Under Soviet domination. Estonia is no longer a happy country. Due in large part to Soviet atrocities and brutal mass deportations. Estonia lost almost onethird of its prewar population between 1939 and 1949. After the war. the steady influx of Russians created a situation where only 68 percent of the population in 1970 was ethnic Estonia as compared to 92 percent in 1939. Even more insidious is the russification and sovietization that has followed the influx. The forced use of the Russian language in all sectors of societyin education. in the mass media. in public affairsthreatens to undermine tha Estonian national identity. It is virtually impossible for Estonians to travel abroad or to emigrate. In fact. the country has the unhappy distinciion of having the worlds youngest political prisoner. 2yearold Kaisa Randpere. a child who is forbidden by Moscow to join her parents in the West. Estonians. from the outset. have resisted and protested this blatant Soviet aggression.
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emigrate deportations