The History of the Baltic States

As it is not unusual for scholars to nurture a deep interest in the history and traditions of their ancestral homelands, many of the people who have written about the Baltic states were either born in the region or enjoy some sort of family connection with it. My only personal links to these fascinating little countries are the ones I have made since I first visited the area in the summer of 2002, not long after completing a doctorate in Russian/Soviet history. As anomalous as it may seem in a field that is populated by individuals with recognizably Lithuanian, Latvian, and Estonian names, this book was written not by someone whose formal training was in the area of Baltic history, but by an historian of Russia with a conspicuously Irish name who is interested in the concept of national identity and, in that context, in the relationship between Russia and the peoples living in or near its western borderlands.
This book, however, is not about Russia, although Russia is surely present throughout. Its subjects are the three Baltic countries and the many peoples who have lived in the region over the past millennium. More specifically, it
portrays the struggles of three tiny nations in a remote corner of northeastern Europe to create distinctive identities for themselves and to secure and maintain their national independence from the wars and revolutions of the 20th century through recent times.