Justification of the term Russian-language indigenous people of Latvia
Explanatory Dictionary of Russian language of Vladimir Dahl (1863-1866)
PEOPLE
PEOPLE (plural people), the people at a certain space; people in general; tribe; residents of country, who speak on the one language ; inhabitants of the state, the country, consisting under one management;…
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Explanatory dictionary Ozhegova. SI Burns, NY Shvedova.1949 1992
RUSSIAN-LANGUAGE
RUSSIAN-LANGUAGE Refers to people, which living outside of Russia, for whom Russian is the mother tongue or second native language. Russian-language population. Russian-language writers (writers of non-Russian nationality, writing in Russian)........
Dear Sirs,
As you know, one of the values from many meaning of word "people", is a certain group of people, which characterized by common several signs, and first of all - language also culture, territory and historical past. In accordance with this definition on the territory of present Latvia lives two (main) people - Latvian-language people and Russian-language people. At the same time, Russian-language people is consist of representatives of several national minorities, united by single Russian language. And historically, it became so, that this Russian-language people consist of those people who came on this territory after the formation of the Republic of Latvia (i.e. after 1918), and of a sufficiently large number (about 140 000 people - 8% of the total population of Latvia!) Russian-language indigenous people, residing on the territory of present Latvia more than 300 years - their ancestors have lived here on the official, legitimate, internationally-established grounds, long time before appeared the state with name the Republic of Latvia (i. e. before 1918). On the basis of this fact, these people are the indigenous people, in accordance with standards of international law, namely in accordance the Convention 169 of the International Labor Organization (United Nations) Section 1, Article 1, Item 1b, which states that .... peoples in independent countries who are regarded as indigenous on account of their descent from the populations which inhabited the country, or a geographical region to which the country belongs, the establishment of present state boundaries ...
(the text of ILO Convention No. 169 of the United Nations can be found at the following link)
index.php/en/konvetsiya-mot-oon-169-o-korennykh-narodah-enh
In this case, the Russian-language indigenous people are those Russian-language people who got Latvian citizenship without naturalization, "on the reason blood" ("inherited"). In addition, the Russian-language indigenous people are also those Russian-language people who got Latvian citizenship without naturalization, because their parents are citizens of Latvia. Internationally - established rights of the Russian-language indigenous people of Latvia are stated in the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples does not require ratification for its implementation, as the UN Universal Declaration on Human Rights.
(The text of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples can be found at the following link)
index.php/en/deklaracija-un-ip-en
Estimate of approximately (minimally !) statistical number of Russian-language indigenous people inhabiting the territory of the present Republic of Latvia.
According information from the Central Election Commission (CEC) about the results of the referendum February 18, 2012 about giving to the Russian language in Latvia the status of second state language, voted "For" ("Yes") 273347 peoples.
Image can be enlarged by clicking on it
(Viewing the source, of the website the CEC , at the following link)
http://www.tn2012.cvk.lv/report-results.html
According information from The Office of Citizenship and Migration Affairs of Latvia (OCMA), number (quantity) of citizens who got citizenship of Latvia by naturalization at the end of 2011 was 137673 peoples
(Viewing the source, of the website the OCMA , at the following link)
http://www.pmlp.gov.lv/lv/sakums/statistika/naturalizacija.html
Based on the foregoing, it is fair to assume that the approximate number (quantity) of representatives of Russian-language indigenous people (who got citizenship of Latvia without naturalization), voted for their native Russian language, is the difference between the above two figures: 135674 peoples(in thus it is necessary to consider that part of the population did not participate in the referendum, so the true number can be greater).
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