Baltic Nations

BALTIC NATIONS

BALTIC NATIONS. The Baltic nations (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania) are now seen as a unit, although they were not so historically. While Latvian, Lithuanian, and Prussian (a language that became extinct around 1700) are counted in the Baltic language group, Estonian belongs to the Finno-Ugrian language family. Estonians and Latvians (with the exception of the Latgallians) became Lutheran after the disintegration of the Knights of the Sword in the sixteenth century; Lithuanians, on the other hand, remained Catholic. In early modern times the history of Lithuania is closely connected with the history of Poland (Union of Lublin, 1569) and will be discussed there.

From the thirteenth century, colonists, mainly from northern Germany, came as knights, merchants, and craftsmen to Livonia and founded the basis of a German-speaking upper class. They settled in or near fortified castles, from which the territories were ruled. During the heyday of the Hansa, a league of towns that connected the merchant towns in northern Germany with the Baltic in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, many new places were founded along the Baltic Sea, including Riga, Reval/Tallinn, Dorpat/Tartu, Pernau/Pärnu, Wenden/Cēsis, and Windau/Ventspils. These played important roles in trade with the Belarusan up-country. The merchants from Riga, which is located at the mouth of the Dvina River, ranked first.

The towns were the centers of political life; the guilds, for example, the Brotherhood of the Blackheads, regulated education, production, and social life for their members. Throughout the modern period, the Baltic countries remained mainly an agrarian region with a conservative political structure of a privileged foreign upper class and native peasants without rights (serfdom).

Old Livonia was not a homogeneous state in the beginning of the sixteenth century; it combined six territories: the region of the Livonian knights, the municipal area of Riga, and the territories of the bishops of Riga, Courland, Dorpat, and Ösel-Wiek. Beginning in 1420 the Landtag (diet) served as the representative assembly of the country, with great political significance. Military pressure from the Muscovites led to war in the beginning of the sixteenth century.

The Reformation, coming in the 1520s via Prussia to the big Livonian towns, weakened the position of the already outmoded ideals of the crusading Livonian Order and the Catholic bishops. The movement did not encompass the whole population at once, but because of its desire to reach the local population in the vernacular, it helped to develop the native languages. The end of the sixteenth century was characterized by lively German-language chronicles by Balthasar Russow and Salomon Henning. The Lutheran University of Königsberg, founded in 1544 by Duke Albrecht of Hohenzollern, was important for students from the Baltic region as well. The Livonian diet voted for religious freedom of the individual in 1554.

The last grand master, Gotthard Kettler (ruled 1561–1587), secularized the order in 1561 and surrendered Livonia to the Polish king Sigismund II Augustus (ruled 1548–1572), retaining the Duchy of Courland and Semigallia, which included the Latvian region south of the Dvina River, for himself as a Polish vassal. In the Pacta Subiectionis the Polish king guaranteed the old liberties and the Lutheran confession to the Baltic nobility. The Union of Lublin in 1569, which constructed a real union between Poland and Lithuania, confirmed the situation in the Baltic. In 1558 the First Northern War with Tsar Ivan IV (ruled 1533–1584) started. By the peace of Iam Zapol'skii in 1582, northern Estonia came to Sweden, and Livonia, which included today's southern Estonia and northern Latvia, to Poland. In Livonia the Jesuits started to work in the spirit of Counter-Reformation, but in the short period they stayed there (until the beginning of the seventeenth century) they could not achieve enduring success.

In 1592 the Polish king Sigismund III Vasa (ruled 1587–1632) inherited the Swedish throne, resulting in new struggles between the Catholic Vasa in Poland and the Lutheran Vasa in Sweden that involved Russia as well. The struggle for the Dominium Maris Baltici (Control of the Baltic Sea) was mainly fought in Livonia and Prussia. The Polish-Swedish War (1600–1629) ended with the truce of Altmark, by which Livonia fell to the victorious Swedish king Gustavus II Adolphus (ruled 1611–1632). He gained profitable port dues in the Baltic that enabled him to go on with the war in Germany. Poland-Lithuania kept its position on the Baltic only in Polish Livonia (until 1795), today's eastern part of Latvia.

