Download or read book A History of the Baltic States written by Andres Kasekamp and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2017-10-26 with total page 255 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this key textbook, Andres Kasekamp masterfully traces the development of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, from the northern crusades against Europe's last pagans and Lithuania's rise to become one of medieval Europe's largest states, to their incorporation into the Russian Empire and the creation of their modern national identities. Employing a comparative approach, a particular emphasis is placed upon the last one hundred years, during which the Baltic states achieved independence, endured occupation by the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany, and transformed themselves into members of the European Union. This is an essential textbook for undergraduate students taking modules on Eastern or Central European History, Communism and Post-Communism, the Soviet Union, or Baltic Culture and Politics. Engaging and accessible, this is also an ideal introduction to the Baltic States for general readers.

Download or read book Culture and Customs of the Baltic States written by Kevin C. O'Connor Ph.D. and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2006-03-30 with total page 299 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Baltic States of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania are thriving after hundreds of years of German colonization, numerous wars of conquest, and demographic Russification. Their cultures have survived, perhaps through a conscious effort to sustain many of their most ancient customs and traditions. Though the Baltic States are responding to modern and postmodern international trends, contemporary developments in the region's cultural life are part of an ongoing conversation about the way in which the Balts understand their histories, destinies, and national identities. This timely overview of the reemerging states portrays the Estonians, Latvians, and Lithuanians as they see themselves—through a historical lens. The Baltic States of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania are thriving after hundreds of years of German colonization, numerous wars of conquest, and demographic Russification. Their cultures have survived, perhaps through a conscious effort to sustain many of their most ancient customs and traditions. Though the Baltic States are responding to modern and postmodern international trends, contemporary developments in the region's cultural life are part of an ongoing conversation about the way in which the Balts understand their own histories, destines, and national identities. This timely overview of the reemerging states portrays the Estonians, Latvians, and Lithuanians as they see themselves—through a historical lens. The approach in each of the topical chapters is to generalize what is common among the three states and then to focus on each country in turn. Chapters on the land, people, and history; religion; marriage, family, gender, and education; holidays, cuisine, and leisure activities; language, folklore, and literature; media and cinema; performing arts; and art are a superb introduction to the Baltics and to the unique aspects of the countries. Lithuania's culture has been heavily influenced by Poland, and the capital, Vilnius, was a thriving center of Jewish learning until the Nazi years. Latvia is the most ethnically diverse and Russian-influenced. Estonia sees itself as a European country, indeed, Scandinavian.

Download or read book The Baltic States Years of Dependence 1940 1990 written by Romuald J. Misiunas and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 1993 with total page 434 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this updated edition of their renowned The Baltic States, Romuald Misiunas and Rein Taagepera bring the story of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia up to the 1990s. The authors describe and analyze how the Baltic nations survived fifty years of social disruption, language discrimination, and Russian colonialism. The nations' histories are fully integrated and compared, and some notable differences between them are pointed out. With two new chapters, a revised preface, and an appendix on the end of Soviet domination, this expanded study covers a tumultuous period of political, economic, cultural, and ecological reform.

Download or read book Housing Estates in the Baltic Countries written by Daniel Baldwin Hess and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2019-08-27 with total page 383 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This open access book focuses on the formation and later socio-spatial trajectories of large housing estates in the Baltic countries—Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. It also explores claims that a distinctly “westward-looking orientation” in their design produced housing estates that were superior in design to those produced elsewhere in the Soviet Union (between 1944 and 1991, Estonia was a member republic of the USSR). The first two parts of the book provide contextual material to help readers understand the vision behind housing estates in Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. These sections present the background of housing estates in the Baltic Republics as well as challenges and debates concerning their formation, evolution, and present condition and importance. Subsequent parts of the book consist of: demographic analyses of the socioeconomic characteristics and ethnicity of housing estate residents (past and present) in the three Baltic capital cities, case studies of people and places related to housing estates in the Baltic countries, and chapters exploring relevant special topics and themes. This book will be of interest to students, scholars, and advocates interested in understanding the past, present, and future importance of housing estates in the Baltic countries.

