Suchergebnisse

Geographies of Nationhood examines the meteoric rise of ethnographic mapmaking in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in the Russian Empire's Baltic provinces as a form of visual and material culture that gave expression to territorialised visions of nationhood.

This book offers innovative perspectives on the intersections between history and memory in Central and Eastern European borderlands. It focuses on the case of Latgale, the multicultural region of eastern Latvia which borders Russia, Belarus and Lithuania, and explores the multiple layers of memories and historical narratives about this borderland in Latvian public history. Based on a detailed analysis of national and regional museums, as well as material from interviews and an expert survey, the study examines how different actors and projects negotiate the borderland's complex history and attempt to shape it into meaningful narratives in the present. Moving beyond binary ethnolinguistic approaches of "Latvian" versus "Russian" interpretations of the past, a more nuanced analytical framework is developed that compares state-level constructions of national master-narratives, the uses of history for local region-building, the persistence of Soviet official narratives, and transnational initiatives aimed at transcending the conceptual borders of the nation-state. The reader will find this to be a fascinating study into the little-known case of Latgale and a valuable contribution to the broader research fields of memory politics and borderlands in the post-Soviet space.

Borders are key sites for the amplification of emotions, yet historians have rarely made emotions into a focal point for studies of boundary-making processes. This article sets out fragmentary evidence for how to read across a fuller array of sources that move us beyond technocratic understandings of boundary commissions to highlight the range of emotional interactions which occurred between boundary commissioners and local populations. It draws on evidence from the Estonian-Latvian Boundary Commission, established in the summer of 1919 to demarcate the international border between the newly independent states of Estonia and Latvia. Petitions sent to the Boundary Commission by the border region inhabitants expressed fear, trepidation or anger about the border proposal and professed feelings of patriotic loyalty to the Estonian or Latvian state. The press derided the Boundary Commission, using humour to convey frustration and shock at the absurdity of the border proposal and tarnish the reputation of the commissioners by portraying them as hot-headed. The accumulating emotional toll of these public sentiments left the boundary commissioners feeling weary and disheartened. By attuning to moods and sentiments surrounding the work of the Estonian-Latvian Boundary Commission, this exploratory article calls for historians to consider emotions methodologically as part of a broader toolkit of approaches for studying histories of boundary-making and to reflect on the insights such perspectives can bring to the field.

Abstract
During the second half of the nineteenth century, statistics attracted significant attention from government officials and educated elites as a method of quantifying socioeconomic change and rendering human and natural resources visible through data. However, we still know little about how local communities responded to changing methods of gathering statistical data during the gradual shift away from forms of enumeration based on legal estates and households toward modern methods of individual enumeration by census. Rarely do we approach the history of censuses from the perspective of the census subjects to consider the experiences of those being counted. This article analyzes interactions between census organizers and local populations in the three Russian imperial Baltic provinces (Estland, Livland, and Kurland) in the second half of the nineteenth century. As a form of administrative intervention, censuses opened up a space for local populations to articulate opinions and question the overlapping layers of authority within the empire between local elites, the provincial administration, and tsarist government. Examining the history of censuses from the perspective of local communities in the Russian Empire demonstrates how attitudes and resistance to censuses were closely tied to particular local issues and concerns. The Baltic case study adds nuance to existing discussions on forms of census resistance by broadening the focus beyond identity politics and conflict over forms of confessional, linguistic, and national classification. Instead, census subjects in the Baltic voiced concerns about how the local authorities might use individual enumeration as a form of administrative surveillance and social control.

This article explores the role of maps in the construction and development of ethnographic taxonomies in the mid-century Russian Empire. A close reading of two ethnographic maps of "European Russia" produced by members of the Imperial Russian Geographical Society, Petr Keppen (1851) and Aleksander Rittikh (1875), is used to shine a spotlight on the cartographical methods and techniques (lines, shading, color, hatching, legends, text, etc.) employed to depict, construct, and communicate these taxonomies. In doing so, this article draws our attention to how maps impacted visual and spatial thinking about the categories of ethnicity and nationality, and their application to specific contexts and political purposes within the Empire. Through an examination of Keppen's and Rittikh's maps, this article addresses the broader question of why cartography came to be regarded as such a powerful medium through which to communicate and consolidate particular visions of an ethnographic landscape.

First published online: 17 Jan 2018 ; Winner of 2019 British Association for Slavonic and East European Studies (BASEES) Postgraduate Prize for the Best Scholarly peer-reviewed Article by a Postgraduate Student. ; This article explores the role of maps in the construction and development of ethnographic taxonomies in the mid-century Russian Empire. A close reading of two ethnographic maps of "European Russia" produced by members of the Imperial Russian Geographical Society, Petr Keppen (1851) and Aleksander Rittikh (1875), is used to shine a spotlight on the cartographical methods and techniques (lines, shading, color, hatching, legends, text, etc.) employed to depict, construct, and communicate these taxonomies. In doing so, this article draws our attention to how maps impacted visual and spatial thinking about the categories of ethnicity and nationality, and their application to specific contexts and political purposes within the Empire. Through an examination of Keppen's and Rittikh's maps, this article addresses the broader question of why cartography came to be regarded as such a powerful medium through which to communicate and consolidate particular visions of an ethnographic landscape.

