Estonia’s Russian Speakers: Contiguous Settler Colonialism and its Aftermath

This article explores the enduring presence of Russian speakers in Estonia through the lens of a novel theoretical framework: contiguous settler colonialism. It highlights the settler colonial nature of the Soviet regime and posits that geographical contiguity between a metropole and its colony discourages settler self-determination and lessens the likelihood of mass exodus post-decolonisation. Settlers who remain typically develop hybrid identities that blend ethnic characteristics with attachment to the localities and independent states where they live. These identities enable settlers to resist assimilatory and exclusionary pressures from the new postcolonial regimes, as well as attempts by the former metropolitan states to mobilise them in volatile regional contexts.