Survival Kit in Riga Maria Janion a Great European Intellectual
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A quarterly scholarly journal and news magazine. December 2011. Vol IV:4 From the Centre for Baltic and East European Studies (CBEES) commentaries: Södertörn University, Stockholm Poland and Russia Survival Kit in Riga BALTIC Women’s Solidarity W O Rbalticworlds.com L D S Maria Janion A great European The dividing intellectual Christmas tree also in this issue ILLUSTRATION: RAGNI SVENSSON RUSSIAN INFRASTRUCTURE / YUGOSLAVIAN WAR MONUMENTS / WITTE / NEW SPATIAL HISTORY / MOSCOW FASHION global2 week editors’ column BALTIC editorial 3 Culture in More diatribe than dialogue when old top dogs deliberate the periphery W O R L Dbalticworlds.com S “Dialogue”, said Gen- thing we have not done!” Ekaterina Kalinina finds revanchism, Age of unexpected nady Burbulis, first The Russians had already or a certain measure of megalomania, Sponsored by the Foundation deputy to the chairman lost all their savings by to be the reason that two indepen- for Baltic and East European Studies of the government under 1990. “They had nothing dent fashion weeks have been held in revolts Boris Yeltsin, at a top- left to lose”, he said. “It St. Petersburg in the last two years. a quarterly scholarly journal and news magazine. December 2011. vol iv:4 from the centre for Baltic and east european studies (cBees) commentaries: level seminar with former was all fictitious money.” Despite several similar events held in södertörn university, stockholm poland and russia Survival kit i n R i g a BALTIC Wom e n’s heads of state in Soviet- And the former engine Moscow as well, the fashion industry S ol i d a r it y contents orld War I saw the nomic-structural thinking and action at WORLDS D L R O W balticworlds.com Maria Janion A great European ruled Europe convened of growth, the military- is not an up-and-coming business in The dividing intellectual dissolution of three the Union level. Other things may well at Jonsered Manor (right) industrial complex, could economic terms. Christmas tree essays dynastic empires in be the consequence of historical lega- north of Gothenburg on no longer be relied on. An imaginative and not nearly so the eastern reaches cies and traditional endemic psycho- ARIN SUNVISSON November 23, “dialogue For that reason, new costly initiative on a cultural theme was 4 Farewell to Poland? of Europe: The Habs- logical blocks. K must permeate political economic entrepreneurs born in Riga, where artists and perform- burg, the Romanov, life if Russia is to have a had to enter the race. ers were given free rein to do anything 21 Russian infrastructure and and the Ottoman. APART FROM CERTAIN southern Euro- also in this issue chance”. they wanted with and inside commer- russian infrastructure / war monuments in yugoslavia / sergei witte / new spatial history / fa s h i o n the Baltic region They were all multi- pean countries (and apart from certain He rejected the idea IN THIS OFTEN-HEATED cial spaces standing vacant in the wake Editor-in-chief national. (The Ger- promenades on Wall Street), there have ILLUSTRATION: of authoritarian modern- exchange, the discussion of the financial crisis. The result was an Anders Björnsson 36 Yule Land man Empire was also dynastic and multinational, and been no noticeable tendencies toward ization in Russia and a was sometimes reduced art festival called Survival Kit. Editor its capital city was situated in the east, but it survived unrest in the wake of the capitalist cri- return to imperial ways. to the level of diatribe, One finds more permanent artistic Ninna Mörner reports mainly as a state unit, albeit shrunken, less multina- sis. The uprisings against crisis-ridden This will just splinter and destabilize the Poland, pointed out that the EU, not just Russia, is rather than dialogue. But works in Tito’s Yugoslavia. Monuments Publisher tional, and more Western-oriented, after the fall of socialism are far too close in time, and Russian state. The basis of progress also weak these days. The perspective in relations the parry and thrust were commemorating the World War II Anu Mai Kõll 19 Baltic Worlds Round Table the Empire; in addition, its colonies had been in other the system transitions there have surely is the constitution, adopted December between Russia and Europe should be pan-European, played out in a spirit of dot the landscape: gigantic futuristic Editorial advisory board parts of the world). In the first two cases, popular been exhausting. One might possibly 12, 1993, which according to Burbulis “from Vancouver to Vladivostok”. And Russia must be civility and sociability. It creations that in some cases have been Sari Autio–Sarasmo, 28 Russian glamour uprisings and revolutions were triggered in several of see the parliamentary system revolt in is “superdemocratic”. The one thing invited to participate in the European project, just as was a