The Thirty Years' War ended in Germany in 1648, but struggles continued as the Second Northern War (1655–1660) in Poland-Lithuania. Cossack uprisings in Ukraine (Bohdan Khmelnytsky's revolt in 1648) weakened the country and helped the Swedes to invade in the mid-1650s, reaching as far as Warsaw. Lithuanian nobles such as Janusz Radziwiłł (1612–1655) planned a union with the Swedes in 1655. Further struggles between Swedes and Russians were mainly fought in the Baltic. The peace treaty of Oliva in 1660 restored the status quo; the imprisoned duke of Courland obtained his duchy again.

The Duchy of Courland, which existed until the Third Polish Partition in 1795, was ruled by the duke and the nobles; policies were made at the assemblies of the Landtag. Though the noblemen did not deny the duke's position as a whole, domestic politics were characterized by lasting conflicts between the nobles and the duke. Since the Formula Regiminis in 1617, which created a noble oligarchy with a princely head, the noblemen had the right to appeal directly to the Polish king, which facilitated the king's intervention with the inner affairs of the duchy.

The energetic duke Jacob (ruled 1642–1682) was able to gain a strong economic and political position in the Baltic. A supporter of mercantilism, he built ships to bypass the dominant Dutch investors in the Baltic Sea and tried to win colonies (Gambia and Tobago). The heyday of the history of this small duchy ended in the seventeenth century. The last Kettler duke, Ferdinand (ruled 1711–1737), lived abroad in Danzig/Gdańsk. The following dynasty of the Biron was strongly influenced by Russian politics. Nevertheless, they showed some architectural initiative in the construction of castles in Mitau/Jelgava and Ruhental/Rundāle.

From 1629 to 1710, Livonia and Estonia were ruled by Swedish governors-general; the self-government of the nobles remained. The Baltic noblemen were represented over-proportionally in government services and in the Swedish army, where they made up one-third of the higher ranks; frequent ennoblement and distribution of estates followed. In the middle of the seventeenth century, half of the Baltic estates belonged to sixteen Swedish families, including the Oxenstierna, Baner, and De La Gardie. With the Reduction of Land of 1680, that is, the reclamation of royal states alienated illegally, King Charles XI (ruled 1672–1697) again nationalized these estates, weakening the Baltic (and Swedish) nobles. With the Swedish victory in the Baltic, the Lutheran Church also gained. Schools were built, and in 1632 the Lutheran University in Dorpat/Tartu opened. Parts of the Bible were translated into Latvian (1689) and Estonian (1686), and pastors tried to increase education.

At Johann Reinhold von Patkul's (1660–1707) instigation, an anti-Swedish alliance was formed, sparking the Great Northern War (1700–1721) in the Baltic countries. After the defeat of the Swedish king Charles XII (ruled 1697–1718) in the battle of Poltava in 1709, all Swedish possessions in the Baltic countries were occupied by Russia. This situation was officially recognized in the peace treaty of Nystad in 1721. Livonia and Estonia received reasonable conditions from Tsar Peter I (ruled 1689–1725): all old privileges were confirmed, especially the system of justice and the Lutheran confession, states were returned to the nobles, and self-government of the noblemen was restored. Throughout the eighteenth century, the German-Baltic nobility retained its autonomy. Empress Catherine II (ruled 1762–1796), who traveled the Baltic countries in 1764, tried to cut the noblemen's rights during the so-called Statthalterschaftszeit (period of governorship), but in 1796 the old constitution was reestablished.

