Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Russian speakers in Lithuania say they are afraid to speak Russian in public and only communicate in their mother tongue at home. In public, questions are constantly raised about their loyalties and they are readily identified with the Russian government.
Ivan Trunov is from Russia, but moved to Lithuania eight years ago.
“I am building a civic life here, studying, working, just living,” Trunov said during a discussion at the National Human Rights Forum on December 8.
He noted that since Russia attacked Ukraine, Russians living in Lithuania feel they have to prove they are good people and declare that they support Ukraine and not Russia.
“I am a Russian migrant, but there are also local Russian speakers who have been living in Lithuania for decades. Stereotypically, one might think that I fit in and am part of the local Russian community, but I am neither involved in the community, nor do I identify, nor do I have many connections. I have learnt how to speak, how to be, and I do what is expected of me,” said Trunov.
He said he sees his future in Lithuania: “I want to be a fully-fledged citizen with civil rights and security.” However, Trunov is constantly worried that he might be deported from Lithuania for any of his actions or statements.
“Both my parents and I are afraid that this might happen,” said Trunov.
Reluctant to speak Russian in public
Ruslan Baranov, a member of the Vilnius District Council, said that the Russian-speaking community in Lithuania is a little different from other big ethnic minority groups, such as the Poles. The Polish community, he said, is more cohesive, has its own traditions and is trying to stay a distinctive group. Meanwhile, Russians in Lithuania understand their identity more as a cultural one.
Monika Frėjutė-Rakauskienė, a sociologist and senior research fellow at the Institute of Sociology of the Lithuanian Centre for Social Sciences, pointed out that Russians in Lithuania are left with two options for integration: either complete assimilation and full integration into the Lithuanian society, or marginalisation.
According to her, the Russian-speaking community in Lithuania is diverse, but for both Poles and Russians, their identity is important and they want to maintain it and speak their mother tongue.
Unfortunately, politicians often exaggerate threats to the ethnic majority groups without knowing the real situation.
“Looking at the last census and the ones before that, the Russian-speaking community is shrinking. It is a myth that Russians do not speak Lithuanian. [...] There are different generations of people and different environments in which they live,” pointed out Frėjutė-Rakauskienė.
Moreover, she said, the prestige of the Russian language has been declining since the 1990s and took a dive when Russia invaded Ukraine in early 2022.
“Research shows that Russians prefer to speak Russian at home, but avoid speaking it in public,” said Frėjutė-Rakauskienė.
Questions about loyalty
The debate on the use of Russian is more emotional in Latvia than in Lithuania, said Reinhard Krumm, director of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation for the Baltic States, who is currently based in Riga. He noted that Russian-speaking communities in Latvia and Estonia are not monolithic either.
“There are Russian citizens, but there are also people who have neither Latvian nor Russian citizenship, there are Latvian patriots, but there are also Russian patriots. Some of them do not feel like a minority, they consider themselves Latvians,” Krumm said.
According to Frėjutė-Rakauskienė, the attitude of the majority population in Lithuania towards Russians is changing. Russians, Poles and Belarusians have always been viewed more favourably than some other groups, such as the Roma. Typically, only between three and nine percent of respondents in surveys would say they wouldn’t want to live next door with Russians or Belarusians.
However, a survey conducted in September 2022 showed a change: “Russians have shot to the top of the list of unwanted neighbours. The figure was 17 percent last year, influenced by Russia’s war against Ukraine.”
“After February 2022, opinions about Russians also worsened, with 76 percent of respondents saying that their opinion of Russians had deteriorated significantly over the past five years. We saw a similar jump in 2014, after the annexation of Crimea,” explained Frėjutė-Rakauskienė.
According to her, the loyalties of Russian speakers are constantly questioned, and Russians are identified with Moscow’s policies.
Security of speaking without accent
Baranov, member of the Vilnius District Council, said he also felt negative attitudes towards the Russian language. According to him, Lithuanians often express irritation when they hear Russian in the street.
“I have also heard people saying that even in the Soviet times Russian was not spoken as much on the streets as it is now,” said Baranov. “Ordinary people can’t distinguish between Russian and Belarusian.”
Trunov also agreed that one is hesitant to use Russian in public. He noted that if possible, he always picks to speak Lithuanian instead of Russian.
“It’s just uncomfortable [to speak Russian]. We feel some kind of norms, the prestige of the language, that maybe it’s not appropriate to speak Russian, maybe it’s easier to blend into the crowd and speak just like everyone else,” he continued.
He learned to speak Lithuanian without an accent, Trunov said, “which gives me security”.
He also stressed that his family were strongly opposed to the Russian government’s policies, which is one of the reasons why they moved to Lithuania.
“People around us, our émigré community, are very fiercely opposed to the Russian government. My family, my parents also have a lot of worries about people who watch Russian TV, who would support the Russian government or support Putin. My parents and I are worried, we would not be able to communicate with such people,” said Trunov.
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