Story: A German farewell BALTIC balticworlds.com

WA quarterly scholarly O journal R and news Lmagazine. D March, 2010. S Vol III:1 From the Centre for Baltic and East European Studies (CBEES) Södertörn University, Stockholm

Tanya Jukkala & Ilkka Henrik Mäkinen Suicide patterns in the New Europe Romani? No thanks! Yet again, the door is closed on them ill: ragni svensson reviews & reports

The Amber Road / Map Manipulation / Skulls / Labor on the move / Kristian Gerner / Putin / dada 2short takes

New Marine Archeological Institute Rights of homosexuals still unclear

After the previous issue of BW had gone to the printer, Lithuania’s parlia- ment passed a revision of last July’s controversial law, which forbade “public dissemination” of material likely to en- courage homosexuality with the motiva- tion that this might harm the physical, intellectual and moral development of minors. The original legislation did not define “public dissemination”, nor did it stipu- late penalties. It also referred to infrac- tions such as bisexuality, polygamy, depictions of homosexual intercourse, dirty language, and bad eating habits. The revision has made the law less specific. It now outlaws information “en- couraging the sexual abuse of minors, sexual relations between minors, and other sexual relations”. According to a spokesman for Lithuania’s president, this purges the law of its homophobic clauses and Lithuania now lives up to European standards for human rights. But Vladimir Simonko, leader of Sweden has established its first marine One on-going project “Through the prism that a sunken the Lithuanian gay movement, said archeological research institute (MARIS, is the investigation and ship constitutes, we can contemplate to the news agency AFP that the law Maritime Archeological Research Insti- documentation of the our history and draw conclusions about remained problematic and that it appar- tute, Södertörn University). Professor so-called Ghost Ship, a everything from how the sailors lived on ently had been crafted by a bunch of Johan Rönnby will head this interdisci- merchant vessel from the board to the trade routes and mental- Bible-thumpers. The law, with its recent plinary center, which is planned to be a 1600s that lies well-pre- ity in the countries around the Baltic addenda, categorizes as harmful the hub of maritime research in the Baltic served at a depth of 130 Sea.” ≈ promotion of “any concept of the family Sea, and to function both interdispli- meters. New technology other than that set down in the Consti- narily and internationally. At present, a makes it possible to “get Read a longer interview with Johan tution”, which stipulates that marriage is conference for postgraduate students on board” the ship. Rönnby, featured in BW vol II:I, 2009. between a man and a woman. and younger researchers from countries Johan Rönnby believes “From now on, any of our public around the Baltic Sea is already being that research on the events could fall under that clause and planned. MARIS is financed by the ships gives fantastic be banned”, Simonko said. ≈ Baltic Sea Foundation. insights into our history. Dear Sirs, Baltic Worlds on the Internet In the last issue of Baltic Worlds you publish an article entitled A Polish Now Baltic Worlds can be found on the Baltic World readers are welcome to heart in Lithuania, please note that you Web. A generous assortment of articles comment on all articles directly on the permanently misspell there name of published in the journal will now be- Web, and thus publish their own com- the Nobel Laureate Czesław Miłosz or come available on the Net. The articles ments. We hope to make this the basis Czeslaw Milosz if you do not use Polish are sorted chronologically, categorized of a high-level discourse on research alphabet but not Milozs as you write. according to the same vignettes as in in and around the Baltic Sea area and Combination of letters sz or cz in Polish the journal: essay, feature, interview Eastern Europe. constitutes a sound whereas zs or zc and review. It is easy to navigate the It’s easy to subscribe to BW and does not occur at all. Web site by searching among its tags. change one’s subscription address on Best regards, All the authors of articles featured on the Net. ≈ Karolina Kłaczkowska the Web site are presented there. All Welcome to www.balticworlds.com BALTIC editorial 3 W O R L D S Sponsored by the Foundation for Baltic and East European Studies An infectious subject

contents n modern societies, suicide And the quantity essays has ceased to be seen as a of knowledge shameful act, and now, the grows unabated. I blame for a person’s volun- In the humani- 10 Suicides and societies in tary departure from life is often ties and social transition placed with family and survi- sciences, suicide vors. This is one aspect of the has been a natural 31 Soviet and post-Soviet car- civilizing process Norbert Elias object of study tography spent a long life of research try- for more than one ing to disentangle and explain. hundred years. features In times past, when throwing When large and Editor-in-chief away one’s life was condemned, revolutionary or Anders Björnsson 4 The Amber Road and the act itself criminalized, disruptive events Editor people that were tired of living occur in the social Ninna Mörner 19 “You tolerate what you dis- sometimes murdered someone and economic en- Responsible publisher like” else in order to be sentenced vironment, there Anu Mai Kõll to death and executed. Such is good reason to Editorial advisory board 20 Romani minorities suicidal homicide was a logical closely monitor Rebecka Lettevall, consequence of a strictly Chris- people’s respon- Board Chair, CBEES, 25 Labor on the move tian doctrine that preached that ses and behaviors Sari Autio–Sarasmo, all living things are God’s crea- illustration: katrin stenmark so that institutio- Aleksanteri Institute, story tion which man has no right to nal and other so- Ole Elgström, Lund violate — and in any event a murderer could always cial actors have the possibility of adjus- University, Michael Gilek, 27 A German farewell repent his deed before his life was terminated. ting their decision-making accordingly. CBEES, Ann-Cathrine – excerpts from an auto- Increased suicide rates over time (in Jungar, CBEES, Anu biography Taboos against suicide have existed in other religi- contrast to the peaks that occur as a re- Mai Kõll, CBEES, ons as well. With the decriminalization of suicide, sult of particular upheavals or events) Thomas Lundén, commentary another taboo came into being, namely, the taboo may indicate that society as such is not CBEES, Jens E. Olesen, against publicly exposing a suicide, instead letting feeling so well. Such knowledge is not University of Greifswald 44 Head hunting the action — desperate or thought-through — remain a something we should ignore. Editorial staff private matter. For much of the 20th century, newspa- In this issue: Irka Ceder- reviews pers in Western societies did not write about people In this issue of BW, we include an over- berg, Anna Danielsson that committed suicide because, strictly speaking, it view of the state of knowledge regard- Öberg, Mari Gerdin, 35 Oral history was of no concern to anyone but the dead man how ing the occurrence of suicide in the Markus Huss, Lucette he or she chose to depart from this life. There was yet Central and East European countries Nobell, Thorsten 37 Life stories another reason. Suicide is contagious — if it is writ- that liberated themselves from Commu- Nybom, Ulf Persson, ten about, talked about, whispered about. People on nism. It is hoped that it will give cause Johnny Rodin, 38 Putin – post et ante the edge who would have hesitated to take the step for reflection on aspects other than the MarieLouise towards actually committing suicide now take that individual decisions. The hope is that Samuelsson, Folke 40 Language disputes step — in sufficient numbers that this change is statis- such research as that which is reported Schimanski, Hans Wolf tically visible. here will, in the long run, contribute to Translators misc. Media suicide contagion is an epidemiological rea- a diminution of the space accorded the Steen Christensen, lity. What is more, it has been possible to confirm that eagerness for speculation and desire Brian Manning Delaney, 17 Male exiles when the press ceases to write about a certain type of for sensationalism in the public debate Madeleine Hurd suicide, the incidence of precisely that type of suicide on the imperfections of our communi- Proof-reading: Global- 18 Vertical urbanism decreases. The editor-in-chief of this magazine has ties. ≈ Text, Semantix been pursuing a campaign in his home country to Design The next issue of BW is scheduled get newspapers and other mass media to stop their Lars Rodvaldr, to be published in June, 2010; then in reporting of suicide. It is not just tabloid journalism Art Director, Oktavilla September and December 2010. that causes suicide rates to soar, but even more seri- Lena Fredriksson, Contact BW at [email protected]. ous journalism that has suicide prevention as a goal. Oktavilla Subscription is free. More information Publicity, when repeated, results in trivialization. Illustrators at www.balticworlds.com. This was something that Austrian suicidologist Erwin Ragni Svensson, Katrin Ringel never ceased to stress. Stenmark Printed by: Wassberg+Skotte Subscription Tryckeri AB, Stockholm. should we then stop talking about the matter? Of Henriette Cederlöf ISSN 2000-2955 course not. Epidemiological studies are available.

Better to kill thy neighbor than thyself? Suicide journalism takes a historic step into the past. 4

A  BALTIC WORLDS feature

The Amber Ro ad Center and periphery

here are a number of places in East Central The political border belongs to the past, but geo- Europe that claim, with varying degrees “Fossilized resin can be graphically and hydrographically, Hranice actually of justification, to be the geographic mid- found in various parts of occupies an interesting limit position. The town lies in point of Europe. Hranice could well be one a depression generally known as the Moravian Gate, a of them. If you place the point of a com- the world, but rarely of valley passage between the winding highlands of the Tpass in this Moravian, Czech town and draw a circle on Sudetes (Sudeten) and the Beskids, which constitutes the quality and volume the map with a 1 500-kilometer radius, the line ends up a link between the plains of Northern Europe and the running very close to London, Edinburgh, Trondheim, in which it appears in the Danube basin. This also means that Hranice is located St. Petersburg, Moscow, Istanbul, Malta, Barcelona, in the watershed between two inland seas, the Baltic Bordeaux, and Paris. But in Hranice it would appear ‘blue earth’ of Samland.” and Black seas. The Oder has its source in the massif that no big fuss is made about this “central” status; the Jeseník just north of the town, but Hranice is located at town’s Web site and tourist brochures do not mention pieces of the puzzle of the strange political configura- Becva, which is a tributary of the Morava, which in turn the matter at all, but rather highlight the natural beauty tion known as “The Holy Roman Empire of the German flows into the Danube. of the area and its beautiful historic buildings as tourist Nation” — the Duchy of Silesia, and the Margraveship Borders exist to be crossed. They make it possible sites. of Moravia. In the 18th century, when the Hapsburgs to control the flows of things; along them, places for And on closer reflection, the town’s name seems like were forced to cede Silesia to Prussia, the area also mediation and transactions arise. I get a sense of what a mystification. The CzechHranice means “border” (or became a borderland between the two rival German Hranice was like when I roam through the elongated “frontier”), which of course suggests periphery rather state projects, the Austrian and the Prussian. In the 19th medieval town center from the old town square past than center. What border? one might ask. For Hranice century, Austria established itself there with a military the former Jewish Quarter, with its synagogue, and fur- lies deep in the Czech Republic, far from any modern academy, the secondary school at which several peo- ther up towards the castle, originally built during the crossing points. If you go into one of the town’s three ple who would later become famous, such as Robert Middle Ages, later converted into a magnificent Renais- bookshops and take a look at the maps in the local his- Musil and Rainer Maria Rilke, studied. At that time, the sance palace. torical literature, the matter becomes clearer: for a long town was known in Europe under its traditional Ger- The square by the palace is called Pernštejn Square, time, this is where the border ran between two of the man name, Mährisch Weisskirchen. which with a different spelling is the same as Bernstein

Middle Kingdom. Between the coasts of the Baltic and the Mediterranean. essay feature interview story 5 ph oto : xx

The Amber Ro ad

The re-created Amber Room in St. Petersburg.

Square — in English: Amber Square. In pre-modern, ena that have been given symbolic value, but also the Roman Church. It was in the 1220s that the Teutonic non-standardized German, p and b were for a long deliberately placed, interrelated buildings, and Knights first began to take control of this area; with a time interchangeable; the writing systems reflected monuments. Before the time of roadmaps, traveling particularly strict regime, they forced the pagan local dialectal variations in pronunciation. Here, the feudal and finding the right path involved following a story, population, the Baltic Prussians, to eventually submit lords were called precisely Pernstein/Bernstein. They reading a saga. Duše krajiny, the soul of the land- to the cross. had their seat a few dozen kilometers to the west, and scape, is thus what Květ called his book, a rich por- The Order of the Teutonic Knights of St. Mary’s Hos- their Hrad Pernštejn is the knightly castle of Moravian trayal from 2003 on old highways. He devotes many pital in Jerusalem was formed in 1190 in the Holy Land knightly castles, a glistening Gothic eagle’s nest, im- pages to what in Czech is called Jantarová stezka, the during the Third Crusade, originally in order to run a pregnable and strangely preserved. Perhaps Pernštejn “Amber Road”, and identifies the various segments hospital for the crusaders from the German Empire, but Square in Hranice is named after some person in the of it that run through Moravia. I accompany him part the philanthropic purpose was soon transformed into long series of magnates that have protected (and taxed) of the way and soon realize that here, local history something military and mercantile. It was recognized the town, perhaps the name simply refers to an impor- becomes world history. at the beginning of the 13th century that the era of the tant commodity involved in the activity that took place Crusades was ebbing in the Middle East, and attempts here under aegis of the castle — transshipment, inspec- were made to find new fields of activity in Europe. One tion, assessment of taxes. Rosaries and politics can wonder about the willingness of the leaders of the Radan Květ conducts road research, and is thus a Samland has been called the most remote area of Eu- Order to travel to regions by the Baltic Sea that were, wanderer. For decades, he has studied the landscape rope, but, curiously, it lies in the continent’s most cen- compared with the Levant, barren, inhospitable, and of Central Europe, trudged around in muddy fields tral location. The remoteness in this case is more of a under-developed; but in 1226, when the Polish Duke and scouted out ravines and fords, gathered traces of historical than geographical nature. Samland, the pe- Konrad I of Masovia requested their help against the human wearing down of the terrain from times past. ninsula (sometimes known simply as Sambia in Latin intractable Baltic Prussians, they launched a massive He contends that the old routes are not simply logis- documents) between the shallow Curonian and Vistula campaign. Under the leadership of Hermann von Salza tical memories; they also have significant symbolic Lagoons, in the southeast corner of the Baltic Sea, was (the grand master of the Order, 1209–1230), who was dimensions, can be seen as a complex of symbols. — along with neighboring Lithuania — the part of medi- honed at power plays, this effort resulted in the found- They are bordered by the signs — natural phenom- eval Europe that was last to come under the control of ing of the so-called State of the Teutonic Order, which

World history as parenthesis. Local history as eternity. 6

The Cathedral of Aquileia.

Equestrian statue of Marcus Aure- Marienburg. lius at the Capitolium in Rome.

came to be the dominant political factor in the Baltic for rosary beads was drastically reduced. The secular peoples. It also had a number of surprising proper- area until the end of the Middle Ages. Duchy of Prussia instead had to encourage production ties. It could burn and evaporate, hence Low German’s This change is usually seen as part of the general of extremely “profane” jewelry and ornaments. bernstên, from bernen, to burn. Rubbing it yields a easterly expansion that characterizes the German Mid- pleasant aromatic scent, and also makes it negatively dle Ages. Landless, young noblemen ( Junkers) sought electrically charged, giving it the ability to attract light a living by colonizing East Central Europe, which at Burning stone objects such as human hair and pieces of paper. Thus, that time was still sparsely populated. The expansion On the coast of Samland, people have been beach- the word electricity derives from the Greek name for of German urbanism in the same direction went hand- combers since the Stone Age. After stormy weather amber, élektron. (The English word amber stems from in-hand with this process. But as far as Samland and in particular, it could be rewarding to comb the long a medieval confusion of the stone with the secretions the surrounding area are concerned — what would later stretches of sandy beaches. Chunks and small pieces from the sperm-whales that came ashore, which were a be known as Prussia, and then East Prussia — I believe of amber would wash ashore. Some were gunged up popular raw material for things like perfume.) As early that there was an additional factor that contributed to in tangled strands of seaweed and required laborious as antiquity, amber oil and succinic acid were extract- the surprising attractiveness of the area: amber. One cleaning, others were already shiny and rinsed clean ed from the stones, which were thought to have me- can imagine that von Salza, during his voyages across and could immediately be processed into jewelry, orna- dicinal properties. The Roman Pliny the Elder wrote the Mediterranean — he also had time to participate in ments, or ritual objects. It was believed that amber was extensively about the healing properties of amber; “in the Fifth Crusade, along with the mythical Emperor a gift from the sea, but in reality it’s a matter of 35–50 a pendant around the neck, it will heal fever and ill- Frederick II of Hohenstaufen — frequently fingered his million-year-old memories of submerged forests — the nesses, crushed and mixed in honey and rose oil it will prayer beads of glittering amber and realized that the resin of fossilized conifers, consisting of various types help against earache, and mixed with Attic honey it will attribute of holiness needed its own special production of pitch, succinic acid, and essential oils. Fossilized also cure weakened eyesight.” That amber sometimes service by the Baltic Sea. In the State of the Teutonic resin can be found in various parts of the world, but contained remarkably well-preserved encapsulated in- Order, amber became a regale, and all finds became rarely of the quality and volume in which it appears in sects and plants simply added to the fascination. the property of the rulers. The production of rosa- the “blue earth” of Samland, a sand layer located about As a result, it became a medium of exchange and an ries made of amber beads became one of the primary ten meters below the level of the beach, ending under important commodity, which early on found a market sources of income for the state. Thus, the Reforma- water six hundred meters out in the sea. in the Mediterranean. The Baltic and Slavic words for tion in the 16th century meant not only an ideological It wasn’t simply because of its beautiful color and amber (gintaras, Lithuanian; dzintars, Latvian; jantar, problem but also an economic problem. The demand texture that amber caught the attention of ancient Russian and Czech) are thought to derive from Phoe-

