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The following special issue offers the first attempt to look at the history and culture of the Baltic region using the concept of entangled histories and cultures. The study of entanglements is part of the transnational turn in the humanities and social sciences and has been greatly influenced by postcolonial studies, but it has its own set of topics, problems and questions that it aims to study. Rather than a methodology, the entangled approach is a perspective that looks at its research objects from a new angle and from multiple new levels of analysis. Nonetheless, it has found considerable methodological reflection in different disciplines such as history writing, literary and cultural studies, and memory studies. This introduction goes briefly over some of the disciplinary contexts where the study of entanglements has emerged and their methodological discussions. It also offers some reflections on the nodes of problems related to the interconnectedness of different cultures in the Baltic region that might be successfully approached with the concept of entangled cultures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Serfdom narratives belong to the most prominent, emotionalized, and politicized elements of Baltic history writing. We are claiming in this article that serfdom narratives, although used mainly in national narratives, are regionally and globally entangled topics shared not only by historians from very different contexts but also created outside the historical canon in fiction and the arts. To analyze Baltic history writing as a form of entangled literature we are comparing serfdom narratives in Estonian and Baltic German history writing throughout the long nineteenth century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents the text of a speech by Doctor Norman Naimark, delivered during the Association for the Advancement of Baltic Studies Conference at Stanford University in California on June 1, 2018. Topics discussed are developments of the field of Soviet, European and Baltic studies within the context of Cold War era, history of the Russian and east European studies profession in the U.S. and origin of the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies (AAASS).

This article addresses early modern Baltic environmental history and historical geography by interpreting the public writings of August Wilhelm Hupel within the theoretical framework of framing, valuing, and assessing nature and the environment. Hupel’s broad series of publications, issued during the heyday of Baltic Enlightenment, not only contributed to the emergence of Baltic geographical studies but also played a pioneering role in placing the knowledge on Estonian and Livonian topography and nature to order. Although Hupel concerned physical geographical aspects in his writings to some extent, his primary interest definitely focused on human relations with and across space and place. The cameralist thoroughness and calculativeness within that geographical field of enquiry brought about an endeavor to catalogue the parts of nature by using their utility or harmfulness as the measure. However, in Hupel’s opinion the then-prevailing civilisation also contained certain responsibilities for and to nature, particularly regarding forests and their sustainable use (‘nachhaltende Nutzung’), which Hupel wished to promote in the Baltic provinces of Russia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After the time of the Great Duchy of Lithuania and that of their inclusion to Russian Empire, the three Baltic countries got their first independence after WWI, but WWII forced them to enter the Soviet Union for almost five decades before getting their second independence and resuming with market economy, to finally join the European Union. Such strong historical changes caused major impacts (either positive or negative) on the implementation of the health transition in the region, quite interesting to document, but they also produced dramatic changes in the quality and the accuracy of information required to compute mortality indicators. The aim of this article is to briefly summarize existing knowledge on mortality in the Baltic region for the past two centuries, but focusing more precisely on the consequences of getting in and then getting out of the Soviet system in terms of health and survival. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In 1839 and 1842, the Baltic German artist Friedrich Ludwig von Maydell (1795-1846) published the first two volumes of his Fünfzig Bilder aus der Geschichte der deutschen Ostsee-Provinzen Russlands. This album not only contained the first images of the Baltic in history, but it was also one of the first instances of Romantic historicism in these lands and an early example of the uses of the past for constructing a specifically Baltic German identity. By analysing Maydell's work, the article discusses the particularities of the Baltic German images of history in a regional as well as transnational context. Examining his visual representations of the past, it shows how the borderland's historical memory was shaped by a variety of influences, including aspects of the Russian imperial historiographical tradition, as well as developments in the arts, historical discourse, and nationalism in Europe and Germany. The article also examines the transfer of visual motifs, thereby highlighting how the often competing and conflicting nineteenth-century nationalist histories were shaped by shared transnational schemata. Following this, it analyses the impact of the local colonial context on Maydell's images of Baltic history and the afterlives of his images in the later Estonian and Latvian national images of history. Although much scholarship has focused on the contrasts and conflicts between the Baltic German and the Estonian and Latvian visions of the Baltic past, this article reveals the rival versions of the past to also be closely entangled. Visual culture can demonstrate this well, showing that Estonian and Latvian artists opposed their work to Maydell's images, while also imitating and appropriating his style and motifs. Finally, Maydell's own treatment of the local peoples and their folk culture shows signs of complexity characteristic of colonial anxieties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Baltic visual history is introduced as the focus of the October 2017 issue of the Eastern European history periodical "Zeitschrift für Ostmitteleuropa-Forschung".

