Without a doubt there is more than a whiff of hatred towards Russians in Estonia. It is the reason why a lot of Russians have limited their involvment in the Estonian integration process, because most places reak of the stench of keeping Russians at arms length from anything like the kind of integration that Palo and co want to implement here. In that sense the EKN response is only a reflection of the bigotry that Naan warned about decades ago when he promoted the idea of trading some of our less desirable genes for the quality slavic variety. And yet we stand today on the threshold of change that only seems to be light years away. Appauling by any reasonable account.

When the American, Douglas Wells, went to Estonia with the Peace Corps, his first stop was Tartu where he enrolled in a crash course in the Estonian language. A resident Russian he met there was mystified by the idea that someone might wish to learn Estonian and asked Wells, "Why don't you learn a real language -- like Russian?" That pretty much sums up a common Russian attitude.

Since independence very, very few Russians have returned to Russia and this, in spite of financial incentives from both the Russian and Estonian Governments. Obviously, Estonia's Russians know that life in democratic Estonia is preferable to thugocratic Putinocracy. That's not to say that Estonia is ideal. In Russian eyes -- there are still too many Estonians there who don't know their proper place -- those who expect local Russians to learn a bit of Estonian, Estonians who learn English, as a second language, instead of Russian and so on and on and on.

Estonians -- with the exception of Maxim -- aren't overly fond of Russians for the above reasons and, also, because Russians shipped 20% of our population to Siberia. Of the deportees, a small percentage were politicians, business moguls, churchmen, judges, journalists and others of comparable influence in the community. The vast majority were just folks -- farm-families and the like, inconveniently in the way of establishing collective farms and other elements of the new order. The Soviet officers who organized this massive injustice currently live comfortably in Estonia on pensions provided by Estonian tax-payers. Maxim thinks that this is just fine.

Maxim thinks that it's "appauling" [sic.] that we don't trade some of our "less desirable genes for the quality slavic variety". (Sounds like a bit of Nazi theory.) That aside, I'd say that Maxim can't see what's going on around him and it makes me wonder if he might be living in a well.

More likely -- given his grotesque fetish for licking Russian butt -- I'd speculate that he lives in the bottom half of a Russian outhouse.

I'll let readers decide for themselves as to whether Anonymous has gone beyond reasonable bounds in assassinating me personally, but let's just say it has never been my style to cut other people down, even if their thinking is different to mine. Anonymous has a right to her beliefs as do I. However, it seems to me that bringing up the old argument of people being towed off to Siberia doesn't cut with most Russians, because one thing that Russians take immediate offense to is every conceivable avoidance on the part of Estonians to recognize that Russians themselves were treated to the same brutality as their Estonian counterparts. However, since Estonians overlook the plight of Russians, and use this as the only yardstick to drive a wedge between the two populations, it is therefore not surprising that Russians don't particularly sympathize with Estonians, since Estonians are really quite bigoted in many of their attitudes. They would never, of course, agree to this way of thinking, but until they do there is no escaping the problem that integration cannot take root in such a continually hostile environment as exists in Estonia. The recent events in Georgia, however, became a clarion call to ministers, who began -finally!- to see the many shortcomings of Estonians towards Russians as possibly being the key to resolving age-old bitterness and differences between the two groups. I'm not suggesting Estonians aren't prepared to try, but it strikes me as very strange indeed that so little has been done to acknowledge Russian potential talent in Estonia. However, the nouveau riche of Estonia are Russians, and if money speaks louder than words, then in capitalist Estonia it should be clear that Russians will not stand for continued bigotry and bias from the Estonian side. Let's all pray for a big thaw to start-very soon!!!

Maxim mouths off.
Somebody disagrees.
Maxim wails like a child. He thinks that he's being assassinated.
Grow up Maxim.

Tony, my concern is that this kind of open letter can only make Estonians look like Russian-hating bigots in front of other Canadians and will give Putin even more ammunition to use against Estonia.
Russian is an international language that is spoken by millions of people. I work with a non-Russian Asiatic who is a Russian-speaker. Could you imagine Jews protesting German-language music on the radio or Tibetians protesting Chinese signs in front of restaurants in Chinatown?

Thank you Anna Nüüm for your support. It means a lot to me because, at times, I feel alone in responding to Maxim's irrational attacks on the Estonian people, both at home and abroad.
I'm incapable of ignoring him because he belittles the people that are very dear to me.
Proudly, I've brought many of my non-Estonian friends to see 'The Singing Revolution' and without exception they agree that to be Estonian is a matter for great pride. Maxim thinks that we're genetically inferior to Russians.
Maxim is insane and, for that reason, he can't leave us alone. His education extends to John Lennon singing, "Back in the USSR...you don't know how lucky you are..."
More than twenty years ago, Maxim moved from Toronto to the Estonian SSR with a big chip on his shoulder and, after all that time, he still can't forget us or leave us alone.
He fancies himself a writer, but he can't speak a language and he's never found a publisher. Pretty much any idiotic idea can get published somewhere, so long as it's coherent; but, saying something like, "we stand today on the threshold of change that only seems to be light years away", wont cut it with any publisher, anywhere. So, Maxim crowds his way into this open-to-all space with the belief that he's entitled to monopolize it. And for what? To degrade us and display his deformities with the expectation that we will all watch in silence.

Don't worry anonymous! Although there are a few times when Maxim says things that actually make sense, (and I do grant him that there HAVE been a few times) most of the time we look at his comments in the same way we look at another frequent commentator's comments, in somewhat an uncomfortable way, as we look at those with mental instabilities that we pity, but wish they wouldn't talk to us on the street corner.

It's proof positive that, Anonymous, that you have very little practical knowledge of the workings of Estonian life. To suggest the things you flout in your air of superiority, when Estonian estonians know full well who is who over here is not really a mission about preaching to the converted. Most people in Estonia would find your comments naive and conservative, lacking understanding of the changes taking place in the land of your forefathers. I don't shy one iota from any of my comments here, because anyone living in Estonia knows and believes these things to contain a truth that is beyond reasonable argument. You can continue writing as you wish, but even you should be only too aware that there are numerous gaps in your thinking. Let's invite Daniel Shaer to offer his opinion as well, since he is a man only too well informed about Estonian events. Danny...get into gear and give this folk a lesson about Estonian-Russian past and present relations.