Download or read book The Baltic States written by Thomas Lane and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-11-05 with total page 705 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since the end of the Cold War there has been an increased interest in the Baltics. The Baltic States brings together three titles, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, to provide a comprehensive and analytical guide integrating history, political science, economic development and contemporary events into one account. Since gaining their independence, each country has developed at its own pace with its own agenda and facing its own obstacles. The authors examine the tensions accompanying a post-communist return to Europe after the long years of separation and how each country has responded to the demands of becoming a modern European state. Estonia was the first of the former Soviet republics to enter membership negotiations with the European Union in 1988 and is a potential candidate for the next round of EU expansion in 2004. Lithuania and Latvia have also expressed their desire for future membership of NATO and the EU.

Download or read book The Law of the Baltic States written by Tanel Kerikmäe and published by Springer. This book was released on 2017-04-05 with total page 534 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the first book to present the law of the Baltic States in one comprehensive and coherent volume in English. The Baltic States region, which was incorporated by the Soviet Union for 50 years and now is the only such territory in the EU, continues to be characterized by a number of unique traits, problems and developmental trends. This book addresses these facets of law – the status quo, problems and trends – by adopting a comparative perspective structure for all three Baltic States (divided into three main parts – Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania). Each of these parts examines similar core aspects: General Frameworks, Public Law, and Private Law. Taking into account the peculiarities of each country, the individual chapters provide analyses of principles, problems and developments in specific legal branches. The authors of the book are recognized academics and professionals in the field of law. Taken together, their contributions offer a valuable tool and resource for anyone interested in the law of the Baltic States: students, legal practitioners, scholars, administrators, etc.

Download or read book A Concise History of the Baltic States written by Andrejs Plakans and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2011-02-24 with total page 491 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An integrated history of three Baltic peoples - Estonians, Latvians and Lithuanians - from their origins as tribal societies to separate nations.

Download or read book The Baltic States from the Soviet Union to the European Union written by Richard Mole and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2012-05-23 with total page 218 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Baltic States are unique in being the only member-states of the EU to have fought to regain their sovereignty from the Soviet Union, only then to cede it to Brussels in certain key areas. Similarly, no member-states have had to struggle as hard as Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania to preserve their identity after fifty years of Soviet nationality policy in the face of sub-state and supra-state challenges. The post-communist experience of the Baltic States thus allows us to examine debates about identity as a source of political power; the conditioning and constraining influence of identity discourses on social, political and economic change; and the orientation and outcome of their external relations. In particular, the book examines the impact of Russian and Soviet control of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania; the Baltic independence movements of the late 1980s/early 1990s; the citizenship debates; relations with Russia vis-à-vis the withdrawal of the troops of the former Soviet Army; drawing of the shared boundary and the rights of Russian-speaking minorities as well as the efforts undertaken by the three Baltic States to rebuild themselves, modernise their economies, cope with the ensuing social changes and facilitate their accession to the EU and NATO.

Download or read book The Baltic States written by Adam Woog and published by Referencepoint Press. This book was released on 2014-08 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Historical perspective on the republics that once made up the Soviet Union and the choices and challenges that have shaped where they are today is the focus of The Former Soviet Union: Then and Now. All books in the series examine important political, economic, and cultural events during the Soviet period and since the Soviet Union's collapse. Challenges that lie ahead are also explored. Quotes from recognized experts, respected news organizations, and other knowledgeable sources add depth and perspective to the text as do maps, sidebars, and key facts. Book jacket.

Download or read book The Baltic States written by Graham Smith and published by Springer. This book was released on 2016-07-27 with total page 214 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Baltic States examines the struggles of the Baltic peoples for national self-determination. It is divided into two parts. Part one explores their nationalist awakening, how the realization of national self-determination during the inter-war years of independent statehood manifested itself, and the impact that fifty years of subsequent incorporation into the Soviet Union has had on Baltic politics and national cultures. Part two examines the nationalist reawakening in the late 1980s, the re-establishment of Baltic national self-governance in 1990-91 and the problems that these countries now face as sovereign entities.