meeting among spared destruction. Jan Kempenaers Aleksanteri Institute, Hel- the successor states. They all were less successful, al- Hungary as a political protest against a that needs be done is to convince citi- Eastern and Central Europe were invited: otherwise, masters of contemporary has taken pictures of these “Spome- sinki, Monica Hammer, 32 Riga art festival though it would take seven decades for the revolution- liberal hegemony whose guarantor has zens it is an instrument they can use. one cannot expect good decisions from that area. history. ≈ niks”, and is interviewed by Sara Södertörn University, ary defeat in Russia proper to occur. been placed in Brussels, the capital city Former Swedish ambassador to Moscow Örjan Bergfors. Lars Johannsen, Univer- commentaries of the ungovernable Belgium. (Poland BURBULIS MET WITH opposition dur- Berner asked politely whether it might actually be Note: Baltic Worlds was In addition to a number of reviews sity of Aarhus, Ann-Cath- THERE WERE NO comparable events in the Ottoman avoided one of these during the short- ing the discussion. Former Lithuanian Russia that once again has reason to feel threatened, one of the organizers and other commentaries, this issue rine Jungar, CBEES, 14 Women’s Solidarity Empire, except in the core country, Turkey, which lived twin parenthesis that was distinct- president Vytautas Landsbergis retorted which could explain certain expressions of neo-impe- of the seminar on the also features the last of the popular Anu Mai Kõll, CBEES threw off the bonds of foreign occupation through ly anti-Brussels.) Can popular revolts that Russia has never wanted dialogue, rialism. And Åke Petersson, assistant undersecretary breakup of the Soviet travelogues by Magnus Ljunggren, this (Director), Thomas Russia and the trans-Atlan- a war of liberation and Mustafa Kemal’s (Atatürk’s) then be ruled out forever? only to give orders. A sham dialogue at the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs, argued that Union during the “Global time from a trip through Russia during Lundén, Chair, CBEES, 18 tic community subsequent national revolution (after the bloody Of course not. They are already go- can go on for a hundred years and yet there has been far too much castigation of Moscow, Week” at the University of perestroika in 1991. Jens E. Olesen, Universi- skirmishes of 1911 and 1913 and the cruelties against ing on, in the backyards — although they lead nowhere. “When I listen to the Rus- “and that has come back to haunt us”. Gothenburg last Novem- Also in this issue: an essay by Maria ty of Greifswald, Barbara story the Armenians). This empire, whose government had are usually called terrorism (Basques, sian national anthem”, Landsbergis said, ber, under the guidance Janion, with an introduction by Teresa Törnquist–Plewa, Lund picked the wrong side in the European showdown, Kurds, Chechens, IRA members and “there is always someone who has to LUND HISTORIAN KRISTIAN Gerner speculated as to of our Warsaw corre- Kulawik and Renata Ingbrant; an essay University 34 Pompeii of East Prussia was instead carved up by the victorious powers of sympathizers). If convulsions like these force me to stand up. I object to this!” whether the post–Cold War world might have to deal spondent Peter Johns- on Russia’s problems with investments Editorial staff the World War, and the former Ottoman provinces were to affect whole countries, how It is a question of mentality, in his with several Russias, just as the world had to deal son. Another report, by in infrastructure written by Katri Pyn- Sara Bergfors, Kathrin reviews became subject, in one way or another, to colonial would “Europe” react? If, shall we say, opinion, and the problem goes back a with several German states (the GDR, the Federal Johan Öberg, from the nöniemi; and an essay about Estonia’s Bernard, Brian Manning dominance. The most important province, Egypt, had a financial crisis were followed by a vio- long way, to Russian rule. “The territory Republic of Germany, Austria) after the Second World “Global Week” arrange- endeavors to become part of the staid Delaney, Peter Handberg, 43 Russian places and spaces previously been separated from the “realm” and was lent political protest against the prevail- was always more important than the War. Could one possibly imagine Kaliningrad as a ments can be found at but stable Scandinavia – an effort Jonas Harvard, Sven already a de facto British colony. The Greek War of ing order in one or more authentically state. The state had to infinitely expand visa-exempt zone of Europe? www.balticworlds.com. based on the belief that the country Hirdman, Renata Ingbrant, 44 Russia’s Bismarck Independence in the 1820s was not lacking in support European — EU, that is — countries, because the realm was always sur- Once Gennady Burbulis had finished boasting actually has a special affinity with Peter Johnsson, Per Jöns- from the great powers.