Description
The Baltic region is frequently neglected in broader histories of Europe and its international significance can be obscured by separate treatments of the various Baltic states. With this wide-ranging survey, Andrejs Plakans presents an integrated history of three Baltic peoples - Estonians, Latvians and Lithuanians - and draws out the common threads to show how it has been shaped by their location in a strategically desirable corner of Europe. Subordinated in turn by Baltic German landholders, the Polish nobility and gentry, and then by Russian and Soviet administrators, the three nations have nevertheless kept their distinctive identities - significantly retaining three separate languages in an ethnically diverse region. The book traces the countries' evolution from their ninth-century tribal beginnings to their present status as three thriving and separate nation states, focusing particularly on the region's complex twentieth-century history, which culminated in the eventual re-establishment of national sovereignty after 1991.
Chapter
2 THE NEW ORDER, 1200–1500
CHRISTIANS, TRADERS, AND CRUSADERS
THE LITHUANIANS AND THE TEUTONIC ORDER
THE LIVONIAN CONFEDERATION
THE GRAND DUCHY OF LITHUANIA
3 THE NEW ORDER RECONFIGURED, 1500–1710
THE COLLAPSE OF THE LIVONIAN CONFEDERATION
THE REPUBLIC OF TWO NATIONS: POLAND AND LITHUANIA
SWEDISH ADMINISTRATION OF ESTONIA AND LIVONIA
THE MANORIAL REGIME AND SERFDOM
RELIGION AND THE PRINTED WORD
COLLIDING AMBITIONS AFTER 1650
4 INSTALLING HEGEMONY: THE LITTORAL AND TSARIST RUSSIA, 1710–1800
RUSSIA AS A PERMISSIVE AUTOCRACY
RUSSIA AS AN INTRUSIVE NEIGHBOR
ENLIGHTENMENT ECHOES AND PEASANT MAJORITIES
COMPLETION OF HEGEMONY AND GOVERNMENTAL INNOVATIONS
SOCIAL ORDERS AND LANGUAGE COMMUNITIES
5 REFORMING AND CONTROLLING THE BALTIC LITTORAL, 1800–1855
ESTATES, LORDS, AND SERFS
THE ABOLITION OF SERFDOM IN THE BALTIC PROVINCES
THE UPRISING OF 1830–1831 IN THE LITHUANIAN LANDS
CULTURAL PATRONAGE AND CULTURAL CLIENTAGE
6 FIVE DECADES OF TRANSFORMATIONS, 1855–1905
UNFINISHED BUSINESS: LABOR RENTS AND SERFDOM
AWAKENING THE NATIONS: THE BALTIC PROVINCES
SEARCHING FOR THE NATION: THE LITHUANIAN LANDS AND LATGALE
THE TRANSFORMATION OF CITY LIFE
TESTING NATIONAL IDENTITY: RUSSIFICATION AND SOCIALISM
7 STATEHOOD IN TROUBLED TIMES, 1905–1940
THE YEAR 1905 IN THE BALTIC LITTORAL
CLEAVAGES AND COMMONALITIES AFTER 1905
THE GREAT WAR IN THE LITTORAL
STATE-BUILDING AND PARLIAMENTARISM
THREE AUTHORITARIAN PRESIDENTS
LABORING AGAINST THE ODDS
8 THE RETURN OF EMPIRES, 1940–1991
OSTLAND AND THE GERMAN OCCUPATION
BACK ON THE SOCIALIST ROAD
CHANGE AND STAGNATION, DISSENT AND ACQUIESCENCE
9 REENTERING EUROPE, 1991–
GOVERNMENT AND PUBLIC OPINION
NATIONAL STATES OR WELFARE STATES
NETWORKING AND ITS CONSEQUENCES
THE TRAVAILS OF NORMALITY
THE PEOPLES OF THE EASTERN BALTICLITTORAL
THE NEW ORDER RECONFIGURED, 1500–1710
INSTALLING HEGEMONY: THE LITTORAL AND TSARIST RUSSIA, 1710–1800
REFORMING AND CONTROLLING THE BALTIC LITTORAL, 1800–1855
FIVE DECADES OF TRANSFORMATIONS, 1855–1905
STATEHOOD IN TROUBLED TIMES, 1905–1940
THE RETURN OF EMPIRES, 1940–1991