SGER: The Eventfulness of Bordering Processes: The Case of the Bronze Soldier Statue in Estonia

2007年4月27日晚，爱沙尼亚从市中心拆除了一座苏联时代的纪念碑，并将其搬迁到首都郊区的一个军事墓地。 这座纪念碑是为了纪念二战期间为解放塔林而牺牲的红军战士。 “青铜战士”雕像的搬迁引发了居住在爱沙尼亚的俄罗斯族人的骚乱，导致1,000多人被捕，150多人受伤，一人死亡。 它还导致了爱沙尼亚驻莫斯科大使馆外的示威活动，以及对爱沙尼亚网站的“网络攻击”，这被视为网络战的第一个例子。 更重要的是，俄罗斯和西方之间的地缘政治关系被卷入了这些事件的漩涡，并出现了一个明显比他们进入更冷的位置。 围绕着青铜士兵雕像被移除的事件要求学者们重新评估他们对与治理战略和结构相关的边界过程的看法。 最近的政治地理学文献并没有将边界视为地图上或地面上的静态线条，而是将其视为动态过程，通过这些过程，人们和地方之间的身份和差异在象征性、话语性和实践中得到了标记。 这项工作的重点一直在边界的过程不仅反映，而且还产生了地方和民族之间的差异以及两者之间的相互关系，重点是什么样的有界的身份类别属于哪里，什么样的有界的空间属于哪些群体。 这种边缘化过程既确立了认同和差异的广义元叙事，为政府的合法性提供了保障，也确立了微观层面的规则、法规和程序，使治理成为可能。 此外，边界并不是平滑的，而是一个由事件强烈定义的偶然过程。 由这个探索性研究的小额赠款支持的研究项目将检查边界过程，因为它们展开，以批判性地评估事件在改变边界过程中发挥的作用，并分析这些具体变化对爱沙尼亚种族间关系的政策影响，爱沙尼亚和俄罗斯之间的州际关系，以及俄罗斯和西方国家之间的跨国关系。 在分析青铜士兵雕像的拆除事件对这些边界过程的影响时，调查人员将采用三阶段研究设计。 首先，他们将研究这些事件所产生的新的“边界知识”。 对演讲文本的内容分析将研究事件的呈现方式，并用于重置三个边界轨迹（地方，国家，跨国）。 内容分析之后，将采访那些生产新的边界叙事，以及与参与者在事件本身。 第二，调查人员将研究新的边界叙事如何转化为爱沙尼亚境内的治理制度和治理技术。 在这一阶段，他们侧重于与俄罗斯和爱沙尼亚边境政治过境做法的变化以及爱沙尼亚一体化方案的变化有关的机构、程序、规则和条例的更微观层面的改变。 该计划最初旨在通过建立一个“公民国家”来减少爱沙尼亚人和俄罗斯人之间的边界，但大多数分析人士和官员认为该计划已经失败。 第二阶段还将审查公民身份程序的变化的影响，特别是对生活在爱沙尼亚的大量无国籍人口的影响。 第三，调查人员打算对爱沙尼亚纳尔瓦边境如何实施这些不断变化的边境做法进行微观分析。 除了收集关于过境点的数据、符合融合基准的人数以及申请和/或获得公民身份的无国籍人数外，他们还将采访当地居民，了解他们在过境、融合方案、和入籍过程。这一研究项目的结果有望为与青铜士兵被移除相关的事件提供新的信息和见解这些行为以及它们被转化为边界叙事和做法的方式助长了冷战言论和姿态的增长，不仅有可能吞噬爱沙尼亚-俄罗斯关系，而且也有可能吞噬俄罗斯和西方。 本研究的重点是一个特定的事件和它们改变地缘政治边界过程的方式，这将对塔林和莫斯科以及布鲁塞尔和华盛顿产生直接的政策影响。 调查人员将与各种政府办公室分享他们的调查结果，其他与政策有关的机构将于2007年秋季在威尔逊中心介绍他们的研究。 此外，展示的能力，通过边界过程的事件，因为它们发生在一个细粒度的水平跟踪是一个重要的贡献，边界研究领域，往往不密切关注这方面的边界。 因此，该项目将作出学术贡献，但也有具体的相关性，以接壤的过程，以及他们如何在爱沙尼亚今天的运作。 更详细地了解边界进程的事件有可能扩大看到爱沙尼亚与俄罗斯的政治边界以及爱沙尼亚人和俄罗斯人分离的边界做法的方式。

On the night of April 27, 2007, Estonia removed a Soviet-era memorial from the city center and relocated it to a military cemetery on the outskirts of the capital. This memorial commemorated Red Army soldiers who died liberating Tallinn during World War II. The relocation of "the bronze soldier" statue sparked a wave of unrest among ethnic Russians living in Estonia that resulted in more than 1,000 arrests, more than 150 injuries, and one death. It also resulted in demonstrations outside Estonia's embassy in Moscow, and a "cyberattack" on Estonian websites that is viewed as the first example of cyber-warfare. More importantly, geopolitical relations between Russia and the West were swept up into the vortex of these events and have emerged in a decidedly colder position than they entered. The events surrounding the removal of the bronze soldier statue are a requiring scholars to reassess their views of the bordering processes associated with governance strategies and structures. The recent literature in political geography has treated borders not as static lines on a map or on the ground but as dynamic processes through which identity and difference between people and places are marked, symbolically, discursively, and in practice. The focus of much of this work has been on the ways in which bordering processes not only reflect but also produce differences between places and peoples as well as the interrelationship between the two, with emphasis on questions like what bounded categories of identity belong where and what bounded spaces belong to which groups. Such bordering processes establish both the broad meta-narratives of identity and difference that underwrite governmental legitimacy and the micro-level rules, regulations, and procedures that make governance possible. Furthermore, bordering is not smooth but rather a contingent process that is strongly defined by events. The research project supported by this Small Grant for Exploratory Research will examine bordering processes as they unfold in order to