Talk:Intermovement

Factual accuracy

I am tagging this article with {{disputed}} as it consists several incorrect facts. First of all, the Intermovement wasn't created in March 1989, but already in July 1989 (according to the Estonian Wikipedia on 19 July 1988). The original name was Interfront (to oppose the Popular Front), but soon after it was changed to Intermovement (Interdvizhenije), if I remember correctly in September 1988 during its congress. I even could be it had 100,000 members because the workers of large industrial plants directly under central ministries in Moscow (eg Dvigatel, Hans Pöögelmann Electronic Plant; Kalinin Electronic plant etc) were members of Intermovement in corpore. It was hard if not impossible not to be a member as the top managers of these companies were at the same time activists of Intermovement and participation at the meetings were organised during work hours by the company transport. However, there is no any members' list so the figure 100,000 can't be prove.

Konstantin Kiknadze and Vladimir Lebedev were not the leaders of Intermovement. Kiknadze was a member of Intermovement, but he wasn't known even this time. Lebedev certainly supported Intermovement, but he also wasn't a leader of this movement. The main leader and front person of this movement was Jevgeni Kogan (Evgeny Kogan), a borned Estonian citizen, by the way. Other leaders were Vladimir Jarovoi (Yarovoi;Yarovoy) and Arnold Sai. Also Viktor Kiemets as one of the main ideologues of the Intermovement and organizer of partizan radio station Nadezhda, and Mihhail Lõssenko (Mikhail Lysenko) as organizer of paramilitary groups (töölismalevad), organizer of 15 May 1990 attck to the Parliament building, and bomber of several objects in 1990-1991, are worth of mentioning.

It's not true that Intermovement was a organisation in the independent Republic of Estonia. It was banned immediatly after Estonia regained independence because of support to the August Coup. It also isn't true that after Estonias independent in 1991, members of the movement demanded self-determination for Estonia's Russian minority and a autonomous republic in Estonia's Russina majority areas. They did it before, not after. Actually most of the leaders left Estonia immediatly after failure of the August Coup. Jarovoi and Kogan left to Moscow, Lõssenko to fight in Transnistria. In mid of 1990s Kogan returned to Estonia. He participated at the local elections and was even elected to the Tallinn City Council, but he didn't have any political weight anymore. Also Kiemets who staid in Estonia, staid out of politics. There is no information about Arnold Sai.

Unfortunately there is no so much information about Intermovement in the Internet, so you really have to go to the library to red a newspapers from 1988-1991.80.235.52.244 17:06, 14 May 2007 (UTC)

You have provided plenty of usefull information, too bad you cannot provide any sources for any of this. I corrected the time of the time of the self-determination demands and removed the {{disputed}} tag. The number 100,000 is not stated in the article as the number of supporters, but as a claim made by the movement. This again is supported by the sources provided. I find the 1989 TIME magazine articles, now on line, most reliable. -- Petri Krohn 08:49, 15 May 2007 (UTC)

Going underground is a nonsense. Yes, most of the leaders fleed from Estonia, but nobody who stayd was ever charged for belonging to the Intermovement. The only one wanted by Estonian court was Mikhail Lysenko, but not because of Intermovement, but because of organising bombings in 1990-1991. As I already mentioned he went to fight to Transnistria and never returned to Estonia. Several leaders and activists of Intermovement continued in business (eg Vladimir Lebedev) and/or returned to politics (Kogan). No Intermovement activities took place after August 1991, not legally or underground. 80.235.52.244 18:27, 15 May 2007 (UTC)

I'm requesting a translation of the source. My understanding of Finnish is too rusty to trust I understand it accurately.

Laws of Estonia do not support prohibiting association, except for organised criminal units, and my understanding is that this movement was never declared such. Instead, it slowly decayedfizzled out after the independence got declared, because the last hopes of its primary political goals had vaned, and also because its leadership had, to significant degree, left Estonia. Digwuren 18:28, 15 May 2007 (UTC)

'Intermovement' is not a very good translation of this movement's name. I'm suggesting 'Internationalist movement', and in the earlier days, 'Internationalist Front of Estonia'. English does not contract phrases the same way Russian does, after all. Of course, if they had an official English name of themselves, this would be even better. Digwuren 18:28, 15 May 2007 (UTC)

I also would like to hear exact translation of statement about banning intermovement.--Staberinde 09:47, 17 May 2007 (UTC)

I have two "sources" for the banning. The first are the comments by User:80.235.52.244 above. The second is the page from balticguide.ee, a Finnish language turist magazine published in Estonia. The text is here:

“ Samalla kiellettiin Moskovan vallankaappausta tukenut Interliike. ”

Translation: "At the same time the Intermovement, that had supported of the Moscow Putsch was banned."

