Baltic Studies

Book Review: Born into a Dream: EuroFaculty and the Council of Baltic Sea States

by Harald Koht

Published: Současná Evropa 16 (1/2011), pages. 183-185.

'Brief Encounters': Baltic Hospital Workers in and around Huddersfield, 1946 - 1951

by Frank Grombir

Published in the Huddersfield Local History Society Journal in May 2012, Issue No. 23, pp. 51-58

This article analyses the early days of post-war immigration into the Huddersfield area in relation to around forty... more This article analyses the early days of post-war immigration into the Huddersfield area in relation to around forty Baltic women employed in local hospitals.

In the five years following 1946 these women made their contribution to the post-war reconstruction of England’s services but most of them did not sink roots in Huddersfield soil. This account aims to look more closely at these individuals and examine why their stay was so brief, including the details of their work and the general reception by the host society.

Галицько-Волинський літопис про постриження литовського князя Войшелка / Український історичний журнал. 2007. № 4, 26-37

by Tetiana (Татьяна) Vilkul (Вилкул)

(Un)Blocked memory. 2nd conference of Baltic art historians

by Kristina Jõekalda

published in kunsttexte.de/ostblick 2011, no. 4, 4 pp.

Создание Совия: работа составителя Иудейского хронографа (ХIII в.) / Istorijos šaltinių turimai (Vilnius, 2010), 11-32.

by Tetiana (Татьяна) Vilkul (Вилкул)

CfP - Everlasting Bath: Transnational History of Sauna Culture

by Timo Myllyntaus

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You are welcome to contribute the "Sauna History Session" under the theme "Knowing Users: Social... more .
You are welcome to contribute the "Sauna History Session" under the theme "Knowing Users: Social Demands in Shaping Technology and Designing Products" at the 40th Symposium of the International Committee for the History of Technology, ICOHTEC (Manchester, UK, 22–28 July 2013). The session will take place as as part of the 24th International Congress of the History of Science, Technology and Medicine. Organiser: Timo Myllyntaus.

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In hectic modern world, we tend to believe that our way of life is modern and our customs dates from fairly recent times. It is supposed that nearly everything has changed since the Middle Ages, and technological development is regarded to reshuffle our living style completely and force to reject practically all traces to the antiquity. Technology is often considered a mighty enemy of traditions. Nevertheless, there is at least one outstanding exception to this pattern.

While native Americans bathed sweat lodges several millennia ago, steamy bathhouses were at the same time common in entire Europe as well. Still a thousand years ago steam baths were quite common all around the northern hemisphere. Only in the Middle Ages, authorities banned public bathhouses in Central Europe in order to prevent the spread of infectious diseases. Nevertheless, steamy bathhouses stayed in tact only in sparsely populated eastern peripheries of Europe – from Turkey and Bulgaria to Estonia, Russia and Finland. As the result, this ancient bathing tradition has remained more common in cold and forested Finland than in any other country, and there are almost as many saunas (>2 mill.) as cars: one sauna per two inhabitants. Actually the Finnish sauna has become the common concept for steamy bathhouses although there are considerable cultural and national variations in building constructions and heating technology.

During the past four millennia, building materials, construction techniques and styles of housing have changed several times. These changes have not led to exclude steamy baths from the everyday life of peripheral countries. In contrast, technology has been used to modify physical features of these bath institutions to the current construction conventions and social demands. During millennia and centuries, saunas have changed but they have not vanished. Basic elements of saunas have remained and the pleasure of bathing has been preserved.

Sauna is the case in point how an ancient cultural habit can be persistent in a changing world and technology has been used to preserve a prehistoric custom with constant innovation and modification.

This session will examine and discuss the persistence of sauna culture and the malleability of technology in adapting steam baths to the changing world. Can we find technological determinism or technological momentum in the history of sauna? If there is a path dependence in this case study: is it technological or cultural? The session aims to analyse transnationally the persistence of sauna in a number of countries and if possible in several civilizations. Therefore studies on extinct steam bath cultures are particularly welcome.

Please, contact Timo Myllyntaus (timmyl@utu.fi) and submit a 200 – 400-word abstract of your paper proposal and a one-page CV by Friday 9 March 2012.