Robert Bartlett in “The Making of Europe”: the Crusades in the east solved an aristocratic overpopulation problem. essay feature interview story 7

nician’s jainitar, which probably meant marine resin. umns of packhorses, protected by armed guards — A large quantity of gems has been found in the royal “The Baltic and Slavic those brought along, hired, or added by local rulers — tombs at Mycenae that have been chemically deter- words for amber (gintaras, caravans of sorts, quite simply, even if the word sounds mined to be Baltic amber, or succinit, which is the sci- unfamiliar in a European context. A network of roads entific name, from the Latin succinum (succinic acid Lithuanian; dzintars, for vehicular traffic hardly existed north of the Danube. is thus “acid of amber”). In Imperial Rome a huge de- The Amber Road was rather a route of beaten paths. mand arose; here people wanted succinum for jewelry Latvian; jantar, Russian Here and there, accessibility over swamps and marsh- as well as temple adornments and palace interiors. and Czech) are thought to land was improved with landfill and corduroy roads. The historian Tacitus speaks, a bit condescendingly, At places such as Konin and Kalisz, there were guest of how the barbarians by the northern seas aimlessly derive from Phoenician’s houses for safe overnight stays. wander collecting the coveted substance, which they jainitar, which probably From Kalisz south one could choose a western call glaesum, and which the Romans then quite meri- branch that led to Breslau/Wrocław, or one to the toriously know to import, process, and market. And it meant marine resin.” east that led directly down to the Moravian Gate. Af- is the Gothic, Germanic word for amber he gives us, ter reaching the watershed at Hranice, one could fol- which we recognize in the modern word glass. For in of salt”; the name is derived from the stem hal or gal, low the Morava river valley south towards the Danube, Tacitus’s time, before migrations stirred up the Euro- that exists in several languages — including Greek — which in Roman times was the Mediterranean world’s pean pot, the coastal areas in that corner of the Baltic which means precisely salt (the Latin pronunciation front-lines — here ran the limes, the fortified border. were Gothic. slid towards sal). The Gauls were thus “the salt people”. Place names throughout Europe speak volumes about Border men the history of salt mining and extraction that the Gauls Salt junctions controlled; the German cities of Halle and Schwäbisch and Romans But how did this glaesum reach Rome, how was it Hall arose around ancient salt sources. The Austrian Such as bathing appears to thee — oil, sweat, transformed into succinum? It is probably best to begin name Hallein means “salt works”, the nearby Hallstatt dirt, filthy water, all things disgusting — so is by dismissing Tacitus’s picture of the aimless barbar- “salt place”. And not far from them there is even Salz- every part of life and everything. ians on the beaches of Samland. In Tacitus’s time, the burg. And then of course we have the important prov- (Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 8:24) processing and trade in amber already had a history inces of Galicia in Poland/Ukraine (in Polish: Galicja, going back several thousands of years, and surely had Ukrainian: Halychyna) and Galicia in northern Spain. The shadowy people of the forest were called Marco- its specific organizational forms, with political conse- These Gauls should perhaps be thought of as a cosmo- manni, frontier men. Ambushes at ravines and fords; quences. Indeed, it may even have been amber that politan salt trading aristocracy, a kind of continental silent arrows that suddenly bored into oak trunks. The drew the Goths to this part of the Baltic, if they in fact Hansa that had river valleys and mountain passes as its Romans made punishing and forbidding intrusions to were from Scandinavia — a notoriously contentious fairways. A certain cultural uniformity may have been the north along the mysterious tributaries. Dangerous matter. There was an amber road, and it was important formed because of these salt interests, much like the missions for the legionnaires, over the limes — the lim- that it be maintained and monitored. Various monitors bourgeois guild spirit of the medieval trading cities it, the threshold. presented themselves over the years. around the Baltic Sea, or like the upper-class culture In 179 AD, Emperor Marcus Aurelius personally Kalisz is said to be Poland’s oldest city. The evidence that tied together the European nobility of the early commanded the legions guarding the border. At night for this comes from the mathematician and geographer modern period. We can thus find “Celtic” elements in he wrote. In Greek. Claudius Ptolemaeus (Ptolemy) of Alexandria, who, in archaeological material from highly diverse parts of the 2nd century AD, mentions a place by the name of Europe, without this necessarily implying there was a That he who is discoursing about men Kalisia. common language or an established ethnicity. A more should look also at earthly things as if he That the area was, for millennia, an important meet- solid culture may have begun to be formed during the viewed them from some higher place; ing place is clear, even if the town of Kalisz as such was collision with the emerging Roman Empire, but it was should look at them in their assemblies, established later, in the Middle Ages. For here two then dissolved because of the Romans’ successful poli- armies, agricultural labors, marriages, major European routes cross: one that goes from the cy of conquest and Latinization. treaties, births, deaths, noise of the courts southeast to the northwest and conveys a bodily food My detour onto the salt road was precipitated by the of justice, desert places, various nations of stuff,salt ; and one that went from north to south and thought that the city name Kalisia/Kalisz also could be barbarians, feasts, lamentations, markets, a transported a particularly spiritual, symbolic, and an allusion to Gallic activity. For it is the salt men that mixture of all things and an orderly combi- aesthetic necessity, amber. The salt was transferred are thought to have provided the trade and transport nation of contraries. from the salt lands of Halychyna (Galicia), to salt-poor along the Amber Road during antiquity with its efficient (Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 7:48) North-western Europe; and amber, to succinum-thirsty organization. Here in Kalisz I begin to understand how Rome. the route stretched along the river valleys and over the The frontier city Carnuntum on the south side of the In his thought-provoking book Salt, cultural histo- lowest points of the watersheds. From Samland, the Danube had bath houses, amphitheaters and mosaics. rian Mark Kurlansky suggested an interesting and fruit- route went first towards the southwest in the direction Gladiatorial games entertained the 60,000 inhabit- ful perspective on a culture whose identity has been of the estuary of the Vistula. The Teutonic Order — with ants. On the streets, the Mediterranean and continen- strangely elusive for historians and archaeologists: the the support of amber revenue — built its main office tal European met: togas and trousers. Wine (and later Celts. It should be pointed out that the modern use of at a strategic point in the region, the enormous Castle viniculture) took the leap northward across the Dan- the name Celts — which was introduced by the craze in Malbork (German: Die Marienburg), with a bridge ube, the amber was rowed over for further transport to during Romanticism for druids and harps — is a misun- within the castle built over the Nogat, a branch of the the Mediterranean. The town was originally Celtic; the derstood re-use of the Greek keltoi, which was never Vistula. name comes from the Celtic word cairn, which means a precise ethnic designation. Ancient people knew the From there, one could follow the Vistula upstream “rock”. Celts as Gauls. According to the historical handbooks to Thorn/Torun´, where one crossed the river in or- Marcus Aurelius, the philosophical and philanthrop- there appear to have been Gauls almost everywhere in der to cross, via the old trading place Kruszwica, the ic Stoic, felt forced to make tough and barbaric cam- Europe during the last millennium before Christ, not Warte, a tributary of the Oder, which was reached at paigns in order to maintain the Roman regime beyond just in the areas which the Romans called Gallia. The Konin. In Konin, a medieval road marker is preserved, the Danube. But he did not just sit safely behind the for- picture is muddled. Were they a people, an empire, a a stone pillar dated 1151, which indicates the halfway tifications of Carnuntum; he followed the legions. Parts language group, a religion? point from Kruszwica to Kalisz. of the Meditations, his self-reflections, are written in a Kurlansky points out that the Gauls were “masters What was it like to travel this route? Imagine col- military encampment “among the Quadi at Granna”,

Where salt and amber met. Where the Romans built their European fortress. 8

at the Hron River deep in what is now Slovakia: “Surely vent the north-south trade, the trade in fact intensified. you have at one point seen a severed hand or foot, or a “The Amber Road had Carnuntum can be thought of as a place of transship- head, lying separated from the rest the body.” Villages existed for thousands of ment, where Northern Europeans exchanged their burned to the ground, slave transportation, drawn-out loads of amber for Roman wines or luxury items such trade negotiations in a confusion of tongues with the years when the Romans as bronze vessels or glass; Roman trading operations chiefs and warlords. entered the Central Euro- and “forwarding agents” took over the amber baton. When you travel between Vienna and Bratislava From Carnuntum, which was in the province of Pan- along the southern bank of the Danube, and pass the pean scene as prefects of a nonia Superior, a route ran south through what today town of Petronell-Carnuntum, where the preserved is the border region between Austria and Hungary, remains of Carnuntum are located, Devín Castle, hitherto unseen caliber.” passed the citadel of Scarbantia (Sopron) and the Ro- perched on a cliff, stands out on the northern bank of man colony of Savaria (Szombathely), then turned off the river in a dramatic profile against the evening sun: were people that had developed special skills as border to the southwest and, via Emona (Ljubljana), reached a barren mass of rock, sculpted by water and wind, guards, merchants (for example merchants of amber) the Adriatic Sea at Aquileia. crowned with the remains of the fortifications of vari- and brokers. They ran a kind of protection racket in no In 181 BC, in the coastal country of the Veneti be- ous empires. Adjacent to the cliff and its castle there is man’s land and might demand tributes from both the tween the Po estuary and Istria, the Romans founded an affluent — the Morava/March makes its tribute to the Romans, who needed them as guarantors of border a colony that had military significance as well as signifi- Danube. security, and from the original inhabitants, who very cance for trade policies. It was here that Marcus Aure- A place for reconnaissance, for keeping an eye on much wanted access to the Roman luxury goods, and lius had his primary base during the campaign against the unpredictable people beyond the border. The Ro- in addition very much wanted to avoid being exported the Marcomanni. As a fortress, Aquileia was the key to mans built a support point on the Devín rock, in foreign to the south as slaves. Those who could not pay the pro- the northern Italian plains; as a trade center it was the territory on the north bank of the Danube. tection money were of course sold to the Roman slave final destination of the amber as a raw material. In Aq- traders. In this matter, the Marcomanni had basically uileia, much of the imported amber was processed into Of human life the time is a point, and the no scruples; human-trafficking was perhaps the most jewelry, amulets, talismans and idols, and art objects. substance is in a flux, and the perception important border trade. The size of the city (about 100,000 inhabitants) and its dull, and the composition of the whole body The Romans showered the cooperative bosses of the unusually cosmopolitan character — even by Roman subject to putrefaction, and the soul of a frontier trade with honors; made them dependent. But standards — is probably the reason that it became one whirl, and fortune hard to divine, and fame every now and then these foederati became so wealthy of the Empire’s first centers of Christianity. Just a few a thing devoid of judgment. And, to say all and influential that they became a threat to Rome. years after the Christ cult had become the state reli- in a word, everything which belongs to the The legendary Marcomanni oligarch Marbod was to gion, the city’s bishop, Theodorus, built a cathedral the body is a stream, and what belongs to the a great degree a Roman product. He spent his youth mosaic floors of which are preserved in the cathedral soul is a dream and vapor, and life is a war- in Rome, spoke Latin, and became an acquaintance of as it exists today. During the 6th century, the bishop of fare and a stranger’s sojourn, and after-fame Augustus. Back at the territory on the Main in central Aquileia took on the title of Patriarch, with claims to is oblivion. Germania, which until then belonged to the Marco- take the position in rank right below the pope. But the (Written in Carnuntum. Meditations 2:17) manni, he found that the possibilities for the tradition- city — which had been invaded by Attila the Hun in 452 al operations had deteriorated considerably because — was depopulated after the invasion by the Lombards It was important to have an overview of the confluence of the Romans’ campaign (which later collapsed) to in 568, and was soon transformed into an insignificant of the two rivers for several reasons. It was along the incorporate the land between the Rhine and the Elbe. village. The Patriarchate was tenacious, but in the end course of the Morava that the merchants that brokered So he moved the operation to Bohemia and Moravia was transferred to Venice in 1451. At that point, Aquileia the highly coveted golden-red splendor from the north- around the year 9 AD. Intertwined with the local Celtic/ consisted of little more than the cathedral. ern beaches traveled. In the time of Emperor Nero, an Gallic aristocracy, and in league with the Quadi, who According to one of the founding legends of Venice, expedition was dispatched in order to find out where dominated parts of Moravia and Slovakia, the Marco- it was fleeing residents of Aquileia that founded the la- the glowing amber actually came from. The traffic had manni then became an important factor along the cen- goon city. This is in all likelihood a myth, but Venice in to be protected from looting and disruption. Shouldn’t tral part of the Danube. In the 160s AD, their protection many respects did indeed take over the role Aquileia one be able to incorporate the amber country into the racket became too keenly felt in northern Italy; this led had had as a point of contact between Central Europe empire? The scouts eventually returned, well-stocked to Marcus Aurelius’s protracted Danube campaigns. and the Mediterranean world. Perhaps it is no acciden- with succinum, but they advised against any military Large military camps were built on the north side of tal occurrence that the Teutonic Order ran its network adventure. The amber coast was too far away, and the the river; the emperor was obviously attempting to from a palace in Venice until 1309, when its seat was routes through the pathless forests would be impossi- out-maneuver the difficult to control frontier men by moved to the emerging Marienburg. The combination ble to control. Better, then, to work at a distance, by moving the border further north. But when Marcus Au- of crusades and amber was good business, both for the proxy and federations, foederati. relius died in 180 AD, the plans were abandoned. The Venetians and for the Order. The Romans also determined to a large extent how Marcomanni remained, but it is significant that when things would be in the areas beyond the limes. They the Roman Empire eventually dissolved and the bor- divided and ruled in the changing pattern of alliances der disappeared, the frontier men also disappeared Amber King and conflicts that spread over the stateless Forest of in the early medieval borderlessness. They are not of Samland Europe. When one reads in the works of Tacitus and mentioned after the 4th century. It is believed that they At the end of 1700, Frederick III, Elector of Branden- other Romans of the Germanic peoples, one can get the changed names and became the core of the Bavarii, the burg, succeeded — after ten years of negotiations — in impression that there were stable nations and ancient ancestors of the Bavarians. obtaining a favor from his feudal lord, the emperor in traditions. But many of the “tribes” Tacitus lists were Vienna. Frederick was “at a time of his choosing, on the products of political events that went back only a few basis of his duchy, Prussia, to be permitted to declare generations. Towards himself, and be crowned, king”. The Romans were involved in the creation of these the Mediterranean The elector immediately set to work. In Berlin, “German peoples”; they arose from the particular con- The Amber Road had existed for thousands of years three hundred wagons were loaded with coronation ditions and needs generated by the border. The popular when the Romans entered the Central European scene appurtenances, whereupon the court, with the help of name Marcomanni seems originally to have been a sort as prefects of a hitherto unseen caliber. The old routes three thousand horses in brutal winter weather, began of professional designation, on analogy with the Gallic and paths south of the Danube were now incorporated to move towards Prussia. On December 29, Frederick masters of salt: the frontier men (or “border men”) into the Roman road network. The limes did not pre- arrived with his entourage at the old castle of the Cru-

Prussia awakens. Lustrous gifts give the “Iron Kingdom” its splendor. essay feature interview story 9

The Danube and the Morava by Devín. Piece of amber. Detail from the Column of Marcus Aurelius in Rome.

saders in Königsberg. Coronation ceremonies com- of the castle were demolished. The fate of the Amber references menced on January 15, 1701. Four heralds, twenty-four Room is unknown. Numerous more or less improbable Åke Dahlström, Stenen som flyter och brinner: En bok trumpeters and two timpanists rode through the city, theories abound in popular historical literature. om bärnsten [The Rock that Flows and Burns: A Book followed by sixty noblemen and a cavalry squadron. In connection with the restoration of the palace in about Amber]. Stockholm: Norstedts 1995 Golden commemorative coins were thrown into the Tsarskoye Selo, work was begun in 1976 on a recon- Norman Davies & Roger Moorhouse, Microcosm: Por- crowd. Wine flowed from fountains. The people were struction of the Amber Room, whose whereabouts trait of a Central European City. London: Pimlico 2003 fed with a roasted ox, stuffed with lamb, rabbits, geese, are still unknown. The Russians now had control of Fritz Gause, Die Geschichte der Stadt Königsberg in and other birds. Frederick III of Brandenburg was now Samland, where the classic deposits in Palmnicken Preussen 1–3. Köln 1965–1971 (Ostmitteleuropa in Frederick I, “König in Preußen”. (renamed Yantarny) had been industrially processed Vergangenheit und Gegenwart) The spectacle marked the establishment of the mod- since the 19th century. After German reunification in Anders Hammarlund, Människor bortom lustprinci- ern Prussian state, but it was also the culmination of an 1990 and the establishment of new German-Russian pen. Mähriska öden. [People Beyond the Pleasure enormous cultural-political effort. Since his accession relations, the restoration project acquired an altered Principle: Some Moravian Life Stories.] Stockholm: to power in 1688, Frederick had single-mindedly striven political significance. The re-created Amber Room was Carlssons 2006 to give his realm the status of a modern territorial state. opened in 2003 in connection with St. Petersburg’s Anders Hammarlund, “På kant med Königsberg — Via extensive patronage, Berlin, a mediocre county 300th anniversary in the presence of President Putin staden, tiden och staten” [Königsberg — the City, town with 30,000 inhabitants on the spartan outskirts and Chancellor Schroeder. the Time, and the State], i Johan Dietsch, Klas-Göran of the German Empire, would shine as the new Athens. Amber ended up conjoining, once again, seemingly Karlsson, Barbara Törnquist-Plewa & Ulf Zander Artists and scholars were recruited; vast collections of incommensurably great realms. My excursion along (eds.), Historia mot strömmen: Kultur och konflikter i art and antiques were brought in. Frederick wanted the Amber Road has given me a different and, in two det moderna Europa [Against the Current: Culture and to bring the continent’s cultural heritage to the sandy senses, interdisciplinary perspective on the broader Conflicts in Modern Europe]. Stockholm: Carlssons banks of the Spree, where the new power — established European picture. The focus of the traditional histori- 2007 upon the permanent and legitimizing piles constituted cal narratives and atlases on the kingdoms, borders, Jobst, Werner et al., Provinzhauptstadt Carnuntum: by the ancient heritage — would surpass the Hellenes and boundaries does not do justice to the many thou- Österreichs grösste archäologische Landschaft. Wien: and the Romans. sands of years of connections that stretch across the Österreichischer Bundesverlag 1983 “The King in Prussia” also reigned over Samland, continent. The limes was no Iron Curtain, the Celts Helmuth Kluger, Hochmeister Hermann von Salza something Nero had once dreamed of in vain. The not simply harp players. The Amber Road, as it was und Kaiser Friedrich II: Ein Beitrag zur Frühgeschichte glowing gift of the beach became an important marker organized by the collaborative efforts of the Romans des Deutschen Ordens (Quellen und Studien zur of identity, the regale of the Teutonic Knights still car- and the Celts/Gauls, was a lasting inter-European sys- Geschichte des Deutschen Ordens). Marburg: Elwert ried great weight, and even until the 20th century, orna- tem for mutual cultural and economic exchange. The 1987 mental objects of amber were the standard gift of the inhabitants of the North probably knew more about Mark Kurlansky, Salt: A World History. London: Cape Prussian kings to other royal houses of Europe. Perhaps the Romans than the Romans knew about them — 2002 as evidence that he outshone Nero and the latter’s leg- this is apparent immediately when you read Tacitus’s Radan Kveˇt, Duše krajiny: Staré stezky v promenách endary Domus Aurea (“golden house”) in Rome, Fred- ethnocentric depictions. There was reciprocity. The veku [Soul of the Landscape: Ancient Paths through erick I had his craftsmen decorate an entire room in the beach dwellers of the Baltic acquired beautiful things the Ages]. Prague: Academia 2003 palace in Berlin in amber, in the magnificent baroque from Aquileia, with the help of the frontier men. And Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, The Meditations of Mar- classicism that was the trademark of the Prussian state. one can imagine adventurous voyages of Scandinavi- cus Aurelius, translated by George Long. New York: During a visit to Berlin, Peter the Great was impressed an mercenaries and pilgrims heading home along the P.F. Collier & Son, 1909–1914 by the splendor of the amber, and Frederick’s succes- route through Hranice, Konin, and Kruszwica — the Mariusz Mierzwin´ski & Krzysztof Jabłon´ski, Die Ma- sor, the prosaic soldier-king Frederick William I, who shortest route from Rome to Scandia. ≈ rienburg. Warsaw: United Publishers 1993 had little interest in aesthetic showiness, gave away the anders hammarlund decorations to the Tsar. It was installed in the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg, but was later moved to Tsar- skoye Selo. During the Siege of Leningrad, the Amber Room was dismantled by the German occupiers and taken to Königsberg Castle, where it was stored in its disassem- bled condition. In the final stages of the war, the old Königsberg was destroyed during the British bombard- ment and the Soviet ground attack, and turned into the backwater of Kaliningrad. The blackened remains

Peter the Great and Frederick William I. Today, one speaks of gas pipelines. 10 essay

Suicide Suiin Changingcide Societies BY Tanya Jukkala & Ilkka Henrik Mäkinen illustration ragni svensson

