The Main Vectors for the Development of Estonian National Policy in the Late XX - Early XXI Centuries

Abstract

The practical foundations of the national policy of modern Estonia were laid in the conditions of the collapse of the USSR and the associated aggravation of interethnic relations. The contradictions of this period largely influenced the definition of the vector of further development of post-Soviet states, including in Estonia. In general, it can be assumed that the first five years of the recent history of Estonian statehood, the main stake in its national policy was made to stimulate the re-migration of most Russian-speaking residents. In the second half of the 1990s. in the official circles of Estonia, attention is gradually increasing to the need for a certain integration of national minorities into public life, which can be explained by the influence of the foreign policy conjuncture, namely to satisfy the recommendations of the European Union, which the Estonian state sought to join. It seems that the most acute issue for the Russian-speaking population of Estonia remains the language policy, which is closely linked by the government of this country with the task of forming Estonian identity among the non-Estonian population. It should be noted that this trend is a logical consequence of the new Estonia 2035 development strategy adopted by the Riigikogu on May 12, 2021, which declares the consolidation of society and extremely succinctly mentions the need to "pay attention to the availability of access to different layers of culture among Estonian communities and communities of national minorities." At the same time, the primacy of Estonian identity is affirmed, which is confirmed by various regulatory acts of the Estonian state in the field of education, language and youth policy. Sometimes you can find individual proposals for adjusting Estonia's policy in the field of finding the optimal interethnic consensus - in the spirit of, for example, the Leitzhart rental consonational model, which has been tested in practice in Switzerland, the Netherlands, Belgium or Northern Ireland. However, at present, such proposals lie rather in the theoretical plane.