UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University College London, 7th Annual International Postgraduate Conference

Inclusion Exclusion

16-18th February 2006

Thursday 16 February 4:30 – 6:00: Panel C3: Immigrants and Inclusion

Timofei Agarin (University of Göttingen): ‘Inclusion by belonging: integration of Russian-speaking communities in the post-Soviet Baltic states’

Recent research on the social and political transformation in the post-Soviet Baltic states have shown a discrepancy between the governments’ agenda for the development of countries, and the actual capacity of societies to accommodate the differences of their communities. In my paper I will examine the process of social integration in the Baltic states in three ways. Firstly, a brief review of analyses of the institutional developments will be provided. Secondly, I will show that by comparing the possibilities to accommodate ethno-cultural diversity the framework of respective political community is challenged. Thirdly, the short assessment of popular preparedness to accept differences between ethno-cultural communities in each state will be made. Underlining the importance of sentiment of identity between different communities on the course toward an effectively functioning polity, I describe the post-Soviet Baltic societies as united mainly by occasional discursive interaction, as for example, on issues of education, concerning both communities. This is a crucial constitutive force for social integration, since the emergence of social community should be recognised even in the contingency of loose commonality. It will be argued, that merely the reciprocal acknowledgement of diverse ethnic, cultural and linguistic communities by accepting their belonging to a same state community sustains the existence of ‘parallel societies’ in the Baltics. The impossibility to elaborate common norms and values prevails, resulting from controversial Soviet experience and post-Soviet behaviour of majorities and minorities.

Preliminary research indicates that the possibility of democratic consolidation in the Baltic states is in question.

The paper will present the preliminary results of my PhD project which addresses three main issues concerning recent developments in the Baltic states. I elaborate a theoretical approach, describing the processes of community building in societies undergoing individualisation after the dissolution of a collectivist ideology. Then, I intend to present selected empirical data on cooperation between majorities and minorities in the Baltic states, taken from monitoring the work of community projects engaged with consolidation of ethno-cultural groups, such as the Latvian State Language Programme. And finally I will undertake comparative presentation of cornerstones of the legal framework with particular strategies of groups in pursuit of further interethnic cooperation, necessary for effective democratic consolidation. My paper will touch on the issues of national revival and political exclusion and inclusion in the Baltic states after the collapse of the Soviet Union and will draw few conclusion as to why it is important to consider these issues to be critical obstacles for successful political and social integration into the enlarged European Union.