Environment and Energy: The Baltic Sea Gas Pipeline

Germany and Russia have agreed to build the Nord Stream gas pipeline. The 1,200 kilometers-long structure will run from Vyborg, Russia to Greifswald, Germany traversing the Baltic Sea. The Baltic countries, Finland, Poland and Sweden, have expressed concerns about the project. At issue is the environmental impact of the project as well as the energy, political, and socioeconomic implications.     

Uhlin,Anders. Post-Soviet Civil Society: Democratization in Russia and the Baltic States. London and New York,Routledge, 2006, ISBN: 0-415-36804-9.

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 anational 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.     

The Struggle For Baltic History

Low levels of social protection under the framework of neo-liberal ideology have characterized Baltic welfare regimes since the 1991 restoration of independence in these countries. The policies’ negative social consequences intensified during the years of austerity, 2007–2009. Although there have been trade union protests against the measures, these have been powerless and scattered. About 10% of the Latvian and Lithuanian workforce fled the country during the first decade of the 2000s, whereas an even greater proportion of the Estonian workforce has temporarily done so. In Albert O. Hirschman’s terms, “exit” occurs in the absence of “voice”. Moreover, disillusionment caused by deteriorating conditions and limited political choices generate a particular type of loyalty without a sense of influence.     

A parliamentary reception (of sorts): the Russian mission of 1645–46

The arrival of a Russian emissary, Gerasim Semenovich Dokhturov, in London in the midst of the English Civil War created a dilemma for parliamentarians who did not want to offend the Tsar’s envoy and risk losing privileges in the northern trade to the Dutch. With King Charles I absent from the capital and George, Lord Digby (later, the second Earl of Bristol), Secretary of State, having fled the country, the reception of the envoy devolved on Parliament. The focal point of the story of that reception is a decorated letter signed by the Speakers of both Houses of Parliament, William Lenthall (Commons) and Edward Montagu, second Earl of Manchester, which was sent to Tsar Alexis Mikhailovich in June 1646. The experience of the envoy, the preparations by Parliament and the sending of the letter itself to the Tsar can be seen as a ‘dress rehearsal’ for the new role that Parliament would play in state receptions after the execution of King Charles I in 1649.     

The Russian Dimension of Baltic Maritime Governance

This paper seeks to reconstruct the development of Baltic maritime governance by filling in the gap in the systematic study of Russian maritime policy. In a review of historical, administrative, economic, and political facets of Russian maritime policy, the paper identifies the logic of “greatpowerness” underpinned by the category of “national interest” as its main driver. In this overall logic, cooperation with the EU in maritime affairs is a part of larger Russia’s EU politics. Thus, Baltic maritime governance depends on the ability of the EU and Russia to maintain constructive relations beyond the scope of the maritime domain.     

Out of the Shadows: Explaining the Undeclared Economy in Baltic Countries

Until now, participation in undeclared work has been explained through either a structuralist lens as driven by ‘exclusion’ from state benefits and the circuits of the modern economy or through a neo-liberal and/or post-structuralist lens as driven by the voluntary ‘exit’ of workers out of formal institutions and into this alternative realm. Reporting the results of a 2007 survey of undeclared work in eight Baltic nations, this article reveals how such either/or explanations need to be transcended and replaced with an appreciation of the heterogeneous nature of such work and the diverse motives underpinning participation.     

Article 5: Permanent Neutrality in The Tartu Peace Treaty, 1920

The article argues for the need to develop more multicausal accounts of international relations. It uses the Estonian–Russian political crisis over the relocation of the Bronze Soldier monument in 2007 as a case in point, showing how the ideational, material and institutional structures within the wider international society interact. As such, even cases with clear identity-political root causes can benefit from other factors being inserted into the equation when it comes to analysis. The article concludes by arguing that it is only by embracing multicausality that our chances of arriving at fuller and consequently more truthlike accounts of the events out there are improved.     

From sacrum to profanum: reinterpretation of communist places of power in Baltic cities

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.     

Family Formation in the Baltic Countries: A Transformation in the Legacy of state socialism

This article examines the transformation of nuptiality patterns in the Baltic countries since the late 1960s, in the context of long-term trends. The aim of the study is to compare the entry into first conjugal union in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, and analyze the position of the Baltic countries in a broader European perspective. The analyses employ microdata from national surveys conducted in the framework of the European Family and Fertility Surveys program. Our main results on the timing and mode of union formation show that in Estonia and Latvia the shift from direct marriage to cohabitation started well before the fall of the state socialist regime, and followed a trajectory close to Scandinavian countries. In Lithuania, on the other hand, the change in the pattern of union formation has been much slower. The article discusses the factors underlying the observed similarities and dissimilarities in union formation.     

Between Reality and Illusion: Re-Examining the Diversity of Media and Online Professional Journalism in the Baltic States

This article addresses the relationship between the size of media markets and content diversity online. In the Baltic countries, the Internet offers new channels with a greater diversity of information; at the same time, the increasing presence of hybrid discourses (PR-based news, promotional writing) on online media channels is creating an illusory impression of news diversity: the same sources and the same story frames are dominating online. The authors argue that new concepts (quality of information processing, media literacy) need to be taken into account to adequately assess online journalism professionalization (the changing identities and functions of journalists) in a small country.     

