DEMOCRATIC activists throughout the Soviet Union have been involved in forming "People's Fronts," using the precedent of organizations that exist in several East
European countries and are supposed to offer recognized channels for political activity by non-Party forces. Only in the Baltic republics, however, have these formations yet taken on a real mass character. They are therefore of special interest for democratic activists in other parts of the Soviet Union.
The following article summarizes reactions of the observers from the Moscow People's Front to the constituent congresses of the Baltic People's Fronts held last fall. Its author is one of the major leaders of the
Moscow group.
BORIS KAGARLITSKI
VERYONE was waiting for this
E event. The congress of the Estonian People's Front scheduled for
• October 1988 was to be a turning point in the development of the social movement, and not just in Estonia and the
Baltic. For the first time in the post-Stalin epoch, an independent political organization in the Soviet Union had the possibility to declare its existence openly and officially, to hold a constituent congress and to appeal to the society through the state mass
The rise of the People's Front had begun in Estonia back in the spring of 1988, when a sharp struggle developed in this republic, as in other parts of the Soviet Union, around the election of delegates to the
Nineteenth Conference of the CPSU. However, while in Russia it was not possible even to get the most unpopular delegates recalled, in Estonia a change in the party leadership was announced even before the beginning of the conference.
The local delegation got a send-off to
Moscow from a rally of a hundred thousand perestroika supporters on the Singing
Field in Tallin, where the new leaders of the republic were called on to fight for radical changes in Moscow and for real independence for Estonia. The Initiative Group for the People's Front was at the center of all the events; all hopes were bound up with it. A journalist dubbed this enormous rally "the singing revolution." And in fact,
20 everything was what you would expect from a revolution: mass enthusiasm, a change in leadership, the formation of new mass organizations.
On the streets of Tallin and other cities, white, black and blue national flags — a crime against the state to display not long ago — were openly unfurled. The Moscow intelligentsia was discussing the "national liberation movement in Estonia"; the Western press was talking about the "Estonian phenomenon"; Soviet papers pointed to the republic as an example of "successful
Greater independence from Moscow
In the meantime, the Estonian phenomena had another side, which at first was not apparent to outside observers. The rapid success of the People's Front was facilitated by evident sympathy from an important part of the local party and economic apparatus, which was trying to achieve greater independence from the central authorities in Moscow. In this way, the People's Front became an important factor in the inter-
The Front could put forward demands that the local apparatchiki fully supported but so far were not prepared to call for in their own name. Finally, it could mobilize mass support, unite thousands of people around these demands - in fact win a broader mass base for a part of the local leadership than it had ever had.
Of course, the administrative apparatus had existed from Czarist times, offered an ideal tool for solving this problem. On the one hand, "national cadres" (some of whom barely spoke Estonian) came forward, and on the other the local bureaucracy was freed from the heritage of "the old society."
It is not surprising that as "genuine" Estonians were brought into the life of the bureaucracy, competition increased between the two groups. The "new arrivals" relied on support from Moscow, which as before saw them as reliable executors of its will. The "indigenous" cadres, on the other hand, sought support among the intelligentsia, stressing their liberal and patriotic orientation.
The "singing revolution"
The "singing revolution" was made possible because the founders of the People's Front quickly got access to publications in the Estonian language and later to radio and TV. Support for the People's Front from high-placed members of the party leadership, including the secretary for ideology, I. Toome, was no secret to anyone.
The People's Front activists in Moscow and Leningrad from the outside realized the contradictions of the "Estonian miracle." Nonetheless, the events in the Baltic gave grounds for optimism. As if there were not strong national-bureaucratic tendencies, people talked about a mass, democratic movement becoming part of the general process of political transformations in the
The draft program worked out by the Estonian People's Front experts contained a whole series of radical reform demands designed to widen civil liberties, form constitutional government and assure democratic elections to the Soviets.
"The aim of the People's Front," the draft says, "is to create an Estonia in which all citizens will feel free and secure." While defending the historic rights of Estonians as the indigenous nation on the territory of the republic, the authors of the draft stressed that "it is inadmissible to violate the democratic rights of citizens of other nationalities." (Vestnik Narodnogo Fronta ["Newsletter of the People's Front"] 4,
The Front's economic program was clearly influenced by the ideas of Scandina1. The site of the annual festival of folk choirs. This event was one of the major institutions created by the Estonian "national awakening" of the last century.
