Interview with me published in Estonian magazine

Recently I was contacted by the editor of the magazine of my university in Estonia which I graduated in 2005. They thought it would be a good idea to make an interview with me as one of their graduates.

University of Tartu has been one of the best things which happened in my professional life apart from AIESEC. Of course, I did not have any doubts and accepted the interview.

The interview is in Estonian and can be found here in online version of the magazine.

I talk there about what I did in Kazakhstan, say some words about Kazakhstan as a country. I share my thoughts on challenges in co-existence of Estonians and Russians in Estonia and on potential of Estonia as a state.

Eesti ühiskonnast ja tolerantsusest

Following text is related solely to Estonia and will therefore be in Estonian.

Lugesin täna tavapärasel viisil Postimehe online-versiooni. Valik lugude pealkirjadest:
"Itaalia saarel murdsid sajad migrandid laagrist välja"
"Homod pöörduvad inimõiguste kohtusse"
"Oisaar: islamistid loovad Eestis sidemeid"

Ja igale loole järgneb kümneid ja kümneid vaenu ja viha täis kommentaare. Peamised sõnumid: "Mustad ahju", "Homod ahju", "Moslemid ahju".

Imelikul kombel jäi see kord puudu mõnest artiklist sõnumiga "Venelased ahju".

Kas see on kollektiivne alaväärsuskompleks - nii meediakanalite toimetustel kui üldiselt Eesti ühiskonnal? "Meid on varem kiusatud, nüüd saame meie kord end peremehedena tunda ja kedagi meist erinevat sõimata"...

Eesti patrioodina teeb see mind muidugi kurvaks. Just seetõttu ei tahtnud seda kirjutada inglise keeles - kahju, kui välismaalastel tekib just selline pilt Eestist.

Olukord ei ole siiski üldsegi lootusetu. Esiteks on sellised reaktsioonid mõistetavad ja nendele on seletused olemad. Teiseks on õnneks Eestis siiski väga palju neid, kes ei pea vajalikuks oma lahendamata jäänud psühholoogilised, seksuaalsed või füüsilised probleemid ja kollektiivsest mälust saadud kompleksid teistsuguste inimeste peale välja valama.

What kind of the world do we perceive?

I was eight days off to Russia, somewhere near Moscow for an AIESEC conference. I was chair at the conference there.

One of the reasons I accepted the invitation to become a chair there in a quite busy period of work in KZ was the fact that my homeland Estonia and Russia have a way too bad relations right now. And I don't want to be one of these millions of people, who get brainwashed by the media and politicians, observe everything what is happening and start to HATE.

What I am going to write here, is hard to accept for many. For one simple reason. They have never spoken to the intelligent people from the OTHER side.

Actually, people in Estonia don't start to hate, the whole programme of socialization of Estonian citizen is constantly telling you: "Russia is bad. Russia is dangerous. Russians are the biggest threat for us. We have been suffering from them so many years. But we are small proud nation. They are bad, bad, bad..."

Young Russians are being programmed in a similiar way: "We have been suffering from everyone so many times throughout the history. But we are proud great nation. We have THE victory. We won the Second World War. We saved the humankind. And now we are surrounded by small ugly states, which wish only bad for us. All of those Latvias, Estonias, Polands, Georgias - they are bad, bad, bad...."

I am not telling that there is no truth in that. But the fact is that it is only part of the truth.

Take the mass media, for example. Russian mass media has long pictured non-friendly states in the fashion, which is useful for them. Estonia is a small ugly neo-Fascist state, which discriminates Russians, is licking the a** of United States and does not respect any values, which are important for Russians. And that's all!

Just try to enter word "Estonia" in the search engine of any Russian news-website. Will you find there anything about Estonian progress in innovation, in economics, improvements in social life? No. I did not find almost any positive news from Estonia. Any.

No wonder that when I came to Russia, I had to brake the stereotypes of many Russians. I had to say that the truth, which is presented to them, is indeed the truth most of the times. But the problem is that it is part of the truth.

