Peteris C: “…It’s not that we hate Russians for their ethnicity…What I hate, personally, is that I have to speak Russian most of the time when I do my shopping – that’s an act of elementary plotesse, and I don’t hate the shopgirls. But I am sure you’ve heard the arguments. I am supposed to feel sorry for the old pharmacist who hasn’t learned the word for “eye drops” – the old lady was sent here from Vitebsk and never desired to live here, and I am abusing her with language laws, just ’cause she’s a Russkie (or Belarusian, in this case). Well, I guess the Lettish babushki she abused for so many years don’t matter? My mother-in-law, who took two nice, long vacation tours of Siberia (because the Nazis took her away and “employed” her, and when she got back she clearly was a “fascist spy”), has to ask for eye drops in Russian so as not to offend her? A children’s surgeon doesn’t need to speak Latvian becasue all Latvians speak Russian? Even when they are three years old?

This then is the crux of the Baltic emotionalism. Occupied and flooded by colonists, most of whom never bothered to learn a word of our language and many of whom happily lived in confiscated houses whilst many of us took such nice holiday in cattle cars, we chose liberal democracy and tolerance, something that is quite evident despite our many failings (more here than in Estonia). If I tell someone from the West that I look upon Russians as guests, I must be a fascist. Frankly, I do have difficulty with that term/concept – there are an awful lot of Latvian bigots, and a citizen of Latvia ought to be equal to another citizen. Are they, though? What of THEIR behavior? As far as I know, not a single Russian in Parliament voted to support Estonia. The supposedly “centrist” “Russian party” which calls itself “Harmony Center,” shares a list with gentlemen like Rubiks, who was literally drooling for a bloodbath back in 1991. Zhdanok would love to see a Macedonai here – the only Russian in the European Parliament (elected by Russophones in “fascist” Latvia), she seems to think that once the Russians go on a rampage, NATO will intervene and declare bilingualism.

And what is “bilingualism”? There were so many sour faces at an opposition meeting here in Daugavpils, when it was pointed out that official bilingualism would suggest that Russians ought to learn Latvian. …”

You can read the entire “a nation state” exchange at kojinshugi.

“The Western-leaning posters have had encounters with amber on Latvians Online forums.”

OK, I finally checked it out. You should have pointed it our right away – it would have saved a lot of space here.