To the untrained eye, suicide may appear to be a high- nomenon, the impact of Le Suicide has been of major her lot, a fate that he/she can try to improve by work- ly individual decision, and undoubtedly it is. However, importance: it is still the leading theory and a natural ing in conformity with the regulation. As a result, the it can be shown that suicide, as with the results of so starting point for any study. individual will “be able to love what he has and not many other individual choices, is also a socially pat- solely fixate on what he lacks”.5 terned and socially reactive phenomenon. This essay But when a society is in crisis, or affected by some attempts to say something about its relationship to Durkheim on societal abrupt change, it will sometimes become incapable of changes in the surrounding society. change and suicide exercising its regulative influence on individual needs. Since ancient times, suicide has been an object Durkheim presented a systematic theory of suicide When conditions of life change, the standards accord- of moral and philosophical speculation; later, it also mortality. It consisted of several elements, one of ing to which needs are regulated cannot remain the became a matter for medical and social-scientific them being the claim that the level of suicide in a same. Nor can a new standard be immediately imple- thought. However, it became a focus of major atten- society correlates with the level of societal regulation, mented. Thus, for a time, the limits of what is possible, tion only when, during the 19th century, the newly ini- i.e. the regulation, on the part of society, of individual just, and legitimate in relation to individual needs will tiated mortality statistics revealed a relentless increase goals and aspirations. This regulation originates in be unknown. This will result in a state of uncertainty in the suicide rate.1 The Swedish rate of suicide, for social morality, as shared by and superior to the in which individual needs, passions, and aspirations example, increased fivefold between 1810 and 1912.2 individual members of society. It sets limits on the are unlimited and uncontrolled, a state of society Scholars from many scientific disciplines — medical, individual’s aspirations and desires and prescribes known by its Greek-inspired name anomie. At the so- social, behavioral, legal, theological — competed in appropriate and attainable goals for individuals in dif- cietal level, it is characterized by deficient regulation, offering explanations for this startling phenomenon. It ferent social positions and with varying resources and at the individual level, by constant disappointments was generally suspected that the drastic social changes opportunities. caused by unattainable goals and unmet aspirations. associated with the processes of industrialization In Durkheim’s opinion, human needs, in contrast According to Durkheim, a society in a state of anomie and urbanization were somehow related to the rising to those of animals, exceed the purely physical ones, will experience a great increase, for that location suicide rate — but how exactly? and their number or form cannot be absolutely deter- and time, of a specific type of suicide which he terms The theory that won the day (or at least the poster- mined. As a consequence, the satisfaction of the needs anomic. Some of Durkheim’s statements seem to ity) was developed by the French sociologist Émile is always an uncertain and arbitrary matter. Thus, if indicate that he believed that society in a process of Durkheim in his famous book Le Suicide, which they were dependent only on individual aspirations, modernization as such had an unbalanced, anomic first appeared in 1897.3 The book can be (and has the individuals’ desires and goals would always be character, and that similar reasoning could, perhaps, been) criticized as regards both data quality and the unattainable, and the individual would be left in a be applied to other rapidly changing societies too. methods used for empirical testing, especially when perpetual state of disappointment and dissatisfaction. judged by modern standards. In addition, its theoreti- However, in a normally functioning “Durkheimian” cal contents, while fascinating, are not always stated society, this state of affairs is avoided by means of the Economy as locus of very clearly, which sometimes allows the author societal regulation of both the desirable goals and disorderly change to use them in an ad-hoc manner in explanations.4 the means of attaining them. This encourages the In Durkheim’s opinion, the economic sector was the Nevertheless, as a study of suicide as a societal phe- individual to reach a realistic contentment with his or most visible social sphere in which anomic imbalances

A world of opportunities offers a great many shortcomings. Even the Greeks had words for this. essay feature interview reviews 11 Suicide

Anxiety is the iceberg of change. At the top, people fall with different weights. 12 essay could be found, and the boom-and-bust capitalism positive correlation between (white male) suicide of the economic changes in many of these countries, of the late 19th century provided him with a wealth of rates and the absolute rate of change in the economic accompanied, as they have been, by reduced purchas- examples of rapid changes in fortune. Interested as cycle, regardless of its direction. Pierce’s findings were ing power and increased unemployment. he was in a possible correlation between economic later questioned by James R. Marshall and Robert W. The negative consequences undoubtedly exist. The changes and levels of suicide mortality, he was able Hodge10, who criticized certain aspects of his method state of public health in Eastern Europe started to stag- to show how disruptions or changes in the economy, and argued, with support from their own findings, nate as early as the mid-1960s. The rapid transforma- be they upswings, recessions or reforms, were all that it was not a matter of economic disruption per tions of the early 1990s caused a severe deterioration associated with increases in suicide mortality levels. se. Instead, they found that suicide increased during of an already precarious situation. The former Soviet This type of reaction could, in his opinion, only be ex- negative changes in the economy and decreased dur- republics experienced dramatic increases in their plained by assuming that it was the change per se, and ing improvements, contrary to what Durkheim had mortality rates, especially among men, and suicide not the particular nature of the change, that affected postulated. mortality was no exception. Rather, the increases in the level of suicide mortality. The disequilibrium Maurice Halbwachs, one of Durkheim’s adepts, suicide levels in some of the East European countries brought on by rapid societal change caused people to had earlier advanced a similar argument. According were of such magnitude that it is scarcely possible commit suicide more frequently. to him, suicide increased during economic crises, to find their counterparts in 20th century history. In Durkheim did not see the origins of anomie as not necessarily as a direct consequence of unemploy- Russia, suicide mortality increased by 62 percent solely economic. Change in the family structure was ment, bankruptcies, failures, and downfalls, but be- between 1989 and 1994, in Lithuania (which presently another potential source of anomie, as the higher cause of less general activity and people’s decreased has the highest suicide mortality rate in the world), suicide rates among divorced men, in his opinion, participation in economic life. This created a situation the increase during this same period amounted to 69 indicated. Divorce brought about a state of disequilib- where people’s “attention is no longer turned towards percent (see Figure).15 rium, because it interrupted the regulative functions externals but dwells more, not merely on their distress These alarming developments soon caught the of marriage, the regulation of “the life of passions”6, or on their bare material competency, but on all the attention of researchers.16 In terms of theories about i.e. sexual relations. It did not have this effect on individual motives they may have for desiring death”.11 suicide, they pose serious problems for those who women for their desires were “naturally limited” due Halbwachs’ argument reminds us of Durkheim’s other claim that suicide is always a result either of serious to their “less developed” mental life7 (a line of reason- main theme, namely the association between suicide psychiatric illness or of specific genetic makeup. ing consistent with Durkheim’s general ideas about levels and the level of societal integration. When a systematic comparison is done of develop- the mental life of women). This second aspect of Durkheim’s theory predicts ments of suicide mortality after 1990 in the transition Yet divorces were not numerous in Durkheim’s that the risk of suicide will increase among lonely and countries, one may find patterns that indicate signifi- time, whereas there was an abundance of economic self-centered individuals, and that loneliness and self- cant differences between groups of countries. The change. Table 1, which is taken from Le Suicide, centeredness may be promoted by prevailing social Figure presents the course of events in selected East contains an everyday example of how suicide levels circumstances. In fact, for Halbwachs,12 the aspects European countries which may be considered repre- increase during events, such as the World Exposi- of societal integration and regulation were both a sentative. For example, the developments in suicide tion, that supposedly stimulate business activity result of a common denominator: the individual’s mortality after 1990 in the former “European” Soviet and increase public wealth in the city where they attachment to society. Others after him13 have agreed countries (except for Moldova), i.e. Russia, Ukraine, occur. Guided by Durkheim, the reader will observe that the two — integration and regulation — are simply Belarus and the three Baltic States, are fairly similar.17 the increase in suicides in Paris in 1889, the year aspects of the same societal condition. All of these countries saw sharp rises in suicide mor- of the World Exposition. During the seven months tality in the years after 1990; moreover, suicide levels the Exposition lasted, suicides increased by almost were already very high in all of these countries. In the 10 percent in comparison to the previous year (567 A modern example: middle of the 1990s, the rates peaked. Thereafter, a suicides compared to 517), while, the following year, the transition in general decrease in suicide rates has occurred, except the number of suicides was again lower for the same Eastern Europe for Russia where the ruble crisis of 1998 seems to have months.8 Durkheim goes on to give further examples and the changes in been followed by yet another increase in suicide mor- of the relationship between suicide rates and eco- tality from 1999 to 2001. nomic change by showing how suicide rates increased suicide mortality Poland, Romania, and Kyrgyzstan are additional during financial crises and stock market crashes and Durkheim’s theory of a link between rapid social examples of countries where increases in suicide how they correlated with increases in bankruptcies change and suicide mortality may seem very plausible mortality can be observed in the beginning of the and variations in food prices, production, trade, and when applied to 19th century Europe, where rapid transition period. These increases were, however, public wealth. social change and increasing suicide rates were virtu- less dramatic than in the countries discussed above. Durkheim’s fundamental idea, that change in itself ally ubiquitous.14 However, one set of examples is In the rest of Eastern Europe, i.e. Hungary, the Czech could be destructive, has been an inspiration for those hardly sufficient as evidence for answering the general Republic, and the Balkans, suicide mortality rates coming after him. As far as individual examples are question. remained fairly stable, or even decreased. This was concerned, empirical tests have often given differing In our times, the fall of Communism has brought also the case in the Caucasian and Central Asian results. Durkheim’s original assumption that any major changes in East European societies over the last former Soviet republics. In other words, a “suicide change in the economy would lead to an increase in two decades. The ensuing transition has influenced all crisis” occurred in only eight of the 28 East European suicide mortality was confirmed in the 1970s by Albert levels and all spheres of society, not least the econom- countries, and even though it was of unprecedented Pierce.9 Using fluctuations of stock-market prices as ic and the political; it has had a major effect on the severity, we must ask why this did not happen in all indicators of economic change, he found a strong lives of some 400 million individuals. For many, the of the countries concerned. After all, the pains of the change has meant increased poverty, social inequal- transition period were most certainly more severe in Table 1. Suicide Mortality in Paris Before, During, ity, unemployment, and uncertainty about the future, Albania than in Estonia, and surely no less serious in and After the World Exposition of 1889 while for others it has meant increasing personal, po- Romania than in Latvia. These cases, which actually 1888 1889 1890 litical, and economic freedom. In accordance with the constitute the majority of the countries involved, are above-mentioned theories, one might expect Eastern not easily reconciled with Durkheim’s theory, accord- The seven months of the 517 567 540 Europe’s transition to affect suicide mortality in two ing to which the changes that were common to all exposition distinct ways. First, on lines with Durkheim’s theory, these countries — and that ought to have interrupted The five other months 319 311 356 change per se causes anomie, which, in turn, should societal regulation — should have resulted in increas- Source: Émile Durkheim, Suicide: A Study in Sociology, affect the levels of suicide mortality. Second, suicide ing suicide rates in all of them. London, 1999, p. 245. mortality should be affected by the negative character Where suicide rates did increase, it is possible that

The Eiffel Tower was built for the 1889 World Exposition. The number who jumped? essay feature interview story 13

Figure. Suicide and Self-Inflicted Injury in Selected East tion between the process ity in China, since the country has no national death European Countries, 1979–2008 of democratization and registration system. The tabulation of deaths by cause 60 suicide mortality has is based on population samples. The national suicide been reported, implying mortality rate has been estimated at 15.4 per 100,000 that democratization has in 200029, a figure not much higher than that of 50 some beneficial effects Sweden (11.4 per 100,000 in 200730). Suicide mortality Czech Republic on suicide mortality in China seems to have some unique characteristics. levels.27 China is the one country where female suicide mortal- Estonia 40 However, these fac- ity levels exceed those of males. Moreover, suicide Hungary tors seem to be able to mortality levels are estimated to be about three times explain only parts of higher in the countryside than in the cities.31 Whereas 30 Kazakhstan the variation in suicide these characteristics of Chinese suicide mortality Lithuania mortality in the respec- differ from those in the West, (other) risk factors that Poland 20 tive countries, and they have been associated with suicide mortality in China, Russian Federation do not predict well at all such as depression, previous suicide attempts, and in many of them. The acute stress at the time of death, seem to mirror what Uzbekistan 10 explanations offered for has been observed in the West.32 the rise in suicide rates The high suicide mortality among rural women has seem merely to reflect been the focus of many studies, and has been linked 0 the general variation in to these women’s low status and limited options; they the opinions of suicide’s may, for instance, be subjected to forced marriages, 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 societal causes. The proc- abusive husbands or in-laws, stress caused by official Source: World Health Organization: Health for All Data Base ess of societal change birth policies, pressure from parents that want them in Eastern Europe has to help the family escape rural life, etc.33 However, been so thoroughgoing as noted by Michael R. Phillips and his colleagues, the societal changes following the transition also in- that it can give rise to many possible interpretations; women in many developing countries face a similar volved other factors that made the members of these it is hard to separate individual elements of the inter- situation. In their own study, they find support for societies more prone to commit suicide. For example, twined processes. This analytical situation is known the hypothesis that it is the lack of religious or legal Lisa F. Berkman and her colleagues claim that large- as multicollinearity — when everything happens at prohibitions against suicide in China that may make scale societal changes, such as the East European once, the exact causes of the phenomena are difficult suicide an acceptable way of escaping a difficult situa- transition, “represent environmental challenges that to specify.28 Moreover, as can often be observed in tion, a circumstance that bears no intrinsic relation to tear at the fabric of social networks”.18 Such deteriora- social-scientific research, the focus has been on the China’s modernizing development.34 tion in social relations in post-Soviet societies could problematic changes. Meanwhile, the positive changes The link between China’s suicide mortality levels be related to the second of Durkheim’s claims, namely have gone largely unnoticed, although they, too, and economic development is difficult to determine that suicide levels vary with the degree of integration might deserve an explanation. Since 2000, the level of due to absence of past statistics.35 The estimations for of society. suicide mortality has been decreasing in most of the the levels of suicide mortality during the 1990s seem This picture is further complicated by a wide range countries concerned. to indicate that suicide mortality has either remained of more specific explanations supplied by scholars relatively stable36 or has even fallen37, depending on studying the observed increases in suicide mortality Some points how the calculations are carried out. In seeking to in Eastern Europe. The increased suicide levels have of comparison: explain the possible decline in suicide mortality, it has been associated with factors such as the deteriorated changes in the third been hypothesized that while positive relationships macro-economic conditions19, increased alcohol between modernization and suicide have been found consumption20, increased divorce rates21, and the and fourth worlds in other societies, in largely rural environments, such general fragmenting of social relations22.Suicide levels For the sake of comparison, let us take a brief glance as the Chinese, modernization might cause decreases have also been explained by referring to a generally at another rapidly changing society — that of China. in suicide mortality because of the attendant general increased level of stress and social disorganization23, Since 1980, the country has risen from a poor, barely improvements in living standards, better educational as well as the deterioration of medical care24. Other industrialized and barely self-supporting society to a opportunities, and better medical care.38 Moreover, authors have, in accordance with Durkheim’s general major economic power and a world-class exporter of the decrease in suicides in rural areas seems driven by theory, emphasized the impact of rapid change per industrial goods, a development which, in its rapidity a decrease in young women’s suicide rates.39 se25 while still others have stressed the sole impor- and comprehension, is certainly comparable to what These facts would again raise questions about tance of rapid economic change, independent of the took place in 19th century Europe. Durkheim’s theory. The Chinese experience of chang- level of prosperity26. In addition, a negative associa- It is difficult to estimate the level of suicide mortal- ing suicide rates during periods of rapid social change,

China – the contrary society. The rule-less exception! 14 essay seems to have been very different from that observed companied by the stabilization or decrease in suicide European countries could be divided into groups in Western or Eastern Europe. It further stresses the mortality levels. Furthermore, a lack of stable social according to the specific properties of their suicide importance of the initial social and cultural situation, networks seemed to be associated with suicide mortal- mortality, that is, their different “suicide mortality as well as the direction of the change. ity at the individual level in Greenland.41 profiles”. These profiles were based on the level of sui- Probably the most extreme social changes in the cide mortality and the distribution of suicide among world are those experienced by “fourth world” peo- Why don’t all changing sex and age groups (see Table 2), which were, in turn, ples — traditionally small-scale, hunter-and-gatherer societies experience thought to reflect different socio-cultural situations in societies with limited contacts with the outer world. relation to suicide. Countries with similar profiles also Globalization has often entailed either dramatic rises in suicide tended to follow similar developments in their suicide changes in or the disappearance of these societies. A mortality? mortality during the relevant time period. The suicide Nordic example is that of Greenland. Returning to Eastern Europe, it is important to re- mortality profiles seemed to bemediating the effects For the last 50 years, Greenland’s development emphasize the fact that the developments in suicide of (other) social factors that were used to explain the from a traditional society to one approaching a mortality in the beginning of the 1990s varied greatly variations in suicide mortality, causing the effects modern (Western) style of life has been marked by from country to country. Although all of them expe- to vary greatly. The profile groups remained almost rapid socio-cultural transformations. These have gone rienced similar societal transformations, the effect the same during the two periods that were studied hand-in-hand with large increases in suicide mortality, of these in relation to suicide mortality has not been (1984–1989 and 1989–1994), which means that the pro- especially among young men. While Greenland had identical, or even similar. Not even all the former So- file differences were not altered by the transition proc- two registered suicides in 1971 (4.2 per 100,000) the viet countries, which, after all, share a longer common ess. Subsequent (still unpublished) research further level increased sharply, reaching its peak with 69 cases history, experienced similar developments in this supports the premise of their basic stability. in 1987 (128.4 per 100 000), a thirty-fold (!) increase in respect. This seriously calls into question the general Thus, the general culture in these countries only 16 years. And while suicide mortality decreased Durkheimian theory, according to which transforma- seemed to have a more significant determining effect after a second peak in 1990 (118.8 per 100,000), it has tions per se, and the anomie that they cause, should on suicide than did (other) social factors. In his book, fluctuated at a continuously high level (77.3–105.4 per lead to higher levels of suicide mortality. This is clearly Durkheim gave only very fleeting consideration to 100,000) between 1991 and 2002.40 Markus Leineweber not the case in the East European experience, and it cultural influences43, when mentioning the Greeks. It and his colleagues observed differences in the trends is unlikely that other Durkheimian factors such as, for seems, however, that a mental link of some generality in suicide mortalityfrom one region to another, and example, decreasing societal integration, could save needs to be added to the societal circumstances and they hypothesized that these were related to the vari- the theory here. the suicidal reactions before the theory can hope to ations in the influence of Western culture between the A possible explanation for the variation in the explain change in society and suicide. regions. Western influence began at different points effects of the societal transition on suicide mortality of time in different areas, and the first peaks in suicide could be that the effect of social factors on suicide Adapting to change mortality increases seemed to occur in the regions mortality is dependent on the context and, in particu- The rapid transformation of (West) European coun- that were first exposed. The initial period of influence lar, the culture of the specific environments undergo- tries into modern societies, which took place between would be marked by pronounced social and cultural ing societal transition. In a study on the development the 1830s and World War I, was reflected in rapid changes, and suicides would increase. A subsequent of suicide mortality in East Europe before and after increases in suicide mortality in the majority. For Du- period of adaptation to the new situation would be ac- the transition, one of the authors42 found that Eastern rkheim, this development was both an inspiration to

Table 2. Summary of the Developments in Suicide Mortality in Eastern Europe 1985–1993 According to Suicide Mortality Profilesa

Profile Countries Years Total Sex Age Development in Suicide Mortality Between 1985 and rateb quotab quotab 1993

High suicide Belarus, Estonia, Kazakhstan, 1985 28.3 4.17 3.46 Large fall in suicide rates 1985–1989, followed by a very rate, unequal Latvia, Lithuania, Russia, Slovenia, 1989 25.1 3.65 3.50 large general increase in 1989–1993. sex distribution Ukraine 1993 33.4 4.57 3.03

High suicide Croatia, East Germany, Hungary 1985 29.7 2.76 6.02 Suicide rates stable 1985–1989, fell somewhat after 1989. rate, unequal 1989 29.8 2.40 7.27 age distribution 1993 26.1 2.75 5.83

Low suicide Kyrgyzstan, Poland, Romania 1985 13.6 4.08 3.13 Slight increase in suicide rates 1989–1993. rate, unequal 1989 13.6 3.72 3.26 sex distribution 1993 14.1 4.53 3.04

Low suicide Bulgaria, Czech Republic, FYR 1985 16.7 2.33 8.72 Overall trend: falling suicide rates, except for middle-aged rate, unequal Macedonia, Yugoslavia (Serbia 1989 16.3 2.44 7.18 people. age distribution and Montenegro) 1993 15.6 2.32 5.60

Low suicide Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, 1985 5.4 2.44 4.35 Overall trend: falling suicide rates, except for the youngest. rate, equal dist- Georgia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, 1989 4.5 2.48 2.98 ribution Uzbekistan 1993 3.6 2.50 2.36

a Based on: Ilkka H. Mäkinen, “Eastern European Transition and Suicide Mortality”, Social Science & Medicine, 2000, vol. 51, pp. 1405–1420. b Mean of the countries. Rate = annual cases per 100,000 inhabitants; sex quota = male suicide rate divided by female suicide rate; age quota = highest age-group suicide rate divided by the lowest one.