Further information at: http://www.icohtec.org/annual-meeting-cfp-2013.html

“Oma” ja “võõras” keskaja kultuuris. Ida-Baltikumi kirjeldus Bartholomaeus Anglicuse entsüklopeedias De proprietatibus rerum (u 1245)

by Marek Tamm

published in 'Keel ja Kirjandus', 2003, no. 9, pp. 648–673

Ecological Hypotheses for a Historical Reconstruction of Upper Trophic Level Biomass In the Baltic Sea and Skagerrak

by Poul Holm

An Island in the Middle of An Island. On cult, laws and authority in Viking Age Gotland.

by Nanouschka (Nanni) Myrberg

Article in
Regner, E., von Heijne, C., Kitzler Åhfeldt, L. & Kjellström, A. (eds.). 2009. From Ephesos to Dalecarlia. Reflections on Body, Space and Time in Medieval and Early Modern Europe.
The Museum of National Antiquities, Stockholm. Studies 11. Stockholm Studies in Archaeology 48. Stockholm.
ISBN 978-91-89176-37-9

The present-day small village of Roma on Gotland in the Baltic Sea was the physical and symbolic centre of the island... more The present-day small village of Roma on Gotland in the Baltic Sea was the physical and symbolic centre of the island in the Iron Age and into Medieval times. The Cistercian monastery and the meeting place of the island’s assembly (the 'all-thing'), two well-known features of medieval Roma, have often been taken as indications of an egalitarian and non-stratified society on Gotland during the Viking Age and Middle Ages. It is here proposed, however, that an older Iron Age cult site at Roma eventually came under the control of a chieftain or major landowner who introduced Christianity, founded a monastery and inaugurated the thing in Roma in Viking or early medieval times, just as his equals did elsewhere in Scandinavia. While the later medieval thing was probably located near the monastery, an alternative site is suggested for the older all-thing. A small island in the great Roma bog, situated in a way more similar to how known thing-sites were located in the Viking Age Icelandic or Anglo/Hiberno Norse areas, may have been that elusive spot where the major assembly site was once located.

Environment in Explaining History

by Timo Myllyntaus

Reference:

Timo Myllyntaus, “Environment in Explaining History,” In: Encountering the Past in Nature, Essays in Environmental History, Ed. by Timo Myllyntaus and Mikko Saikku, 1st edition, Helsinki: Helsinki University Press 1999, pp. 121-138, 2nd edition, Athens, OH: Ohio University Press 2001, pp. 141-160.

Book Review: Peter Van Elsuwege, 'From Soviet Republics to EU Member States: A Legal and Political Assessment of the Baltic States' Accession to the EU'

by Dimitry Kochenov

20 European Journal of International Law, 2009, pp. 1324-1327

a positive review of a very important publication a positive review of a very important publication

Synthesis and conflict: Russian-speakers' discursive response to Latvia's nationalising state

by Ammon Cheskin

Published in Europe-Asia Studies (2012) 64.2: 325-347

Based on media discourse analysis, this article addresses the construction of Russian-speaking identity in Latvia from... more Based on media discourse analysis, this article addresses the construction of Russian-speaking identity in Latvia from a discourse-theoretical approach. Through a focus on the discursive elements of identity formation it will be argued that public projections of Russian-speaking identity are both a counter-reaction to, and a synthesis with, constructed ‘Latvian’, ‘Russian’ and ‘European’ identities and discourses. It will be shown that although Latvia's Russian-speaking identity is often constructed negatively, in opposition to the Latvian state and the Latvian ‘Other’, it is now increasingly premised upon an acceptance of various Latvian narratives and discourses which are enabling the emergence of a more positive Latvian–Russian identity.

P Perchoc, Revue des livres "Andres Kasekamp, A History of the Baltic States", Revue d’études comparatives Est-Ouest, Volume 42, Issue 04, December 2011, pp 186-192

by Philippe Perchoc

This books review on Andres Kasekamp last comparative history of the Baltic States is also an occasion to discuss why... more This books review on Andres Kasekamp last comparative history of the Baltic States is also an occasion to discuss why this comparative approach is so rare in the last 20 years, as well as to consider what are the main trends of Baltic Studies in France.