The article presents a report from the June 10-11, 2017 conference of the Baltic Historical Commission. Topics of presentations included Estonian and Latvian cooperation with the commission, Lithuanian economic development and the conflict surrounding Vilnius, Lithuania, and Estonian nation-building after World War I.

A list of books and dissertations on Baltic studies is presented that include "Folklore in Baltic History: Resistance and Resurgence," "Eesti ajalugu postkaartidel" and "The Economic Crisis and Its Aftermath in the Nordic and Baltic Countries: Do As We Say and Not As We Do."

This article creates a conceptual and methodological framework for reading case studies. First, it conceptualizes life story and oral history as medium of memory of the twentieth century. Second, it demonstrates how individual, social, and political formats and dimensions of memory intersect in remembering the Baltic socialism. Third, it shows how in a common attempt to remember the socialist past, groups and individuals encounter considerable differences of temporal horizon as well as differences in attributing importance to experiences and events. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper explores the conditions under which democratic elections encourage citizens to identify with ethnicity. We argue that there are two mechanisms through which elections strengthen ethnic identification. First, the stronger ethnic parties are, the more intensive, ethnically exclusive political campaigns they carry out as an election approaches, resulting in strengthening citizens' ethnic identity. Second, ethnic party mobilization drives members of other ethnic groups to develop stronger identity to their own ethnicity because such mobilization poses a serious political threat to the out-group members. Data analysis of approximately 18,000 respondents in five waves of the New Baltic Barometer supports the hypotheses. A case study of Latvia follows to illustrate that ethnic party mobilization for elections creates ethnic cleavages among the public. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Places always represent the social and cultural dimensions of societies, seen through relationships between ideas, beliefs, and hopes. Places and their social practices are interwoven into the urban fabric and have become vital components of urban and ideological identities. Ideological systems create unique arrangements and classifications of those special places, which can be called “hallowed” or “profaned.” This project focuses on the recent transformation of the communist system of “sacral” spaces and their recent “profanation.” The transformation of meaning, together with the use and attitude toward landscape, has become visible due to spatial and functional manifestations of post-socialist cities. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this article I submit, first, a theoretical argument about the specific nature of history writing in exile, and second, try to test the validity of this argument on the work of Baltic exile historians from 1940s to 1960s, with a particular focus on Estonian exile historiography. The argument consists of the claim that in the situation of exile time becomes one of the main devices of intelligibility and orientation. More specifically, I argue that in exile a new regime of historicity, a new way of articulating the relationship between the categories of past, present and future, is likely to emerge. To prove this thesis, I discuss three key topics in Baltic exile historiography: first, the writing of general national and Baltic histories for both internal and external consumption, second, the rise of contemporary history and attempts to make sense of the fate of the Baltic States in World War II, and third, new interpretations of Baltic prehistory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the history and impacts of World Wars I and II on the Baltic republics. It explores the development of the republics between the wars according to official analysts in the Baltic states. Other topics discussed include the emergence of the Baltic dictatorships, military potentials of Germany and the Soviet Union, and the status of Baltic diplomacy.

The article discusses the Baltic colonial experience in historical and comparative perspective. It sketches the ways in which Baltic societies are best linked to theoretical discussions on postcolonial issues, and whether they might be looked upon in a more global context. The main question posed by the article is in what ways Baltic identity has been determined by processes of foreign settlement, occupation and colonization of the territory of each respective country and whether we can see Baltic societies as potential agencies of Europe’s internal others. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article discusses the presidential historical commissions of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania that were established in 1998 to research the crimes of the Nazi and Soviet totalitarian regimes and to overcome interpretive disputes that had begun to overshadow the new democracies' politics. Conceptually framed as a state tool of historical conflict resolution and reconciliation, the Baltic commissions' structure, operative work and results all reveal many of the pitfalls, but also the opportunities of such official bodies of historical truth-seeking. The article concludes that even though all three commissions had a clear reconciliatory aim, their operative processes and final output differed remarkably. Their contribution to actual reconciliation was also very limited. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article talks about the historian Reinhard Wittram and his views on the topic of exiled Baltic Germans' attitudes towards their homeland.

