Introduction

This chapter will discuss how, despite two decades of democratic transformation, Estonia still faces massive statelessness. It will be argued that both social and political factors explain such a state of affairs. On the one hand, national integration remains a complicated issue for Estonian society, while on the other hand, there is strong path dependence in the way the issue of citizenship is framed in a still divided political landscape. The discussion will be based mostly on two datasets compiled by the author and his collaborators – a public opinion poll, conducted in spring 2008 and an in-depth interview study connected to the poll carried out in April 2008. The analysis will be divided into two sections: the first part will focus on the reasons of statelessness as the stateless persons themselves see it; the second part will discuss the relationship between citizenship status and socioeconomic as well as sociocultural adaptation among Estonian Russians, aiming to highlight broader structural obstacles to overcoming the statelessness status.

In the literature on Estonian ethnopolicy two diverse trends can be identified. One trend is based on the concept of nation building and holds that “the historical need to define the position of the Estonian nation concerning the position and future of the new Russian minority in the country has accelerated the transformation of Estonia from an ethnic nation (characterized by the historically dominant position of defensive nationalism) to a modern civic nation” (Lauristin and Heidmets 2002).