The economic output growth of Baltic countries in 1913–1938: a quantitative cross-country comparison

ABSTRACT

This article surveys and appends the available quantitative research on the interwar economic growth of Baltic countries to compare gross domestic product (GDP) (in 1990 Geary–Khamis dollars) growth in Estonia, Finland, Latvia, and Lithuania between 1913 and 1938 in a broad international context. Finland’s GDP per capita recovered to the 1913 level in 1923, in Estonia recovery was complete by 1922, in Lithuania by 1924, and in Latvia by 1924–1925. By high-end estimates, the growth performance of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania was not weaker than Finland’s. By 1938, the GDP per capita of all Baltic countries exceeded the level of the Soviet Union with the possible exception for Lithuania.     

Subjects to citizens: From non-voting,to protesting,to voting in Estonia during the transition to democracy

Abstract

The political behaviour of ethnic Estonians and Slavs during the Soviet and transition (1989–1991) years reflects differing political orientations towards and grievances with the Soviet regime. Survey data from Estonia show that the reasons for non-voting during the Soviet era vary between ethnic Estonian and Slavic non-voters with ethnic Estonians choosing not to vote for system rejecting reasons. Estonians who did not vote in elections from 1983 to 1988 were more likely to be young, to live in urban areas and to have had a family member repressed. They were also much more likely to engage in petitioning, picketing, and meetings and demonstrations in support of independence between 1986 and 1990, especially if they did not vote for system rejecting reasons between 1983 and 1988. Non-voting among Slavs in the 1980's was not only much rarer than for Estonians with few citing system rejecting reasons for not-voting, but it had no relationship with later protest activities. Estonian non-voters joined independence organizations and increasingly voted during the transition years 1988–1990. But non-voting increased among Slavs in 1989 and 1990 during the transition, and some of this non-voting was clearly a form of protest against increasing Estonian influence over the state.     

Shifting the perspective on identity discourse in Estonia

Abstract

I argue that the post-socialist identity discourse in Estonia should be studied as a result of the dialectic relationship between the international context in which Estonia exists and the perceptions of history and culture that elites deploy in the public discourse of Estonia's identity. Four major narratives that compose much of the identity discourse emerge from this dialectic: Estonia as a reconstituted state and society; Estonia as European; Estonia as Finno-Ugric; and Estonia as Nordic. These narratives can be overlooked if research relies simply on “East” and “West” analytic categories or assumes that history and culture alone yield identity. Estonia provides an excellent opportunity to examine this dialectic because of the international community's role in the country's transformation into a European Union applicant state.     

Demand- and supply-based policy transfer in Estonian public administration

Abstract

The aim of this study is to analyze the role of foreign influence in the development of Estonian central government since the beginning of the 1990s. A distinction is made between two types of policy transfer, which have been characteristic of Estonia and can be applied to transitional countries more generally. The first is demand-based policy learning based on the initiative and acknowledged need of recipient countries. The second is supply-based policy transfer, which is to a large extent based on foreign aid and the initiative of donor countries. Supply-based policy transfer was predominant at the start of transition, but in the late 1990s Estonian government institutions became more proactive in selecting different country models and engaging in lesson-drawing based on demand. Consequently, the focus on policy transfer has lost its significance and policy learning has become more important.     

Religious change in Estonia and the Baltic states during the Soviet period in comparative perspective

Abstract

The article presents a comparative-historical treatment of the change in the religious life of Estonia from 1940 to 1991, when Estonia was part of the Soviet Union. The article is based largely on documents of the archive of the Estonian commissioner of the Council for the Affairs of Religious Cults of the Soviet Union, documents which were not available to researchers before the collapse of the USSR. Religious change in Estonia has been compared to what happened in the neighbouring Baltic countries. The archival data shows an extraordinary decline of institutionalised religion in Estonia during the Soviet period (especially in the Lutheran and Orthodox Churches). Compared to the other republics of the Soviet Union (especially Catholic Lithuania), this fall was particularly drastic in “Lutheran” Estonia and Latvia. Also, some comparisons are made between Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and the rest of Europe, in order to test the author's hypothesis that by the end of the Soviet occupation, Estonian society was among the most highly secularised ones in Europe (or possibly the most secularised).     