The article talks about Baltic German and Reich German historians including Jürgen von Hehn and Heinrich von zur Mühlen who wrote on the topic of Baltic history between the years 1919 and 2009 and discusses their differing historical interpretations.

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses various reports within the issue on topics including war, revolution and terror in the Baltic States, and Finland after the Great War.

In June 1989, the First Congress of People's Deputies of the Soviet Union established the Commission for Historical and Legal Estimation of the Soviet–German Non-aggression Pact of 1939. In the commission, representatives from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania condemned the Soviet annexation of the Baltic States, prompting heated arguments regarding the invalidity of the related secret protocol of the pact with other members who continued to hold the traditional Soviet ideological view of the pact as something positive. The debate over the secret protocol had the further potential to extend to disputes over ‘recovery of lost territory’ amongst the Baltic States, Ukraine, Moldova, Belarus and Russia. This article analyses the arguments used by commission members, considering the interplay of national interests, how they balanced arguments between restoration of ‘state sovereignty’ and maintenance of borders, and how they finally compromised and concluded the commission's report. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

An essay is presented that reviews the books "Vil'nius: Gorod v Evrope" ("Vilnius: A City in Europe"), part of the Perevod s litovskogo marii Čepaitite series, by Tomas Venclova, and "A Concise History of the Baltic States," part of the Cambridge Concise Histories series, by Andrejs Plakans, is presented. The history of Vilnius, Lithuania and the history of nationalism in the Baltic Republics are addressed.

A report is presented from an October 10-12, 2012 conference in Riga, Latvia on the urban history of the Baltic region. Topics of discussion included emigration of German citizens of the Baltic region, the classification of Riga as a world heritage site by UNESCO, and international cooperation between researchers from Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania.

The aim of the article is to introduce the main lines of argument and interpretation in studies of the Baltic Emancipation Reforms of 1816, 1817 and 1819, identifying common paradigms and setting an agenda for future research. First, we need to use archival evidence to investigate whether the first decades of freedom in all three Baltic provinces, where similar laws were implemented, actually impoverished the peasantry. Second, we must ask what limited the development of agriculture after emancipation: was it the uncertainty attending the end of peasant protections or rather the limits on economic freedom of activity? Third, the claim that new peasant laws ‘correcting’ the mistakes of the Emancipation Laws were needed for the peasant economy to get off the ground is not adequately supported by the case in Kurland, where many changes had already taken place prior to the 1863 law allowing peasants to purchase land. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article discusses issues surrounding U.S. recognition of the incorporation of the Baltic states into the Soviet Union. Particular focus is given to the Welles declaration concerning U.S. diplomatic recognition of the Baltic republics' diplomatic missions. Details on the closure of U.S. diplomatic missions in Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania, are presented, as well as on the disposal of property confiscated by both the U.S. and the Soviet Union. Other topics include unauthorized diplomatic representatives of the Baltic states and emigration from the Baltic states to the U.S.

The article discusses Latvia's transition from its role of a Soviet republic to its status as an independent state, moving toward a democratic government and a market economy. Other topics include the history of Latvia in relation to Russification under Soviet Union (USSR) rule, the identity of Latvia along with Lithuania and Estonia as a Baltic State, and ethnic tension between Russians and Latvians. Also addressed are the Third Awakening movement in Latvian culture, the creation of civil society organizations in Latvia, and problems involving citizenship law and non-Latvians in Latvia following independence.

The article discusses the activities of German church musician Johann Valentin Meder during his time in Tallinn, Estonia, and Riga, Latvia, in the late 17th and early 18th centuries. The author details Meder's career as a cantor at a German school in Tallinn, his musical compositions, and their role in cultural transmissions and influences from Germany to the Baltic provinces.

An essay is presented about the emerging Baltic historiographies and the topics discussed during the October 2009 conference "Occupation, Collaboration and Resistance" in Riga, Latvia. The author states that established Latvian historians have peculiar disinterest on the arguments and discussions of their Western colleagues concerning Baltic History. She mentions that historians working and studying in Western universities seems to adapt the perspective of their academic communities.

