The recent dissolution of the Soviet Union has had manifold effects
on the reorganization of nations and small ethnic groups, especially in
border areas. In this article I examine problems that confront the Setos,
a small Estonian subgroup in the southeastern border area of Estonia.
After briefly reviewing the birth of the Estonian nation, I will describe
the historical background of Petseri question, one of the Russo-Estonian
territorial disputes. I will then highlight practical problems and conflicts
that have arisen from the dispersion of the Seto community, following recent
demarcation of the border.
Disintegration of the Soviet Union was definitely put into full swing
by the successful departure of the three Baltic republics. Estonia, according
to its present formal stand, should recover the whole territory as of
1940, when it was annexed to the Soviet Union by military force threat.
In fact, most part of Estonia's former Petseri region (Pechora in Russian)
, in the Southeast, has remained under de facto Russian control.
Until 1920, the Petseri region was part of the Russian Pskov Province
(guberniya) , but it was ceded with its inhabitants to the newly born
Estonian Republic by the Tartu Peace treaty, which recognized for the
first time the independency of Estonia with clear borders. Almost two
thirds of the approximately sixty thousand inhabitants of Petseri were,
however, ethnic Russians, whereas three fourths of the remaining twenty
thousand Estonians were orthodox Setos. Estonia, during its short
history of independence, tried to integrate and 'civilise' the Setos, who
had been denigrated for example for their distinct dialect and conservative
living traditions. Later in 1945, after reintroduction of the Soviet
regime, three quaters of Petseri were again restored to Russia's Pskov
Province (now termed oblast) , thus dividing the Setos into two administratively
different areas.
Due to the very limited sovereign controle of borders between
former Soviet republics, local residents could freely cross borders for daily
needs in many areas. Setos on both sides were therefore able to keep
close contacts with each other.
For local communities, real problems have only emerged in the early
1990's with Estonia's splitting from the Soviet Union, and with its aspiration
to recover the whole Petseri territory. Russia reacted to this in
various ways, including unilateral demarcation of a border, that divides
the Setos into two groups that are unable to maintain regular and daily
contacts.
The Setos launched efforts to preserve and activate Seto cultural
traditions in the late 1980s, and they see the present border issue as extremely
threatening to both daily life and to their cohesion as an ethnic
group. The present paper examines the growth and vacillation of Seto
ethnic consciousness in the face of conflicts between Russia and Estonia.
エストニアのペッツェリ領土問題 : 分断されたセトゥ人をめぐって
KH_022_4_002.pdf
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