Going, going, gone!

The USSR census of 1979 counted about 1762000 Jews (as ethnicity, not as a religion). The census of 1989 counted 1378000. The combined next censues of ex-USSR countries, mostly taken circa 2000, counted 403000.

The numbers have recently attracted my attention because I realized that if it were any other ethnic group anywhere else, my reaction would have been "whoa, what happened to them?". But since it's just us, it's more like "huh, four hundred thousand of the fuckers are still there?".

If I had children, I would probably be idly wondering now what languages my great-grandchildren would be speaking. Finnish? English? Japanese? German?

I am also wondering where lies the line between ethnic cleansing and letting people the hell out of the damn shithole. If I ever become an evil dictator and want to get rid of some minorities, I will totally close the border and ban then from emigrating. They'll scream and demand to be let out, and UN, US, EU and god knows who else will also demand that I let them out in the name of human rights. Then I will negotiate, and the UN, US and EU will offer me a whole lot of goodies to let those poor trapped people out. I'll get the goodies, let all those unwanted minorities out, maybe get a Nobel Peace Prize as a very reformed dictator and will live happily ever after.

But hey, most of you can't even imagine how glad I am to be out of there.