The Baltics states do actually have lots of ethnic and cultural minorities -- Lipka Tatars, Old Believer communities, Karaites, and others. There are lots of languages unique to for example one valley in Lithuania.
Christopher E. Doss Moscow, Russian Federation
--- On Wed, 1/14/09, Peter Ward <nevadabob at hotmail.co.uk> wrote:
> From: Peter Ward <nevadabob at hotmail.co.uk>
> Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] Latvia - Economic crisis spawns mass protest
> To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
> Date: Wednesday, January 14, 2009, 9:44 PM
> It was apparent to me visiting the Baltic states in 2001
> that the transition to 'capitalism' had taken its
> tole there (though not quite as savagely as in Russia) and
> the countries provided an interesting contrast to relatively
> egalitarian Belarus (where I accidentally found myself
> without a transit visa), which I believe to this day remains
> 'socialist' (using the term in conventional
> formulation). And in 2003, according Channel 4 New (UK)
> Lithuania had the highest suicide rate in the world.* Facts
> Thomas Freedman seems to have overlooked, incidentally.
> Whether, from our complacent and academic perspective, these
> actions are 'sensible' they are surely
> understandable. And whether they will lead to a backlash
> would seem to depend on the efficacy of the police-state
> there--my impression was the lessons of the Soviet have
> mostly been forgotten or become obsolete and in this respect
> Latvia compares favorably to 'White Russia'--and
> whether potential long-term gains warrant short-term
> increased repression.
>
> *While persecution of ethnic Russians is manifest, it was
> not apparent that other 'ethnic groups' (personally,
> Latvia was about as homogeneous as any place I've been,
> probably thanks in large measure to the Nazi legacy) fared
> that much better economically on the whole.
>