Hamlet’s old question. To adapt to change, or not to adapt. essay feature interview story 15

and a confirmation of his assumptions about the links is the availability of opportunities for coping with the income, and uncertainty, men’s ways of coping be- between societal regulation/integration and suicide, changed situation. This might be more important than came even more limited and fraught with difficulties. for these modernizing societies were, in his opinion, either the nature of the change or the fact of change As regards the general male-female difference characterized by decreasing levels of both. Interest- per se. In their study of regional variations in suicide in suicide, Anne Maria Möller-Leimkuehler53 main- ingly, however, suicide mortality levels in the Western mortality in Russia 1990–2001, Yelena Andreyeva and tains that part of the explanation lies in masculine world began to stabilize or even decrease some time her colleagues found that the strongest predictor of stereotypes and the coping behaviors they permit. during the first half of the 20th century — as they did, suicide mortality levels was the availability of “coping Masculine stereotypes do not allow men to talk about later, in Greenland — despite a continued modernizing resources” in terms of opportunities to fight a declin- their feelings or seek help, even when in need of it, process. While the period between 1945 and 1975 was ing living standard by turning to other economic alter- while female gender roles allow women to do so. This characterized by unprecedented increases in wealth natives, legal or illegal. Suicide rates were found to be probably also helps them to cope better with difficul- similar to those experienced during the first phase of higher in the provinces where the population lacked ties Moreover, stereotypical male gender roles do not modernization, this change was no longer reflected such opportunities.49 allow men to lose control or relinquish mastery. Under in suicide mortality as it had been a hundred years A very important aspect of the changes in East stressful circumstances, suicide may be seen as a way earlier.44 European suicide levels is that they have been far of taking control of and changing one’s situation. Fortunately, the effects of societal change seem to more pronounced among males (and among working- Considering variations in suicide mortality, it be of limited duration, at least when it comes to this age males in particular). As mentioned above, male seems curious that the largest increases after 1990 particular development. The hypothesis has been suicide mortality is considerably higher than that of were observed in those countries that already had the advanced that the residents of the modernizing world females in the majority of countries, China being the highest suicide levels. If increases in suicide mortality do, eventually, begin to adapt to the experience of only country where the female suicide rate is higher. are related to coping opportunities, as has been sug- continuous transformations. West Europeans have However, the gap between male and female suicide gested above, then perhaps one could view suicide learned to live with the expectation that their lives are rates is generally higher in East European countries as a way of coping in times when alternative means characterized by changing and partly unpredictable than in West and North European countries, and of coping are scarce. In this manner, it might also be conditions.45 It seems that continuous social trans- this gap grew still further, and increased in relation possible to see the simultaneous increase in alcohol formation may be followed, in time, by adaptation, to Western and Northern Europe, between 1987 and consumption as parallel, rather than prior, to suicide; at least in the sense that primary increases in suicide 1992.50 The changes in Eastern Europe seem to have alcohol consumption would thus also, basically, be mortality will level off. It is plausible that individuals, caused greater increases in male than in female sui- an alternative way of coping. If one takes this point of as well as societal systems and institutions, learn to cide rates. That would indicate that any effect societal view, one may ask whether the likelihood of choosing anticipate future societal disruptions and develop changes in Eastern Europe may have had on suicide suicide as a way of coping in a specific situation might strategies for handling them. mortality has been more detrimental to males, which depend on the degree to which suicide (or alcohol In Eastern Europe, the period of state socialism in turn echoes the results of some previous research consumption for that matter) is already present in that during which the Soviet republics and the satellite indicating that men’s suicide rates tend to react more particular culture. In this sense, it might be expected states were experiencing rapid transformation into than those of women to situations provoked by chang- that the greatest variations in suicide mortality would modern socialist societies, can be viewed in the light ing societal circumstances.51 be seen in countries where the suicide mortality level of transformations in 19th century Western Europe of In connection with the question posed above, it has is already high. which Durkheim wrote. “East European moderniza- been suggested that the gap between male and female tion” was reflected in increases in suicide mortality, as suicide mortality rates might have to do with different Conclusions well as in the tendency for suicide mortality to equal- options for coping with a changed situation. In an The fact that sharp increases in suicide mortality ize across social classes, the so-called “democratiza- attempt to give an explanation of differences between seem to have been a rather common element in many tion of suicide”.46 However, any potential adaptation male and female mortality in general in Eastern Eu- changing societies clearly demonstrates the accuracy to these transformations was interrupted by a second rope, Peggy Watson52 has argued that the importance of Durkheim’s description of suicide as a societal, wave of major transformations, namely the transition of the family and the traditional gender roles that rather than individual, phenomenon. However, soci- from state socialism into market economies. derive from the state-socialist era have led men and etal changes are complex phenomena, and determin- women to develop different ways of coping with diffi- ing the potential trigger for increases in suicide levels Individuals in culties. Under state socialism, the absence of credible is, it seems, very complicated. In the end, the result social goals made the management of one’s everyday will most probably reflect the investigator’s choice of changing societies: life and family an important personal priority. The perspective. More interesting is perhaps the fact that ways of coping traditional gender roles gave women an opportunity societal change does not always appear to be accom- After all, the individual is essential to explanations of for coping by allowing them to focus on just that. Men, panied by increases in suicide mortality, and when it how a social impulse turns into a social reaction, a step on the other hand, did not have this option — their is, it seems to be so for only a limited period of time that Durkheim himself, in his methodological works47, position as breadwinners was more problematic, as it immediately after the initial change. Above, it was sug- did not acknowledge, but one that has been empha- was difficult to develop meaningful roles in the work gested that the effect of societal change on suicide lev- sized by later scholars48. One general circumstance situation. In connection with the transition period, els ultimately depends on the cultural context where it that may, to some degree, affect all kinds of changes, which was marked by rising unemployment, reduced occurs. One might further hypothesize that suicide, as

Where many kill themselves, the risk that more will do it is great. That is, a contagion. 16 essay

a way of coping with societal change or, alternatively, Seeman, “From Social Integration to Health: Durkheim in the “Suicide and Social Change in China”, Culture, Medicine and as a result of such change, is a much more readily New Millennium”, Social Science & Medicine, 2000, vol. 51, pp. Psychiatry, 1999, vol. 23, pp. 25–50. available (if not mandatory) option in some cultures 843–857. 36 Michael R. Phillips, Xianyun Li & Yanping Zhang, “Suicide 19 Elizabeth Brainerd, “Life and Death in Eastern Europe: than in others. If other ways of coping are available, Rates in China, 1995–99”, The Lancet, 2002, vol. 359, pp. Economic Reform and Mortality in the Former Soviet Union: 835–840. there may be less of a tendency to choose the option of A Study of the Suicide Epidemic in the 1990s”, European 37 Paul S. F. Yip, Ka Y. Liu, Jianping Hu & X. M. Song, “Suicide suicide. This is perhaps the case for women in Eastern Economic Review, 2001, vol. 45, pp.1007–1019. Rates in China During a Decade of Rapid Social Changes”, Europe. The development of means of coping could 20 Alexander Nemtsov, “Suicides and Alcohol Consumption in Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, 2005, vol. 40, be an ingredient in the adaptation to societal change, Russia, 1965–1999”, Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 2003, vol. pp. 792–798. which is indicated by the falling or stabilizing suicide 71, pp. 161–168; William A. Pridemore, “Heavy Drinking and 38 Ibid. rates in Western Europe in the first half of the 20th Suicide in Russia”, Social Forces, 2006, vol. 85, pp. 413–430. 39 Ibid. 21 Elizabeth Brainerd, “Life and Death in Eastern Europe: 40 Karin S. Björkstén, Daniel F. Kripke & Peter Bjerregaard, century. ≈ Economic Reform and Mortality in the Former Soviet Union: “Accentuation of Suicides but not Homicides with Rising A Study of the Suicide Epidemic in the 1990s”, European Latitudes of Greenland in the Sunny Months”, BMC Economic Review, 2001, vol. 45, pp. 1007–1019. Psychiatry, 2009, vol. 9, doi:10.1186/1471-244X-9-20. 22 I. B. Orlova, “Samoubiistvo kak indikator obshchestvennogo 41 Markus Leineweber, Peter Bjerregaard, Cor Baerveldt & references regressa”, Rossiya: novyi etap neoliberalnykh reform: Paul Voestermans, “Suicide in a Society in Transition”, 1 Ilkka H. Mäkinen, On Suicide in European Countries, Sotsialnaya i sotsialno-politicheskaya situatsiya v Rossii v International Journal of Circumpolar Health, 2001, vol. 60, pp. Stockholm 1997. pervoi polovine 1997 goda [Suicide as an indicator of societal 280–287. 2 Ilkka H. Mäkinen, Jan Beskow, Arne Jansson & Birgitta Odén, progress], Moscow 1997, pp. 123–129. 42 Ilkka H. Mäkinen, “Eastern European Transition and Suicide “Historical Perspectives on Suicide and Suicide Prevention in 23 Ilkka H. Mäkinen, “Eastern European Transition and Suicide Mortality”, Social Science & Medicine, 2000, vol. 51, pp. 1405– Sweden”, Archives of Suicide Research, vol. 6, pp. 269–284. Mortality”, Social Science & Medicine, 2000, vol. 51, pp. 1405– 1420. 3 Émile Durkheim, Suicide: A Study in Sociology, London 1999. 1420. 43 Émile Durkheim, Suicide: A Study in Sociology, London 1999, The immediate reception of Durkheim’s book that presented 24 Norman Sartorius, “Recent Changes in Suicide Rates in p. 152. his grand theory was rather lukewarm, and it was not even Selected Eastern European and Other European Countries”, 44 Christian Baudelot & Roger Establet, Suicide: The Hidden Side reviewed by the French Journal of Psychiatry. However, it International Psychogeriatrics, 1995, vol. 7, pp. 301–308. of Modernity, Cambridge 2008. is still the leading reference in contemporary researchers’ 25 Maria Jarosz, Suicide, Warsaw 1998. 45 Ilkka H. Mäkinen, “Are There Social Correlates to Suicide?”, articles on the epidemiology of suicide. 26 Elmars Rancans, Ellinor Salander-Renberg & Lars Social Science & Medicine, 1997, vol. 44, pp. 1919–1929. 4 Whitney Pope, Durkheim’s Suicide: A Classic Reanalyzed, Jacobsson, “Major Demographic, Social and Economic 46 Ilkka H. Mäkinen, “Suicide Mortality of Eastern European Chicago 1976. Factors Associated to Suicide Rates in Latvia 1980–98”, Acta Regions Before and After the Communist Period”, Social 5 Ibid., p. 250. Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 2001, vol. 103, pp. 275–281. Science & Medicine, 2006, vol. 63, pp. 307–319. 6 Ibid., p. 270. 27 Ilkka H. Mäkinen, “Eastern European Transition and 47 Émile Durkheim, The Rules of Sociological Method, New York 7 Ibid., p. 272. Mortality”, Social Science & Medicine, 2000, vol. 51, pp. 1405– 1982. 8 Ibid., p. 245. 1420; Miro Jakovljevi´c, Biserka Sedi´c, Marco Martinac, Darco 48 James Coleman, Foundations of Social Theory, Harvard 1990. 9 Albert Pierce, “The Economic Cycle and the Social Suicide Marcinko, Đulijano Ljubici´c & Herman Vukuši´c, “Update of 49 Elena Andreeva, Sergey Ermakov & Harvey Brenner, “The Rate”, American Sociological Review, 1976, vol. 32, pp. 475– Suicide Trends in Croatia 1966–2002”, Psychiatrica Danubina, Socioeconomic Aetiology of Suicide Mortality in Russia”, 463. 2004, vol. 16, pp. 299–308. International Journal of Environment and Sustainable 10 James R. Marshall & Robert W. Hodge, “Durkheim and Pierce 28 Ilkka H. Mäkinen, “Eastern European Transition and Suicide Development, 2008, vol. 7, pp. 21–48. on suicide and economic change”, Social Science Research, Mortality”, Social Science & Medicine, 2000, vol. 51, pp. 1405– 50 Norman Sartorious, “Recent Changes in Suicide Rates in 1981, vol. 10, pp. 101–114. 1420. Selected Eastern European and Other European Countries”, 11 Maurice Halbwachs, The Causes of Suicide, London 1978, p. 29 Paul S. F. Yip, Ka Y. Liu, Jianping Hu & X. M. Song, “Suicide International Psychogeriatrics, 1995, vol. 7, pp. 301–308. 244. Rates in China During a Decade of Rapid Social Changes”, 51 Ilkka Henrik Mäkinen, Jan Beskow, Arne Jansson & Birgitta 12 Maurice Halbwachs, The Causes of Suicide, London 1978. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, 2005, vol. 40, Odén, “Historical Perspectives on Suicide and Suicide 13 Barclay D. Johnson, “Durkheim’s One Cause of Suicide”, pp. 792–798. Prevention in Sweden”, Archives of Suicide Research vol. 6, American Sociological Review, vol. 30, 1965, pp. 875–886; 30 European Health for All Data Base, at: http://euro.who.int/ pp.269–284. Whitney Pope, Durkheim’s Suicide: A Classic Reanalyzed, hfadb. 52 Peggy Watson, “Explaining Rising Mortality Among Men in Chicago 1976. 31 Michael R. Phillips, Xianyun Li & Yanping Zhang, “Suicide Eastern Europe”, Social Science & Medicine, 1995, vol. 41, pp. 14 See Ruth S. Cavan, Suicide in Chicago, Chicago 1928, pp. 8-9. Rates in China, 1995–99”, The Lancet, 2002, vol. 359, pp. 923–934. 15 Ilkka H. Mäkinen, “Eastern European Transition and Suicide 835–840. 53 Anne Maria Möller-Leimkühler, “The Gender Gap in Suicide Mortality”, Social Science & Medicine, vol. 51, 2000, pp. 1405– 32 Michael R. Phillips, Gonghuan Yang, Yanping Zhang, Lijun and Premature Death, or: Why are Men so Vulnerable?”, 1420. Wang, Huiyu Ji & Maigeng Zhou, “Risk Factors for Suicide European Archives of Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience, 16 Norman Sartorius, “Recent Changes in Suicide Rates in in China: A National Case-Control Psychological Autopsy 2003, vol. 253, pp. 1–8. Selected Eastern European and Other European Countries”, Study”, The Lancet, 2002, vol. 360, pp. 1728–1736. International Psychogeriatrics, 1995, vol. 7, pp. 301–308. 33 See for example Sing Lee & Arthur Kleinman, “Suicide 17 Suicide mortality in Kazakhstan also follows the described as Resistance in Chinese Society”, in Elizabeth J. Perry & pattern. Interestingly, Kazakhstan has a sizable Russian Mark Selden (eds.), Chinese Society: Change, Conflict, and minority, which might at least partly explain this country’s Resistance, London 2003, pp. 289–311. belonging to this group. 34 Ibid. 18 Lisa F. Berkman, Thomas Glass, Ian Brissette & Teresa E. 35 Michael R. Phillips, Huaquing Liu & Yanping Zhang,

No small matter. This is what a reference section should look like in Baltic Worlds. Report 17

Male historians in exile. Constantly relating to their background

Modern Western culture is in Vello Helk (born 1923) which could fleeing Latvia, most of these settled in large part the work of exiles, be taken as a case-study of an exile North America, Sweden, and Australia. émigrés, refugees.” The words historian’s achievements. After having Plakans follows a group of 25 individu- are Edward Said’s, taken from been forced to enlist in the German als, spread over three generations. Of his book Reflections on Exile and Other army in 1944, Helk made it to Denmark this group, only about ten were establis- Essays (2000). The words stress the in 1945. He quickly laid the founda- hed historians when they fled Latvia in special importance exile has had in the tion for a long academic career as a 1944. The third generation of historians, development of cultural expression in Danish-Estonian historian. Undusk some of whom were not even born in the 20th century. Said is, however, far described Helk’s case as an example 1945, is, together with the second gene- from alone in emphasizing exile as a of a particularly “successful” exile, as ration, the group that has contributed key to understanding our time. Exile as Helk rapidly established himself pro- most to the dissemination of Latvian a poetic and existential trope is as old fessionally in his new country. It had history. At the same time, as Plakans as Western history itself. Homer’s epic always been Helk’s ambition to stay in was careful to point out, it is doubtful work Odysseus might be interpreted Denmark, to become a “good Dane”, an whether these second- and third-gene- as one of the first narratives of exile. ambition that is reflected in his decision ration historians fit the definition “exile During the Renaissance, Francesco to publish many of his studies in Danish historian” to the same degree as the first Petrarca on his part described exile as — amongst these a work on Estonia’s generation. an emotional state, existentially compa- history, Estlands historie (1993). Helk In his presentation, Mirosław Fili- rable to death. attention was paid to historians in exile studied many geographical areas, but powicz from the Catholic University of However, the exile to which Said from the Baltic States, Poland, Russia, he was always particularly interested Lublin focused on the first generation refers is of a different, more immediate Ukraine, and the former Czechoslova- in the Nordic nations and in Germany. of Russian exile historians in the USA. kind. As is well known, during the 1900s kia. One of the three principal objecti- German was Helk’s preferred second From the Russian revolution until millions of people, including thousands ves of the conference, besides illumina- language for publishing purposes. In World War II, Russian exile historians of academics and artists, were forced ting the particular conditions of exile this context, one should mention his settled primarily in European capitals to flee violent political upheavals. After and the innovative thinking to which study Die Jesuiten in Dorpat 1583–1625: such as Prague, Berlin, and Sofia. How- World War II, researchers in a number it can lead, was to examine how know- Ein Vorposten der Gegenreformation ever, this changed in 1941, when the of scholarly fields, particularly literary ledge is disseminated. In his opening in Nordosteuropa (1977). Writing in military alliance between the USA and criticism and history, have investigated presentation, Stefan Berger from the German rather than Danish made it of the USSR led to a marked increase in the various activities of emigrant and University of Manchester emphasized course easier for Helk to gain internatio- American interest in the Soviet Union. exile groups. The mass emigration from that exile historians had tended to focus nal recognition for his work. American universities expanded their Germany has attracted most attention. primarily on their home countries’ defi- Russian studies programs, and both Ehrhard Bahr’s study Weimar on the Pa- ciencies, in order to gain a critical over- Harvard and Columbia universities ope- cific: German Exile Culture in Los Angeles view. At the same time, Berger argued, Undusk traced the reason for ned Russian research institutes. Emi- and the Crisis of Modernism (2007) is an being in exile meant that the historians Helk’s many successes — Helk was awar- grant intellectuals from Russia were, interesting contemporary example of were suddenly placed outside their ded the Knight’s Cross of the Order of thus, in great demand. this kind of research. The 20th century home countries’ institutional networks. the Dannebrog and was also appointed mass flight of intellectuals from the This, in turn, made great claims on their vice archivist at the Danish National Soviet-dominated areas has, in compa- ability to adapt quickly to the social Archives — to his adaptability and his Finally, Volodymyr Kravchenko, rison, received far less attention. and professional demands of their host unremitting loyalty to Denmark. It ap- Karazin National University in Kharkiv, Leading scholars of East European countries. Here, language skills played pears, however, that it was easier for described his research on Ukrainian history have long sought to direct an important part, but different acade- Estonian academics to establish them- exile historians. He is particularly in- their focus to the decisive importance mic cultures and stylistic codes might selves in Denmark than in, for example, terested in the third wave of Ukrainian of exiled intellectuals in 20th century likewise be decisive for whether an Sweden. Because Denmark, contrary emigrants, those who arrived in the USA East European history-writing and article is accepted by a journal or a book to Sweden, did not have a sizeable Esto- during or immediately after World War nation-building. It is gratifying that this is published. nian community, Helk was perceived as II. Up to the late 1960s, Ukrainian exile research area has become the subject Berger further directed attention an individual rather than as a member historians were in the periphery of the of a conference, “East and Central to an important difference between of a marginalized group. According to American academia, and had difficul- European History Writing in Exile — historians who had fled Nazi Germany Undusk, this allowed Helk to demarcate ties establishing a dialogue with other International Dissemination of Know- and those who fled the Soviet Union. himself more clearly. Furthermore, un- exile groups. In the late 1960s and early ledge”, held December 3–5 at Södertörn In contrast to the formers’ generally til his retirement, Helk avoided political 1970s, however, a series of important University, arranged by CBEES, within critical, Western-influenced attitude stances and involvement in controver- academic institutions were established the framework of the research theme towards older German historiography, sial issues. (e.g. the Ukrainian Research Institute “cultural theory”. which they blamed, to some degree, for This section’s subsequent three at Harvard) which gave the subject pre- the success of Nazism, the community lectures focused less on individuals stige and legitimacy. All the same, there of ex-Soviet historians took an anti-libe- than on fairly large associations of exile still existed clear, ideology-tinted oppo- Over a period of three days, presen- ral stance, a stance which was, in time, historians, categorized according to sition between Ukrainian historians and tations were given by close to twenty to give rise to so-called Eurasianism. pre-exile nationality. Andrejs Plakans researchers in Slavic, Russian and So- academics from different parts of Eas- Jaan Undusk, from Tallinn’s Under from Iowa State University discussed viet studies. Ukrainian Studies were, it tern Europe, each of whom had a par- and Tuglas Literature Center, gave a his ongoing project, the mapping of Lat- was felt, tainted by extreme nationalism ticular approach to the subject. Special presentation discussing the historian vian historians exiled after 1945. After and insufficient objectivity. Meanwhile,