February 20, 1989 • #157 International Viewpoint vian social democracy. On the one hand, it talked about "free development of cooperatives, individual and private property" and about "constitutional guarantees" for private enterprise. On the other hand, it talked about strengthening the social security, health and educational systems, about state guarantees of minimum living standards for all citizens and upholding the principles of
In the opinion of the draft program's authors, transition to the market economy should be accompanied by maintaining a major role for the state. In fact, in many respects the positions of the ruling bodies of the republic should be reinforced by the transfer to them of rights formerly belonging to Moscow. It was proposed that administrative levers should be left to the republic authorities for intervening in the economy as regards prices, wages and so on. Finally, the draft program of the People's Front talked about the need for decentralization, the smaller-scale organization of state sector enterprises. There was not a word about self-management of workers' collectives or the participation of workers in economic decisions.
A possible precursor to common success
Although the interests of the republic ministries and authorities were unquestionably one of the major factors considered in the formulation of this document, it could be said that the Front ideologues remain on the positions of democratic socialism and defend the same conception of social development as the moderate wing of the
The Moscow People's Front, in which the influence of Marxist ideas is much stronger, naturally could not endorse every point of the Estonian program, but it was prepared to solidarize with it on a whole series of positions. Therefore, when a delegation of Moscovites got into the train, on their way to take part in the Estonian constituent congress, the mood was every buoyant. The expected success for the Estonians seemed a prologue to common Three and a half thousand delegates at congress
For the people from Moscow, Leningrad, Yaroslav, Minsk and others from "informal" organizations, representatives of many People's Front organizing committees from the "Slavic" republics, the grandeur and triumphant mood of the Estonian congress were a real shock. The perfect order in the enormous hall, with three and a half thousand delegates attentively listening to dozens of speakers, was a radical contrast to what we are used to seeing at home, although the activists from Kuibyshev and Yaroslav already had an experience of large rallies, and the Moscow and Leningrad people had held more than one "gathering" or "conference."
The introductory speech by the leader of the Estonian Front, E. Savisaara, was carefully balanced. He quite clearly hinted at
USSR Graffiti covered fence in Tallin (Photo: Göran Jacobsson) the need for transition to a multi-party system, noting at the same time that "hastiness" on this question was "unacceptable." He appealed for dialogue with the Russianspeaking population of the republic. He criticized Stalinists, nationalists and even technocrats, advising the Front to "avoid the policy of ultimatums." (Vestnik Narodnogo Fronta 11, 1988.)
He spoke quite calmly and soberly, aiming for the least controversial formulations, so that the Russians, who are used to impassioned and sharp discussions and a rally spirit soon found his speech boring. However, quite quickly we started to understand that underneath the calm flow of the congress there were real passions. The speakers who following Savisaara, put forward one demand after another, of which only a few concerned social questions. Despite the appeal for dialogue with the Russian residents of the republic, the representatives of the Front took an extremely sharp position toward those who they contemptuously called "immigrants."
There was talk about the possibility of pushing the Russians off the territory of the republic. Some of the means proposed were not distinguished by their originality. It was proposed to establish republic citizenship, available only to those who could speak the Estonian language, who had lived in Estonian no less than 10 years and "were loyal to the republic"(!).
Closing of big industrial enterprises with 21 a big majority of Russian workers was
International Viewpoint #157 • February 20, 1989
USSR discussed. At the same time, it was proposed that every Russian who left be given 10,000 rubles "traveling expenses." The republic could get this sum quite easily in every case because for every Russian worker brought to Estonia, 16,000 rubles is paid to the republic from the central budget.
No compromises for the sake of national equality were granted. There was to be only one official language, Estonian. The 40 per cent of the population who use the Russian language were to be denied the right to official recognition of their language. At the same time, it was stressed that "every Estonian's goal is an independent Estonia." (Vestnik Narodnogo Fronta 10, 1988), that "we want to be like Finland and Sweden."
