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The Russian minorities in Estonia, unity and diversification The “monument crisis” in Estonia in spring 2007 brought up the ethnic tensions between the core-nation and the Russianspeaking minority. However, those tensions hide the diversity of the non-Estonian populations who have lived on the Estonian territory since the Soviet period. The command of the official language or the lack of proficiency work or do not work in favour of the integration of those populations in the Estonian society, for daily life (employment, relationships with the Estonian population) and administrative questions (naturalization) alike. The linguistic issue is reinforced by the geographic distribution, which increases or reduces the difficulties related to the Estonian language skills, the Russian-speakers living moslty in the North-East of Estonia. A new adult generation that has not known the USSR creates different behaviours when facing the legal requirements. More than being national or geographic, it seems that a intergenerational breaking-off appears within the Russian-speaking minority, concerning their relationships with the Estonians as well as their lifestyle strategies.