WORLD, Page 36SOVIET UNIONLook Who's Feeling Picked OnRussian minorities become targets for discrimination in somerepublics, 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