All these emigrants and dissidents. What did the world look like before them? 18

Do it yourself urbanism. Vertical building extensions

Ukrainian historians accused Western ince 1989, post-communist ford to move to a different intellectuals of being influenced by Central and Eastern Europe home. Thanks to the ad- Soviet nationalistic historiography. This have experienced a move- dition of a new 20-square- situation changed dramatically with ment towards a market-based meter room, which is used the collapse of the Soviet Union, when regulation of housing. Neo-liberal as a kitchen, we could con- Ukrainian Studies finally became an market practices have entered into vert the old kitchen into an established part of mainstream West almost all aspects of the housing sector. additional bedroom. They European academia. In many respects, this development has are considering having a led to the polarization of society and of child now.” urban space, as some areas are gentri- The vertical building The speakers had, in spite of fied while others, often working-class extensions are not only re- their different research areas and foci, districts, have gone into decline. The flections of socio-economic one striking similarity: the picture of inhabitants of such working-class neigh- and cultural change. They the exile historian given was exclusi- borhoods have often been depicted as have also had an impact on Photo: s oylentgreen23 - htt p ://flic.kr/ /4 L S EE w vely male. Unfortunately, the question unable to adapt to the new economic social and economic life. raised during the concluding discus- situation. It has been argued that they The response from archi- sion, concerning the existence of exile lack the economic and social resources tects and other elite groups women historians, was laughed away required to cope with changing circum- has, for aesthetic and secu- by some loud-voiced participants. The stances. rity reasons, been largely fact that two of those who had taken Stefan Bouzarovski, a guest resear- negative (the extensions the initiative to arrange the conference cher at CBEES during the fall of 2009, may imperil a building’s were women historians with exile back- has studied urban development in Po- resistance to earthquakes). grounds, Anu Mai Kõll and Maria Za- land, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, and Local authorities, however, dencka, seemed to have been missed by Macedonia. Together with colleagues sometimes motivated by most of the attending male historians. Michael Gentile and Joseph Salukvadze, considerations of financial Latvian historians Lidija Svabe, Mirdza he has reached the conclusion that nature, have often chosen Baltais and Zigrida Runcis, the latter residents in working-class areas may, in to ignore the ongoing deve- first archivist at the Swedish National fact, display considerable resilience and lopment. An entirely new Archives, the company also managed adaptability to the new housing market, semi-formal economy has to ignore. We can only hope that future in spite of their very limited economic grown out of these urban generations of historians specializing in resources. One coping mechanism has structures. There are con- this set of problems will be capable of been to enlarge apartments by building struction companies that seeing beyond anti-intellectual gender so-called vertical building extensions. and the planned economy, combined specialize in vertical building expan- barriers. ≈ These extensions are often of an im- with increased normative pressure to sions. Many people have also started to provised and temporary character, al- strive for self-realization, including use them for private businesses. markus huss though some of them include concrete more individualized living conditions Thus, the case of vertical building ex- frame constructions that often resem- and more fluid family relations and pansions shows that non-market trans- PhD student in literature ble those of the “host building” in terms household compositions, have led to a actions constitute a source of socio-spa- Södertörn University of size and function. paradox. People desire more fluidity; tial flexibility for marginalized groups. Much of this inventiveness is asso- but buildings are fixed. At the same time This flexibility provides these groups ciated with changing values and power a housing career is not an option. Ver- with limited but nonetheless real power structures. One evident trend is the tical building extensions can therefore with which they can counterbalance the influx of new ideas and values in con- be seen as temporally — and spatially structural-societal power that resides in nection with the second demographic — specific material manifestations of the architecture itself. ≈ transition. The second demographic post-socialist coping strategies. They johnny rodin transition had entailed, among other have provided a form of in situ residen- things, substantial cultural changes tial mobility that significantly improves PhD in political science with respect to family values and fa- the living conditions of most of their Södertörn University mily structure. It began in North-West residents, without those residents actu- Europe (the Nordic countries and the ally having to move. The extensions are, Netherlands) in the 1960s and then further, viewed as an investment at a spread to other Western countries. time when trust in banks is at a low ebb. Signs of the transition, discernible as In one of Bouzarovski’s interviews, early as the 1980s, have become more the following was the response of a obvious after 1989. At the nucleus of city-dweller with experience in vertical this new value system are the concepts building extensions: of individualism, autonomy, and self- “It really changed our life. We used fulfillment. The expansion of economic to live in a one-bedroom, 60-square- and political opportunities inherent in meter apartment, with our son and his the collapse of the authoritarian rule wife. Being unemployed, they can’t af-

How many rooms are permitted? Up, or across (and no more underground). essays feature interview story 19 A minority. a language without an army

Tolerance does not mean equality. Tolerance themselves (and the majority population) as victims does not make anyone well-liked, just tolerated. of the minority, while they describe the minority as You tolerate what you dislike, and no one wants perpetrators, or as illegitimate holders of privileges, “ to belong to a group that is (only) tolerated.” money, land, and positions. Historian David Gaunt bases this observation on This model does not apply to the persecution of the decades of experience in a field that might be sum- Romani, however. “Anti-Gypsism is not the same as marized as minority research : the study of population anti-Semitism”, says Gaunt. Anti-Gypsism is directed groups that do not conform with the nation-states’ against a people which is considered pathetic, inferior, strictest definitions of citizens, of minority groups that under-privileged. Even though this is the perception are subjected to the most extreme consequence of in- of the Romani people, they have nonetheless been tolerance: genocide. persecuted, repressed and subjected to extermination However, when he begins his research career, campaigns — that is, to an extreme kind of collective Gaunt is no specialist in minority issues. The year is Prof. David Gaunt’s work on Turkey’s Christian population punishment. One possible explanation for this type of 1968, a symbolic year in the political, even revolution- has received attention even outside of academia. persecution of minorities is that the surrounding so- ary sense. ciety wishes to eliminate not only what it experiences At this time, Gaunt defines himself as anti-political, “When I found out that Södertörn was to focus on as a threat but also what is considered shameful, and an anarchist. He comes to Sweden from the US, where multicultural studies, I decided that Södertörn would therefore unbearable. he has studied at Kenyon College, which future prime be a good place for me as a historian.” When the preconditions are in place, one must also minister Olof Palme attended, and at Washington Uni- Gaunt’s years at Södertörn University have indeed learn to kill the others, those who are threatening, versity, where he won a Woodrow Wilson scholarship. confirmed his reputation as a minority researcher. shameful. It is his intention to study Swedish history. His work on Turkey’s Christian population — on how Gaunt discusses his current research on the Holo- But, “from day one”, he is confronted with the Turks and Kurdish tribes have massacred Assyrians, caust that took place in the Baltic States — a subject on Swedish bureaucracy, which awakens his interest — Syrians and Armenians — has received attention even which relatively little research has been done. both as a private individual and as a researcher — in outside of academia. In 2006, he published the book “Most researchers are fixated on Auschwitz.” the Swedish bureaucratic system, which is also associ- Massacres, Resistance, Protectors: Muslim-Christian Re- The Holocaust started much earlier in the Baltic ated with the minority issue. lations in Eastern Anatolia during World War I. States than in Auschwitz, and it clearly shows geno- Arriving in Sweden in 1968 meant obligatory reg- Minority research inevitably includes what Gaunt cide’s tendency to expand. Around midsummer 1941, istration at the police’s immigration department. calls the morphology of genocide: the pattern fol- Jewish men capable of bearing arms were shot, in While waiting in line, Gaunt met Jews who had fled lowed when minorities are repressed. If genocide is August it was the women and the children’s turn to outbreaks of anti-Semitism in Poland, only to be told to take place, certain preconditions must be fulfilled. learn about death literally and palpably. Here, the by Swedish immigration authorities that they must go One such precondition is the existence of a nation- Holocaust was far from being superior technologi- to the Polish embassy in Stockholm to get their papers state. The radical nationalism that emerged in the late cally. One shot one’s ( Jewish) neighbor with firearms, processed. Gaunt asked himself how a bureaucracy 1800s points towards the future persecution of those face-to-face. could manifest itself in this manner, why it had devel- who were not included in the national community and Persecution is never a remote possibility. It is, oped such an, at best, unimaginative way of handling who therefore are identified as a problem, as a devia- rather, a latent force, easily mobilized, and objects people. tion from the pure norm. of persecution are exchangeable. As Michel Foucault At Uppsala University he conducted research on points out: when the leprosy colonies disappeared, the history of Swedish bureaucracy and, later, on fam- the insane became the “problem”. ily patterns. Gaunt reminds us of the proverb: “A nation is a Gaunt knows more about minorities and genocide language with an army, a minority is a language with- than most; this does not mean that he finds it compre- out an army.” hensible. By 1978, Gaunt had left Uppsala University to Compared to nation-states, empires more easily “The history of genocide is so unnatural; one can fill a position at Umeå University in northern Sweden. include and tolerate minorities. They always comprise understand that there are conflicts, religious and eth- During his years in Umeå, he was to integrate the dis- several language groups. Empire builders realize the nic, but it is impossible to understand those collective ciplines of anthropology and history. Together with advantage of encouraging and maintaining differenc- punishments.” one of his postgraduate students, Lennart Lundmark, es, of following the old device: divide and rule. This The after-effects of genocide make themselves felt Gaunt traveled “through the entire Arctic area of Scan- made itself felt within the Soviet army, where Estonian within the affected families and in society as a whole dinavia and the Kola Peninsula” in order to study the soldiers were placed in the Caucasus, Chechens in for generations to come. history of the Sami. Gaunt had thus entered the field of Lithuania, Belarusians in Chechnya. The only loyalties “It is only after a few generations that one can bring minority research. At the same time, he continued his to be cultivated were those to the army and, of course, it up, and protest against the assault. The one who is research on the family, which could be combined with to the Soviet state. subjected to it cannot, the second generation must re- his focus on minorities. As, for example, Gaunt did The majority population may be suspicious and late to the first generation’s suffering, it is in the third when he led a research project for the municipality contemptuous of the minority, but that does not suf- generation that it can happen.” ≈ of Stockholm in “applied ethnography”, investigating fice to bring about persecution and genocide. For that what it was like for Iranians, Kurds, Finns, and Greeks to happen, the government and other authorities must marielouise samuelsson to grow old in Sweden. “Elderly immigrants stay in kindle the majority’s suspicion and hostility. As an evil Freelance journalist (Stockholm) this country, the majority does not go home.” and effective strategy, those in authority may describe

If you tolerate what you dislike. What about self-tolerance? 20 Photo: Mihai Ro m anciuc – htt p ://flic.k r / /4PnYhd

a european dilemma THE romanies BY irka cederberg essay feature interview story 21

An e-mail came to the Romani Internet group For five years in the 1990s, this stateless refugee fa- poll held approximately one year ago showed that to which I belong. Jan was desperately appealing for mily from Slovakia drifted around Europe — the heart while 20 percent of the population held anti-Semitic help for himself and his family, his wife Anna and their of civilization. A gruesome parallel can be drawn with attitudes, more than 60 percent expressed anti-Gypsy- two children. For five years they had been traveling the centuries of persecution that their ancestors had ist opinions. through Europe, as refugees from Slovakia. endured. Today there is no bounty on Romanies. But Unlike anti-Semitism, anti-Gypsyism has always re- “We have two wonderful children”, wrote Jan, “but the risk of having one’s nose cut off is as great as it was mained more or less salonfähig. One reason for this is we might have had a third.” in medieval times. a lack of knowledge about Romani culture and history. Seven years earlier, Jan and his wife Anna, then Just then, this stateless Romani family had found a When, in the early 1990s, thousands of Romanian Ro- nine months pregnant, had been on their way home little breathing space. For the moment, their children manies applied for asylum in Germany, neither poli- one evening when they were suddenly surrounded by were healthy and were attending school, wrote Jan. ticians nor mass media had any idea of the conditions a group of neo-Nazis who, without a word, began to But how long would it last? they endured. No-one was aware that for five hundred attack them. Jan was brutally beaten. When the neo- It was in Sweden that the family had found brea- years — up until 1864, in fact — the Romanies had been Nazis discovered that Anna was pregnant they yelled, thing space. They were living in a Swedish refugee faci- slaves in their home country. “Oh, you want to multiply, you rats, and sully our lity. They had come to Sweden because someone had Wolfgang Wippermann, who specializes in the white Slovakian race! We’ll finish what Hitler didn’t said this was a safe country. Anna’s life had just been fate of the Romanies under Nazism, has an additional have time for!” One of the neo-Nazis kicked Anna in saved, after a suicide attempt. But now their lawyer explanation. Not until the 1980s did West Germany the stomach repeatedly until she fainted. had informed them that they had no chance of being acknowledge that the Nazi extermination policy had Jan and Anna woke up in the hospital, where they allowed to stay here. been directed as much against Romanies as against were informed that their child had not survived. Jews. The consequences of this denial of racist geno- During the police investigation, Jan heard one of the cide can be felt today, Wippermann claims. When it policemen say that now at least there was one less I made contact with the family, and after visiting comes to the Romanies, there is no general European Gypsy in the country. them in the refugee facility, I wrote an article about acknowledgement of guilt; the majority of the popula- “Throughout Slovakia, Romanies are subjected their situation. It appeared as a full-page feature ar- tion has not become engaged in fighting prejudice and to racial discrimination”, wrote Jan. Restaurants and ticle in the Swedish evening paper Expressen under anti-Gypsyism. public premises have posted signs: “Gypsies not allo- the headline ”A decent life, Göran Persson?” (April 3, Europe’s Romanies have never held a position of wed.” Employers say “no Gypsies”, without enquiring 2000). Swedish Prime Minister Göran Persson a few power and have never been given a state of their own. into the applicant’s qualifications. On the bus, Jan has months previously had hosted his famous Internatio- The prejudices against them are centuries old and seen other passengers wipe off the seat with a hand- nal Holocaust Conference which primarily focused on deeply rooted. After one thousand years of being part kerchief after he has left it. anti-Semitism, ignoring anti-Gypsyism almost com- of the European political region, the Romanies are still “A Gypsy can be as clean as crystal and dress like a pletely. seen as alien. Those in power have never had to rely prince, but to them we are all base dogs.” Finally — the family was granted asylum in Sweden. on good relations with the Romanies, and so racism In the schools, Romani children are placed in spe- This happened almost a decade ago. It is extremely against them — anti-Gypsyism — has been allowed to cial classes because other parents do not want their doubtful whether Jan and his family would have been flourish. “white” children to be taught together with Gypsy allowed to stay today, given Sweden’s current stone- The old communist regimes in East and Central children. cold asylum policy. Europe thought racism was something unique to the “So I asked myself: What kind of future can I offer The world’s total Romani population numbers USA and to apartheid South Africa. Officially there was my children? Should I teach them to close their eyes fifteen to twenty million. There are Romanies living in no anti-Gypsyism; racism was forbidden by law. But to what is going on? Should I tell them not to take it to practically every nation in the world, except perhaps when the Eastern bloc dissolved, Pandora’s Box snap- heart, as my parents said to me? Iceland and Malta. About six to eight million are said ped open. The economic system collapsed. A large “No. I do not want my children to need to fear, to to live in East and South Europe. It should be noted number of people became unemployed. Poorly edu- learn to close their eyes. To have to bring up one’s that while most Romanies live under miserable condi- cated Romanies, who had depended on state-owned children in a place where people hate us so much that tions, as is evident in the reports discussed below, this and collective workplaces, were among those worst they even want to kill us is not human. I want to be definitely does not apply to all Romanies. There are hit. When large sections of the population were hit, as free, without fear for my family, so that our children among them well-educated professionals, academics, well, Romanies became scapegoats. Skinheads appea- have no reason to be afraid in the playground and at researchers, physicians, politicians, artists, writers, red in the streets, threatening everyone who looked school. Do we Romanies not have a right to a normal and musicians. But for many of these, their careers “foreign”. Xenophobic and fascist parties multiplied. life?” have cost them their Romani identity. They have had In many countries, they made it into parliament. to change their names, for instance, or take other me- In January 2004, a few months before the EU was asures to disguise the fact that they are Romanies. to admit ten new members, eight of which were East About one month after the assault, the family The European attitude to Romanies resembles, in and Central European countries, European media was became the victim of another attack. A gasoline bomb many respects, the attitude that Europeans adopted, gripped by panic. The British popular press initiated was thrown through their window and the curtains for centuries, towards Jews. an unprecedented witch-hunt, painting vivid pictures caught fire. of hordes of impoverished East European Romanies “We would have endured their insults, discrimi- swarming into the country. nation and threats. But now we decided we had had According to German historian Wolfgang enough. They had killed the child we expected and Wippermann, the term anti-Gypsyism was coined in had ruined our home. We decided to leave our coun- connection with post-war Holocaust research. The On January 18 2004, the Sunday Times proclaimed try for good.” historical parallels between anti-Semitism and anti- that East European Romanies were just waiting for the After three years in Holland, the family’s applica- Gypsyism are numerous. Like the Jews, the Romanies day of the EU’s eastern expansion to start out towards tion for asylum was turned down. They could not re- have been seen as an alien people, have been viewed the West. The Sun, Rupert Murdoch’s tabloid, claimed turn to Slovakia, for they were now stateless. Now be- with distrust and fear, surrounded by mythmaking. that tens of thousands of “Gypsies” were standing gan a classic, ambulating Romani life, lived in a trailer. Romanies and Jews have been attacked and demoni- ready to stream into England. The following day, the As illegal immigrants they were employed tem- zed from pulpits, in popular culture, in literature, and, number of Romanies prepared to “stream in” had, porarily by farmers in Italy, France and Spain. They lately, not least in the media. according to the Daily Express, grown to 1.6 million. often went hungry and cold, and sometimes they were Anti-Semitism is, without a doubt, still strong in And on February 5 2004, the Daily Express front page forced to flee from villages when people chased them Europe, but many consider racism against Romanies, thundered in fat headlines: “GYPSIES YOU CAN’T away. anti-Gypsyism, far more prevalent. A German opinion COME IN.” 22

