ABSTRACT
The migration of different ethnic populations of the former Soviet Union (FSU) can be understood within the context of the fundamental changes taking place in the sociopolitical and economic systems of the new republics. Social and ethnic tensions, the new geopolitical situation, economic depression, and a fall in the general standard of living are perceived by this previously relatively privileged group as having a disproportionate impact on them. In order to understand the contemporary interethnic situation in Estonia it is necessary to begin with a brief survey of the factors that promoted Russian, as well as Ukrainian and Belarusian, immigration to the republic during the Soviet period. Russian immigration to Estonia was frequently the result of Moscow's imperial military and industrial policies. At the present time, Estonia is seeking to limit the civil and legal rights of immigrants, in order both to drive out unwanted non-Estonians and to hinder future nonindigenous immigration.