In the second half of the eighteenth century, ideas of Enlightenment came to the Baltic. Johann Gottfried von Herder (1744–1803), who worked in Riga from 1764 to 1769, rediscovered the poetry of the common people and encouraged the small nations to explore their identity. Friedrich Konrad Gadebusch (1719–1788) with the Livländische Bibliothek (Livonian library) and August Wilhelm Hupel (1737–1819) with the Nordische Miscellaneen (Nordic miscellanea) offered a place of debate for new points of view. People started to think about the situation of the local inhabitants. Garlieb Merkel (1769–1850) insisted in all of his publications on equal rights and liberties for the common natives of the Baltic countries. Pietism and the Herrnhut movement gained influence in Livonia, lending an emotional movement to the peasant community.

In their function as a bridge, the Baltic countries in the eighteenth century played an important part as cultural mediator, promoting the Europeanization of Russia. Baltic nobles played leading roles in the Russian Empire in administration, diplomacy, and the military and contributed significantly to reforms and modernization in Russia. Hermann Karl Keyserlingk (1696–1765), for example, served as ambassador in Berlin, Vienna, and Warsaw, and Jakob Johann von Sievers (1731–1808), governor of Novgorod 1764–1776, worked on many reforms; both Baltic nobles were confidants of Catherine II.

See also Belarus ; Catherine II (Russia) ; Gustavus II Adolphus ; Northern Wars ; Peter I (Russia) ; Poland to 1569 ; Poland-Lithuania, Commonwealth of, 1569–1795 ; Reformations in Eastern Europe: Protestant, Catholic, and Orthodox ; Thirty Years' War (1618–1648) ; Vasa Dynasty (Sweden) .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Primary Sources

Einhorn, Paul. Historia Lettica. Das ist Beschreibung der lettischen Nation. (1649). Edited by Theodor Kallmeyer, Scriptores Rerum Livonicarum, vol. 2. Riga, 1848.

Henning, Salomon. Lifflendische Churlendische Chronica: Was sich vom Jahr Christi 1554 bis auf 1590 . . . in Lieffland zugetragen. (1590). Edited by Theodor Kallmeyer, Scriptores Rerum Livonicarum, vol. 2, pp. 195–289. Riga, 1848. Follower of the Kettler dynasty, defender of the political direction toward Poland.

Rüssouw, Balthasar. Chronica der Prouintz Lyfflandt. (1578). Edited by Karl Eduard Napiersky, Scriptores Rerum Livonicarum, vol. 2, pp. 1–194. Riga, 1848. On the Swedish side, social criticism.

Secondary Sources

Bues, Almut. Das Herzogtum Kurland und der Norden der Polnisch-Litauischen Adelsrepublik im 16. und 17. Jahrhundert. Giessen, 2001. The newest interpretation of the history of the Duchy of Courland and the Baltic in early modern times.

Frost, Robert I. The Northern Wars: War, State, and Society in Northeastern Europe, 1558–1721. Harlow, U.K., and New York, 2000. A fresh look at the important time of wars in northeastern Europe.

Kiaupa, Zigmantas, et al., eds. The History of the Baltic Countries. Tallinn, 1999. The Baltic history textbook project includes scholars from Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, with editions in Russian, German, and the Baltic languages.

Kiaupa, Zigmantas, Jūratė Kiaupienė, and Albinas Kuncevičius. The History of Lithuania before 1795. Vilnius, 2000. Translation of Lietuvos istorija iki 1795 metu (1995). The best English survey of Lithuanian history; unfortunately the translation is not good.

Kirby, D. G. Northern Europe in the Early Modern Period: The Baltic World, 1492–1772. London and New York, 1990. The best English-language survey of the Baltic world.

Mühlen, Heinz von zur, ed. Baltisches Historisches Ortslexikon. Vol. 1: Estland. Vol. 2: Lettland. Quellen und Studien zur Baltischen Geschichte 8/I, 8/II. Cologne, 1985, 1990. A useful historical dictionary about places in Estonia and Latvia.

Almut Bues