From “Oppressors” to “Oppressed”: Baltic Russian Post-Soviet Speakers in Search of a New Identity through Social Networking.

Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, newly independent states were confronted with the repercussions of the Soviet language policy; simultaneously, Russian speakers in almost all post-Soviet countries experienced a radical shift in their status: Russian was transformed from a state language to a language without an official status, and its speakers found themselves as a minority group. The paper explores the challenges encountered by Russian speakers in the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. It examines the strategies employed by these individuals to construct new identities within the altered sociocultural landscape, with a specific emphasis on the role of social networking and online communication. Digitalization strengthens local Russophone communities by facilitating identity-building and enhancing connectivity within these groups, which can be revealed through the analysis of the patterns of language use and the primary ideological concepts and constructs involved in shaping the group and individual identities of Russian speakers in the Baltic states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]