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

2007年4月27日晚，爱沙尼亚从市中心移走了一座苏联时代的纪念碑，将其搬迁到首都郊区的一个军事公墓。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士兵。“青铜战士”雕像的搬迁在爱沙尼亚的俄罗斯族人中引发了一波骚乱，导致1000多人被捕，150多人受伤，1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中，并明显处于比开始时更冷的位置。围绕拆除青铜士兵雕像的事件要求学者重新评估他们对与治理策略和结构相关的边界过程的看法。最近的政治地理学文献不再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，通过这一过程，人们和地方之间的身份和差异被象征性地、话语性地和实践地标记出来。这项工作的重点是边界过程不仅反映而且产生了地方和民族之间的差异，以及两者之间的相互关系，重点是诸如有边界的身份类别属于哪里以及有边界的空间属于哪个群体之类的问题。这样的边界过程既建立了广泛的身份和差异元叙事，保证了政府的合法性，也建立了微观层面的规则、条例和程序，使治理成为可能。此外，边界不是平滑的，而是一个由事件强烈定义的偶然过程。由探索性研究小额赠款支持的研究项目将检查边界过程，因为他们展开，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，爱沙尼亚与俄罗斯之间的州际关系，以及俄罗斯与西方国家之间的跨国关系。在分析围绕青铜士兵雕像移除的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，他们将研究由于这些事件而产生的新“边界知识”。演讲文本的内容分析将检查事件的呈现方式，并用于重置三个边界轨迹（地方，国家，跨国）。在内容分析之后，将采访那些制作新边界叙事的人以及事件本身的参与者。其次，调查人员将研究如何将新的边界叙述转化为爱沙尼亚境内的治理体系和统治技术。在这一阶段，他们关注的是与俄罗斯和爱沙尼亚边境政治越境实践的变化以及爱沙尼亚一体化计划的变化有关的制度、程序、规则和条例的更微观层面的变化。该计划最初旨在通过建立一个“公民国家”来减少爱沙尼亚境内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都认为该计划失败了。第二阶段还将审查公民身份程序变化的影响，特别是对居住在爱沙尼亚的大批无国籍人口的影响。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。除了收集过境数据、符合融入标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，了解他们过境、融入计划和入籍过程的经历。这一研究项目的结果预计将提供新的信息和见解，以了解与拆除铜像有关的事件，以及这些事件如何被转化为边境叙述和做法，这些叙述和做法助长了冷战言论和姿态的增长，不仅威胁到爱沙尼亚与俄罗斯的关系，而且威胁到俄罗斯与西方的关系。这项研究的重点是一个具体的事件，以及它们改变地缘政治边界进程的方式，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。调查人员将与各政府部门分享他们的研究结果，其他政策相关机构将于2007年秋季在威尔逊中心发表他们的研究报告。此外，在细粒度水平上追踪边界过程的多变性的能力的展示代表了对边界研究领域的重要贡献，该领域往往不密切关注边界的这一方面。因此，该项目将做出学术贡献，但也与边界进程及其在爱沙尼亚今天的运作方式具有特定的相关性。更详细地了解边界过程的多事性，有可能扩大观察爱沙尼亚与俄罗斯的政治边界以及分离爱沙尼亚人和俄罗斯人的边界实践的方式。

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.