Identity dynamics of Russian-speakers of Estonia in the transition period

Abstract

The question of the development of the identity of those of the Russian diaspora in various post-Soviet independent states has attracted many scholars. With this article the authors would like to join the discussion by exploring the strategies used for retrospective self-designation and creation of boundaries between “us” and “them” of younger Russian-speakers¹ living in Estonia. The authors consider that there are good preconditions for the rise of group-consciousness among Estonian Russian-speakers on the basis of their common political exclusion. However, Estonia has been one of the countries that has moved most rapidly into global communication networks and post-modern values, thereby offering fertile soil for distancing oneself from previous identity-references, individualization and fragmentation of identity. The aim of this analysis is to outline the patterns of identification and discuss them in relation with generation replacement and individualization — aspects that have not been fully explored thus far.     

Australia and the Baltic States, 1919–1945

Praised by international organizations, Estonia and Slovenia have long been considered among the most successful post-communist states. Estonia quickly transformed itself into one of the most liberal economies in the world, whereas Slovenia opted for a social justice-oriented market economy. Still, the roots of their success coincide in that consensus played a crucial role. We argue that the public sphere was never as repressed in Estonia and Slovenia during the communist period as it was elsewhere. Distinct national identities continued to be formed and re-formed by intellectuals during the decades of communist rule, who assumed roles as political leaders when the transition started. Consensus based on these national identities legitimized reform policies for the entire decade of the 1990s.     

Baltic foreign policy making establishments of the 1990s: Influential institutional and individual actors

Abstract

This article examines, evaluates, and compares the role of political institutions in the foreign policy making process of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania in the 1990s. The central claim advanced is that the extent of influence exercised by political institutions in transitional states was largely conditioned by, and depended on, the individuals who headed these institutions. It is argued that the stronger the personality at the top of a political institution, the greater and more influential role it played in the foreign policy making process of the country.     

In the Eye of the Storm: The Italian Economy and the Eurozone Crisis

Abstract

The eurozone crisis had a more significant and longer-lasting impact on Italy than on virtually any other member state, with the effects still visible a decade after. The extent of the shock was surprising in view of progress Italy had apparently made in the 1990s in terms of enhancing its capacity to meet the demands of European Monetary Union. The explanation for this traumatic economic experience lies in Italy’s deep, long-term, structural tensions which were placed under severe pressure during the 1990s and which were cracked open by the 2011 sovereign debt crisis. These have had long-standing economic effects as well as political ramifications in terms of a significant change in the Italy–EU relationship.     

Italian Politics in an Era of Recession: The End of Bipolarism?

Abstract

Italian politics have undergone momentous change in the 2007–2017 decade under the impact of the eurozone crisis, whose peak in 2011–2013 could be equated to the earlier watershed years of 1992–1994. The lasting impact of the upheaval in Italian politics in the early 1990s could still be felt in the decade of economic recession, but there were also new challenges prompted by a crisis that had its roots in international financial contagion and which unravelled under the shadow of both recession and austerity. The changes were of an economic, social, cultural, institutional, policy-oriented and political nature. If one central quintessentially political theme stands out by the end of this decade it is the apparent exhaustion of the quest for bipolarisation that was initiated in the early 1990s.     

Distinct mental structures in transitional culture: An empirical analysis of values and identities in Estonia and Sweden

Abstract

This article examines the structures of value consciousness and self-identification in two EU countries: Estonia, a representative transitional society, and Sweden, a representative stable welfare society. The study is an attempt to operationalize Sztompka's concept of “cultural templates” on the meso-level of analysis, by revealing latent mental structures. Our main conclusion is that the transitional culture in Estonia can be characterized by three specific mental patterns: nostalgic resignation, striving for success, and an escapist Western orientation, represented by different social groups. The process of individualization, characteristic of Western welfare societies, has taken place in transitional Estonia with delays and significant modifications.     