The article discusses the career and writings of the German naturalist and explorer Alexander Theodor von Middendorff, with particular emphasis on his Baltic region experience as an agriculturalist and politician in the Russian government of Livonia during 1860-1885. The author focuses on the relations between Estonians and Baltic Germans at that time and Middendorff's role as a member of the Livonian knighthood and as a rural politician in encouraging nationalists to feel positively about their government's development.

The article presents a reprint of the article "The Events of 1939-1940 in the Baltic Countries: Public Perception," by Renald Simonyan and Tamara Kochegarova, which appeared in the 2009 issue of the journal "Novaya i noveyshaya istoriya." It discusses the myths of the Soviet Union occupation in the Baltic countries as well as the political and ideological problems brought by occupation. It also highlights the membership of these countries to the Soviet Union in 1940 and the separation in 1991.

The Baltic German politician and political thinker Paul Schiemann (1876-1944) is widely recognized as the most prominent defender of liberalism in the Baltic states during the interwar period. However, his liberal ideas have rarely been interpreted in their own right. This article explores the main presuppositions of Schiemann's liberalism: his conceptions of individual freedom, democracy, and cultural development. Although Schiemann's main intentions are liberal, his theory of the national state includes significant Marxist elements, which call into question the potential of the democratic state. In my conclusions, I will argue that Schiemann's ideas still have theoretical relevance, which must be further explored in the context of contemporary liberal theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Kaliningrad region has developed from being a military bastion of the Soviet Union threatening the West to being an exposed Russian exclave with much reduced forces mainly serving defensive functions. Russia strongly resisted NATO's enlargement and encirclement of Kaliningrad, but had to accept it as Russia was weak and could not stop it. When Russia became stronger under Putin, Kaliningrad was again brought under central control and the conditions in the Baltic Fleet were improved. The protection of Russia's sea communications and of its energy exports became the most important tasks apart from defending the region. However, as an effect of the war in Georgia and the US base agreement with Poland in 2008, Russia threatened to use Kaliningrad as a staging area for new Russian missiles, and the problem of military transit across Lithuania was again exacerbated. At the same time the global financial crisis hit Russia. Kaliningrad well reflects the ups and down in Russian relations with the West in this part of Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the way in which Russia's 1709 victory over Sweden at the Battle of Poltava, Ukraine, during the Great Northern War impacted local and regional autonomy within the Russian Empire under the rule of Russian Emperor Peter I. Focus is given to the decreased autonomy of the Hetmanate, or Cossack state, following the battle, as its leader, Hetman Ivan Mazepa, chose to ally with King Charles XII of Sweden during the war, along with increased autonomy for Russia's Baltic states. The Russian government's involvement in the appointment of military leaders in the Hetmanate's administrative divisions is outlined, as is Peter's role in having Ivan Skoropads'kyi elected as Hetman.

Two Congresses in November 1905-the Schoolteachers Congress and the Rural Delegates Congress-have played an important role in the narratives of the events of the year 1905 in the Latvian territories of the Russian Baltic provinces. When narrative descriptions of the two are contrasted with the information available about them in the most frequently used contemporary sources-newspaper accounts-the statements that can be made about the two Congresses turn out to be anchored in evidence that ranges from the certain, the plausible, and the uncertain. The nature of the evidence requires a reassessment of how the Congresses should be fitted in the larger narrative of the revolutionary year and how much importance can be attached to them in light of what is currently known. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses several cultural and historical moments in the Baltic States during the period 1790-2000. Perception of noblewoman Elisa von der Recke on cultural and political difference between various geographical locations in Europe; Significance of scholar Atis Kronvalds' experience of university education in Berlin, Germany to his vision of development for Latvians; Example of a rhetoric of Western superiority.