critically assess the role that events play in altering bordering processes and to analyze the policy implications of these specific changes for interethnic relations in Estonia, interstate relations between Estonia and Russia, and the transnational relations between Russia and western nations. In analyzing the impact of the events surrounding the bronze soldier statue's removal on these bordering processes, the investigators will use a three-stage research design. First, they will examine the production of new "border knowledge" that is occurring as a result of these events. A content analysis of the texts of speeches will examine the ways in which the events are presented and used to reset the three border trajectories (local, national, transnational). The content analysis will be followed by interviews with those producing the new border narratives as well as with participants in the events themselves. Second, the investigators will examine how the new border narratives are being translated into systems of governance and techniques of rule within Estonia. In this stage, they focus on the more micro-level alterations of institutions, procedures, rules, and regulations associated with changes in political border-crossing practices on the border between Russia and Estonia as well as with changes in Estonia's Integration Program. This program initially was designed to reduce the border between Estonians and Russians in Estonia through the creation of one "civic nation" but has been judged by most analysts and officials to have failed. This second stage also will examine the impacts of changes in the procedures governing citizenship, especially with regard to the large stateless population living in Estonia. Third, the investigators intend to conduct a micro-level analysis of how these changing border practices are being implemented at the border in Narva, Estonia. In addition to collecting data on border crossings, numbers meeting the benchmarks of integration, and numbers of stateless applying for and/or obtaining citizenship, they will interview local residents about their experiences with border crossing, the Integration Program, and the naturalization process.The results of this research project are expected to provide new information and insights into the events associated with the removal of the bronze soldier statue and also in the ways that they are being translated into border narratives and practices have contributed to the growth of cold war rhetoric and posturing that threatens to engulf not only Estonian-Russian relations but also Russia and the West. The focus of this study on a specific event and the ways in which they have altered geopolitical bordering processes will have immediate policy implications for Tallinn and Moscow and also for Brussels and Washington. The investigators will share their findings with a variety of governmental offices and other policy-related outlets will make a presentation on their research at the Wilson Center in the autumn of 2007. Furthermore, demonstration of the ability to trace through the eventfulness of bordering processes as they occur at a fine-grained level represents an important contribution to the field of border studies, which has tended not to pay close attention to this aspect of borders. The project therefore will make scholarly contributions but also have specific relevance to bordering processes and how they operate in Estonia today. A more detailed understanding of the eventfulness of bordering processes has the potential to expand ways of seeing both Estonia's political border with Russia and also the bordering practices separating Estonians and Russians.