Russian Stereotypes about Different Countries - Baltic States

Baltic States

Baltic states include former USSR but current European Union and NATO members of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Of these Latvia in particular has a special place in Russian mythos.

Russians tend to view Baltics as basically Europeans. The fact, that they use Latin alphabet as well as follow Catholic or Lutheran Christianity as the opposite to Cyrillic alphabet and Russian Orthodox Christianity in Russia itself adds to this perception.

From Russian point of view, Europe and the West in general is like these three. Something these countries themselves do like to take pride of, despite some skepticism in some parts of Europe.

Russian attitude towards the Baltics and via them, towards the West as a whole, is a combination of envy and hatred. In part Russians envy a quality of life, organization and civilization these could achieve. Some want to be like them, to westernize and better themselves. 

The other part of country instead hates them for doing better than Russians themselves are, they see Baltic people as arrogant snobs who look down on Russia and hate everything Russian. This stereotype is supported by Russian media, However Baltic people themselves sometimes fit this stereotype with their own effort. 

Latvia

Of Baltic states, Latvia is the most familiar to Russians. Latvia fits Russian stereotypes better than the other two, so it gets more attention from Russia.

People in Russia typically heard of total of three cities there: Riga, Jurmala and Daugavpils. Some would visit Riga for architecture sightseeing or Jurmala for a Russian music festival.

Russians like to think that Latvians are basically Germans and Latvia is little Germany on Baltics. On that Latvians would like to agree with them, even though they would disagree on many other issues.

Russia hates Latvians for being Nazi even more that they hate Germans themselves for the same thing. Latvians in turn hate Russians for occupation and annexation of their country.

Before there were Nazi in Ukraine there were Nazi in the Baltics. 

Conflict between Russophone people and the native Latvians over language rights is often extensively covered in Russian news. Russian news often portrays attempts of Latvian Government to reduce Russian language presence in Latvia as Nazism, discrimination and Russophobia to fuel anti-Western sentiments in Russia itself. Latvian government just keeps doing its thing, thus keeping the hate going. 

I would not be surprised if Russian government is actually encouraging them to do it for their own propaganda objectives. After all someone has to produce some evidence of Western Russophobia for Kiselev's TV shows, otherwise he will sound like some conspiracy theory loon. Lativa seems like the guy for a job.

Estonia

Russians tend to view Estonia as simply Lativa 2.0. 

Around half of what I have written about Lativa applies here as well, but to a lesser degree. Same conflict between Russophones and native Estonians. Same occasional appearances in Russian propaganda, like over that Bronze Soldier incident and protests.

However, people know little about Estonian cities, culture and such. Much fewer visit the country. Overall, this country fits the propaganda stereotype much less than Latvia does, so Russian propaganda do not feature it as much. 

One thing that only applies to Estonia and not to Latvia is Russian jokes about them being very slow. There are similar Russian jokes about Finns as well. Thus, at least Russian humor connects Estonians to Finns rather than Latvians and Lithuanians.

Lithuania

Latvia 3.0, hardly a surprise.

In fact, people of Russia know surprisingly little about this last Baltic state. It fits stereotypes the least, so Russian information space simply gloss over it by lumping it together with the other two Baltic states.

Compare to that West seems to know and understand Lithuania a lot better than any other post-Soviet states. You might even say that they view post-Soviet space through the Lithuanian lenses. From Western perspective Lithuanian experience is most simple to understand. However, that too is misleading.

Lithuania manages to be the most understood post-Soviet state for an American and least understood post-Soviet state for a Russian at the same time.

In actuality Lithuania is the most functional nation of all Baltics and even the whole post-Soviet space. You might even call them the only post-Soviet nation, as all the remaining ones are much more confused and divided internally. Read my other article about nationhood. Not even Russia itself has the same level of national cohesiveness: understanding of shared fate and desire to fight for their future as a group.

Partly that has to do with the fact that unlike Latvia and Estonia, Lithuania was actually its own independent nation once, a big one at that. Back in the days, they managed to create an effective army to fend off both Teutons and Mongols, a well renown warriors of their times. Together with Poland, they even managed to defeat Teutonic Order for good. They expanded and eventually became the biggest country of their times, they territory included all modern Belarus, around half of Ukraine and some parts of modern Russia. Later Lithuanians entered union with Poland, at first, they prospered together but then perished together with them during the partitions of Poland.

Another reason is that ethnic Russians here are only second biggest minority after Poles. Both are only around 7% of total, unlike Latvia where they are around 40%. Because of then society is not divided between native Lithuanians and Russophones as much as in Latvia and Estonia.

Unlike Latvia and Estonia, Lithuania did not bother with non-citizen status for Russophones, just giving citizenship to everyone. Because of that it is not featured in Russian news over the language issues, cementing its status as the most obscure Baltic state.

Being first to declare independence, secede from USSR and get diplomatic recognition, Lithuania became somewhat of a go to contact point on post-Soviet issues in the West. Lithuanian politicians received Freedom Awards from the US. They also often play an active role in various post-Soviet issues. Lithuanian politicians participated in Ukrainian issues ever since Orange Revolution and may be even before.

Final words 

I will continue this series with a separate article about other post-soviet groups and then other nations, such as UK and the US later. This one got so long already.