This paper is an overview of national bibliography in the Baltic states. Its purpose is to present the main lines of development and discuss the major publications that contributed to and currently make up the national bibliographies, current and retrospective, of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. With the growth of printed material from the sixteenth century, there were early efforts by individuals to provide general coverage of Estonian, Latvian, and Lithuanian publications long before national bibliography was politically viable. The nineteenth and early twentieth centuries saw a shift from the languages of ruling elites to vernacular language in publications, and emerging expressions of national consciousness that fostered the development of national bibliography. During the periods of independence in the inter-war period, national bibliography flourished, influenced largely by individuals and independent organizations. Soviet-era national bibliographies, despite their ideological focus, were numerous and well produced, and provided a continuum and basis for national bibliography today. Since the collapse of Soviet authority in 1991, scholars and librarians have reclaimed the past and re-established national bibliography appropriate to Estonian, Latvian, and Lithuanian history, language, and culture. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

During the nineteenth century, the Baltic provinces of the Russian Empire exhibited characteristics of economic change typical of Eastern European rural areas where the landed estate and an enserfed peasantry were dominant forces. Family enterprise, other than agricultural enterprise was rare, even among estate owners. The number of estate "manufactories" remained small throughout the first half of the century, and estate owners discouraged peasant entrepreneurship of any kind. Only in the post-1850 decades, as a consequence of reforms enacted by the Imperial government, did rural economic differentiation become sufficiently pronounced to require notice in various census-type enumerations (1881, 1897). Still, family-based peasant entrepreneurship remained exceptional, and reports about it took anecdotal form. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses the history of the Baltic Region during the 17th and 18th centuries. Stereotypes of war, pestilence and the rise of Sweden under Gustav Adolphus and of Russia under despots; Literary works that show the region's Baroque vibrancy in art, literature and architecture; Interacting religious and political mythologies that combine in a vision of Gotho-Sarmatian unity.

The modern history of the Baltic provinces of the former Russian Empire has essentially been written from an ethnic/national perspective. It is basically the story of the formation of the Latvian, Estonian, Lithuanian and German 'communities', of their 'specific' national identities and eventually of nation states. With those who acquired a German identity, the focus has essentially been upon the landed nobility, the so-called 'Baltic Barons', the traditional elite that formed a minority even of the ethnically German population. The existence of other German groups has been recognised, such as the 'literary estate' (Literatenstand), which in the nineteenth century 'brought into Baltic higher culture, rationalist viewpoints and represented a potential threat to noble control of local politics.' However, such groups have received comparatively little attention from historians, especially among those publishing in English. Even then there is limited acknowledgement of their possessing distinctive cultural and other forms of self-identification. A recent study by a Canadian scholar of the Germans of Riga before 1914 tends to impose the values of the landed elite upon them. In works published in post-1945 (West) Germany by emigres from the region, there is an inclination to present a distinctive 'Baltic German' identity that is largely derived from the experience of the landed elite. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The end of the First World War and of the Cold War can be seen as two ruptures of history that were accompanied by a redefinition of old practices and by the vision of a new Europe. The emergence of the three independent Baltic States and the idea of a Baltic Sea area were unifying factors between these two periods. In both cases, the emergence of new nation-states and region-building approaches has redefined the existing interpretation on sovereignty. However, it is argued in this article that while after the First World War the new states were themselves the main supporters of regional unions and of the idea of limited state sovereignty, they have been a barrier to change in the post-Cold War era. Nation-state centricity in the East has not readily mixed with new region-building efforts. Although some of the new nation-states defined their location in Europe through a Baltic Sea Region, the current Baltic Sea Region is a Western project controlling parts of the disintegrating East. As a project, it does, however, include post-modern elements and may be described as a territoriality without sovereignty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on the German influence in the Baltic republic of Latvia. History; German influences on politics and policy; Consequences.

The article discusses the Baltic Crusade and its victims. The goals of the campaigns, which extended over three centuries, were to protect missionaries and merchants, to protect the converts to Christianity, and to extirpate barbaric practices. It cites the origins of the Baltic Crusade, including missionaries, Western princes, and popes and papal legates. It mentions the victims of the campaigns, such as pirates, cattle thieves, pagan priests and ambitious dynasties.

Focuses on the history of the peasant attitudes along with agrarian policies within the Baltic region. Declaration made by the peasants of the Rapina Village; What demands these peasants made; How contemporaries explained the attitudes of these peasants.

Discusses the history of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE) and the Baltic States' struggle for independence from the Soviet Union. Formation of the CSCE; Annexation of the Baltic states by the Soviet Union; Efforts by the Baltic states to participate in the CSCE; Issue of military security; CSCE activities on minority rights in the Baltic states.