Новости кампании за русский язык. (Британский фронт)

What is it all about?

Russian is the first language for more than one third of the Latvian population, but is treated as foreign and has no legal status. We want its recognition as the second official language in Latvia to uphold our basic rights.

 

What is Latvia?

Latvia is a small country in the Baltic region and is a member of EU. Latvia is a very young country – in different times large parts of today's Latvia were ruled by Germany, Poland, Lithuania, Sweden. From 18 century it was a part of the Russian Empire. Latvia became an independent country in 1918, then it was a part of Soviet Union and regained independence in 1991.

 

Why Russian language is common in Latvia?

Although Russian national minority of Latvia is very large, it is only a part of the overall Russian-speaking community of the country. This community includes all  residents for whom Russian language became their mother tongue or language of inter-family communication, which is the case of numerous minorities like Belarusians, Ukrainians, Poles, Lithuanians, Jews etc., that also live in Latvia.

 

Ethnic Russians inhabited lands of nowadays Latvia since 13th century at least. Because Latvia used to be part of USSR, there is a propaganda stereotype that all Russian-speaking population came from Soviet Russia. This is simply false.  Although in Soviet times Russian-speakers did settle in Latvia, Latvia's population has been multiethnic for centuries. For example, in 1897 ethnic Latvians formed only 68.3% of the total population. Now Latvians form about 59.49% of the population, and the rest are ethnic minorities with Russian minority of Latvia (27.4% of total population) being the largest.

 

Back in the 17th Century Russian Orthodox Church split into two parts: the official state-endorced church and the Old Faith. More traditional followers of the ‘Old Faith’ were subjected to cruel repressions, forcing them to flee to the borders of Russia or beyond. It was the starting point in the formation of the traditional Russian minority in Latvia. Descendents of those Old Faith settlers currently make around one fifth of the Russian national minority of Latvia. After the collapse of the USSR, a lot of recently settled Russian-speakers went back to Russia or other ex-Soviet states. A major part of today’s ethnic Russians remaining in Latvia have never had any other home country and have families with deep historical roots in Latvian soil. The Russian-speaking community of Latvia is, and always was an integral part of the Latvian nation.

 

Why then there is only one official language in Latvia?

When Latvia regained independence, the authorities quickly switched from  communist ideology to plain old nationalism. In order to hold power, the ruling elite orchestrated an artificial split of Latvian society. Russian language was completely excluded from official use, which has only increased tensions between Latvian and Russian-speaking communities. On top of it, there is a large number of people without any citizenship in Latvia – the so-called “non-citizens” (14.4% of residents).  According to both UN and Council of Europe bodies, non-citizens suffer from limited or no access to a broad range of rights,. They have special passports with humiliating inscription “alien” in them and are not allowed to vote. For most of them, Russian is their first language.

 

Latvian law does not recognise Russian language as local: it is just a foreign language like any other in the world. As a result, people are unable to communicate with any authorities reps, receive state medical or legal help etc. in their mother tongue. You can rarely can see any signs or banners in Russian on Latvian streets, although you can spot numerous people around speaking Russian.

 

Why is it important to have Russian as a second official language?

Because all Latvian society will benefit from this. A split society can not organize itself effectively. Because people of Latvia are artificially divided into unequal groups, people do not trust the authorities or even each other, and have little desire to contribute to the society they view as unjust.

 

The Russian speakers of Latvia are only asking for equal rights, not any "minority privileges" or resources. They need the right to education in their native language, the right to use it freely when dealing with the officials (police, courts, medical and emergency services etc.,) and a chance to build their professional careers without linguistic discrimination. These principles are welcomed by many ethnic Latvians just as well. Cooperation is better then conflict.

 

Why do we speak about this problem today?

International organizations such as UN, CoE, CEPA have previously recommended Latvia to revise the language policy to reflect the multilingual character of Latvian society and facilitate use of minority languages in written correspondence between people belonging to national minorities and authorities.

Now, in November 2011, a signature collecting for Russian as a second official language in Latvia is finally taking place.

Only at its starting period, the enthusiasts have already gathered more than 12500 signatures in incredibly short period of time (which is a notable number considering just 2 million population of the entire country). With this leaflet, we would like to spread information about this event and about the general situation in Latvia now.

 

Because of the open EU borders, a number of Latvian citizens have left Latvia due to family, business etc. reasons. In addition, Latvian economy has recently collapsed (what a proof of the weakness of a divided society!), and in the global financial crisis Latvia, and not Greece, was the hardest hit EU state. So, huge (for its population!) numbers of Latvian citizens emigrated in hope to find any job for survival - many to the UK. If you have a friend from Latvia, you may like to pass this leaflet to him/her.

There is a possibility to sign for Russian as a second official language in Latvia in Latvian Embassy in London:

 

45 Nottingham Place

 London,  W1U 5LY

Tel: 020 7312 0040 Fax: 020 7312 0042

10 a.m. – 13 p.m and 14 p.m – 16 p.m working days till November 30

 

To sign for Russian as the second official language in Latvia you need to be a Latvian citizen and have your Latvian passport with you.

 

We respect our state, Latvia, as citizens - it is our home country.

We respect Latvian-speaking community and are sure that Latvian language should be studied and used by Russian-speaking residents of Latvia. We understand that Latvia is only place where Latvian language can survive and florish. We are glad that use of Latvian language is on increase. We respect Latvian as the first official language but also need official rights to use  Russian, our mother tongue and common local language, in our country – Latvia. 

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