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- Title
PATTERNS OF MOBILITY IN A SOVIET REPUBLIC -- THE ESTONIAN SSR.
- Authors
Mertelsmann, Olaf
- Abstract
Regarding the mobility patterns of the USSR and the role of the state, a case study of a Soviet republic might be helpful to analyze the different waves of migration. Since the ‘archival revolution' and due to the enormous efforts to clarify the scale and nature of population losses, we have a better understanding of mobility and its reasons in Soviet Estonia. The fact that immigrants or their descendants were roughly one third of the population of the country by the late 1980s led émigré historians to see mobility nearly solely in the light of Russification and as a result of measures directly managed by the state. Recent archival research comes to a more differentiated approach and confirms that most of the immigration was not initiated by the Soviet state. Originally, Estonia had 1.1 million inhabitants 200.000 of which were lost permanently in the result of war, terror, resettlement, mass flight or forced migration mainly in the 1940s. The population losses were compensated by immigration, because the natural population growth was very small. In the final years of the USSR, Estonia had more than 1.5 million inhabitants. The article discusses these different patterns of mobility. War and oppression were responsible for a share of human mobility as were the measures of organized labour recruitment. The majority of mobility obviously happened due to the agency of migrants being motivated by economic incentives or in the case of ethnic Estonians and Finns also by cultural reasons. In fact, especially inthe post-war years the Soviet state tried to keep mobility through various restrictions at bay and even deported unwanted immigrants from the republic. Many Russian speakers left Estonia, because of the unfriendly attitude of the locals. If the state had wanted to foster Russification through immigration, it could have encouraged mobility much more.
- Subjects
ESTONIA; SOVIET Union; INTERNAL migration; CASE studies; RUSSIFICATION; IMMIGRANTS; ARCHIVAL research; OPPRESSION
- Publication
Regional Review / Reģionālais Ziņojums, 2010, Issue 6, p20
- ISSN
1691-6115
- Publication type
Article