Under the conflicting pressures of the ideals of the era and the burdens of history: Ethnic relations in Estonia, 1918–1925

Abstract

One of the many challenges that Estonia faced when it gained independence was the minority question. The history of certain minorities, above all that of the Baltic Germans, has already been studied fairly intensively. Nevertheless, the scope of all previous studies has been rather narrow (the position of a single minority). This article traces the history of all ethnic minorities in Estonia and views them from a broader perspective. Answers are sought to the following questions: What were the ethnic relations like in Estonia in 1918–1925? Why were they so? Did they change in the course of time? The article is based on the systematic study of Estonian press and archival sources. It constitutes an expanded version of the conclusion of the author's Finnish-language monograph Ajan ihanteiden ja historian rasitteiden ristipaineissa: Viron etniset suhteet vuosina 1918–1925.     

The Formation and Location Features of Estonian Cemeteries

Abstract

Cemeteries are not just burial sites. They mirror the development of a society and carry identity value. The way cemeteries are located and arranged may suggest former administrative boundaries, population dynamic s and other aspects of past life. This article gives an overview of civic cemeteries in Estonia, focusing mainly on the determinants of location pattern of burial places since the end of the eighteenth century. The principal aim is to provide a comprehensive database and typology of Estonian cemeteries based on historic and religious characteristics. As a result of the analysis of location criteria a number of key factors determining the network of cemeteries were detected. The se included legislation, administrative division, religion, regional economic peculiarities, population movements, and traditions.     

Ambiguous activists. Estonia's model of cultural autonomy as interpreted by two of its founders: Werner Hasselblatt and Ewald Ammende

Abstract

Baltic Germans who were active on behalf of especially German minorities throughout Europe during the 1920s have already found some recognition in especially German-language studies. Now they are receiving a wider coverage. Two of these men, Werner Hasselblatt and Ewald Ammende, came from Estonia and played a part in the development of the cultural autonomy legislation enacted in 1925. Traditionally this has been counted a positive contribution to the management of Europe's minorities during the inter-war period. During the 1930s at the latest, however, both Hasselblatt and Ammende drifted towards German National Socialism. Through an investigation of the ideas of these men, this paper attempts to interpret lives which helped to create apparently progressive legislation in the 1920s, but which compromised with a dreadful political movement soon afterwards. What were the motives behind their actions?     

Domesticating the future?: Citizen’s income discussion in Estonia

ABSTRACT

Citizen’s income is an idea that is currently gaining ground in many parts of the world. The prospect of disappearing jobs and social exclusion that the globalized world faces has given the idea of guaranteed income a new urgency. This article is a pilot sociological study of the citizen’s income discussion in post-socialist Estonia. The article is based on qualitative research: interviews with experts from different fields and an analysis of print media. Four systematic approaches to citizen’s income are differentiated in the paper. We analyze the views on the idea in order to explore their significance for the Estonian economic status quo and welfare state.     

Postcolonial theory as a means to understand Estonian art history

ABSTRACT

This article analyzes Estonian art scene in the Soviet era from the postcolonial perspective. The first objective is to consider whether it is appropriate to call the Soviet occupation of Estonia colonialism. Second, the article points to how postcolonial theory can elucidate the history of Estonian visual art during and after the Soviet occupation. The period of Soviet colonialism in Estonia was not uniform; in the fine arts, several different rhetorical regimes existed simultaneously: pro-authority, Western avant-garde orientated, and a national-conservative discourse. The article also investigates how the Soviet colonial situation shaped the institutional and economic environment of Estonian art.     

From the Society's Local Honorary Secretary in New Zealand

General

Missile Defences and Asian‐Pacific Security. By M. J. Mazarr. Basingstoke, Macmillan Press, 1989. Pp. 226. Bibliog. Index. £29.50.