Paul Vladimir (Pawel Wlodkowic) au concile de Constance: une tradition de tolérance religieuse en Pologne et en Lituanie

by Loïc Chollet

"Master degree" work, University of Neuchâtel, 2010.
All rights reserved.
© Loïc Chollet

Historical documents describe a period of religious turmoil during the Christianization of the last pagan European... more Historical documents describe a period of religious turmoil during the Christianization of the last pagan European state, Lithuania. At the end of 14th century, the Lithuanian Grand Duke Jagiello was crowned King of Poland. He introduced Christianity in his homeland, which was brought under formal Polish sovereignty by personal dynastic union. A feud arose between Poland and the Teutonic Knights, based on different approaches to Christianization: the Polish ideal of a peaceful conversion stood against the Teutonic Order’s hard line. The issue was brought before the Council of Constance, where spokesmen from each side argued the rightfulness of their claim. Countering the Order’s old-fashioned ideology, Cracow University’s rector Paulus Vladimiri (Paul Vladimir/Pawel Wlodkowic) stressed the idea of religious tolerance toward non-Christians. After explaining the historical and ideological context, this paper explores how Vladimiri managed to defend his King’s methods through his speeches. By looking at the ideas he expressed, I discuss whether one should emphasize the modernity of his approach, and how his experience may reflect a specific “Polish” tradition of religious freedom. Finally, my goal is to give modern readers a historically supported insight of the particular religious situation of late medieval North-Eastern Europe.

ICOHTEC Travel Grants to Barcelona Symposium

by Timo Myllyntaus

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Guidelines

The ICOHTEC Board will make available a limited number of grants for graduates,... more .
Guidelines

The ICOHTEC Board will make available a limited number of grants for graduates, post-graduates and young researchers who are giving papers or present posters at the 2012 ICOHTEC Symposium Technology, the Arts and Industrial Culture in Catalonia, Spain 10-14 July 2012. Special preference will be given to students and young researchers from developing countries as well as Eastern and Central European countries in transition who are not able to receive sufficient financial support from their home countries or sponsors in other countries.

These travel grants are not intended to provide the full costs associated with attending the symposium; they are meant as an encouragement, not a full subsidy.

Eligibility: ICOHTEC Travel Grants will be awarded to students or young researchers, travel costs and accommodation costs of whom have not been covered by some sponsors.

The Travel Grant of 350 euro is to be used to cover bus/train/flight tickets, lodging and/or regis-tration fee. Reimbursement will be made after presenting paper or poster and proving the student’s or young researcher status by an appropriate document (Student’s ID or supervisor’s/professor’s letter).

Application forms should be sent to the President as email attachments or by ordinary mail. Applications for support must include personal contact information, an estimate on travel, registration and accommodation costs, title of the paper/poster to be presented and a short CV. An application form may be downloaded from the ICOHTEC web site at:
http://www.icohtec.org/resources-prizes.html.

Deadline: Applications with appendices should be submitted by 26 March, 2012. Submissions via email are requested and preferred.

James Williams
President
101 Lake Winnemissett Drive
Deland FL 32724 USA
techjunc@gmail.com

Kollektives Gedächtnis und nationale Textgemeinschaft im postsowjetischen Estland: Ein Beispiel über die intertextuelle Verwendung des Nationalepos “Kalevipoeg” in den estnischen Lebensgeschichten. H.-H. Bartens, K. Röhrborn, K. Sagaster, E. Winkler (Hrsg.). Ural-Altaische Jahrbücher. Internationale Zeitschrift für uralische und altaische Forschung. Neue Folge (101 - 124). Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz 2006.

by Ene Kõresaar

[Рец. на:] Partizan teroro auk atminimo knyga / Sud. P. Masilionis. Vilnius: Politika, 2011. 610 p.

by Alexander Dyukov

Дюков А.Р. [Рец. на:] Partizan teroro auk atminimo knyga / Sud. P. Masilionis. Vilnius: Politika, 2011. 610 p. // Журнал российских и восточноевропейских исторических исследований. 2011. № 2 (4). С. 176 - 178.

Инструкция Фронта литовских активистов «Указания по освобождению Литвы», март 1941 г.

by Alexander Dyukov

Инструкция Фронта литовских активистов «Указания по освобождению Литвы», март 1941 г.  (Lithuanian Activist Front’s “Instructions on Lithuania’s Liberation” of 24 March 1941) // Журнал российских и восточноевропейских исторических исследований. 2011. № 2 (4). С. 140 – 157.

Perchoc Philippe, "Le compromis mémoriel européen. Une étude balte" in BONNARD, P. et MINK, G., le Passé au présent, Gisements mémoriels et actions historicisantes en Europe centrale et orientale, Paris, Houdiard, 2010, p. 55-68

by Philippe Perchoc

Les mutations du compromis mémoriel européen. Une étude balte.

De la Chute du Mur de Berlin jusqu’à... more Les mutations du compromis mémoriel européen. Une étude balte.