The British newspapers were clearly conducting mentum. The expansion allowed citizens of new EU against anti-Gypsyism in all EU member states, old as a hate-campaign against people of Romani ethnicity. countries such as the Czech Republic, Romania, and well as new. But no protests against this media witch-hunt were Hungary to travel freely within the EU. The financial heard from politicians in Great Britain or other EU crisis that began to spread across the world in the fall countries. Instead, the Labour government, led by of 2008 has led to worsened living conditions for eve- The growing anti-Gypsyism, and the violence Tony Blair, found it necessary to introduce restrictions rybody, but especially for Romanies. against Romanies, has caused a good deal of unease on welfare benefits for jobseekers that came to Great In recent years, Europe’s increasing anti-Gypsyism within the Union. The violence in the Czech Republic, Britain from the EU’s new member countries. This has been marked not only in the rhetoric and activities Slovakia and Hungary has been condemned, but the could be seen as a silent endorsement of the British of the growing hosts of racist and neo-Nazi parties growing racism in Italy has remained largely unnoti- media’s anti-Romani campaign. and organizations. These are, in fact, encouraged by ced. Despite long series of analyses and reports, no Many Romanies had nursed high hopes concerning leading politicians in a number of countries. In Hung- concrete measures against anti-Gypsyism have been the EU expansion. The European Union had, after all, ary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania, and Italy, forthcoming. clearly demanded that the new member states gua- the tone has hardened alarmingly. To paraphrase a In 2003, the UN’s Development Program, UNDP, rantee the human rights of their large Romani popula- Slovakian Romani: If, a few years ago, you had accused presented alarming figures. These were based on in- tions. The new members were to end discrimination a politician of being a racist, he would have responded terviews with more than 5,000 Romanies in the Czech against Romanies in the labor and housing markets; in with vehement denials. Today, the politician will say: Republic, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Hungary, and Romania, particular, they were to stop placing Romani children certainly I’m a racist. countries that are home to approximately 7.5 million in separate, inferior school classes. Poorly educated, During the last two years, at least ten Romanies Romanies — perhaps 80 percent of all the world’s Ro- unemployed Romanies from the old, now-defunct have been murdered in Europe for ethnical reasons. mani population. UNDP studied such factors as child centrally governed economies hoped for a chance Romani settlements are being demolished. Pogroms mortality, income level, and access to food and edu- to make better lives for themselves in EU’s free labor are on the rise. cation. The conclusion was that the Romanies were market. Romani activists expected the EU to constitu- The UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights “the poorest of the poor” and often lived in conditions te a platform that would allow Romanies to participate stipulates that all persons must be granted the na- that were far worse than the poorest levels found in in European politics. Romani voluntary organizations tionality of the state in which they were born, if they the developing world. In many respects, the Romanies were hoping for greater support in order to further otherwise would be stateless. An estimated 640,000 had apparently fared significantly better during the their cause. people are stateless in Europe. This is a hidden and communist era, the report continues, although those There was awareness, within the EU, of the seri- neglected problem that affects, not least, Europe’s advances had often required turning their backs on ous situation faced by Romanies in the new member Romanies. their cultural and linguistic identity. Now, after the countries. Fair treatment of the Romani minorities fall of the Iron Curtain, 30 percent of Romanies in the was made a requirement for admission into the EU. countries investigated are dependent on public welfa- The pressure exerted was, of course, partially motiva- There are no reliable figures as to how many re. A mere 20 percent have steady employment, while ted by self-interest. The better the living conditions of Romanies are stateless, although estimates place the another 20 percent work on the black market. One Romanies in their homelands, the less likely they were numbers at 10,000 in Bosnia, 1,500 in Montenegro, of six does not get enough to eat and one of two goes to move to the richer EU countries. 17,000 in Serbia, and 4,090 in Slovenia. These are hungry for at least a few days each year. Every third The applicant countries made an effort to live up to persons who were previously Yugoslavian citizens child never completes elementary school and two out the EU’s stringent demands. They passed legislation but who became stateless when Federal Yugoslavia of three drop out at the intermediate level. Romani against discrimination and established institutions for dissolved. Those who failed to apply for citizenship in children are routinely placed in schools for mentally Romani self-government. The EU invested about 55 the new state within a set period of time were erased handicapped children. million euros in measures that were meant to improve from the population registers. Romanies who moved In 2007, UNICEF, the United Nations’ Children’s the conditions of Romanies in the applicant countries. to other countries lost citizenship in their countries of Fund, released a report on the living conditions of But some Romanies voiced skepticism. They birth. Romani children in Albania, Bosnia, Macedonia, pointed out that when it came to the treatment of In other countries, the authorities have introduced Montenegro, Serbia, Kosovo, Bulgaria, and Romania. the Romanies, the “old” EU had many skeletons in its legislation and regulations aimed at ridding the nation Of these 3.7 million Romanies (the majority living in closets, too. Focusing attention on the Romanies just of Romani citizens. When, in 1993, Czechoslovakia Romania and Bulgaria) close to half, 46 percent, are before the expansion of the EU did not mean that their was divided into the Czech Republic and Slovakia, the children. According to the report, a great majority situation would improve. How could EU membership Czech Republic planned to introduce strict regulations of these live below the poverty line and lack access change centuries of prejudice? on citizenry which would, in practice, have rendered to education and healthcare; their housing is sub- And what were the final results? Even though the majority of the country’s Romanies stateless. In- human. In Romania, two out of three Romanies live there have been noticeable improvements in several tervention from the Council of Europe forced them to below the subsistence level and one in three live in countries’ healthcare and educational sectors, critics soften the law, but its intentions were indisputable. ghetto-like settlements, often without running water. maintain that these have had little impact on the eve- Many Romanies in Latvia and Estonia are also with- The European Union’s Agency for Fundamental ryday lives of the Romanies. Romani organizations out citizenship. Rights, FRA, has the task of collecting data and infor- claim that the EU’s monetary contributions often en- In the spring of 2005, two years before Romania mation about human rights, assisting member states ded up in the wrong hands. The EU has been criticized and Bulgaria had joined the EU, the EU Commission with advice, facilitating a dialogue with civil society for not cooperating directly with the Romanies and published a report on the Romanies’ situation in the and creating awareness about human rights issues. their various organizations. expanded European Union. “The Situation of Roma- The FRA cooperates with the Council of Europe and Today, the Romanies are every bit as poor and nies in an Enlarged Europe” described both the Roma other organizations and institutions on human rights. marginalized, as unemployed, and as poorly housed — mostly dismal ­— history in Europe, and their present In the spring of 2009, the FRA presented a study as they ever were. They are as far from leading the problematic situation. of the EU’s immigrants and ethnic minorities, in an normal lives of citizens in their own countries as they According to the report, there is, throughout Euro- attempt to gain an overview of the occurrence of ra- were before the EU’s expansion. pe, a lack of understanding of the Romanies’ extreme- cism in the Union. This is the first investigation of its In the West European nations, where Romanies ly vulnerable position. The treatment of the Romanies kind to include the entire EU. Approximately 25,000 have been a much smaller minority than in the east, is described as “one of the most important political, persons in all 27 member countries were interviewed. anti-Gypsyism has smoldered for centuries. The social and humanitarian questions in today’s Europe”. The study shows that discrimination, harassment and recent expansion of the EU has given it added mo- The report stresses the need for forceful legislation racist violence are far more common than is registe- essay feature interview story 23

red in the nations’ official statistics. Not surprisingly, then, is nothing being done? from the member countries, the Council of Europe, Romanies and Africans are the most exposed. They The Romanies come by the thousands from the OSSE, the World Bank, the UN, and many others. experience racism and discrimination on a daily basis. EU’s new member countries, searching for a more The tone was urgent. “The dramatic situation of the They question the police and the authorities’ capabili- tolerable existence in the old member states. One sees Roma in Europe cannot be solved in Brussels”, said ty and willingness to defend them and therefore rarely them, often, begging in the streets of London, Berlin, the Commission’s chairman José Manuel Barroso, who report it when they are victims of crime. Oslo, Stockholm, and Helsinki. In many countries, the also said, ”This must not become just another discus- Of those interviewed, 55 percent believe that ethnic police suspects that the begging is organized by crimi- sion meeting”. discrimination is wide-spread in their own country nal gangs, something, however, for which no-one has Nevertheless, the summit became just that. Its only and 37 percent have personally experienced discrimi- yet found any proof. result was the decision to hold another summit meet- nation within the last twelve months. 12 percent have, In Helsinki, the population has reacted with horror ing in 2010. during the past year, been victims of racist violence to the growing number of beggars in the streets, most But now, at least, the Romani issue is on the EU and 80 percent of these have not bothered to report of whom come directly from Romania. The Finnish agenda. After the summit, the Commission created the violence to the police. Among the Romanies, as police has cold-bloodedly demolished a number of a platform for the inclusion of the Romanies — not a many as half of those interviewed report instances of temporary dwellings that the Romanian Romanies formal institution but, it is claimed, an arena for the discrimination. had erected in the outskirts of Helsinki. The Romanies exchange of knowledge, experiences, and examples of In November 2009, the FRA released another re- were offered no alternative dwellings, which led to good practice. There is, thus, as yet, no suggestion or port, which describing the situation of Romanies who sharp critique from, among other sides, the United common strategy for the solution of the Romanies iso- have sought better lives by moving to other member Nations’ Human Rights Council UNHCR. lation; merely the creation of a new discussion club. countries. Not surprisingly, the report shows that the It is not illegal to beg in either Finland or Sweden. In October 2009, Valeriu Nicolae and Bernard right of EU citizens to move freely within the Union Other EU countries have passed legislation against Rorke from George Soros’s Open Society Institute pu- does not extend, in practice, to those belonging to the begging. The begging Romanies present a growing blished a skeptical commentary on what the EU had Romani minority. problem that has yet to be solved. achieved at the previous year’s summit. During that On September 16 2008, during the French Presi- year, they write, despite all the bombastic assurances dency, the European Commission held its first-ever of engagement in behalf of the Romanies, violence Together, these reports arrive at an unequi- summit on the Romanies. The immediate motive was against them had increased dramatically. vocal conclusion: racism against Romanies is on the Italy’s infamous fingerprinting and registration of The principal responsibility for protecting the increase throughout Europe. Many Romanies live in Romanies, as well as pogroms in Naples and other pla- Romanies still rests on the national level, Nicolae and constant fear of racists, and draw comparisons with ces. The participants made up an impressive group: Rorke continue, in spite of all the assurances of supra- the atmosphere in Germany during the 1930s. Why, five EU Commissioners, government representatives national EU engagement. And, as the authors point Photo: Mihai Ro m anciuc – htt p ://flic.k r / /4PnYhd

A european dilemma. The romanies 24

out, the situation on the national level is alarming in after all, nationalism often leads to persecution and terms of, for instance, school segregation, increasing war. The principle here is a Europe consisting of hu- racist violence and pogroms, as well as a growing man beings, not of states. number of racist statements made by local and natio- In May 2002, the World Romani Congress in Poland nal politicians. The fact that the Commission, after proclaimed a Romani nation — a nation without terri- the first summit of 2008, established a platform for tory — and, as such, demanded greater Romani repre- cooperation between EU institutions and civic society sentation in the UN and the European Parliament. which should be capable of producing a strategy for In 1944, economist and sociologist Gunnar Myrdal the integration of Romanies and suggesting forceful published the book An American Dilemma, in which measures against anti-Gypsyism, they term a positive he discussed the situation of blacks in USA. He de- sign. But neither strategy nor suggestions have yet scribed the contradiction between the United States’ emerged; nor has the Commission specified how the official ideals — freedom, equality, and justice — and platform is to function or what its objectives are to be, the racism that was in reality practiced in that country. write Nicolae and Rorke. Time has come to speak of The European Dilemma — the contradiction between Europe’s lofty ideals and the Europeans’ treatment of their largest minority, the EU’s leading politicians have, as far as they Romanies. In Europe, the Romanies number between possibly can, tried to keep the Romani issue at the na- ten and twelve million. Ever since their first arrival in tional level. To criticize other countries’ minority po- Europe, a thousand years ago, they have been discri- licies is a delicate matter. The question is how long the minated against and persecuted. And this persecution EU can refrain from passing forceful censure on Italy, continues to this day. And yet lofty ideals, human Hungary, Great Britain, the Czech Republic, and other rights and equality before the law are also revered member states where anti-Gypsyism is on the rise. within the European Union. Increasingly, the world’s Romanies organize across The Romanies are a people in Europe, the largest national borders, a development that has been facilita- European minority without a territory. As boundary ted by the Internet. Already in 1971, the International crossers with multifaceted experiences from most of Romani Union was established; approximately 70 Europe’s countries, they may very well be “the only Romani organizations from 28 countries have joined. true Europeans” — as Nobel Prize winner Günter Grass The Union chose a Romani national anthem, ”Djellem, calls them. Djellem”, and a flag common to all the world’s Roma- In Europe, millions are born condemned — this is a AUTHOR PRESENTATION nies. In 1979, the UN granted the International Romani European dilemma. ≈ Union NGO status. Irka Cederberg is a journalist and a Bachelor of Growing anti-Gypsyism is one acute problem faced Science in Social Work. For two decades, she has by the Romani organizations. Other important issues monitored and reported on the Romanies’ situation concern culture and the Romani language, Romani References in today’s Europe. She has contributed to a number Chib. The Romanies are trying to reach consensus on Thomas Acton, Gypsy Politics and Social Change. of anthologies, e.g. Ett fördrivet folk: Antologi om the development of a standard language that can be London: Routledge and Kegan Paul 1974 förtryck och diskriminering av romer/zigenare/resande understood by all the world’s Romanies, based on all Rajko Djuric, Ohne Heim — ohne Grab: Die Geschich- [A Banished People: An Anthology about Repression the 60 or so variants of that language. Today, there is a te der Roma und Sinti. Berlin: Aufbau-Verlag, 1996; and Discrimination of Romanies/Gypsies/Travelers], new ethnic consciousness among the Romani people 2002 Forum för levande historia 2005. Her Swedish-langu- who for much of their history have been forced, Isabel Fonseca, Bury Me Standing. London: Chatto & age book Född fördömd: Romerna — ett europeiskt through fear of persecution, to hide their identity — a Windus 1995 dilemma [Born Condemned: Romanies a European situation that, in some places, continues today. Angus Fraser, The Gypsies. Oxford: Blackwell 1992. Dilemma], Leopard förlag, will appear in the spring of Karl-Markus Gauss, Die Hundeesser von Svinia. Wien: 2010. Zsolnay 2004 Romanies have grown tired of always being de- Piotr Goldstein, Political Discrimination of the Rroma scribed as a problem, as criminals and parasites. They in the European Union. Trieste: International University Read more about issues are equally sick of the romantic Hollywood image of Institute for European Studies 2009 (Masters thesis) relating to minorities the carefree Gypsy. Romani activists now claim that if Will Guy (ed.), Between Past and Future: The Roma at www.balticworlds.com there is a problem with the Romanies, the problem is of Central and Eastern Europe. Hatfield: University of ethnic — not social. Hertfordshire Press 2001 But do they wish to be viewed as a unified nation, a Ian Hancock, We are the Romani People. Hatfield: Romanistan — albeit a nation without its own territory University of Hertfordshire Press 2002 — or is their goal, rather, some sort of trans-nationa- Ian Hancock, Sibhan Dowd & Rajko Djuric (eds.), The lism? These are questions that are discussed among Roads of the Roma: An Anthology of Gypsy Writers. the Romanies. And who is to represent them in the va- Hatfield: Hertfordshire UP 1998 rious international agencies in which they participate, Adrian Marsh, “No Promised Land”: History, Historio- with increasing frequency? Should their representati- graphy, and the Origins of the Gypsies. London: The ves be “the elders”, leaders appointed in traditional fa- University of Greenwich 2008 (Doctoral dissertation) shion; or should they be elected in a more democratic Wolfgang Wippermann, “Wie die Zigeuner”: Antise- manner, as many young Romanies demand? mitismus und Antiziganismus im Vergleich. Berlin: Would it be advisable to establish an EU citizenship, Elefanten Press 1997 as suggested by the International Romani Union? This implies the obsolescence of the concept of the state;

A european dilemma. The romanies essay feature interview story 25 the faces of the crisis in the easT Emigration and immigration – and a new role for labor market parties By Anna Danielsson Öberg

One year ago, most people realized that the fi- Mihails Hazans estimates that approximately pares the number of Poles who were living outside of nancial crisis would lead to unemployment among 30,000 Latvians did emigrate in 2009, and that this Poland in early 2008 with the same numbers for early EU citizens. Of course no one had any idea how many trend will continue for years to come: 2009, one finds a decrease of 60,000­— to 2.2 million would be affected. Now we know. More than 4.6 mil- “My guess is that the number will rise to about people. lion people lost their job between December 2008 and 100,000 persons over three years.” “That is a significant drop. But one cannot say, with December 2009. This means that more than 23 million Charles Woolfson, professor in labor market re- any certainty, whether it means that more of those men and women today are unemployed. search at the Institute for Migration, Ethnicity and So- who were working abroad temporarily have returned, The numbers vary greatly from country to country. ciety at Linköping University, also predicts that there or whether fewer people are leaving.” According to Eurostat, Latvia tops the list with more will be extensive migration, especially from Lithuania Although unemployment has not increased drasti- than 22 percent unemployed, while the Netherlands and Latvia. cally in Poland (8.9 percent in December), Pawel Kacz- ranks the lowest with 4 percent unemployed. “It will most likely be as great as it was at its peak marczyk believes that the crisis as such makes people Researchers noted last year (BW vol. II: 1) that the — that is to say, some years after EU membership: more cautious. crisis had affected the EU’s internal migration pat- 100,000–130,000 persons over a few years. What ma- “It delays the decision-making process. People stay terns. The inflow of migrants from Eastern Europe kes it serious is that these countries have dwindling where they are, at home in Poland or abroad. But we to the largest receiving countries, Great Britain and populations. The birth rate is negative and the po- do not yet know how the flows really look.” Ireland, diminished during the fall of 2008. They pulation is ageing while, at the same time, the young In Poland, also, there is great interest in going to also pointed out that we lack information concerning people are leaving. This leads to greater risk of social Norway — and to Sweden. But that does not mean short-term migration patterns. The reason is that com- instability”, says Woolfson. that Poles, when they decide to go abroad to work, plex statistical data must be processed in each country either temporarily or longer-term, actually go to those and then be correlated. countries. Mihails Hazans, professor of economics at Riga’s Those who leave move away from something. “First of all there must be an obvious economic University of Latvia, is among those who believe Factors such as unemployment benefits so low that boom — and a widespread demand. One must keep that one can already see definite patterns. Last year, one can barely survive on them, low wages, often in mind that in early 2009 there were 650,000 Poles citizens in the EU’s new member countries were less paid “under the table”, deteriorating healthcare and living in Great Britain, and there is simply not enough willing to move to Great Britain or Ireland — with the schools, etc., increase the likelihood for migrants to room for that many in small countries like Norway and exception of citizens in the Baltic States. In the case of accept positions with low wages and poor working Sweden.” Latvia, he observes, migration numbers have almost conditions in the countries to which they emigrate. Statistics from Great Britain and Norway neither doubled. “The risk of exploitation is great and accordingly, confirm nor refute claims that the crisis does af- “During the first three quarters of 2009, more than there is a risk that wages will be lowered in the countri- fect migration patterns. The reason is quite simple: 10,000 persons from Lithuania and almost as many es they go to. I am worried that tension will increase there are, as yet, no statistics available, according to from Latvia were registered as wage earners in the UK within the EU and that xenophobia will increase. We both Christian Dustmann, professor of economics at Worker Registration Scheme. But the total number of already see that happening.” London’s University College and director of the Cen- emigrants was higher. Last year, between January and If migration from the Baltic States becomes consi- tre for Research and Analysis of Migration, and Line June alone, 10,000 persons from Lithuania and more derable, it may make it necessary for those countries Eldring, research leader at the Norwegian research than 8,000 from Latvia were issued national insuran- to import labor from countries outside of the EU. This institute Fafo. ce numbers”, says Mihails Hazans. has already happened, e.g. from Thailand and China. “What we can see is that the number of migrants And even though Irish unemployment was high in “But the Baltic States are not yet ready to receive from the eight countries that became [EU] members in 2009, numbers show that nearly 4,000 persons left persons from another culture or those who look dif- 2004 is stable if we compare the first quarter of 2008 Latvia in order to go to Ireland. The new tendency ferent. They are quite simply not ready for a multicul- to the first quarter of 2009. But that is all we can say. seems to be that those who leave are planning to stay tural society”, says Charles Woolfson. Nor do we know what has caused this, whether the away for a long time, perhaps even settle permanently Pawel Kaczmarczyk, vice director of the Centre of inflow and outflow have changed or remained con- in their new countries. Another novelty is that interest Migration Research at the University of Warsaw and stant”, says Christian Dustmann. in Norway has increased. Crash courses in Norwegian advisor to Poland’s prime minister Donald Tusk, notes Line Eldring gives the same picture. Comparisons have gained in popularity. that Polish statistics give a clear picture. If one com- between the third quarter of 2008 and the third quar-