The Saracens of the Baltic: Pagan and Christian Lithuanians in the Perception of English and French Crusaders to Late Medieval Prussia

This paper investigates the use of the term ‘Saracens’ to describe the Lithuanian opponents of the Western crusaders who took part in expeditions launched from Prussia by the Teutonic Order against the grand duchy of Lithuania in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. It presents a variety of evidence from narrative and documentary sources to demonstrate that this usage was derived from existing images of Muslim opponents and was reinforced by epic and romance literature. The use of the term Saracens, which by the fourteenth century had become a generic designation for pagans, was both a convenient way for Western crusaders to imbue the Prussian crusades with a value commensurate with campaigns in the Holy Land, but also to blacken their Lithuanian opponents even when they had abandoned paganism.     

在俄华人灰色经营问题解析

灰色经营是指非正规但又被默许存在的经营活动。华人在俄进行灰色经营的领域主要有包棚种菜、在批发市场做买卖和带团旅游。华人在俄灰色经营活动之所以能够长期存在,在某种意义上是俄方有意为之的结果。俄罗斯社会缺乏安全感,对外资和外来移民充满戒心;在制定移民政策和引资政策时,总是更多地考量安全。这样就形成了如下矛盾心理:一方面对于外来移民的经营活动存在客观需求;另一方面又担心对外来移民的经营活动难以把控。对待在俄谋生的外来移民,俄方事实上的行为模式如下:先通过收严合法化空间使包括华人在内的外来劳务移民处于非法境地,然后,一方面默许其灰色经营方式的存在,另一方面在必要时进行检查和惩处。在这一背景下,如何化解灰色经营带来的危害,如何使经营方式由“灰”转“白”,就成为亟待探讨和解决的问题。     

Recent Publications on Baltic History

This article explores different geographies of tourism, femininities and livelihood in post-socialist rural Latvia, with a focus on women's entrepreneurship within rural tourism. Based on a case study in the Cēsis district, its aim is to analyze women's livelihood strategies, including both economic and lifestyle-oriented motives behind entrepreneurship within tourism. The study illustrates women's day-to-day livelihood practices and how they organize their lives in time and space. The article reveals how women negotiate their ‘livelihood action space’, which includes a number of paradoxes between the quest for independence while facing both economic and social restrictions.     

俄罗斯农业制度变革史论

不论是十月革命前的俄国、革命后建立的苏联,还是苏联解体后独立的俄罗斯,农业问题在其历史发展进程中,一直占有重要地位。沙俄是一个落后的农业国家。苏联并没有解决好农业问题,农业一直是个落后的部门。苏联解体后俄罗斯独立,直到近几年其农业发展才出现转机。农业的发展状况在很大程度上取决于农业制度。土地关系和农业组织形式是构成农业...     

Forth Conference of Baltic Studies in Scandinavia

This paper analyzes representations of national identity in three museums dedicated to commemorating twentieth-century occupations in the Baltic States. Narratives presented in those museums can reproduce dominant forms of nationalism (the Estonian case), provide alternative models of discourse while paying respect to established identities (the Latvian case) or deconstruct the victim/oppressor binary altogether while contributing to other aspects of nationalist discourse at the same time (the Lithuanian case).     

论俄罗斯混合市场经济模式的形成及特点

鉴于学术界对于俄罗斯经济发展模式存在不同观点,本文首先分析了俄罗斯从建立自由主义市场经济的政策取向到混合市场经济模式的转变过程,然后分析了俄罗斯混合市场经济模式的突出特征.在此基础上,文章对俄罗斯混合市场经济模式作出评价.最后得出结论,认为以强国富民为目标的混合市场经济模式是俄罗斯经济取得新发展的正确途径,进一步兴利除弊是保持经济增长速度和实现经济多样发展的重要前提.     

从2018年地方选举看俄罗斯左翼政党发展态势

俄罗斯地方选举的结果往往能够反映出俄罗斯的政治社会形势、中央地方关系的变化情况以及精英的流动和发展状况,对国家杜马选举甚至俄罗斯总统选举都有一定的影响。2018年俄地方选举呈现出不同以往的特点,普京支持的“统一俄罗斯”党不仅失去多个地区的领导权,在地区立法机构的席位也大幅缩水。相比之下,俄罗斯联邦共产党则取得了不错的竞选成绩,在所有参选地区的得票率都有所提升,大幅提高了在地区立法机构中的席位占比。但是由于政治当局的打压、左翼政党内部的分裂和俄罗斯联邦共产党自身的发展局限,俄罗斯左翼政党在短期内依然无法与强大的政权党抗衡。不断进行理论创新、加强党的自身建设、联合其他左翼政党和爱国力量,才是俄罗斯左翼政党复兴的长远之计。