A quarterly scholarly journal and news magazine. June 2010. Vol III:2 REVIEW. Lennart Samuelson From the Centre for Baltic and East European Studies (CBEES) on Andrei Zubov’s new textbook Södertörn University, Stockholm BALTI C S W ORLbalticworlds.com D GUDRUN PERSSON Communism – societ y of lethargy PHILIP HANSON Alexander Zinoviev and the lost realm of happiness JUKKA GRONOW & SERGEI ZHURAVLEV Catwalk in Russian MARGARETA TILLBERG Industrial design as competitive strategy POST-STALIN under RUSSIA the magnifying glass features & commentaries RUSSIAN ARMY / OKSANEN / SCANDINAVIAN BRONZE AGE / PHOTO EXHIBITION IN POTSDAM / ILLEGAL LOGGING 2short takes Landscape symposium Kaliningrad How to recapture a lost vision identity – a sensitive issue? IN 2005 AND 2007 Södertörn University conducted two seminars in collabora- tion with the Russian State Immanuel Kant University in Kaliningrad, Russian Federation, under the collective heading Kaliningrad Identity. The broad focus of the seminars encompassed lectures, workshops, cultural events, and study visits. Participants included about one hundred people from Russia, Sweden, and other countries around the Baltic. Emphasis was placed on a discussion about Kaliningrad as an undisputed part of Russia, with a location as an exclave to the motherland but also an enclave within the European Union. The two seminars have now been summarized in a single volume, Kalinin- grad Identity — Crucial to Democracy and Development in the Baltic Sea Region: A Seminar Report (Baltic and East European Studies 12, 2009. Tho- Echo Temple in Haga Park, Stockholm-Solna. PHOTO: LET IDEAS COMPETE – HTTP://FLIC.KR/P/2QJUHA mas Lundén, Gunnel Bergström & Lise- Lotte Nilsson, eds.). The front cover, ON SEPTEMBER 13, the Committee for especially concerning about maintenance, restoration, reconstruction and by freelance writer and artist Alexander the Gustavian Park, an independent the three Gustavian (i.e. enhancement of the above-mentioned parks, and to Popadin, presents a humorous drawing Swedish group of specialists in ecology, late 18th century) parks: discuss their historical importance and “the Gustavian of a Kaliningrader’s identity, with one urban planning, garden history and res- Bellevue, Haga, and vision” from an international perspective. The event foot in the East Prussian past and one toration, will be hosting a closed 3-day Tivoli, all designed by the is held under the auspices of the Swedish Academy; in the USSR, but with a red heart in international symposium on the National architect Fredrik Magnus the Swedish Academy of Fine Arts; the Academy of Russia and an equally red tongue. The Urban Park of Stockholm under the Piper. The symposium’s Letters, History and Antiquities; the Academy of Ag- booklet contains several articles with heading ”The Management of a Lost Vi- main objectives are to riculture and Forestry; and the Swedish Academy of various links to Kaliningrad, its Soviet sion”. Though protected by law in Swe- review the plans and Sciences. European and Swedish experts on garden history, and its role in Russian foreign den’s Environment Act this unique park problems of the area restoration and representatives of the gardens around policy, as well as its unique geopolitical, area remains threatened by exploitation. in relation to the inter- Brunnsviken and of the County Council of Stockholm financial, and cultural position. Recently, however, a new focus has national discourse on will be attending. The instigator of the seminars was been directed towards maintenance, garden restoration, to ad- See further reporting on page 4. ≈ Gunnel Bergström, Slavicist, freelance restoration, and even reconstruction, dress specific questions writer, Swedish lecturer at the university in Kaliningrad from 2004 to 2006, and a driving force behind attempts to under- Baltic Worlds news is good news stand Kaliningrad’s unique nature and Russian identity. In October 2009, Ms. BALTICWORLDS.COM continues to are posted in the order in which we nity has been at times seen as strong, Bergström traveled to Kaliningrad with develope. We are now also publish- receive them. Don’t forget to send an at times weak. Comments are to be some copies of the newly published ing conference reports on the website author portrait picture and a brief bio. expected. booklet. Upon her arrival she was de- under “What’s up”. By contributing an Internet article, you BalticWorlds.com complements the nied entry, her visa was canceled, and Soon we will put up a report on the become part of the growing group journal. On the site you can subscribe she was forbidden to travel to Russia Second Global Helsinki Chemicals of BW contributors presented on the to the magazine and comment on the for five years. Unofficially, these actions Forum in May, and this summer we will website. articles in BW. ≈ were taken because of her anti-Russian report on the large Eurasia ICCEES- seminars. conference to be launched in Stock- THE Tab “WORK IN PROGRESS” is an- The