Editorial

Ohne Zusammenfassung

---

Editorial

     

Editorial

Ohne Zusammenfassung

---

Editorial

     

Editorial

As this issue went to press, journalists and other self-appointedexperts were raking the ashes of the British General Electionthat never was into a fine dust. Prime Minister Brown justifiedhis decision not to go to the polls on the grounds that, whilehe had considered the possibility, there was work to be doneand a vision to be outlined. Few in the media believed him.Instead, they mostly endorsed Conservative leader David Cameron'sassertion that Brown backed down after seeing late opinion polls,which suggested the Conservatives stood a fair chance of denyinghim a Commons majority. Hitherto fearing a snap election, whichprevious surveys indicated they would lose, Conservatives hadpretended to relish an early contest. When Brown confirmed therewould be no poll, Cameron and colleagues seized their chanceto     

Editorial

The massive influx of Russian-speaking eastern Slav groups (Russians, Belorussians, Ukranians) from the rest of the Soviet Union laid a fundamental basis for the nationality conflict and political power struggle in post-Soviet Estonia. After Estonia re-established its statehood, this conflict evolved more into one between indigenous people and immigrants, citizens and non-citizens. What deserves additional attention is the previous economically defined centre-periphery conflict in the Soviet period (the north-east of Estonia versus Leningrad) which is now transforming into a new kind of ethnic and political cleavage separating the Russian-speaking north-eastern towns from the rest of Estonian-speaking Estonia. Moreover, here ethnicity and class mesh, while ethno-cultural differences also contribute to unemployment in the north-eastern towns. The centre-periphery dichotomy in Estonia provides the preconditions for peripheral political mobilisation aiming at a more equal social participation in economic, cultural and political affairs. However, ethnic mobilisation and autonomist attempts have not yet taken the lead.