184 Centralized Leadership, in Contrast to Lithuania, Was Not

184 Book Reviews centralized leadership, in contrast to Lithuania, was not established. There were regional organizations: the National Kurzeme Organiza tion of Latvian Partisans (1945), the National Vidzeme Movement of Latvian Partisans (1944-1948), the Latvian Union of Fatherland Guards (Partisans) (LTS(p)A) in Latgale (1945). The latter organization imi tated the structure of the Latvian army, its four divisions; it also made unsuccessful attempts to unify the partisan movement. Nevertheless, the leaders of these organizations (K.Rusovs, A. Cirulis (Varpa), pas tor A. Juhnevics, K. Blumbergs, V Mundure (Marta Skuja)) as well as the leaders of partisan detachments (such as P. Cevers) contributed greatly to the survival of the resistance movement. On February 1, 1954 there were still 105 partisans in Latvia. However, in 1956 they either surrendered or perished. On the basis of thoroughly collected and profoundly analyzed documentary material the author presents a comprehensive panorama of the partisan movement, the activities of separate organizations and the chronological stages of the struggle for freedom. To our knowl edge this is the only detailed history of the Latvian partisan warfare there is. In its turn, it will enable historians of Lithuanian 'resistance to draw generalized conclusions on the basis of more than their own country's experience, and, at the same time, develop new research as pects. Arvydas Anusauskas Lithuanian Institute of History Anatol Lieven. Pabaltijo revoliucija. Estija, Latvija, Lietuva - kelias i nepriklausomyb~. Vilnius: Baltos lankos, 1995, 475 pp. (Translated by Rasa AsminaviCiiite and Ausra Cizikiene from: Anatol Lieven. The Baltic Revolution. Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and the Path to Independence. Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 1993. It is little wonder that Anatol Lieven's book has already re ceived and is likely to receive the most varied and controversial evalu ation in future. Some reviewers have hurriedly called it 'anti-Baltic', stressing all along that each Lithuanian on his/her way to Europe should read it, while others, reservedly recalling the author's background, were expressly doubtful about the abilities of this 'rootless cosmopolitan' to understand the history of the small nations, constantly living in the 'mortal' danger of the loss of their cultural and national identity. Most of the reviewers, however, seem to be uniform in their conclusion that Lieven's book represents a typically Western attitude towards the three Baltic nations, their historical past and present. Downloaded from Brill.com10/03/2021 07:29:51PM via free access Book Rcwicvs 185 This conclusion suggests an idea that the author basically ad heres to the stereotypical standpoint with regard to the Baltic nations, characteristic of a certain segment of Western society. Depending on the constellation of international politics, that standpoint fluctuates between utmost indifference and paternal benevolence (the Baits, con sistently struggling for freedom, have overcome the horrid monster of the Communist empire) or between a definitely negative and an openly hostile viewpoint, claiming that the Baltic nations are foolhardy na tionalists, traditionalists, anti-Semites, haunted by all kinds of phobias and national hatred. In his book Lieven keeps away from such reason ing and absolutely groundless evaluations. This kind of attitude, taken by the author, was emphasized by Czeslaw Milosz in his review of the book (by the way, in one of the first on the book). 1 In Lieven's words, the Baits" ... are better off getting criticism, which is basically sympa thetic rather than the odious mixture of ignorant goodwill, hypocriti cal rhetoric and indifference which has characterized so much of the West's approach to the region". Thus, the author, in the first place, is critical of his own cultural environment and its deep-seated stereo types. Such criticism prevented Lieven, unlike most other Western journalists, politicians and even researchers, from 'lumping' the Baltic states together and regarding them as identical. Despite some histori cally formed regional uniformity (in Russia and later in the Soviet Union all the three countries were looked upon as most europeanized pe ripheries, the 'West' of the Empire, and after the restoration of their statehood, as a 'bridge' between the West and Russia), the Baltic states, to Lieven's way of thinking, are sufficiently diverse and may "experi ence very different fates in the years to come." Therefore, in order to substantiate this supposition, the author has devoted a lot of space to the description of the peculiarities of the political, social and cultural development of the three nations since olden times. The book does not even shun the analysis of the national character, which is a rather 'slippery' topic from the scientific point of view. For the same reason, the process of restoring and consolidating the statehood is being analysed in a wide political, social and cultural context, without con fining oneself td a merely formal aim: to consistently relate and com pare the course of the struggle for independence in Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia in 1987-1992. 