Indeed, Estonians don't consider Soviet victory over Nazis in the WWII as a purely positive. Indeed, Soviet army liberated Estonia from Nazis. But do the mass media tell that Soviet army occupied Estonia for the years and years? Do they tell that the whole WWII was a big tragedy for Estonian nation, where some people had to take one side and some other? Do they tell that Communists made as many (or even more) atrocities in Estonia as Nazis did? Do they tell about my family, which suffered from Soviets much more than from Nazis during the WWII?

Indeed, many Estonians fought for Nazis. Indeed, many Estonians fought against Soviet army. But do the mass media tell that during 3,5 years of Nazi occupation, young Estonian men had to join Nazi army, simply because they had eligible age? Do they tell that simple people were just misillusionised and their only wish was to re-establish Estonian Republic?

Indeed, the life of local Russians in independent Estonia is generally harder than it was in Soviet Union. Indeed, local Russians must know Estonian in order to succeed in the society. But do the Russian mass media tell that Estonia is independent state, and it is normal for independent state to call one of the languages a dominant one? Can anyone imagine a citizen of Russia from Udmurtia, Chrekessiya or Bashkiriya, who does not speak Russian at all and is succeeding in Russia?

These were the topics I discussed with Russian AIESEC and non-AIESEC students (there was a conference for all students of Moscow as well). I am proud that thanks to me at least 150 of young Russians from all around the country started to see Estonia and the world around them in a different way. I am proud that Estonia is no longer an enemy for them, but an interesting country to visit, instead. I am proud that I met great intelligent young Russian people, who are not afraid to think with their own head and some of whom I can truly call my soul-mates.

Me with the facilitators' team of the AIESEC conference in Russia

K6igile eestlastele - kui v2ga tahaks ma, et paljud teist saaksid viibida koos minuga seal konverentsil. Ehk muutuks paljude inimeste pilt venelasest kui r2uskavast, l2rmakast ja tylikast olendist. Ehk saakiste r22kida t6siselt intelligentsete, talendikate, oma peaga m6tlevate noortega, kes tunnistavad, et nende maal on probleeme nagu ka k6ikjal mujalgi, kes soovivad, et Venemaa oleks suurriik, aga seda mitte teiste riikide arvel.

I was writing about the half-truth presented by Russian media about Estonia. But the picture about Russia being created by Estonian media is no different! What I am reading from Estonian online newspapers - Russia as authoritarian dangerous state, which is threatening everyone, which has many problems as corruption, alcoholism, does not know about democracy at all and does not care about its own citizen. That's it.

Of course, most of all is truth to some extent. But is that Russia? How about economic development's influence on this country? How about cultural and scientific achievements, which this great nation is constantly bringing to the world?

Anyway, sometimes I just get dissapointed, when I am reading Estonian online newspapers. Recently I talked to one Polish, living in Central Asia. She said she is a big patriot of her Poland and therefore she prefers not to read Polish newspapers, while living abroad. I understand her. The picture I get about Estonia is quite sad one.

Riik, kus inimesed ei m6tlegi millelegi muule, kui ohtudele. Ohud, mis tulenevad Venemaalt ja Vene spioonidelt. Ohud, mis on seotud majandusekrahhiga, mis tuleb homme-ylehomme. Ohud, mis tulenevad kinnisvaramullist. Ohud, mis on seotud Savisaare ja valelike 2rimeestega. Ohud, mis tulenevad inflatsioonist. Ohud, mis tulenevad Eesti kroonist. Ohud, mis tulenevad eurost. Ohud, mis tulenevad k6ikidest teistest, peale meie.

Tekib kysimus - kes on "meie"? Symbioos paljudest ohtudest?

That's the main reason why I, graduate of Media and Communication, decided that I am not going to work in mass media. I don't want to create a world of conflicts. I will be creating a world, how I and millions of other people want to see it. And my conversations and the whole conference in Russia was just one important step in this direction.

By the way, Russian nature - as nature everywhere - is very beautiful. The river next to the venue of the conference was amazing. Especially, during the evenings.