Download or read book The Baltic Nations and Europe written by John Hiden and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-01-14 with total page 238 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Of all the Soviet Union's subject nationalities, the three Baltic republics, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, were the most determined and best organised in seizing the opportunities created by glasnost and perestroika to win freedom from Moscow's grip. At the time of first publication, in 1991, the final section of the book was speculative. Now for this revised edition, the authors have provided a new final chapter which brings the story up to date -- and the three republics to political independence again.

Download or read book Food Culture and Politics in the Baltic States written by Diana Mincyte and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2018-11-09 with total page 136 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book focuses on food culture and politics in three Baltic States: Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. In popular and scholarly writings, the Baltic states are often seen as a meat-and-potatoes kind of place, inferior to sophisticated cuisines of the West and exotic diets in the East. Such views stem from the long intellectual tradition that focuses on political and cultural centers as sources of progress. But, as a new generation of writers has argued, in order to fully grasp the ongoing cultural and political changes, we need to shift the focus from capital cities such as Paris, Berlin, Rome, or Moscow to everyday life in borderland regions that are primary arenas where such transformations unfold. Building on this perspective, chapters featured in this book examine how identities were negotiated through the implementation of new food laws, how tastes were reinvented during imperial encounters, and how ethnic and class boundaries were both maintained and transgressed in Baltic kitchens over the course of the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. In so doing, the book not only explores culinary practices across the region, but also offers a new vantage point for understanding everyday life and the entanglement between nature and culture in modern Europe. This book was originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Baltic Studies.

Download or read book The Baltic Nations and Europe written by John Hiden and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-01-14 with total page 227 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Of all the Soviet Union's subject nationalities, the three Baltic republics, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, were the most determined and best organised in seizing the opportunities created by glasnost and perestroika to win freedom from Moscow's grip. At the time of first publication, in 1991, the final section of the book was speculative. Now for this revised edition, the authors have provided a new final chapter which brings the story up to date -- and the three republics to political independence again.

Download or read book Die Geschichte der baltischen Staaten written by Georg von Rauch and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 1974-01-01 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Georg von Rauch (1904 - 1991) was a Baltic German historian specializing in Russia and the Baltic states. Rauch was born in Pskov, the son of Kornelius von Rauch, who was serving in the Russian army; in 1911 the family moved to Sangaste in southern Estonia, then part of the Russian Empire. Rauch graduated from the University of Tartu with a degree in history in 1927, leaving for Germany in 1939. He joined the staff of the University of Marburg, where he taught Russian history, in 1946, becoming a professor in 1953. In 1958 he accepted an offer from the University of Kiel, where he became head of the Institute on East European History. His pioneering history of the Soviet Union was translated into other languages and became a standard textbook. His son was the anarchist Georg von Rauch, killed by the police in 1971."--Wikipedia.

Download or read book Comparative Politics and Government of the Baltic States written by D. Auers and published by Springer. This book was released on 2015-03-17 with total page 269 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book traces the development of the political institutions, electoral systems, parties, civil society, economic and social policies and foreign affairs of the three Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania over the last quarter century.

Download or read book The Baltic States Years of Dependence 1940 1980 written by Romuald J. Misiunas and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 1983-01-01 with total page 376 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Geschiedenis van Estland, Letland en Litauen

Download or read book The Baltic Republics written by Steven Otfinoski and published by Infobase Publishing. This book was released on 2014-05-14 with total page 193 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Posed on the eastern edge of Russia, the Baltic republics of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania are among the smallest republics of the 15 countries of the former Soviet Union. Collectively, however, they are the greatest success story of these once satellite states. They were the first Soviet states to break away and have achieved a successful transition from communism to democracy. The Baltic Republics begins with a detailed introduction to the common geography and history of the Baltic republics, followed by sections that explore the history, government, economy, culture, daily life, and cities of each individual nation. Providing a general assessment of the present problems and future solutions of the three Baltic republics this volume introduces readers to various aspects of life in these areas. The author emphasizes the success of these countries in the post-Soviet era and provides a broad historical overview that shows recent events in context. Accessible and up to date, The Baltic Republics is an ideal starting point for students researching the area.