International Economic Pluralism: Economic Policy in East Asia and the Pacific. By P. Drysdale. New York. Columbia University Press. 1988. Pp. 294. Bibliog. Index. $46.00.

Central Asia

The Great Game: on Secret Service in High Asia. By Peter Hopkirk. London, John Murray. 1990. Pp. 562. Illus. Bibliog. Index. £19.95.

The Pundits: British Exploration of Tibet and Central Asia. By Derek Waller. Lexington, University Press of Kentucky, 1990. Pp. 273. Notes. Bibliog. Index. £30.00.

The Spy Who Disappeared: Diary of A Secret Mission to Russian Central Asia in 1918. By Reginald Teague‐Jones (alias Ronald Sinclair). Introd. &; Epilogue by Peter Hopkirk. London, Victor Gollancz Ltd. 1990. Pp. 216. Map. £14.95.

Central Asia and Kashmir. A Study in the Context of Anglo‐Russian Rivalry. By K. Warikoo, New Delhi. Gian Publishing House. 1989. Pp. 264. Bibliog. Index. Rs 250. Hb.

The Cambridge History of Early Inner Asia. Ed. Denis Sinor. Cambridge University Press, 1990. Pp. 518. Bibliog. Index. £60.00.

Inside the Treasure House: A Time in Tibet. By Catriona Bass. London, Victor Gollancz Ltd. 1990. Pp. 221. Illus. Index. £15.95.

Requiem for Tibet. By George N. Patterson. London, Aurum Press. 1990. Pp. 234. Map. Illus. Index. £14.95.

Requiem for Tibet. By George N. Patterson. London, Aurum Press. 1990. Pp. 234. Map. Illus. Index. £14.95.

South Asia

The New Cambridge History of India. Vijayanagara. By Burton Stein. Cambridge University Press. 1990. Pp. 156. Index. £19.50.

Maps of Mughal India. By Susan Gole. London and New York, Kegan Paul International. 1990. Pp. 60. Maps. £45.00.

The French in India: from Diamond Traders to Sanskrit Scholars. Ed. Rose Vincent. London, Sangam Books, 1990. Pp. 165. £14.95.

Imperial Rule in Punjab 1818–1881. The Conquest &; Administration of Multan. By J. Royal Roseberry III. Riverdale, Maryland, The Riverdale Co. 1987. Pp. 274. Bibliog. Index. Maps. $34.00.

Indian Diary. By Sidney and Beatrice Webb. Editor: N. G. Jayal. Oxford University Press, 1990. Pp. 222. £5.95.

Farewell the Plumed Troop: A Memoir of the Indian Cavalry 1919–1945. By D. M. Killingley. Newcastle upon Tyne, Grevatt &; Grevatt, 1990. Pp. 134. Illus. Gloss. Index. £12.95 (UK + P&;P). £16.80 (Overseas).

Letters to Chief Ministers, 1947–1964. By Jawaharlal Nehru. Volume 3, 1952–1954, New Delhi (OUP), 1987. Pp. 673. Volume 4, 1954–1957, New Delhi, (OUP), 1988. Pp. 668. Frontis. Illus. Index. £13.50 each.

Indian National Movement: Its Ideological and Socio‐Economic Dimensions. By Madhu Limaye. London, Sangam Books, 1989. Pp. 452. Chronology. Index. £25.95.

Sri Aurobindo: A Brief Biography. By P. Heehs. O.U.P., 1990. Pp. 172. Bibliog. Index. £4.95. Pb.

Hinduism, The Anthropology of a Civilisation. By M. Biardeau, O.U.P., Pp. 189. Notes. Gloss. £8.95.

A Popular Dictionary of Sikhism. By W. Owen Cole and Piara Singh Sambhi, London, Curzon Press, 1990, Pp. 163. £4.50.

South‐East Asia

A Malay Frontier: Unity and Dualism in a Sumarran Kingdom. By J. Drakard. SEAP Cornell University Southeast Asia Program. Ithaca, New York, 1990. Maps. Illus. Bibliog. Index. Pp. 205. US$15.

