The Identity of Russians and its Expression in Lithuania and Latvia: a Comparative Aspect

Abstract

Arvidas Matulionis — Senior Researcher, Arvidas, Lithuanian Social Research Centre. Address: 11, Gostauto St., LT-01108, Vilnius, Lithuania. E-mail: matulionis@ktl.mii.lt.

Monika Frejute-Rakauskiene — Research Fellow, Institute for Ethnic Studies, Lithuanian Social Research Centre. Address: 11, Gostauto St., LT-01108, Vilnius, Lithuania. E-mail: frejute@ktl.mii.lt.

In this article, the authors seek to analyze the identities of Russians in Lithuania and Latvia. Particularly, they reveal and compare how informants of different age groups perceive their ethnic origin and nationality, how they construct their identities, and how it affects their attitudes towards their homeland and the policies in European Union. The research is based on qualitative data from several biographical interviews with the representatives of the Russian ethnic minority in Lithuania and Latvia, collected as part of an international research project ‘ENRI-East: Interplay of European, National and Regional Identities: nations between states along the new eastern borders of the European Union’.

The authors find that local identity is strongly pronounced in all of the generations interviewed in Latvia. However, in Lithuania there appears to be a slight difference between those who were born in Lithuania (more likely to identify themselves with Lithuania), and those who were born abroad (more likely to identify with Russia). In both case, a European identity is highly pronounced among the younger generations of Russians. At the same time, all of the informants tend to perceive European identity in terms of its institutional aspect, rather than a certain geographical region and/or cultural domain.