From no pay to low pay. When Europe unified, the labor market was divided in two. 26

ter of 2009 certainly show that the number of Poles ar- market policies, and help reform social insurance and other financial actors attempted to force through an riving in Norway has diminished somewhat, while the pension systems. In order to be located in the “thick of instant market economy and did not realize the signifi- number of Latvians has increased a bit. But in order it”, the ILO office was established in Budapest. Today, cance of a series of important differences.” to determine with any certainty that something has its work is primarily directed towards countries that Being self-critical, he thinks that even the ILO was changed, one needs more extensive statistical data. are not EU members. in too much of a hurry. The organization had the best “As yet, the numbers are simply too uncertain”, she says. “The countries outside of the EU have not esta- of intentions and attempted to save time for the East Even if unemployment, when compared to the blished the same institutions as the former East bloc European countries, he observes. But one cannot Baltic States, is lower in countries like Great Britain, countries that have now become members”, says “cultivate” a labor market party system that it has the Netherlands, Sweden, to some degree Ireland, and Svetla Shekerdjieva. taken one hundred years to establish in the West, ex- not least in Norway, it is higher today than it was pre- According to their own ranking, Hungary belongs pecting that this can be done in a few years in the East. viously. And forecasts indicate that it will take a while to the countries within their area of responsibility It must take time. before the demand for labor goes up again. Whether that have been hardest hit by the crisis. Unemploy- an economic slump in what used to be attractive re- ment is high (10.7 percent in December 2009) and the cipient countries for EU migration affects the will to country’s debt is sky-high. The crisis is felt by anyone “These countries lacked all references and had migrate is open to question. who visits Budapest’s city center. The expensive no clue what we were talking about. ‘Employer’ was name-brand boutiques stand glaringly empty. The ar- an insult and the ‘union’ was a state tool that was used chitects had obviously envisioned hordes of eager-to- against the workers.” Perhaps, argues Christian Dustmann. But at shop Hungarians and tourists swarming in and out of Like his successors, he notes that the East Euro- the same time he stresses that migration depends on the stores; but shoppers are few and far between. pean governments are beginning to turn to unions individual decisions. One reason why the prospect of “If the black economy develops further, things will and employers’ associations in order to gain sup- moving to Great Britain has become less attractive is be serious. Lower tax revenues obviously mean lower port for their policies. In the not too distant future, the devaluation of the British pound: income for the states in this region, and these incomes he anticipates, this will prove a promising deve- “I think migration will decrease in all countries. But are sorely needed”, says Anne Knowles. lopment. But there is no doubt that the crisis has in the long run, I am convinced that migration levels Björn Grünewald, with a background as director of caused serious economic concerns in many of these between EU member countries will rise.” the former Swedish Employers’ Confederation (SAF), countries. Charles Woolfson is not equally convinced that the became ILO’s first employers’ representative in Bu- “Compared to the situation when the Wall fell, economic situation and labor market conditions are dapest. Since the early 1980s, he has had assignments things are different. Many countries have a func- decisive for those who consider moving from Eastern in various East European countries, first on behalf of tioning infrastructure, fully established or under to Western Europe: SAF and, as of 1992, of ILO. Now, 20 years after the fall construction. The crisis has forced people to realize “One must keep in mind that wages, no matter how of the Wall, Grünewald thinks that the World Bank, that one cannot demand economic changes and low they are compared to those in, say, Great Britain, not least, was too hasty in carrying out changes in the sacrifices without offering support. Furthermore, are still better than attempting to survive on the very, former Eastern bloc. economic changes happen faster here than in what very low unemployment benefits provided in most of “It won’t do prescribing to countries that have had we call the West. In our countries trade cycles last these countries.” a certain system that now you must do it our way and five to eight years, while in East European countries A paradoxical outcome of the crisis may turn out do so within a few years. There was no corresponding they last half as long. to be that unions and employers find more explicit infrastructure in these countries and they needed “So, in a few years much can happen — in the right roles to play in the former East European countries. time to build it up. But the World Bank, the IMF and direction.” ≈ This conclusion has been reached by people with a reputed competence in the subject-matter. Anne Knowles and Svetla Shekerdjieva both work in the re- gional office of the International Labor Organization, ILO, in Budapest, whose task it is to further developments in the East European countries. “Our impression that the governments have realized that if they do not talk to the labor market parties it will be more diffi- cult to drive through the policies made ne- cessary by the crisis. It is always difficult to generalize, but simplifying a bit one might say that the crisis has not been purely bad news for the labor market parties in these countries”, says Anne Knowles, who represents the employers at the office in Budapest. Together with Svetla Shekerdjieva, who has a background in union work in Bulgaria, Knowles is supposed to look after the development in a total of 18 countries, plus Kosovo. The mission has been going on since the early 1990s. Its purpose is to support processes that help establish relations between labor market parties. But ILO must also

support the creation of modern labor ragni svensson illustration:

The Wall fell. Finally, the unions in the West had something new to talk about. essay feature interview story 27

AUTHOR PRESENTATION

Folke Schimanski was for A German several decades a distin- guished voice on the air. During the years when he was active at the public- farewell service corporation Sveriges Radio (the Swedish National Radio), Schimanski covered a wide range of subject Folke Schimanski. matters. Schimanski’s flight to Sweden at a young age was a consequence of the German defeat in World War II. In his work as a journalist, he took a critical stance to his early experiences in Hitler’s Germany as well as to his special family situation: his father, who had been a member of the Sturmabteilung and of the NSDAP, remained in Berlin where he died at an extremely high age, while Schimanski’s sister remained faithful to her ideological convictions and her belief The primary school of in Hitler, and became the leader of a Swedish Nazi Kruschdorf where Folke party, Nordiska Rikspartiet (Nordic Reich Party). went during the war. Schimanski has also been active as an author of works on German cultural and political history.

BY Folke Schimanski In Swedish, Schimanski has published Dröm och verklighet i DDR: Några samtal med dem som var he last Christmas of the war we celebrated next to a sign upon which was written Evakuierung med [Dream and Reality in GDR: Some Conversa- by ourselves. It was a melancholy event as Thorn. Thorn was located only fifty kilometers south tions with those who were part of it] (1993), och we all had the feeling that it would be our of Bromberg. We were shocked and dismayed. Historien om Weimar: En kultur i Europas mitt [The last family get-together. Our father came for Pathetic trenches had been dug by my sister and History of Weimar: A Culture in the Middle of the a visit. He had managed to get his hands on four small her BDM1-fellows outside of Thorn, but just before Europe] (1998). In 1991, he became a co-founder candles that we put on a small, tabletop Christmas Christmas this activity had come to an end. It was of the magazine Populär Historia [Popular History]. tree. That was a quite a change from the tall Christmas meant as a contribution to the Reichsarbeitsdienst Published below is an excerpt from his soon- tree with its innumerable candles back in our Berlin (the obligatory manual work assignment for those in to-appear autobiography, in which Schimanski’s home. No silver-plated swastika adorned the tree this their late teens), and the Nazi leader in Danzig who mother takes a central position. Folke Schimanski time. had come on inspection had promised them “digging has characterized her as follows: For me, it was a bittersweet memory. The harmony badges” for their efforts. The badges never arrived. we all felt around the little Christmas tree coming to Where was she now? To our relief we found her “My mother was never an organized Nazi, even such an abrupt end. (And this kind of uncompleted on the stairs leading to the second story of the station though she was a German citizen. She was prima- event would become a recurrent theme in my life to building. rily a Hausfrau but had temporary jobs, for example come: a life of repeated interruptions and human at the OKW, the German military staff, where she relations constantly being broken off. A staccato life, belonged to the censoring department that scru- instilling in me a desperate longing for something On January 17, the Russians were just fifty kilo- tinized correspondence to and from the occupied permanent. Someone must have decided that my life meters outside of Thorn, now it was the 20th and the countries during the war. Stupidly, I did not inquire should be like this, perhaps me?). flight from that town was already a fait accompli. We about this while she was alive, I have not always When our last Christmas together ended, it was as rushed head over heels back home to Kruschdorf, been interested in our German past, at times the if a blind had been pulled down. Our mother did not informed the surprised villagers of the seriousness of theme has bored me. All research in OKW docu- follow our father to the station. He absolutely did not the situation, and hurriedly packed our possessions. ments concerning her position would have been want her to do so. She was never to see him again, and My mother went to see a pompous little gentleman useless, as these evidently were destroyed in the I would not meet him again until the 1950s. who was referred to as Ortsbauernführer (there were bombardment. She subscribed to Den Svenske My last letter from the German Reich to my father plenty of little Führers in the Third Reich), and asked [The Swede], a newspaper that belonged to Sven was written on January 3 1945. It was mailed from my for permission to flee to Berlin. He did not under- Olof Lindholm’s Nazi party, the largest such party sister’s “Young-Sister Home” in Thorn, to which we stand. No one was allowed to flee just like that. in Sweden. One might say that she was closest in had traveled at New Year. In the students’ room where But my daughter has fled from Thorn! sympathy to the German National People’s Party my sister lived I remember a large color portrait of Der Fled?? Has your daughter fled?! No, she has been (DNVP), which was not Nazi but national and con- Führer in his field uniform evacuated, the little Führer corrected her. servative, gazing longingly back towards the time The Soviet army was moving closer. There was a When things went badly for Hitler’s armies, one of the Emperor. She was very patriotic, and this in general feeling of apprehension. The official informa- resorted to a language in which any intimation of a a double sense: towards Germany and towards tion on the Russians’ advance was highly inadequate. setback was glossed over. Typical of the lunatic per- Sweden.” ≈ One day, my mother and I calmly went shopping in severance of the shrinking Third Reich was that the Bromberg; however, when we arrived at the train rocket testing at Tucheler Heide went on until the Red station, we encountered a mass of suitcases collected Army approached. The last V2 rocket was shot off on 28

January 11. with fever, I contemplated In the pale wintry a painting on the wall, de- dawn on the next day, we picting a Vandsburg street. heard tanks rattle through Those who had walked the our town at five. But why whole way had swollen feet, towards the West? We un- the effects of which would derstood when we glimpsed stay with my mother for the a red star on the tanks. They rest of her life. were, indisputably, “Tea But in the morning, when Salons” — the famous T-34s we were somewhat rested, it in the lingo of the German was announced that a train soldiers. would depart toward the ca- The villagers gathered pital. Only food was allowed together their horses and to be taken along, all other carriages in preparation for luggage was to be left be- departure. There was chaos The railroad station in Bromberg. Today replaced by a modern building. To the right, the last photo of Folke hind. The sun was shining, and confusion. There were that his father took during the war, on the icy Bromberg Canal, January 1945. as it had the day before, and no automobiles available, as Photos: Pre-war postcard; Hans Schimanski. it was cold. The Löpers gave these had been requisitio- us a steaming meat broth; ned by the military. ans and Bavarians still flared up, if momentarily, even they had no intention of abandoning their horse and We were classified as second-class refugees, as we in this situation. Do not imagine that Germany stood carriage. The farmers appeared astoundingly calm, as had been evacuated from Berlin and were now in the wholly united even under the centralized Nazi regime. if they had brought along their farms. This was the last wrong place. People from Hamburg belonged here, As our horses had now become very tired, we were time we saw those helpful people, one could well ima- whereas we should have stayed put in East Prussia. forced to jettison a large part of our luggage by the gine what would happen to them afterward. Yet after Hence we were not assigned to anyone to bring us roadside: my mother’s jewelry, silverware, chinaware, the war, my mother found out that they had arrived along, and as evacuees we had no transportation of bed-clothes, clothing, the hangings that my mother safely in West Germany. our own. My sister appealed to the Löper family, a had woven, and even the binoculars my father had just family she had helped with their beet fields, who im- given me for Christmas. mediately took us in. However, she first had to help The station in Vandsburg was already crowded them butcher some geese. Since these were just flap- to the hilt. Piles of bags and cardboard boxes lay aban- ping around and she could not catch any, she left the t a road-crossing our caravan suddenly doned on the platform, and people were anxiously stable in panic. stopped dead. The gun-fire sounded heavi- looking out for the train. After a couple of hours it The peasants drove the cows out into the fields, er than before, and from the opposite direc- arrived in a cloud of steam. It was originally bound hoping that the Poles would take care of them. The tion three wagons rapidly approached, the for Nakel, but that destination had been canceled Ukrainian farmhand stayed behind; bidding him fa- horses galloping out of control. In one of the wagons because the front had overtaken the town. Instead, rewell was strange. What would fate have in store for my sister saw a crying woman with a blood-soaked the train went to a place called Flatow. There we were him? Soviet prisoners and forced laborers, especially bundle in her arms. Panic seized our caravan, horses stuck for seven hours because planes had bombed those in “privileged” positions such as his, were trea- were whipped — we had to get the hell out of here by the railway line. The train was meant to continue to ted very badly by their own when they were “libera- all means. Our horses suddenly refused to budge on Schneidemühl, a large railway hub at the border bet- ted”. They were considered more or less as traitors. an uphill stretch; all the other wagons passed us by ween Germany and Poland — that is to say, where the Finally we got on our way. The red-armored sol- and we ended up entirely alone on the country road — border had been before September 1 1939, when it had diers had no time to waste on civilians as they were five women and one little boy. been overrun. hurrying westwards towards Nakel, so we made a de- But help arrived in the shape of a farmer from our It was not until late at night that a train could take tour towards the north-west. village. He had discovered that we had been fallen be- us to this town of Schneidemühl. There, the whole hind, and had coldheadedly driven back. He rounded station was a depot of chests, bags, cartons, bundles up two fresh horses and helped us pull the wagon up of cloth, and household utensils. Desperate, we went It was a sunny day. From time to time the mo- the incline. I did not notice any of this drama as I was back and forth along the overcrowded trains — all notonous creaking of wheels stopped, whenever sleeping peacefully, but I was cold as ice. My sister had of which were west-bound, of course — looking for the horses had to rest or be fed. We zigzagged along to slap me repeatedly in order to get my circulation empty seats. On a side-track, my sister found a short constantly having to make detours to steer clear of the going. train of wagons with, as yet, only a few passengers in fighting. I was wrapped in blankets which I was not allowed them. It was not going the whole way to Berlin, but It was minus 13 degrees Celsius. At night the tempe- to undo. Once I did so anyway and said: “I saw a shoo- only to the town Küstrin at the river Oder. So here it rature must have dropped to minus 20. We were sur- ting star!” I was running a fever. Finally we reached stood at Schneidemühl’s station without moving. That rounded by the continued rattle of machine guns, at a place where the rumble of the war could no longer was particularly nerve-wracking because the ominous fairly close range to boot. My mother lied to me, clai- be heard. It may have been around three o’clock. We front was approaching closer and closer. ming it was “practice shooting”. I was perched high up stopped to give the horses a rest and I looked up into We must, must get away from here! Finally the train on a carriage, wrapped in a layer of blankets, while my the starry sky, so totally aloof from the horrors that was set in motion. Now, there were not enough seats mother and some other women trudged along behind. steadily afflict our earth. I felt a peculiar peace, as if for everyone; one of us had to stand the whole way. I can still see their dark forms in front of me, persis- the firmament for the time being took me into its care, A young, blonde woman heated milk for her baby by tently moving forward while chatting quietly; it feels demonstrating to me the serene indifference of the holding a candle under a saucepan. The candle she as if they are still walking along today. Now and then I universe. The starry sky does not care whether we are had gotten from my mother. Our journey was prolong- had to be lifted down in order to prevent frost-bites. dead or alive on this messy planet of ours. A further ed by repeated stops. At one of these interruptions, In the middle of the night, our caravan was held up dimension: we and our lives, the wheels of history rol- Red Cross sisters arrived distributing milk to the child- when an urgent transport convoy for wounded sol- ling and crushing — and then the wide universe. ren and hot chocolate to the grown-ups. diers attempted to get through. The man in charge of At around half-past four, we arrived exhausted in While a locomotive was being repaired we were the transport yelled at us in a Bavarian dialect, which the small town of Vandsburg, where we laid down on attacked by Soviet planes. It was not that dangerous led to angry retorts. The old hostility between Prussi- the wooden benches inside a schoolhouse. Drowsy though; some passengers got minor wounds. How- essay feature interview story 29

ever, many windowpanes were broken, so backpacks the cages had asphyxiated from the smoke, otherwise played hits were meant to mobilize the last vestiges of and whatever had to be used to prevent draughts to there was no damage, and there had been no people morale to be found in the population. I particularly form in the winter-cold. To our joy we were told that in the apartment when it was hit. remember a song with the comforting title “All things the train would go on to Berlin, we would not have to We often had occasion to go to the Swedish Victo- will pass”. The song is about the girl Hanne who faith- search for a new connection from Küstrin. ria Congregation, to collect food packets or clothes fully waits for her soldier. He stands guard somewhere In Kreuz we were severely tried by a long stay, and or to inquire as to when we could leave for Sweden. in the war zone, but he always comes home unscathed my mother saw a dreadful sight: rows of open freight We were told it was possible to tag along Folke from the “inferno”, an eternal happy ending. And the cars with refugees, some of whom almost certainly Bernadotte’s white buses. During our long walks to the singer Lale Andersen comforts us with “after Decem- had frozen to death. We, at least, had a “roof over our congregation, we had to zigzag between the barrica- ber comes another May”, a reassurance that acquired heads”. Then we rolled on. Time after time the train des that had been erected in preparation for the final uncanny connotations towards the end of the war. halted, once the locomotive even steamed back in battle, which was imminent. Only narrow openings It was also Lale Andersen who sang the most fa- order to pick up additional wagonloads of refugees. At were made so that the few cars, running on producer- mous of the German war hits — Lili Marleen, the girl one point it stopped at a lineman’s cottage. We ran out gas and with their headlights partially darkened, might who was to meet her soldier at the street lamp outside to get something to drink. We got only warm water, slip through. his barracks. The song became popular, even among but under the circumstances it was divine. We had a It was an interesting walk. The obstacles were bi- Allied soldiers. Goebbels was not overly delighted, pe- frozen-stiff loaf of bread somewhere, and to warm it zarre: constructions that looked like heaps of bulky riodically it was even banned as “weakening the will to up the grownups took turns sitting on it. This is the refuse, made out of chairs, carts, piles of brushwood, defend the country”. Lili’s soldier was, it seems, all too only time I have eaten bottom-warmed bread. In the and all kinds of odd items from old baby carriages unwilling to leave his darling and go back to his camp. middle of all this I asked my mother, with the oddly to store mannequins. My mother and sister also Lale Andersen came close to ending up in a con- consistent logic of a child: “Do you think the ice-cream participated in the construction of barricades, and centration camp because of her contacts with German shop at Breitenbachplatz is still there?” did so with a certain black humor. Among the tables expatriates. The lyrics to Lili Marleen were translated The flight from Schneidemühl took several days, and flower-pots they set up an artificial lady’s head into eighty or so languages, but in occupied Denmark although the distance to Berlin by rail was no more taken from a hairdresser’s salon. Below it they put a the song was given an anti-German text. The Germans than 245 kilometers. It was a part of the old, Prussian sign saying “Room for rent” with an arrow pointing were pleased that the Danes sang the song, but did not railway line which went east towards the Russian bor- towards a ruin — that is, if the Russians could read it. realize that the lyrics had been changed. der. But we were, at least, approaching our final de- In the irreverent Berlin vernacular, the city’s pathetic stination, and when, close to the capital city, the train barricades were called “eleven-minutes obstructions”. came to an abrupt halt, I fell and started crying. For ten minutes, the Soviet armored troops would Lale Andersen was the singer’s stage name; An old returning soldier with a ravaged face rumb- laugh themselves silly, and then take a minute to break she was not of Danish extraction. The Swede Zarah led: “A German boy does not cry!”. through the obstacle... Leander was, on the other hand, Scandinavian. Once, On the walls one could read the message “BERLIN when she visited the Swedish congregation in Berlin, BLEIBT DEUTSCH!” [Berlin remains German], urging she carried me on her shoulders. In 1943, the year he entry into Berlin was ghostly. The pas- people to put up a heroic final struggle. To resist at when the Third Reich’s fortune of war began to turn, sengers stood glued to the windowpanes, any price was of course expected. In the east, the Leander returned to Sweden and her bank accounts. amazed at the extent of the destruction, Russians were standing at the river Oder, a mere sixty But her songs were still played in what was, now, the Mein Gott! It was as if we were now the privi- kilometers from Berlin, something of which I had not disintegrating German Reich. Teenagers found it easy leged ones, we who had come from the “provinces”. the slightest clue. to imitate her characteristic alto voice. My sister sang Goebbels had not been overly anxious to call attention My sister often turned on the radio, and what I along gaily while pottering about in the kitchen. It re- to the devastation caused by the bombings. As the remember best is the eternal schlager music, it was as ally was successful, that war pop-music. Danes put it, it all came “bag på os” [our just deserts]. if they wanted to drown us in those sentimental hit- Zarah Leander was a far more effective card in At first we went to the Swedish congregation to songs to make us forget that the Reich was facing a ca- Goebbels’s clever campaign of denial than was Lale fetch a ”Sverigepaket” [Sweden-package]. On our tastrophic defeat. Clearly, many of the most frequently Andersen. Zarah sang the prophetic “I know that a mi- way home to Steglitz, a racle will happen” (which friendly gentleman in may make one think of the streetcar offered my the Retaliation Rockets) mother two blankets. and “For that reason the War creates a sense of fel- world will not go under” lowship, as is illustrated (which was supposed to by the war nostalgia that make the Germans put has been cultivated in up with any hardships, England since the end of no matter how severe). this war. My father was She spread a decep- then stationed in a loca- tive light-heartedness in tion close to the Czech those chaotic times. border. This inducement of Our apartment was light-heartedness was a barely habitable. One political instrument, as wall in the nursery had the Minister of Propagan- cracked. And during the da knew very well. Pop fall of 1943, a bomb had music served as a tool of drilled a hole through the political repression and roof, fallen into the living carefree entertainment room, and destroyed functioned as a soothing grandmother’s Blekinge opiate for the people. armchair. A metal cap Which, of course, also is had been left as a souve- the case in peace-time. nir. A chaffinch in one of The village Krischdorf, now Kruszyn, in 2003. Photo: Folke Schimanski. Incidentally, it is strange 30