Second-class citizens
However, as is well known, Finland does not deny its Swedish-speaking minority equal language rights, while clearly left its Russian neighbors in the republic only one choice, either get out or become
It is quite clear that what was involved in this case was by no means the extremes that are inevitable in mass organizations. Official circles in the republic quite clearly let it be understood that they held a similar view. When the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of Estonia formed a commission on language problems, it included only three Russians out of 20 members. As could be expected, the conclusions of the official commission differed little from the proposals expressed in the People's Front Congress. As Izvestia admitted, the republic authorities were unable to overcome "the distrust of the Russian-speaking population." (Izvestia, October 18, 1988.)
In turn, the growth of Estonian nationalism provoked a corresponding response among Russians and also other national minorities. In Tartu, the "Internationalist Movement" was formed, headed by P. Kogan and the Siberian Estonian A. Saj. The leaders of the Inter-Movement announced that they were prepared to support the basic principles of the People's Front's economic and political program. But they spoke out categorically against any form of discrimination against the Russian-speaking
In the documents of the Inter-Movement, it was stressed that the Russian-speaking community is the overwhelming majority of the population in the north-eastern part of the republic, and any policy harmful to the interests of the Russians would paralyze the economic development of this region of the country. In many respects, the 22 program of the Inter-Movement looked much more democratic than the People's
Front program. Put to the fore was the idea of equal civil and cultural rights and multi-
It was said that the Inter-Movement, with its democratic slogans and readiness for dialogue with the People's Front, should become the "lesser evil" even for Estonians. If the Internationalist Movement failed, the vacuum would be filled by outright Russian nationalism. This was clearly expressed in the documents of the "Internationalist Front," which recognized the danger of "chauvinist and extremist organi-
ESTONIA LITHUANIA Vilnius zations" developing among the Russians.
Nonetheless, it has to be recognized that for all the democratic expressions in its program, the IF leaders were seen by public opinion as conservatives. Their statements revealed a clear nostalgia for the "stability" of bygone times, when the rights of the non-indigenous population were securely guaranteed. Arnold Saj, who met with the Moscow People's Front delegation during its stay at the congress, impressed them as a completely honest but unquestionably conservative person.
Equality of nations and languages
A significant part of the Russian technical intelligentsia and workers did not unite around the Inter-Movement but around the "United Council of Workers' Collectives." The impetus for the formation of this organization came from a speech by the manager of the Tallin factory Dviagatel.2 The demands in this case were the most elementary — equality of nations and equality of the two official languages, Estonian and
Under pressure from the republic leadership and after negotiations with moderate representatives of the People's Front, the Dvigatel management was ready to retreat from its initial formulations, but it did not get the support of the workers this time.
About 80 percent of those employed in the factory spoke out for continuing the fight. Both the workforce and the management in many other plants started to come out in support of Dvigatel's "declaration."
The "United Council" that arose in this way recognized that "the interests of the indigenous population have priority," but at the same time it categorically declared that it would not accept any "violation of human rights" and demanded the "adoption of laws protecting national minorities from encroachments." (Izvestia, October 18,
1988.) Behind this impressive unanimity of the workforces and managements lay not only national but economic interests. Between the devil and the deep blue sea The factories in question are mainly under all-Union control, produce for the Russian market, and have links with dozens of suppliers and buyers in all the republics. According to the managers themselves, " 'Estonianization' of the business could turn into a business catastrophe." The situation worsened, and what happened in the sessions of the congress did not calm passions. A representative of the People's Front organization from Kohtla-Jarve [a predominantly Russian region of Estonia] said openly from the platform that she had "become afraid." Russian activists in the Front found themselves between the devil and the deep blue sea. Another victim of the nationalist euphoria was the left wing of the Front. Rem Bljum, a Marxist philosopher from Tartu, one of the founders of the first People's Front initiative group in the republic, was not even elected to the congress presiding committee.
"Did you notice that none of the delegates to the congress used the word 'comrade' in in their speeches?" he asked the distraught Russian guests. "That is symptomatic." It was not only the traditionally fairly weak Marxist current in the Front that was weakened. Even social-democratic ideas lost influence. Many economic proposals put forward by delegates and mechanically included in the conception of "republic self-financing," of the "Estonian miracle," amounted to barricading the Estonian economy off from the all-Union market, reducing economic ties with the other republics to a minimum, looking forward to great achievements by Estonia on the foreign - that is, Western - market.
None of the ideologues of the Front doubted that such successes would be magnificent, although not one proposed even the most general sort of ideas about a future foreign-trade policy. In the words of an economist from the Moscow People's 2. A locomotive factory founded in 1893 and traditionally a major center of Estonian industry.