Gruomota: the influence of politics and nationalism on the development of written Latgalian in the long nineteenth century (1772–1918)Latgale, the southeast region of Latvia, has a distinct ethnoregional identity largely due to the wide- spread use of the Latgalian language/dialect. The status of Latgalian as a language/dialect is highly politicised in Latvia today, yet this is not only a twenty-first century phenomenon. Since its inception as a written language in the mid-eighteenth century, the development of written Latgalian has been strongly influenced by politics and nationalism. This is an exploratory paper, which traces the impact of politics and nationalism on the development of written Latgalian throughout the long nineteenth century, a period in which the region was administered by three political regimes (Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Russian Empire, First Republic of Latvia). Transnational perspectives are used to contextualise the development of written Latgalian with the development of other written languages in the vicinity (Belarusian, Latvian, Lithuanian, and Samogitian), and to open up the field for further comparative studies on the development of non-national written languages/dialect. Latgale is a borderland region often neglected in mainstream Latvian scholarship, and by extension, even more so outside Latvia. This paper hopes to go some way to rectifying this. Gramota: wpływ polityki i nacjonalizmu na rozwój łatgalskiego języka literackiego w długim wieku XIX (1772–1918)Łatgalię, południowo-wschodni region Łotwy, cechuje odrębna tożsamość etniczno-regionalna, przede wszystkim z racji powszechnego na tym terenie używania języka/dialektu łatgalskiego. Status łatgalskiego jako języka/dialektu stanowi w dzisiejszej Litwie w dużej mierze kwestię o wymiarze politycznym, aczkolwiek nie jest to zjawisko, które pojawiło się dopiero w XX stuleciu. Łatgalski już od czasu swych narodzin jako język literacki w połowie XVIII wieku pozostawał pod silną presją polityki oraz nacjonalizmów. Niniejszy artykuł ma na celu prześledzenie oddziaływania polityki i nacjonalizmu na kształtowanie się literackiej odmiany języka łatgalskiego w ciągu "długiego wieku XIX" – okresu, w którym region ten podlegał administracji rządowej sprawowanej przez trzy systemy polityczne (Rzeczpospolita Obojga Narodów, Imperium Rosyjskie, Pierwsza Republika Litewska). Spojrzenie na omawiane zagadnienie z perspektywy ponadnarodowej pozwala stworzyć kontekst rozwoju łatgalskiego języka literackiego w odniesieniu do innych języków literackich formujących się w bliskim jego sąsiedztwie (białoruskiego, łotewskiego, litewskiego i semigalskiego), jak też otworzyć pole dla kolejnych studiów porównawczych nad kształtowaniem się nienarodowych języków/dialektów literackich. Łatgalia stanowi region pograniczny, zwykle zaniedbywany przez główny nurt nauki łotewskiej, a tym bardziej w dociekaniach naukowych poza granicami Łotwy. Niniejszy artykuł ma za zadanie choć w pewnej mierze stan ten naprawić.

Gruomota: the influence of politics and nationalism on the development of written Latgalian in the long nineteenth century (1772–1918)Latgale, the southeast region of Latvia, has a distinct ethnoregional identity largely due to the wide- spread use of the Latgalian language/dialect. The status of Latgalian as a language/dialect is highly politicised in Latvia today, yet this is not only a twenty-first century phenomenon. Since its inception as a written language in the mid-eighteenth century, the development of written Latgalian has been strongly influenced by politics and nationalism. This is an exploratory paper, which traces the impact of politics and nationalism on the development of written Latgalian throughout the long nineteenth century, a period in which the region was administered by three political regimes (Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Russian Empire, First Republic of Latvia). Transnational perspectives are used to contextualise the development of written Latgalian with the development of other written languages in the vicinity (Belarusian, Latvian, Lithuanian, and Samogitian), and to open up the field for further comparative studies on the development of non-national written languages/dialect. Latgale is a borderland region often neglected in mainstream Latvian scholarship, and by extension, even more so outside Latvia. This paper hopes to go some way to rectifying this. Gramota: wpływ polityki i nacjonalizmu na rozwój łatgalskiego języka literackiego w długim wieku XIX (1772–1918)Łatgalię, południowo-wschodni region Łotwy, cechuje odrębna tożsamość etniczno-regionalna, przede wszystkim z racji powszechnego na tym terenie używania języka/dialektu łatgalskiego. Status łatgalskiego jako języka/dialektu stanowi w dzisiejszej Litwie w dużej mierze kwestię o wymiarze politycznym, aczkolwiek nie jest to zjawisko, które pojawiło się dopiero w XX stuleciu. Łatgalski już od czasu swych narodzin jako język literacki w połowie XVIII wieku pozostawał pod silną presją polityki oraz nacjonalizmów. Niniejszy artykuł ma na celu prześledzenie oddziaływania polityki i nacjonalizmu na kształtowanie się literackiej odmiany języka łatgalskiego w ciągu "długiego wieku XIX" – okresu, w którym region ten podlegał administracji rządowej sprawowanej przez trzy systemy polityczne (Rzeczpospolita Obojga Narodów, Imperium Rosyjskie, Pierwsza Republika Litewska). Spojrzenie na omawiane zagadnienie z perspektywy ponadnarodowej pozwala stworzyć kontekst rozwoju łatgalskiego języka literackiego w odniesieniu do innych języków literackich formujących się w bliskim jego sąsiedztwie (białoruskiego, łotewskiego, litewskiego i semigalskiego), jak też otworzyć pole dla kolejnych studiów porównawczych nad kształtowaniem się nienarodowych języków/dialektów literackich. Łatgalia stanowi region pograniczny, zwykle zaniedbywany przez główny nurt nauki łotewskiej, a tym bardziej w dociekaniach naukowych poza granicami Łotwy. Niniejszy artykuł ma za zadanie choć w pewnej mierze stan ten naprawić.