|
|
|
Review
| The History of the Baltic States, by Kevin O'Connor. Westport and London: Greenwood Press, 2003. 248 pp., with maps. $46.95, cloth.
|
| Estonians, Latvians, and Lithuanians—the three adjacent peoples living on the eastern littoral of the Baltic Sea—each developed an intellectual stratum from within its own ranks only in the second half of the nineteenth century. Ever since, these three small sets of educated persons have been chafing at the idea—always propounded by outsiders—that they and their homelands really constitute a region and that they were derelict in a sacred duty if they did not strive to realize that regional ideal. It is not surprising therefore that books such as this one—grouping the three people and their states together—tend to come from Baltic-area historians. There is no endemic tradition of Baltic-area historical writing in any of the three lands; the themes locally have been distinctiveness, individuality, and particularism and the few Baltic histories that do exist are very recent products, and for the most part present three separate national histories bound between two covers. Kevin O'Connor is mindful of this aspect of identity formation in the three Baltic states, which explains why his brief survey of the Baltic area from the post-Roman times to the present unfolds within a very loosely worded general framework. There is no attempt here to produce the lock-step effect. The first two chapters deal with the general characteristics of the three peoples (origins, language) and of the eastern Baltic area (geography, climate), and then relate the medieval and early modern centuries. The third chapter takes up the story in the eighteenth century, when the Russian Empire managed to absorb the entire region, taking the northern section from Sweden and the southern part from the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Chapter Four, which covers the period 1905-1920, is entitled the "Revolutionary Era" and includes, first, the 1905 Revolution in the Baltic area which clearly signaled the readiness of the three peoples to lash out not only against the regional elites (German- and Polish-speaking) but against the Imperial government itself; and, second, the incredible turmoil of World War I which showed the capacity of the political leaders of the three peoples to launch brand new nation states. Chapter Five deals with the brief period of independence between the world wars, and Chapter Six the long period (1940-1985) when the three peoples and their states were incorporated into the USSR as Union-level republics. Chapter Seven (entitled "Reawakening") describes the six heady years starting with Gorbachev's coming to power in the USSR and ending with the abortive coup of August 1991, when the three states resumed the independence begun in the interwar period. Chapter Eight deals with the period from the post-soviet years to the eve of the Baltic countries becoming members of the European Union (which happened after the book was published). There is a useful chronology, a glossary of important Baltic personalities, and a short bibliographical essay. |
1
|
|
In my view the book is an excellent teaching tool, given O'Connor's felicitous writing style and his successful effort not to disguise with clever generalizations the many disjunctions, anomalies, discrepancies, and dissimilarities that are endemic to the area's tripartite history during the second millennium. A few small criticisms may perhaps be in order, however. The Baltic peoples themselves accord far greater importance and space in their own historical narratives to the centuries-long pre-state period than this book does, although that imbalance in the book is perhaps a reflection of the requirements of the series in which it appears ("Greenwood Histories of Modern Nations"). Since 1991, the many centuries of the distant past have come flooding back with surprising force, as the three peoples are no longer required to portray the Soviet era as the highest level of historical evolution. A second edition could clarify a couple of minor matters: 1) on p. 40, line 19, the description of peasant holdings of Estonians and Latvians reads as if these peasants were living in repartitional communes, which was never the case in the Baltic provinces proper; 2) on p. 77, the third full somewhat confusing paragraph on the proclamation of Latvian independence (marked by Latvians on November 18, 1918) seems to be out of step with the date in the timeline of historical events (p. xix). But these are relatively small matters and do not mar a very readable and informative volume. |
2
|
| | |
| Iowa State University |
Andrejs Plakans |
|
Content in the History Cooperative database is intended for personal, noncommercial use only. You may not reproduce, publish, distribute, transmit, participate in the transfer or sale of, modify, create derivative works from, display, or in any way exploit the History Cooperative database in whole or in part without the written permission of the copyright holder.
|