2 Apparently, Lieven's main objective is to understand the back ground of the modernization of the political and social system in three similar, yet not identical, societies and to realize the feasibility of the 'The translation of the review was published in Atgimimas, nos. 1-2, 1994. 2An unbiased account of those events in Lithuania was given by the exile historian A. E. Scnn in his book Lithuania Awakening. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990. The publication was translated into Lithuanian in 1992. Downloaded from Brill.com10/03/2021 07:29:51PM via free access 186 Book Reviews formation of a stable democratic political system in the Baltic coun tries. In the first place the author does his best to bring out the differ ences and the specific character of the processes going on in these countries regardless of outward similarity. According to Lieven, his book is 'a study of politics and political culture'. Therefore, he at taches greater significance to the historical, social, cultural and politi cal context in the struggle for the re-establishment of statehood rather than to the fact of the declaration of independence or the unpredict able changes in the relations with Moscow. On the other hand, Lieven is likewise consistent in critically treating the statehood history of the Baltic nations between the wars, especially the then political elite as well as the dominant ideology - nationalism. In his opinion this period deserves exceptional consider ation since the experience of independence in the course of 1918-1940 was one of the principal factors to have formed the mentality of the new political elite in the Baltic countries. The Baits themselves, how ever, look upon this period with too great an exaltation. A sufficiently critical approach to the national states that sprang up after the collapse of empires in Central and Eastern Europe, typi cal of English-language historiography, undoubtedly influenced the au thor of this publication, too. (In the back cover of the book it is written that Lieven is not only a journalist, and a very good one at that, but a professional historian, too.) According to this historiographical school of thought nationalism should be regarded as one of the most signifi cant constitutionalizing and consolidating elements of post-imperial ist societies. Incidentally, the concept bears no pejorative connotation in scientific studies. It serves to define a specific model of the community's cultural and ideological identity and the type of the state. (The names of such scholars as Hugh Seton-Watson, Joseph Rothschild and - from the younger generation- George Schopflin are worth men tioning in this regard). Thus, nationalism helped to found or re-establish the inde pendent national states as well as to resist Sovietization after the loss of statehood. On the other hand, the predominance of a more 'closed' ethnic or ethnolinguistic nationalism in the society's consciousness, where the attachment to a national community was based upon com mon origin, language and customs rather than upon common civic political culture, - none of this gave an impetus to society's democrati zation, to the integration of national minorities into the political sys tem and the formation of civic society. In the long run, affected by unfavourable internal and external factors, the predominance of this ideology completely discredited democracy and enabled the introduc tion and acceptance of authoritarian regimes between the wars. In principle, Lieven managed to reveal the contradictory role, which nationalism played in the history of the Baltic peoples (see Chap- Downloaded from Brill.com10/03/2021 07:29:51PM via free access Book Rcwicvs 187 ter: [sivaizduojamos tautos: kultu1inio atgimimo ciklai (Imagined Na tions: Cycles of Cultural Rebirth), p. 114-135). To his way of thinking, nationalism also plays a crucial social role in post-communist societ ies: " ... nationalism alone can awaken cynical and disillusioned peoples to a spirit of sacrifice and common purpose." On the other hand, ethnonationalism is a threat to the democratization, security and sta bility of those newly recreated states and societies. In the words of the author, the security of the Baltic states depends not only "on interna tional developments, which the Baltic leaders cannot

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