Date of Completion
2015
Thesis Type
College of Arts and Science Honors
Department
History/Russian
First Advisor
Denise Youngblood
Second Advisor
Kevin McKenna
Keywords
Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Ethnic Relations in the Soviet Union, Ethnic Relations in Russia
Abstract
An examination the policies of Imperial Russia and the Soviet Union towards the indigenous inhabitants of the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. During the reign of Emperor Alexander II and his successors, the Baltic region underwent a period of administrative, cultural, and linguistic russification, driven by often inconsistent policy decisions. Following a brief and turbulent period of independence from 1918 to 1940, the Baltic states were occupied by the Soviet Union, whose nationalities policy both encouraged ethnic particularism and harshly punished “bourgeois” nationalism. The seemingly contradictory approaches taken by Imperial Russia and the USSR help explain the course of Baltic independence.
Recommended Citation
Goldberg, Rubin B., "Russian and Soviet Nationalities Policy in the Baltic States, 1855-1991" (2015). UVM College of Arts and Sciences College Honors Theses. 10.
https://scholarworks.uvm.edu/castheses/10