Bradley Woodworth
Bradley D. Woodworth is Professor of History at the University of New Haven and Baltic Studies Program Manager at Yale University. His primary research interest is the multiethnic lands of the Baltic Sea region.
Ethnic Relations in the Baltic Reconsidered
This collected volume offers an original perspective on the Baltic region by examining the intricate relationships between its diverse ethnic groups from the mid-nineteenth century to the present. Rather than focusing solely on national narratives or comparisons of historical development, the book analyzes ethnic relations through the lenses of identity, governance, empire, and violence. The nearly constant redrawing of geographic borders and boundaries among communities during this period destabilized fixed identities, generating novel, hybrid ways of self-identification along with a hardening of oppositions. Innovative forms of coexistence came with violent, sometimes genocidal conflicts. The contributors explore topics such as evolving senses of belonging, the impact of imperial and Soviet rule, instances of cooperation and conflict, and the legacies of historical trauma. By incorporating new sources and interdisciplinary approaches, they update traditional understandings of nations and nationalism in the Baltic region and provide insights relevant to similar regions.
Editors
Violeta Davoliute
Violeta Davoliute is Senior Researcher at the Lithuanian Institute of History and Project Leader of Facing the Past: Public History for a Stronger Europe (Horizon Europe, WIDERA program, 2022–2025). She has published extensively on the topics of memory, historical trauma, population displacement, identity, and nationalism.
Darius Staliunas
Darius Staliunas is Chief Researcher at the Lithuanian Institute of History and teaches at Vilnius University. He has published extensively on Russia’s nationality policy in the so-called Northwestern Region (Lithuania and Belarus), ethnic conflicts, problems of historiography, and places of memory in Lithuania.
- Title
- Ethnic Relations in the Baltic Reconsidered
- Editors
- Bradley Woodworth
- Violeta Davoliute
- Darius Staliunas
- Price
- € 141,00 excl. VAT
- ISBN
- 9789048570447
- Format
- Hardback
- Number of pages
- 376
- Language
- English
- Publication date
- 22 - 12 - 2025
- Dimensions
- 15.6 x 23.4 cm
- Series
- Crisis, Conflict and Security in Central and Eastern Europe - CEU Press
- Categories
- Political Science
- Ethnic and Racial Studies
- Sociology and Social History
- Discipline
- History, Art History, and Archaeology
- Imprint
- CEU Press
Introduction
Acknowledgements
Identities: Ascribed, Contested, and Situational
1. Catherine Gibson, Varieties of In-Betweenness in the Borderlands of the Baltic Provinces: A History of the Term Poluvertsy (Half-Believers)
2. Irina Paert, Negotiating Faith and Ethnicity: Conversions, Social Conflict and the Russian Orthodox Clergy in Estland Province during the 1880s-1900s
3. Jörg Hackmann, Voluntary Associations in the Baltic Region. Accelerator or Inhibitor of Inter-Ethnic Relations?
4. Tomas Balkelis, Living by the Border: Violence, Nation-Making and “National Indifference” in the Polish-Lithuanian Borderland, 1920-1939
Crisis and Governance
5. Andres Kasekamp, Konstantin Päts and Ethnic Minorities: The Political Trajectory of an Estonian Nationalist Authoritarian Leader
6. Klaus Richter, Economic Nationalism, Minority Policies, and the 1930s in Lithuania and Latvia
7. Vladas Sirutavi.ius, Nationality in Cadre Policy in Soviet Lithuania, 1944-1953
8. Karsten Brüggemann, Doing It the “Baltic Way”: Internationalism and the Soviet Roots of the Singing Revolution
Legacy of Empire
9. Epp Annus, Spring Flowers and Border Guards: Estonian Narratives of the Soviet Military and Border Troops
10. Ronald Grigor Suny, Exiting Empire: Civil Wars in South Caucasia Versus Civil Peace in the Baltic Republics
11. M.rti.. Kapr.ns, Understanding Hesitancy: The Latvian Russophone Minority and Russia’s Full-Scale Invasion of Ukraine
Legacy of Violence
12. Darius Stali.nas, Anti-Jewish Violence in Interwar Lithuania: Pogroms Without Genocidal Elements as a Precondition of the Holocaust?
13. Stanislovas Stasiulis, New Allies – Old Foes: Ethnic Relations on the Pages of Lithuanian Press during the German Occupation, 1941-1944
14. Violeta Davoli.t., The Habitus of Holocaust Reckoning during the Thaw in Soviet Lithuania
State of the Field and Pointing the Way Forward
15. Toivo U. Raun, Ethnic Relations in the Baltic Region: Complexity and Coexistence
16. Vello Pettai, Scholarly Research on Ethnic Relations in Estonia and Latvia: A Retrospective Overview
Contributors
Acknowledgements
Identities: Ascribed, Contested, and Situational
1. Catherine Gibson, Varieties of In-Betweenness in the Borderlands of the Baltic Provinces: A History of the Term Poluvertsy (Half-Believers)
2. Irina Paert, Negotiating Faith and Ethnicity: Conversions, Social Conflict and the Russian Orthodox Clergy in Estland Province during the 1880s-1900s
3. Jörg Hackmann, Voluntary Associations in the Baltic Region. Accelerator or Inhibitor of Inter-Ethnic Relations?
4. Tomas Balkelis, Living by the Border: Violence, Nation-Making and “National Indifference” in the Polish-Lithuanian Borderland, 1920-1939
Crisis and Governance
5. Andres Kasekamp, Konstantin Päts and Ethnic Minorities: The Political Trajectory of an Estonian Nationalist Authoritarian Leader
6. Klaus Richter, Economic Nationalism, Minority Policies, and the 1930s in Lithuania and Latvia
7. Vladas Sirutavi.ius, Nationality in Cadre Policy in Soviet Lithuania, 1944-1953
8. Karsten Brüggemann, Doing It the “Baltic Way”: Internationalism and the Soviet Roots of the Singing Revolution
Legacy of Empire
9. Epp Annus, Spring Flowers and Border Guards: Estonian Narratives of the Soviet Military and Border Troops
10. Ronald Grigor Suny, Exiting Empire: Civil Wars in South Caucasia Versus Civil Peace in the Baltic Republics
11. M.rti.. Kapr.ns, Understanding Hesitancy: The Latvian Russophone Minority and Russia’s Full-Scale Invasion of Ukraine
Legacy of Violence
12. Darius Stali.nas, Anti-Jewish Violence in Interwar Lithuania: Pogroms Without Genocidal Elements as a Precondition of the Holocaust?
13. Stanislovas Stasiulis, New Allies – Old Foes: Ethnic Relations on the Pages of Lithuanian Press during the German Occupation, 1941-1944
14. Violeta Davoli.t., The Habitus of Holocaust Reckoning during the Thaw in Soviet Lithuania
State of the Field and Pointing the Way Forward
15. Toivo U. Raun, Ethnic Relations in the Baltic Region: Complexity and Coexistence
16. Vello Pettai, Scholarly Research on Ethnic Relations in Estonia and Latvia: A Retrospective Overview
Contributors