Beauty of the mind versus stupidity in the streets

While I was enjoying beauties of my favourite town in Estonia - Tartu, while I was relaxing during the hiking trip to the swamps, hundreds of mainly Russian-speaking youngsters were crashing the shops, houses, kiosks and fighting with police in the centre of Tallinn. Supposedly because of the monument on the picture below.

It all started because of the monument. The situation has never been so bad at the streets of independent Estonia. Alcohol sales are forbidden. Mass gatherings are forbidden. Estonian embassy in Russia does not work. Russian officials threaten Estonia. Everyone is anxious and nervous about what is going to happen at 1st and 9th of May.

The monument is a Soviet-time memorial for Soviet soldiers who were fighting against German Fascists during World War II. The noble cause, indeed. So is it seen by ethnic Russians in Estonia - as many other Russians around the world. There is at least one person in almost every Russian family, who was killed in the war against Fascists during 1941-1945.

Soviet soldiers liberated Estonia from Germans fascists. And occupied Estonia for another 45 years. So is it seen by ethnic Estonians. There is at least one person in almost every Estonian family, who was deported to Siberia by Soviet Communists (in major part by Russians) in 1941 and 1946-1949.

So, the monument for Soviet soldiers symbolizes heroes and legends for some and occupation and repression for the others. Big difference indeed.

The understanding of what happened in 1940s and later on is as different.

Estonians and Russians get different history, they get different mentality.

The gap between them is widening even more by mass-media.

Estonian media, presenting what is happening around the monument, concentrates mainly on what damage it has been to Estonia and how big threat does violent Russian minority, backed by Russian official agenda, present to Estonia.

Russian television, which actually is propaganda machine, completely loyal to Kremlin (and being the most important source of information for Estonian Russians), presents what has happened, as yet another repression of local Russians by Estonian state, which drives neo-Fascist agenda and uses violent force against Russians.

The gap is widening.

Diplomatic relations between Estonia and Russia have hardly been tenser than at the moment. Some fiercest Russian nationalists among officials in Russia propose using force against Estonia.

Relations between Estonians and Estonian Russians are as bad as back in the beginning of 1990s.

It's sad to see that people deaf. Deaf to each other. They are deaf as millions of their predecessors throughout the whole nasty history of manhood.

People just allow themselves to go along with provocations of some hysterical nationalists, with irresponsible TV-reporters, with feeling of belonging to the mass. They prefer that to the dialogue and understanding of the real reasons behind some actions.

Many local Russians don't understand that the very presence of the monument in the heart of Tallinn symbolizes all the tortures and repressions done by Soviet Communists on the soil of Estonia.

Many Estonians don't understand that Russians suffer because of lack of concrete identity. Many of them don't really belong neither to Estonian, nor to Russian state. Instead of integration, we can see marginalization, resulting in violence in the streets.

That's the same as the feeling of a shy man, who is not really loved by women and cannot get along with any woman for 15 years. One day this man cannot hold whole negative energy inside him. He rapes a woman.

Who is guilty in this case? Surely, man, who commits crime? But doesn't part of the guilt lie on society itself, which has excluded man from its pleasures?

I, Deniss Rutšeikov, originating from Petserimaa , a piece of land formerly belonging both to Estonia and to Russia, coming from mixed Setu-Russian origin, being raised in Russian-speaking family, being educated in Russian-speaking high-school and Estonian-speaking university, a chief of one the leading youth organisations in Estonia, a citizen of Estonian Republic, claim that there is no nation, which is guilty in anything. There are no "good" or "bad" nations. There is just lack of education resulting in stupid actions.

I believe in humans. I believe in beauty of their minds. I hope for another "singing revolution" like in Estonia of 1989-1991. Rather than for another former Yugoslavia in 1991-1995. Rather than Chechnya in 1994-2004. Rather than Northern Ireland in 1963-1998. Rather than Somalia at the moment. Rather than Sri Lanka at the moment. Rather than all of these atrocities done by stupidity, not by the beauty of the mind.