TIME: Almanac 1993/TIME Almanac 1993.iso/time/092589/09258900.035

Text File | 1992-09-23 | 5.8 KB | 112 lines

                                                                                WORLD, Page 36

SOVIET UNION

Look Who's Feeling Picked On


Russian minorities become targets for discrimination in some
republics, adding ethnic hostility to Gorbachev's many woes


    Russians suffering discrimination in the Soviet Union? It
sounds about as likely as the English becoming second-class
citizens in parts of Great Britain. But that is how many of the
30 million Russians feel who live in the U.S.S.R.'s restive
"ethnic republics" like Moldavia, the Ukraine and the Baltic
states of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia. In the throes of a
quest for their own independence, nationalists in those areas
are denouncing the Russians living among them as "occupiers" and
"migrants." They are enacting voting laws that disenfranchise
many Russians and are forcing them to learn the local languages
or lose their jobs.

    Russians often see this as an attempt to kick them out of
the homes they have inhabited for generations. So they have
been hitting back with strikes that, if they persist, could
wreck the economies of some republics. And in Moscow, Communist
conservatives have seized on the Russians' plight to justify a
crackdown on the nationalist movements. News reports in the
capital deliver a crude subtext: ethnic Russians are the victims
of nationalist extremists. Politburo members like Victor
Chebrikov, former KGB chief, thunder that those whipping up
ethnic strife "should not go unpunished, no matter what flags
they raise and what brightly colored national costumes they
wear."

    Mikhail Gorbachev needs this ruckus about as much as Custer
needed more Indians. The Soviet President is already trying to
cope with a sour national mood that is turning bitter amid
steadily worsening shortages of meat, sugar, butter, salt,
matches, soap and even warm winter clothing. Now tea, a beverage
the Soviets consume in vast quantities, has suddenly disappeared
from store shelves. Said a woman standing in line for lemons in
Moscow: "They talk about the years of stagnation (Gorbachev's
term for the Brezhnev era), but at least while we stagnated we
ate."

    In a country where problems are endemic, things seem to be
spiraling out of control, and the possibility that Gorbachev's
great experiment could collapse has gained currency. Rumors of
coups or impending civil war have circulated so widely that
Gorbachev felt obliged to denounce them in a TV speech early
this month, accusing both left and right of spreading false
alarms. The Communist Party Central Committee is scheduled to
meet this week to discuss the nationalities crisis; Gorbachev
reportedly will seek its backing to fire more of his critics
from the Politburo.

    But cooling the country's ethnic strife will take more than
a few dismissals. How does Moscow satisfy the growing hunger
for self-rule in the republics without aggrieving the large
numbers of local Russians? In Estonia, where Russians and other
minorities comprise 40% of the 1.7 million population, the
Russians complain that personal snubs abound. Alexander
Yashugin, a decorated World War II veteran who lives in a suburb
of Tallinn, said an Estonian shopkeeper refused to let him
register to buy a TV set, and would not even put him on a
waiting list. "On the front, they didn't discriminate between
Balt and Russian," he said.

    A new electoral law, Russians protest, will exclude 80,000
to 100,000 of them from voting in Estonia's first competitive
elections in December. Another law makes it necessary for all
people to speak Estonian (as different from Russian as
Hungarian is from English) to get a job. Though Russians have
four years to comply, they protest angrily that there are not
enough teachers or textbooks available for all of them to learn.

    Last month 35,000 to 40,000 Russians went on strike to
protest those laws. Though the walkouts have been suspended,
strike leaders still meet three times a week to prepare for a
possible resumption. "The strikes are a strong influence on the
government to revise the laws," said factory worker Vladimir
Shorikin. Igor Shepelevich, director of a computer-chip plant,
explained that new strikes could pretty well close down Estonia.
"The republic's railroads, airports, seaports and power systems
are all run by Russians," he pointed out. In Moldavia recent
strikes by Russians left tomatoes rotting in fields and railroad
cars standing empty at stations, worsening the Soviet Union's
food shortages.

    Estonian nationalists contend that Russians are
exaggerating their plight and playing into the hands of
Gorbachev's opponents. "It comes down to the question of who is
for perestroika and who is against it," said Rein Kaarapere, an
economist with the republic's Council of Ministers. He may have
a point. Early this month delegates from Intermovement, which
claims to represent 100,000 Russians in Estonia, joined members
of similar groups across the country to found the United Front
of Workers of Russia. The front is dedicated to battling
nationalist movements, but it also expressed opposition to
Gorbachev's plans to introduce more private enterprise.

    Gorbachev had once hoped to make the Baltic states a
showcase for perestroika. But he now faces a painful dilemma.
If he allows the nationalist movements to run unchecked, he
risks worsening ethnic tensions on top of all the Soviet Union's
other problems. But if he cracks down, he will hearten the
enemies, who are already making rich political capital out of
the discrimination against Russians. The Soviet leader met with
Baltic party and government officials last week to seek some
compromise of their demands. This week's oft-postponed plenum
may show if he has found a way to calm the potentially explosive
ethnic hostilities threatening to shake his rule.