Authors

Discussion

The paper is based on an ethnographic study of three predominantly Russian-speaking former socialist cities in the Baltics: Visaginas, Lithuania; Daugavpils, Latvia; and Sillamӓe, Estonia. The Yellow Vests that broke out in France in 2018 was a constant point of reference among residents in Sillamӓe and Daugavpils. The sentiment that “Something must change” to remedy the current situation was present in Visaginas as well. Yet, no local Yellow Vests or any other kind of sustained economic protest took place in Lithuania, Latvia, or Estonia – neither while I was there nor after I left in December 2019. The Baltic patience culture is argued to explain the quiet if not supportive acceptance of neoliberal reforms characteristic of the Baltic populations since the 1990s (Kattel and Raudla 2013). Most of my interlocutors, however, were not patient. They were critical of their quiescence and passivity. Nonetheless, most acknowledged that it was highly unlikely that they would join a protest if there was such a possibility. In this paper I therefore argue that some of my interlocutors, especially the Russian-speaking ones, are better described as “silent” and not “patient” subjects. I look at four reasons in particular that explain their silence, which are memories of the Soviet state system; double silencing of the Russian-speaking postsocialist subject; structural and institutional limitations of voice; and feelings of dismay that "nothing will change."