February 20, 1989
Front, V. Ponomarev, "This program is neither right nor left, it is simply incompetent."
This was a peculiar sort of congress, and this strangeness struck not only the Russian guests but also the foreign journalists. Almost no one criticized the leaders of the Front. There were practically no strategic or tactical debates. Only individual formulations in the program were discussed. Candidates for the leadership of the People's Front, without a secret ballot, were automatically included in the Council of Plentipotenciaries, although some of them got very few votes. The newly-elected Administration and Council of Plenipotenciaries came onto the stage with musical accompaniment and surrounded by beautiful girls in national costumes. Portraits of Savisaara and the "number two man in the People's Front," Marju Lauristan, appeared constantly in the pages of the Vestnik Narodnogo Fronta, which came out daily during the congress. All this was reminiscent of theater, although the director seemed to be quite naive.
Going back on the train, the mood of the Moscow guests was, unfortunately, not so happy as it had been on the way there. The differences between the Moscow and the Estonian people's fronts stood out, not only on the level of programmatic formulations (more "left" less "right"), but on the level of political thinking. Almost all the guests at the Estonian congress returning to the capital had very mixed feelings.
Mass meetings and a real confrontation of ideas
On the one hand, they saw mass meetings in Tallin, a real confrontation of ideas and programs and legal activity by several unofficial mass organizations. Along with the 60,000-member People's Front and the 12,000-strong Inter-Movement, "Greens" are also active, as well as a small national independence party. All this testified to a real democratization, which would have been unthinkable without the successes of the People's Front. But on the other hand, it was hard not to see new dangers, antidemocratic tendencies created by the agitation of national feelings, provincialism, and at times the incompetence of many
People's Front leaders.
A similar picture took shape a few weeks later for the Moscow activists who attended the congress of the Latvian Front.
After they returned home, they told a meeting of the Moscow People's Front: "It was the same as in Estonia, only much worse organized."
Although radical resolutions on social justice, civil rights and democratization, were adopted, Resolution 8 "on limiting immigration" characterized the Russian incomers as "great masses of unskilled and uneducated people" threatening the vital interests of the Latvian people. The resolution said that "only permanent residents of the republic" should be allowed to study in Latvia's educational institutions and that all People's Front organizations should take an "intransigent position on this question." Concern and then protests from Russians
Of course, such statements aroused first concern, and then protests among Russians, especially since there was a certain jarring note in the congress. One of the speakers called for erecting monuments throughout the country to the pre-war dictator Ulmanis, and another said that the German occupiers were not as bad as they
On October 14, the organizing committee of the Latvian International Front was set up. It included representatives from 154 institutes and enterprises in Riga, Lie-
On October 16, in the program entitled Labvakar ["Good Evening"), a leaflet was read from an association called"Slavs," appealing to Russians to go into the streets on October 22 and "stand
The appeal from the "Slavs" was not supported by the Inter-Front, which called on its supporters to "go about your daily business on October 22 and don't hold 'counter-demonstrations' and 'counterrallies", don't play into the hands of provocateurs." (Sovietskaya Latvia, October 10, 1988.) Against the background of provocative agitation by the "Slavs", the Inter-Front looked like a moderate and constructive movement. But the confrontation between the Latvian and Russian communities was already developing in accordance with the usual laws of such
In this context, the congress of the Lithuanian movement for perestroika, "Sajudis" (the local equivalent of the People's Front) was distinguished by realism and moderation in its national demands. Resolution 7 on inter-ethnic relations was formulated from the start in such a way as to reassure the non-indigenous population, stressing its equal position in the republic.
It should be noted that the Lithuanians have less reason to worry. In their country, they are the overwhelming majority.
Moreover, the Russian, Jewish and Polish communities have never formed a whole, and therefore have no possibility of competing with the Lithuanians. Anti-Russian and anti-Polish leaflets posted in the Vilnius central square were torn up by People's
Front activists and condemned as "provocative" during the congress.