De la Chute du Mur de Berlin jusqu’à l’adhésion de dix Etats membres à l’Union européenne en 2004, les débats académiques se sont beaucoup portés sur les aspects juridiques et politiques du processus d’élargissement et notamment sur les transformations induites par la mise en œuvre de l’acquis communautaire. La question d’un acquis communautaire de la mémoire a soulevée plus récemment et elle peut bénéficier d’un regard sur une Europe totalement déconnectée de l’UE avant 2004 sur ce point, l’Europe baltique.
Il convient tout d’abord de rappeler la situation historique particulière des trois pays occupés par l’URSS, l’Allemagne nazie puis l’URSS entre 1940 et 1991. L’établissement précis des faits sur cette période fait encore l’objet de discussions animées dans les trois Etats baltes et à Moscou. Si il est vrai que des Baltes ont joué un rôle décisif dans la Solution finale appliquée à leur pays, les capitales défendent l’idée que la plupart des combattants baltes sous uniformes allemands se battaient pour l’indépendance déjà volée une fois par l’URSS. Le récit dominant à l’époque soviétique soulignait le sacrifice de millions de Soviétiques dans la lutte contre l’Allemagne nazie, version partagée par la grande majorité des immigrants russophones arrivés dans les trois républiques pendant la période soviétique. A l’inverse, les dissidents baltes et les dirigeants des mouvements indépendantistes soulignèrent avec succès t l’injustice historique subie par leurs pays.
Après 1991, différentes politiques historiques furent mises en place par les nouvelles autorités en place pour imposer leur récit national, notamment par le biais de musées nationaux dénonçant en regard les occupations soviétique et nazie. Le nouveau discours sur l’histoire est alors ressenti comme une injustice et une violence symbolique par les populations russophones immigrées dont les droits politiques sont, par ailleurs, érodés par les nouvelles politiques de restauration de la citoyenneté et les barrières à la naturalisation. La mémoire de ces groupes est d’ailleurs entre en résonnance avec le discours de la Fédération de Russie sur l’histoire, largement similaire à celui de l’URSS. Les nouvelles frontières nationales issues de l’URSS recouvrent donc imparfaitement les frontières mémorielles à l’Est, mais aussi à l’Ouest.
En effet, l’Union européenne s’est peu à peu dotée d’un arsenal juridique non contraignant (le plus souvent des résolutions du Parlement européen) sur l’interprétation de l’histoire du XXe siècle et avant tout sur l’Holocauste quand l’extermination des Juifs (plusieurs centaines de milliers) dans les Etats baltes restent en partie un point aveugle des nouvelles historiographies nationales. Le processus d’intégration des Etats baltes les a conduit à réévaluer sous la pression européenne mais aussi américaine, une partie sombre de leur histoire, notamment par le biais de Commission d’historiens baltes et internationaux installées dans chacun des trois pays en 1998.
Pourtant, on n’a pas assisté à une adoption pure et simple du compromis mémoriel européen, mais à une réévaluation de l’horreur du nazisme dans la comparaison des deux totalitarisme. D’ailleurs, après 2004, une étude attentive de l’activité des députés européens baltes montrent leur particulier intérêt à ces questions de mémoires, d’autant plus si leur pays (l’Estonie et la Lettonie) abrite une forte communauté russophone qui conteste le nouveau récit national et que les relations avec la Russie sont tendues. On assiste à une tentative d’influencer le débat européen pour s’en prévaloir sur la scène nationale et dans les relations avec Moscou, mais un mouvement inverse d’exportation des débats nationaux sur la scène européenne s’est aussi opéré avec l’élection de députés européens lettons issus des partis russophones.
On peut donc dire que la dissonance forte entre les débats mémoriels baltes et l’Union européenne s’est en partie seulement atténuée avec le processus d’adhésion. On mesure les effets de l’adhésion sur les débats nationaux, mais aussi la volonté de certains partis politiques baltes de transformer cet « acquis européen » de la mémoire, action aujourd’hui contestée notamment par leurs collègues baltes issus d’autres formations politiques.

Standard of Living in Estonia and Finland in the 1930s

by Timo Myllyntaus

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Reference:

“Standard of Living in Estonia and Finland in the 1930s,” Eesti Teaduste Akadeemia Toimetised, Humanitaar- ja sotsiaalteadused (Proceedings of the Estonian Academy of Sciences, Humanities and Social Sciences, Tallinn), vol. 41 (1992) no 3, pp. 184-191.

Abstracts available in Estonian and Russian Abstracts available in Estonian and Russian