Word: estonians
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Topped by green, onion-domed cupolas, the St. Alexander Nevsky Cathedral overlooks the center of Tallinn, a reminder of Estonia's two centuries of domination by the Russian Czars. Last week a crowd of more than 1,000 gathered at the church portico to demonstrate support for the Estonian supreme soviet, or parliament, as it joined in a battle of wills with Moscow. Near the cathedral steps, an elderly woman clutched a pennant of blue, black and white, the colors of the long-banned Estonian flag. Students in blue and crimson visored caps unfurled banners. NO TO COLONIAL LAWS read...
...deputies then took their defiance a long step further: they agreed to amend the Estonian constitution to grant the republic's own supreme soviet the right to "suspend or establish limits" on Moscow-promulgated legislation affecting Estonian territory. Another vote made state property the possession of Estonia rather than the Soviet Union. Yet another called for a new "treaty of the union" with Moscow based on "principles of parity." Never was the word independence mentioned, but the delegates made clear that Tallinn wanted a radically different relationship with Moscow. Declared Estonian Communist Party Leader Vaino Valjas: "The future...
...Moscow has tried to stifle resurgent nationalism in the Baltic states. Flags from the brief era of independence between the two World Wars were banned from public display. So many workers flooded in from outside the region that non-Latvians now outnumber Latvians (52% to 48%) and Estonians constitute only 60% of the population in their republic. Economic decisions take the form of edicts from Moscow. Notes Indrek Toome, chief ideologist of the Estonian Communist Party: "In our own republic we are not entitled to fix the price of a cinema ticket or the cost of a jar of Tallinn...
This shrewd collaboration may be calculated to keep the party from losing the initiative and divert nationalist sentiment into controllable channels. But the tactic is not without risk. Concerned that 90% of the Popular Front members are Estonian, Russians who live in the Baltic republic have formed their own "international" movement. Estonian leader Valjas has urged Popular Front members to "avoid aggravating nationalist disputes...
Marju Lauristin, an Estonian activist, has suggested that the Popular Front was born out of the "alienation" many Estonians feel toward existing social and political organizations. The popular front movements have certainly reinvigorated public debate in the Baltics, inspiring proposals for everything from local convertible currencies and free economic zones to the establishment of independent relations with foreign countries. If such dreams and hopes result in nothing but more empty words, the return of old frustrations will be all the more bitter...