I admit, the sources are few and not very reliable. On the other hand we have very few on-line sources altogether. -- Petri Krohn 10:16, 17 May 2007 (UTC)

Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. I'm removing this claim until a better source comes along. Digwuren 11:48, 19 May 2007 (UTC)

I found one more reference for banning: Communist Party of Estonia (1990) says: "In August 1991, after the failed August Coup, organisations which had supported the coup (incl EKP (NLKP)) were illegalised in Estonia." This may not be a reliable source, but it explains why the movement was banned (making the claim no longer "extraordinary"). I am restoring the sentence for now, but looking for more sources. -- Petri Krohn 01:48, 20 May 2007 (UTC)

In that article, the claim is not sourced at all, and does not appear in the Estonian version. I have removed it.

It is likely that the few claims of banning are remnants of post-occupation rumours seeking to explain rapid fall in membership of these organisations without losing face. Digwuren 06:42, 20 May 2007 (UTC)

Time magazine reference

Petri Krohn added that "[after banning] Members of the movement started demanding self-determination for Estonia's Russian minority and a autonomous republic in Estonia's Russina majority areas." This is original research, because the Time magazine reference says nothing about the Intermovement. I may understand the intention for adding this, however this is a wiki-article about the Intermovement of Estonia (there also Interfront of Latvia, Edinstvo of Lithuania, Unitate-Edinstvo of Moldova and some other similar interfronts, so maybe to start also articles about them), so the story ends with August 1991. 80.235.52.181 07:35, 19 May 2007 (UTC)

Furthermore, the article is an obvious human interest story with several important factual errors. For example, it asserts that Estonian laws deny employment to non-citizens. This is not the case; permanent residency conveys right to be employed. I presume the journalist has mistakenly construed a causal relation between the citizenship issue and the unrelated fact that with fall of USSR, a number of the industries whose main export was to other Soviet regions were forced to drastically reduce production and lay off many people --- a large number of whom were occupation-era immigrants, brought into Estonia specifically to work at these industries. The engine factory Dvigatel and the (especially but not only phosphorite) mining industry in Northeast Estonia are probably the best-known examples of this kind of job loss. Digwuren 08:06, 19 May 2007 (UTC)

Petri, please stop the POV pushing. Time Magazine reference says NOTHING about Intermovement or Juri Mishin, and there is no even information if Mishin was member of the Intermovement. Also, removing former KGB general Kalugin name is not acceptable, because he made his statement as former KGB officer, not just as some critic.80.235.52.181 10:33, 19 May 2007 (UTC)

Sorry for the Kalugin's part of my comment. Still, the Time magazine reference has nothing to do with the subject of this article.80.235.52.181 10:36, 19 May 2007 (UTC)

Please elaborate on the subject of Kalugin. Digwuren 11:41, 19 May 2007 (UTC)

I had a feeling that Kalugin's name was removed. Actually it wasn't, so I was wrong and I apology for my comment. Concerning his statement, this is probably Kalugin's only statement about interfronts available online. He made this on 20 January 1991 in Tallinn, so probably this period newspapers published more information.80.235.52.181 13:29, 19 May 2007 (UTC)

Oh. I momentarily got the impression there was something about Kalugin not covered in the article, yet relevant. Digwuren 06:35, 20 May 2007 (UTC)

Interfront/Intermovement

The original name of this movement was Interfront and it was renamed only afterward to Intermovement. This is the reason why it was better known under name Interfront (Estonian: Interrinne), however the official name for the most of time was Intermovement (Estonian: Interliikumine).

Lebedev

Vladimir Lebedev seems to be a different person with the same name. Can anybody check? Digwuren 16:29, 16 July 2007 (UTC)