Nonetheless, national enthusiasm reigned at the Sajudis congress as well. One after another, speakers gave pretty, poetic but rather abstract speeches about "our native
Lithuania." Before the opening of the congress, the official Lithuanian leadership decided to restore the old national flag,
USSR which was raised on the ancient Gediminas tower. Soon after this, the newly-elected party leader, A. Brazauskas, to the general rejoicing of Sajudis activists, announced that the old cathedral in Vilnius was being returned to the Catholic Church.
During the congress, a holiday atmosphere reigned in the city. People walked through the streets carrying the national flag and singing national songs. In the evening in Cathedral Square, national festivities began, and fireworks exploded over Gediminas tower. The congress was broadcast over radio and TV, and there were loudspeakers in the streets around which people constantly crowded, wanting to hear what was going on at the congress. No one showed the least ill-feeling toward Russians. What is more, during the congress Sajudis activists and Moscow representatives were able to form the closest comradely relations.
Nonetheless, raising the national flag over the capital was easier than solving the real problems. The abstractness and strident tone of the Sajudis' program may have helped it rally the broadest layers of the population,
In turn, the authorities immediately felt the vulnerability of the movement and did everything possible, calling for dialogue and cooperation, to assure that it would limit itself to symbolic gestures. "We cannot rely on anyone but ourselves"
A representative from Kaunas, the worker activist K. Uokas, told us about this bitterly. The authorities answered Sajudis' slogans with slogans, with appeals for loyalty to the fatherland, vows of loyalty to our native Lithuania, with symbolic demands, symbolic gestures.
Although the Sajudis leaders often talked about their movement's socialist option, they could not offer the delegates to the conference a strategy of their own for developing socialism in Lithuania, and in fact left the initiative to the new party lead ership, which also could not offer anything
In any case, the Lithuanian movement was occupied primarily with its own problems. A member of the initiative group,
Arvidas Juozaitis, told the people from
Moscow openly that "Russian problems do not interest us." Thus, the dreams of many
Moscow activists that the Baltic fronts would be locomotives that would "pull the entire movement forward" obviously did
"We cannot rely on anyone but ourselves," the philosopher Mikhail Malyutin snapped, summing up the results of the discussions in the Moscow left: "With all the weaknesses of the Moscow People's
Front, we at least have one advantage we can learn the lessons of other people's 23
• #157 International Viewpoint
"It was as if the entire Estonian
A time of horrors
THE ESTONIAN-language press came under sharp attack in Pravda on December 3. (See IV 155, January
23, 1989.) The following article came under the heaviest fire. It is from the November issue of
Vikekaar, a "literary and social-political journal" of the
The full text of this article has a special interest for two reasons. First, it indicates what most upsets the official Soviet observers of the developments in
Estonia, since there was other material in the same issue of the magazine that represented more fundamental political challenges to the official justifications of the Soviet regime but did not draw fire. Secondly, the article offers a background for some of the feelings that have been surfacing in Estonia, among other things certain illusions about the pre-war regime. The article, entitled "Time of
Horrors" ("Ouduste aeg"), was published under the
International Viewpoint #157 • February 20, 1989
USSR • DOCUMENT
N OW, AS A hundred years ago,
memory has become the watchword of the ongoing renaissance. Restoring this memory to the people not only raises their sense of their own worth, their honor, but it also enables them to explain the roots of their present behavior and striving. Unless we clarify our history, it is hard to answer the standard question from non-Estonians: "Why don't you go along with us. You wanted to join us, what's eating you now? We liberated you, we gave you the shirt off our backs."
As the people come to know their history, many phenomena and periods fall into their proper places (the war of independence, the great importance of the Estonian republic for the survival of our nation, and so on). Unless this is comprehended on the so-called emotional level, it is often impossible to recognize the concrete content and importance of the facts. And the craziest thing, it seems, is that we still do not understand the extent of our own people's suffering and the horrors to which they were exposed.
We have, once and for all, to realize that there can hardly be a single family in Estonia that did not have someone sent to Siberia, that did not have someone killed, victimized or forced into exile. Over a dec24 ade, the Estonian nation lost a quarter of its people, generally the most active and educated. What happened over this ten years [1940-1950] is as if the entire Estonian people had been lined up and every fourth person shot down, including women, children and the elderly.
The records have been locked up, or already destroyed. So there is nothing left for us but to turn to the people's memory. And we have to do this quickly, before the last people still living who know about these events, and the butchers implicated in them, go quietly to their graves. Whole villages destroyed by Red Army