Taming the Coolie Beast: Plantation Society and the Colonial Order in Southeast Asia. By J. Breman. Delhi, Oxford University Press, 1989. Illus. Gloss. Bibliog. Index. Pp. 321. £11.95.

Doi Moi: Economic Reforms and Development Policies in Vietnam. Ed. Per Ronnås and Örjan Sjöberg. Stockholm, Swedish International Development Authority. 1990. Pp. 221. Price not stated.

Middle East

Israel, Palestinians and the Intifada: Creating Facts on the West Bank. By Geoffrey Aronson. London, Kegan Paul International in association with the Institute for Palestine Studies, 1990. Pp. 376. Notes. Index. Maps £30.00.

Israel on the Brink of Decision: Division, Unity and Crosscurrents in the Israeli Body Politic. By Rosemary Hollis. London, Research Institute for the Study of Conflict and Terrorism, Conflict Studies No. 231, 1990. Pp. 29. Map. £7.50.

Hussain of Jordan. By James Lunt. London, Fontana, 1990. Pp. 402. Notes. Index. £4.99 Pb.

British Policy in Persia, 1918–1925. By Houshang Sabahi. London, Frank Cass &; Company, 1990. Bibliog. Index. Pp. 269. £30.00.

Far East

The Pride that was China. By Michael Loewe. London, Sidgwick and Jackson; New York, St. Martin's Press, 1990. Great Civilizations Series. Pp. 312. Index. Bibliog. Illus. Maps. £20.00.

Rebellions and Revolutions; China from the 1800s to the 1980s. By Jack Gray. Oxford University Press, 1990. Pp. 456. Maps. Index. £35.00 Hb. £11.95 Pb.

The Golden Age of the Chinese Bourgeoisie 1911–1937 By Marie‐Claire Bergère. Transl. Janet Lloyd. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press; Paris, Editions de la Maison des Sciences de l'Homme, 1990. Pp. 356. Bibliog. Index. £35.00.

China at Forty: Mid‐life Crisis? Ed. David Goodman and Gerald Segal. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989. Pp. 178. Index. £9.95 Pb.

The Secret Speeches of Chairman Mao from the Hundred Flowers to the Great Leap Forward. Ed. Roderick MacFarquhar, Timothy Cheek and Eugene Wu. Harvard Contemporary China Series: 6, Harvard University Press, 1989. Pp. 561. Bibliog. Index. £11.95 Pb.

The Secret Speeches of Chairman Mao from the Hundred Flowers to the Great Leap Forward. Ed. Roderick MacFarquhar, Timothy Cheek and Eugene Wu. Harvard Contemporary China Series: 6, Harvard University Press, 1989. Pp. 561. Bibliog. Index. £11.95 Pb.

A Higher Kind of Loyalty. By Liu Binyan. New York, Pantheon Books. 1990. (Translated by Zhu Hong). Index. $22.95.

A World Elsewhere: Europe's Encounter with Japan in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries. By Derek Massarella. New Haven and London, Yale University Press, 1990. Pp. 442. Notes. Index. £25.00 ($35.00).

With Perry to Japan: A memoir by William Heine. Frederic Trautmann (trans.). Honolulu, University of Hawaii Press, 1990. Pp. 237. Illus. Notes. Bibliog. Index. $32.00.

State and Intellectual in Imperial Japan: The Public Man in Crisis. By Andrew E. Barshay. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1989. Pp. 315. Bibliog. Index. Price not stated.

The Formation of Science in Japan: Building a Research Tradition. By James R. Bartholomew. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1989. Pp. 371. Illus. Index. £25.00.

The Birth of the Japanese Labour Movement: Takano Fusataro and the Rodo Kumiai Kiseikai. By Stephen E. Marsland. Honolulu, University of Hawaii Press, 1989. Pp. 271. Notes. Bibliog. Index. $27.00.