booklet may be requested holm. If you have attended an inter- other bit of fresh news on the net. from CBEES, attn: Thomas Lundén, esting conference, you are welcome A chapter is now available from a forth- Södertörn University, 141 89 Huddinge, to write a short report in English and coming historiographic dissertation that Sweden, or [email protected] ≈ send it to [email protected]. Follow our analyzes the creation of the concept Style Guide, available on the website. of the Baltic Sea region and describes Next issue: Reports, once we’ve reviewed them, when and why the sea-based commu- Focus on Poland BALTIC editorial 3 W O R L Dbalticworlds.com S Sponsored by the Foundation for Baltic and East European Studies Eurasian perspectives contents or a long time progress was essays viewed from an F Atlantic angle. 13 Tristesse as a force for It was in Western Europe, change with its colonial, later im- perial, offshoots in Ameri- 18 Importance of avoiding ca that sustained economic Westernization growth took root as well as the habit of thinking Editor-in-chief 26 GUM in terms of dynamics and Anders Björnsson change as something nor- Editor 34 Prettier everyday objects mal. The status quo came Ninna Mörner to represent decadence, Responsible publisher features an absence of civilization. Anu Mai Kõll People as different as Karl Editorial advisory board 4 From Hampstead Heath to Marx, Max Weber, Nor- Rebecka Lettevall, Finnish national city parks bert Elias, yes, even a illustration: katrin STENMARK Board Chair, CBEES, W. W. Rostow, reflecting on Sari Autio-Sarasmo, 9 Timber criminality society, could very well have agreed — if they had sat need for constant dredging, diking and Aleksanteri Institute, down and reasoned with one another — about the su- drainage.” (Return to Dragon Mountain, Helsinki, Ole 11 At an exhibition in Potsdam periority of the Western cultural sphere and its natural 2007) Elgström, Lund leadership role. Even the flower cult we spend time University, Michael Gilek, reviews They were all modernists and Eurocentrists — or with in our daily lives has Asian origins, CBEES, Ann-Cathrine possibly Atlanticists. according to Goody, who has written Jungar, CBEES, 47 Sea power vs. land power In works written in his autumnal years, social anth- a book about it (The Culture of Flowers, Anu Mai Kõll, CBEES, ropologist Jack Goody does what he can to demolish 1993). Thomas Lundén, 51 The world’s happiest people such a way of looking at things. He calls the viewpoint CBEES, Jens E. Olesen, teleological. It aims to explain why a certain type of ci- IN COMPARISON WITH a good deal of this, University of Greifswald 52 Neopatriotic history? vilization, connected to the market economy and pri- both Africa and America have existed in Editorial staff vate acquisition of production surplus, could triumph historical backwaters, the consequence In this issue: 60 Russia – power plays only in certain types of societies — societies that, on being — says Goody — that they never Brian Manning Delaney, and the future top of everything else, conquered a large part of the benefited from the creativity caused by Unn Gustafsson, rest of the world. The rule there was an unwillingness the growth of cities during the Eurasian Anders Hellner, 62 Joseph Brodsky to change, a fear of technology and newfangledness. Bronze Age. Lotte Hedeager, Shouldn’t one simply ask oneself Lucette Nobell, commentaries HOWEVER, GOODY SAYS, most recently in The Eurasian whether it isn’t in the very character Pontus Reimers, Miracle (2009), this way of viewing progress ignores of modernity to be in motion, even Tamás Scheibner 41 Post-colonialist Europe? the fact that advanced cultures, though totally dif- geographically? Before Paris became Translators ferent, have succeeded each other on the Eurasian a center for learning, Baghdad was Péter Balogh, 45 Does Scandinavia have a land mass for all of recorded history. The constancy of a center for learning. When people Steen Christiansen, Bronze Age? Chinese civilization could in itself deserve an explana- from the north came to Sicily in the 11th Proper English, tion — that it retained its advantage over the classical century, the Arabs were already there, Semantix antiquity and Middle-Ages of the West and, even when and the invaders adopted many of the Design the initiative was lost during the late Ming dynasty, Arabs’ customs. Several of the countries Lars Rodvaldr, The next issues of BW are scheduled enjoyed enormous wealth! around the Baltic Sea today have signifi- Art Director, Oktavilla to be published in September 2010, Sinologist Jonathan Spence has reminded us of cant Muslim minorities who are instiga- Lena Fredriksson och and December 2010. this. “Silk production and porcelain manufacture”, he ting new cultural patterns there. Goody Sara Bergfors, Oktavilla Contact BW at [email protected]. writes, “had an illustrious history in China and conti- talks of shifts of focus. No one has a Illustrators Subscription is free.