of extermination camps.
The issue of Estonian complicity in the Holocaust continues to exert a negative
impact on Jewish-Estonian relations to the present day.
Since the collapse of the Soviet communist regime at the beginning of the
1990s, the rights of the Estonian Jewish minority, many of whom have emigrated
to Israel, have been fully respected.
During the years of Estonia's forced annexation by the Soviet Union,
large numbers of non-Estonians, predominantly ethnic Russians, were encouraged
to migrate to Estonia to work as labourers and administrators. They and
their descendants now make up approximately one-third of the total population.
Some Russians continue to allege job, salary and housing discrimination
on account of Estonian-language requirements. Russian government officials
and parliamentarians echo these charges in a variety of forums. Both the
Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) mission in Estonia
and the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities have declared that
they cannot find a pattern of human rights violations or abuses in Estonia.
The most well-known far-right organizations in Estonia are the Eesti
Rahvususlikliit (ER, Estonian National Union, leader Tiit Madisson) and
the Eesti Kodanik (EK, Estonian Civic Union, leader Jüri Toomepuu).
In the 1995 general elections these parties lost much of their support and
membership decreased. Neither participated in the local elections in September
1996.
In September Tiit Madisson, a dissident under the Soviet regime, was sentenced
to twenty-six months' imprisonment for attempting to organize an armed overthrow
of the government in the spring. Madisson has repeatedly expressed his admiration
of the Russian ultra-nationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky and declared his willingness
to co-operate with local Russian extremists.
Toomepuu, who has dual Estonian and US citizenship, has returned to the
USA and is no longer involved in Estonian political activities.
On 23 March the Russian-language newspaper Estoniya reported that
antisemitic literature was being distributed by local Russian-speaking organizations;
the literature was to be found mainly at the Narva centre of the Union of
Russian Citizens in Estonia. The Estoniya reporter said he had asked
Yuri Mishin, the chairman of the Union, whether such literature reflected
the views of his organization; Mishin had replied that Estonia was a free
country and people could read whatever they wished.
On 24 April Estonian-language leaflets were found in Tallinn. The leaflets
contained an illustration of a monster from a children's book to which the
authors of the leaflets had added anti-Jewish slogans. The leaflets were
signed by the Estonian National Working Party-New Estonian Legion.
Also in April, German-language leaflets with anti-Jewish overtones calling
for the deaths of top officials of Tartu University were found on the walls
of student dormitories at the university.
On 10 September the Jewish cemetery in Tallinn was vandalized; fourteen
gravestones were damaged.
In January, following the decision by a Tartu district court to destroy
almost 600 copies of an Estonian-language version of The Protocols of
the Elders of Zion , the local press published a number of readers'
letters critical of the local Jewish community. In particular, Postimees
, the Tartu-based biggest daily newspaper in Estonia, published a letter
by an Estonian woman from Australia who wrote that ". . . The father
of world Zionism, Theodor Herzl, made a speech based on the Protocols, but
nobody protested . . . It is a pity we cannot defend freedom in liberated
Estonia."
During 8-13 April the tabloid daily Post published the Protocols under
the title "The Falsification of the Twentieth Century?" The editor
of the paper said he had published the article in protest against "Jewish
expansion" and in support of freedom of the press. The Post closed
in mid-1996 on account of financial problems.
On 20 April, Hitler's date of birth, Mart Sõmer wrote in Postimees
that "Eichmann was not an antisemite . . . [He] deserves an award
for rescuing Jews: he rescued more Jews than Oskar Schindler." Sõmer,
apparently a student at Tartu University, concluded that, notwithstanding
fascism's totalitarian ideology, its ideas about race and praise of force
were attractive.
In June a second book by Jüri Lina appeared in bookstores in Tallinn.
Lina, an Estonian who had emigrated to Sweden in 1976, had since 1991 published
antisemitic articles in the weekly Eesti Aeg. When the editorial
board of that paper changed its staff Lina found himself unable to publish
his articles any longer. Lina's first book, "Unpublished Articles",
contained material that local editorial boards refused to publish. His second
book was entitled "Under the Mark of Scorpio" (Stockholm: Referent).
On 28 June Eesti Ekspress , the only newspaper to mention the book,
included an article by a Kauksi Ülle, who wrote: " . . . [W]hy
does the Holocaust Museum in Washington say Estonians killed more Jews than
there actually were in Estonia and refuse to answer when journalists try
to ask for an explanation?"
On 2 July Koit Raudsepp, the presenter of a youth programme on the state
radio station Raadio-2, invited listeners to call in and express their views
on the theme "Do Jews have a programme to conquer the world?"
He claimed that Zionism's ideology was to conquer the world and that Jews
were always linked with conspiracy. At the end of the programme Raudsepp
said that 51 per cent of the audience agreed that Jews were bent on world
domination.
In the campaign leading up to the September local elections, in which a
number of candidates were Jews, antisemitic graffiti and slogans appeared
in Tallinn. Among those who distributed anti-Jewish leaflets were activists
of the Russian Party of Estonia, which has a representative in the Estonian
parliament. Anti-Jewish graffiti also appeared on the building of the Russian
Cultural Centre, the director of which, V. Haitov, is Jewish. Esya Shur,
an activist of the Union of Russian Citizens in Estonia, organized a meeting
in support of one of the Russian candidates at which she is reported to
have provoked an antisemitic reaction from the audience.
In May the minister of internal affairs, Märt Rask, promised representatives
of the Jewish community and the Union of Victims of Fascism that his ministry
would protect Jews against antisemitism and racism.
A number of Estonian public figures condemned the publication of Hitler's
Mein Kampf . In particular, Ain Kaalep, a prominent Estonian poet,
intellectual and editor-in-chief of the magazine Academia , condemned
the book on the private television channel EVTV/RTV in January. On 11 January
Estoniya published an interview with Cilja Laud, the chairperson
of the local Jewish community, who expressed gratitude to Estonian intellectuals
for their support of the Jewish community in connection with the publication
of Mein Kampf.
As in previous years, antisemitism remained a minor problem, posing no
significant threat to the small Jewish population of the country. Relations
between the Jewish community and the authorities continued to be very good.
Such anti-Jewish propaganda and manifestations as there were remained the
work mainly of extremist Russian circles.
© JPR 1997