Financial Politics in Contemporary Japan. By Frances McCall Rosenbluth. Ithaca and London. Cornell University Press, 1989. Pp. 237. Index. $24.95.

The Green Archipelago: Forestry in Preindustrial Japan. By Conrad Totman. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University California Press, 1989. Pp. 297. Illus. Maps. Bibliog. Index. $35.00.

Postmodernism and Japan. Ed. M. Miyoshi and H. D. Harootunian. Durham, Duke University Press. 1989. Pp. 279. Index. £11.15 Pb.

Culture, Control and Commitment By James R. Lincoln and Arne L. Kalleberg. Cambridge University Press, 1990. Pp. 292. Index. £30.00.

Crested Kimono: Power and Love in the Japanese Business Family. By Matthews Masayuki Hamabata. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1990. Pp. 192. Bibliog. Index. $19.90.

Diplomacy of Asymmetry: Korean‐American Relations to 1910. By Jongsuk Chay. Honolulu, University of Hawaii Press, 1990. Pp. 239. Notes. Bibliog. Index. US $32.00.

A Substitute for Victory: The Politics of Peacemaking at the Korean Armistice Talks. By Rosemary Foot. Ithaca and London, Cornell University Press, 1990. Pp. 273, Chronology, Maps. Bibliography. Index. $32.50.

Authoritarianism and Opposition in South Korea. By Hak‐Kyu Sohn. London, Routledge, 1989. Pp. 186. Notes. Bibliog. Appendix. Index. £35.00.

Korea: A Religious History. By James Huntley Grayson. Oxford University Press, 1989. Pp. 293. Bibliog. Index. £37.50.

The Great Mosque of Isfahan. By Oleg Grabar. London, I.B. Tauris &; Co., 1990. Pp. 141. Illus. Index. £24.95.     

Defending national sovereignty against two Russias: Estonia in the Russian Civil War, 1918–1920

Abstract

This article examines the establishment of Estonian independence from a wider perspective including the Petrograd front of the Russian Civil War which had a decisive influence on securing Estonia's independence. The contradictory military cooperation between the Estonian army and the White Russian troops under command of General Iudenich, who was an ardent fighter for a Greater Russia that also included Estonia, was skillfully used by the Estonians in order to secure their own borders. Based on primary sources from Estonian and Russian archives, this article sheds new light on Estonian Russian policy during the years 1918–1920, arguing that in the given framework of international policy it was the Estonian side that in decisive moments managed to set the rules of the game.     

Baltic Studies in North America: A Survey of Academic Dissertations 1911–2006

ABSTRACT

The article argues for an extended delineation of increasing Western cultural hegemony in the reconstituted Baltic states. An initial idiom of postcolonial studies is revisited in order to complement their dominant scope in the Baltics, focused primarily on a retrospective cultural study of Baltic/Soviet relationships. The argument elaborates on the urgency of the expanding research agenda regarding the Baltic/European research framework. By pointing out the frequent occurrence of the superiority or inferiority value scale in cross-cultural references sampled from press releases of the Art Museum of Estonia, the article concludes that mainstream cultural self-reflection in Estonia is nowadays subjected to the supremacy of the imagined West European viewpoint.     

The democratic experience in divided societies: The Baltic states in comparative perspective

Abstract

The process of democratization in the Baltic states has been coloured by the question of the political integration of the formerly-dominant Russian-speaking communities. This paper compares the extent of ethnic differences in the experience of democracy in these three states with those in ten other East European societies in the mid-1990s. It examines how polarized ethnic groups are in terms of their satisfaction with the democratic process, representation and responsiveness and where the Baltic states stand in terms of the extent of such ethnic polarization compared with the range of situations found in former-communist Eastern Europe. The Baltic states are shown to be distinct from each other, with Estonia having the most polarized experience of democratic processes, and the findings generally undermine notions of Baltic exceptionalism with regard to democracy and ethnic relations. Finally, we consider the possible implications for membership in the European Union of the experience of unequal involvement in the democratic process in these societies.