that I still remember so many tunes from my German her outright to wear the outfit. In order to forestall warm welcome was even more puzzling because the childhood, both Nazi and more harmless ones. “Ho- troubles my mother exchanged it for a few eggs. conflicts between the local population and German mestead, your stars” was my favorite; it was a war It was, however, not really wise to harass my sister occupiers were particularly severe in Odense during schlager which made soldiers in the field melancholy. in that way. The BDM meant something very special to the last year of the war. Me too. her, and it was not just a matter of politics. Experts on Nor did it go any worse the next day on the Great We were forced to move out of our cold apartment, the Nazi era have claimed that the various organiza- Belt ferryboat, where we were served lunch and rich so the Swedish congregation became our last dwelling tions in which German youths were put, could at times Danish pastries on blue and white china. They had in Berlin. Here I lived in a little world of my own, in serve as sanctuaries from tyrannical parents, be it that given us packed lunches in Odense, which we saved. It “splendid isolation” from the deteriorating surroun- they were obviously institutions of indoctrination. was a life of luxury. But the packed lunches would find dings and with one foot in my future home country. In This applies to my sister in view of the manner in it uses later. the garden there was plenty of room to move around which my father treated her. This may be part of the in, especially for a little boy like me. In my mind, I reason why she stayed a Nazi. That busy-body of a lady was already in Sweden. Out there on Kaiserallee was had probably provoked her rebellious sentiments. When we disembarked in Korsør harbor, a Germany, where occasionally some tanks rattled by, When she later met with nothing but censorious dis- band of German soldiers turned up, not an arrogant bearing — at least as yet — black-and-white crosses. approval in Sweden, the world of her youth collapsed. and belligerent bunch, but rather pathetic creatures, Waiting …. Deprived of a harmonic family upbringing, the fel- many of them bandaged, dragging their feet and with Folke Bernadotte’s rescue action got rolling. The lowship provided by the BDM and Reichsarbeitsdienst faces marked with indescribable fatigue. They must White Buses with their producer-gas generators at- remained my sister’s only positive memories from have arrived with one of the large boat transports tached stood ready to depart outside the premises her teens. It would have been better if she had on her from East Prussia, which, to a large extent, went to of the congregation, and we waited for our turn to own initiative and after deliberation rid herself of the Denmark. “Stop the bus! Stop!” some of our women be taken out of Berlin. As a matter of fact, the buses “Hitler jacket”. shouted and rushed to the bus exit. Impulsively they were initially used for the home transport of Swedish- gave the soldiers their packed lunches, to the conster- Germans and Scandinavian concentration camp priso- nation of Danish passers-by, for they were German sol- ners, not to save Jews. A couple of days after Easter, the white buses stood diers. Denmark was also being overrun by hundreds On the first leg, the white-painted bus took us to Lü- ready on the quay at Lübeck and we were on our way. of thousands of refugees from the eastern parts of the beck. Our bus driver had to keep an eye on the sky as When we finally approached the Danish border, Reich. They were not welcome guests. well, as hostile fighter planes might come and attack my sister began to cry quietly, others began to sing Copenhagen and the “Sverigekaj” [Sweden quay]: us. Admittedly our vehicles were, by special request Deutschland über alles. My sister who, in the last mi- one single German soldier on guard, the kind of sol- of the Royal Air Force, painted white and marked with nute, had been granted exemption from serving in the dier Lale Andersen sings about, was the last I saw of large red crosses and equipped with blue and yellow Flak2 ought to have been delighted with the reprieve. Denmark before boarding the ferry. flags, but a pilot in a Spitfire did not always have the Instead she felt shame, she thought she had betrayed Then we saw the lights on the Swedish coast, the time — even if he cared — to pay attention to such de- her country. final destination. Before we reached Malmö it had be- tails. The English suspected that the Red Cross trans- At the German-Danish border we had to alight to come dark, but the bus drove through lighted streets, ports could be camouflaged German military vehicles. have our passports examined, and then we had Ger- no blackout here. Thus it did happen that white buses and trucks came many left behind us. But not entirely: for Denmark It was April 6 1945. A new chapter had begun for us, under fire. On one occasion, 25 persons were killed was occupied, it still teemed with German military yet not one so much happier. I was eight years of age, during such an attack, including concentration camp presence. The first stop was Padborg, where the and my birthday would be celebrated in Sweden in a prisoners. Dannebrog flew few weeks time. My German childhood had been bro- defiantly from ken off too soon, leaving too many loose ends. For the The following place names, many a flagpole. rest of my life, I have tried to tie everything together; he next leg of the journey was to Sweden. which the text gives in It was a happy a Swedish childhood was to replace a German. Every- For my mother it was almost a homecom- German, are now Polish: sight, the flagpo- thing was changed: language, songs, landscapes, and ing, as her parents were Swedish and were Bromberg – Bydgoszcz les bloomed with people. And the conflagration of war was exchanged already there. To my sister Sweden was Kreuz – Krzyz˙ red and white, for peace, peace.... ≈ a country that she had visited occasionally during Kruschdorf – Kruszyn peaceful flags her summer vacations. For me it was a mysterious Küstrin – Kostrzyn (nad Odra˛) — no swastikas references paradise. Nakel – Nakło (nad Notecia˛) in sight. Had we But there was something we were not allowed to Schneidemühl – Piła already reached 1 BDM, Bund Deutscher Mädel, a division of Hitler-Jugend for girls between fourteen and eighteen years of age. A bring with us to Paradise. In West Prussia, my sister Tucheler Heide – Bory Tucholskie paradise? junior division for those between ten and fourteen was had gotten infected with lice. Everybody leaving Thorn – Torun´ The weather call Jungmädel. The BDM had the risqué nickname ”Bald Germany was disinfected in a public bath; the clothes Vandsburg – Wie˛cbork was beautiful. deutsche Mutter” (Soon German mothers [to be]). were gassed. I do not know why, perhaps so it would Denmark looked 2 Flak, Flugabwehrkanonen (air defense guns). not be said that people who came from Germany were its best with the riddled with vermin and contagions. spring foliage un- While our clothes were being gassed, we had to folding. Unscathed. Smiling. In Odense we were in for wait naked, separated according to sex and placed in a surprise. A choir of brown-clothed Danes of the Red two halls. The older boys were worried that my sister Cross sang for us, standing on the stairs to the large (“Vera is coming!”) might open the door and tease us hotel where we were to stay for the night. A substanti- in our predicament, so they barricaded it carefully al evening meal was in store for us in the dining room, with heavy poles. In Lübeck my sister tried to keep her where the tables were laid with white tablecloths. brown BDM jacket with the swastika-mark as long as It was incredible what the Danish Red Cross had ar- possible, even though it was resented in the Swedish ranged for us. What had we done to deserve this? After colony. A sharp-tongued lady told her she ought not all, several among us did sympathize with Nazism or to have on “that Hitler-cardigan now that the war was were pro-German. I later wondered whether we had soon to be over”. A Swedish Red Cross soldier forbade been taken for concentration camp prisoners. The

A German farewell essay feature interview reviews 31

the cartographical transition of the former soviet union by michael gentile

One winter afternoon, a few years ago, I took part was funded by advertising, the locations of certain What follows is a brief account of the transition in a compulsory discussion at the regional office of companies were shown quite clearly). Despite these from a Soviet to a post-Soviet representation of spa- the Kazakh customs authority in the industrial city drawbacks, the tourist map was the first openly ac- tial knowledge. The main argument is that maps of of Ust’-Kamenogorsk, in the northeastern part of the cessible map of the city available since the October the former Soviet sphere have not kept pace with the country. The head of the customs station and two Revolution — at least. Moreover, it showed the bus region’s information revolution. agents from the Kazakh national security agency and streetcar network of the city, although the actual were present. The discussion concerned a parcel number of bus routes proved to be slightly fewer in The Information that I, thanks to the honorable intervention of the reality than what the map suggested, something that Revolution customs authority (or security service), had not suc- I noted directly on the map to make it more usable ceeded in sending to Sweden. Primarily, what was for my purposes, as I did in the case of some other The “Information Revolution” is a relatively neglec- discussed was an object. The object was a tourist map deficiencies. Here lies the core of the discussion at the ted aspect of the post-Soviet transition period, but it of said city of Ust’-Kamenogorsk. The map was drawn customs office/security service: when the authorities is of great importance. In the late 1980s, photocopy- in accordance with the principles that characterized have approved and permitted the release of a map of ing was still associated with enormous bureaucratic the Soviet tourist map1: it lacked scale (or rather used the city, it is supposed to appear as it does regardless obstacles — mostly bans — in most socialist countries. highly variable scales), the angles weren’t correct, of what it may show — any handwritten corrections Within just a few years, the region was inundated by and it was extremely selective in its selection of of course constitute complementary (or rather repla- information from all sources imaginable (satellite TV, streets; in practice, it could not be used to get around cement) information that no one ever sanctioned. In newspapers, foreign visitors, the Internet, etc.), even the city because the amount of falsification and mis- other words, society, or rather the regime was still if the media’s economic problems often forced them representation was simply too great. marked by the information terror passed down by to subordinate themselves to the demands of pri- The only difference now was that the Commu- the Soviet Union, something that was manifest by the vate or governmental financiers, while, as far as the nist paraphernalia that previously might have had need felt by the authorities to check both the quality sources of information were concerned, the range of macroscopic proportions on the map — the Lenin and the quantity of the discrepancy between reality choices the population had was limited by their decli- Statue, the “Eternal Flame”, and so on — was repla- and the way it was described on paper. The year was ning purchasing power. In plain language, this meant ced by more market-oriented items (since the map 2001. that television, at least in the 1990s, bore the greatest

Every human being has an inner compass. Soviet man also had internal maps. 32

Figure 1. Fragment of a tourist map of Semipalatinsk, Figure 2. Hand-drawn copy of a fragment of the master Figures 4a and 4b. Part of the ordnance survey maps Kazakh SSR. Source: GUGK, 1982. plan for Daugavpils, Latvian SSR, in preparation for the (scale 1:10,000) of Air Force Bases in the two similar allocation of land to the furniture trust for the construction cities of Tartu (the Raadi Air Base), bottom, and Uppsala of a summer guest house. Source: archival material from (Ärna Airfield), at the top. As in the case of Daugavpils, Daugavpils zon¯alais valst arh¯ıvs (copy can be obtained the air base in Tartu was replaced with an unusually from the author on request). empty steppe landscape. Source: General’nyi shtab, 1974 (Tartu) and 1976 (Uppsala, Sweden).

Figures 3a and 3b. Lociki Air Force Base and the heavily populated area associated with it, outside Daugavpils, Latvia, was “forgotten” in the classified ordinance survey map with the scale of 1:50,000. Note the absence of landscape featu- res in the airfield area, and that the north-south main road marks the border between correct and falsified representation of the landscape. Sources: Satellite image from Google Earth (accessed 2008-06-28) and General’nyi shtab (1975).

responsibility for the legacy of the information revo- by a constellation of different state actors — this lear- North of the large West Siberian city of Tomsk, for lution from the earliest years of the transformation. ning process was relatively easy. example, a satellite city known as Seversk (or Tomsk-7 That the maps that were actually published as it had previously been known) has existed since withheld much information is, of course, hardly the late 1940s, which, since the dissolution of the The silence of the maps surprising in view of the Soviet “information terror” Soviet Union, contained many more than 100,000 During the Soviet period, spatial information was described above. Among the most important mani- inhabitants. In total, several millions of Soviet citi- scanty, if not nonexistent. As Thomas Borén2 pointed pulations is undoubtedly the deletion of the secret ci- zens lived in the “non-existent” cities, usually with out in his dissertation, the lack of maps meant that ties from all maps. That secret cities were kept secret a far better standard of living than was customary. people were forced instead to acquire the correspon- in this way is of course not itself surprising — after all, The common denominator for most of these places, ding knowledge by accumulating and mentally struc- one of the cities used for the American atomic bomb or rather for one or more of the factories that were turing their everyday “spatial experiences”. More- project, Oak Ridge Tennessee, also belongs to this located at these places, was that they were administe- over, because the landscape of the city changed only group of temporarily non-existent places — but what red by the so-called Ministry for Medium Machinery, sluggishly — since the relations of supply and demand makes the Soviet case extreme is the size of these ci- which was the authority responsible for the nuclear in urban areas were not dictated by the market, but ties, along with the time horizon. industry.

The cartographical transition of the former Soviet Union essay feature interview reviews 33

Figure 5. Fragment of map of Ulan-Ude in 1998 with original scale of 1:25 000. Source: Federal’naya, 1998.

Figure 7. Fragment of map of Almaty, Kazakhstan, from 1998 with original scale of 1:30,000. Source: Komitet, 1998.

Figure 8. Fragment of Russian- language map of Kiev from 2006 with original scale Figure 6. Fragment of map of Tirana in 2000, with unknown initial scale. Note the buildings that line the main streets of 1:35,000. and the lack of information about what lies between them. According to the legend they are public buildings, but this Source: Geo- is not the case. In general, the legend is over-ambitious since it even includes the item “metros”, even though the svit, 2006. nearest subway is in Bulgaria. Source: Aksion, 2000.

Despite the silence of the maps in society at large, red at a scale of 1:50,000. The classification, sekretno other countries. In the case of Sweden, for example, the Soviet Union produced maps prolifically. Ord- (secret), of these middle-scale maps was changed all significant port cities were mapped in a scale of nance survey maps were printed in only a few cities towards the end of the 1980s to the softer wording 1:10,000. The amount of place information contained — among them Riga — and nearly all maps with a scale dlya sluzhebnogo pol’zovaniya (for official use). Very in the maps, however, was much greater than in the of 1:200,000 or larger were classified. Maps with large parts of the rest of the world were mapped in Soviet maps. For example on the map of Uppsala smaller scales approved for publication were heavily the same series, including many Third World countri- (surveyed and mapped in 1976) we find, among other retouched yet nonetheless relatively inaccessible to es, where the Soviet maps are still considered to be things, the various scientific institutions of the uni- the public, except the so-called tourist maps (Figure the best source of spatial information. versity (except the Department of Geography!) and 1). Ordnance survey maps formed the basis of all the The cities are mapped at a scale of 1:10,000 and all known major locations or objects connected with more or less detailed and accurate cartographic ma- sometimes 1:25,000. With maps of Soviet cities there defense. terial of the Soviet Union. Large parts of the Soviet is an area of text describing the city’s most important For the master plans of the cities, which were also Union were covered by secret topographical maps military-strategic aspects and objects, but without classified as top secret, maps at a scale of 1:10,000 using a scale of 1:200,000 or 1:100,000, but some of further details. The same map series covers a wide were used. The master plan, whose function was ap- the more densely populated regions were also rende- range of military-strategically interesting locations in proximately the same as the Swedish översiktsplan

Every map hides something. Imagine one that talked about what! 34

(literally: overview plan, or scheme) except that it material can be described as a gradual transition students at the East Kazakhstan State University were had the same juridical force in relation to the popula- at best. In most of the countries, including Russia, still using fictional maps in cartography instruction tion as the detailed maps, rarely existed in more than the availability of topographical maps at a scale of in the early 2000s. During the 2000s, the overall qua- one or two copies. Every time the construction of an 1:100,000 or larger is extremely limited, while the lity of the maps approved for publication increased object had to be approved by the gorispolkom, the quality of the published maps is constantly being in most places in the former Soviet Union. In general, city’s steering committee, the planners/architects improved (except in Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, the major cities have been in the forefront (and of the- involved had to copy (by hand) the relevant fragment where the regimes still cling to the Soviet approach se there are also maps made abroad, in particular in of the master plan (Figure 2). Even though the master to maps). Germany) with the regional capitals trailing behind, plan map was the most important tool of the city In the early 1990s, the situation in Russia was if they are present at all.5 planners, it was constructed upon the more or less temporarily a bit brighter, and it was also at that time A recent map of Kiev (Figure 8) is an example of censored versions of the original ordinance survey that the Library of Congress in Washington acquired this. One explanation for the accelerating increase map, whose classified status, in contrast to that of the a very large stock of Soviet maps, including city plans in quality among the commercially available maps is maps done at a scale somewhere in the middle, was in a scale of 1:10,000. However, this collection did of course likely due to external factors for which the never lowered. not cover the Russian Federation, though it did cover local mapping authorities are not responsible — after There were of course other governmental authori- most of the other former republics. The maps also be- all, as early as the 1990s anyone could buy almost any ties that needed to have access to cartographic infor- came commercially available in the West around the Soviet general survey map (not including some of the mation. One example is the Goskomstat, the Soviet same time through a number of companies based in 1:10,000 urban maps), and with the advent of Google Union’s equivalent of Statistics Sweden (Sweden’s the US and Britain, and even in Russia it was possible Earth, anyone can peer into many of the secret cities central statistical office). Without maps, it would to purchase lightly censored map-sheets in 1993 with of the former Soviet Union completely free of charge. have been impossible to conduct population censu- a scale of 1:200,000 that covered nothing other than Eventually, even the old ordnance survey maps will ses, since it would not have been possible to divide the secret and mysterious Kola Peninsula. As late as probably be released, but so far, only a small number urban areas into census units, nor to distribute them 2000, there was also the theoretical possibility of of countries has actually released these maps — along among those collecting the information. The solution buying somewhat censored versions of the ordinance with a few others where the ban is not taken as seri- was specially designed (and, of course, classified) survey maps of Russia’s Cartographic Corporation, ously as it once was. maps that only furnished the user with information which is the name of the business arm of the Russian In conclusion, I would like to emphasize that, on the configuration of the street network along with maps authority, but in reality this possibility was generally speaking, the post-Soviet map has not kept the house number. The map I’ve seen, which was subjected to the FSB’s (the federal security service’s) pace with other aspects of the information revolution used for the census in Kazakhstan as late as 1999, was erratic assessments of both the customer and the in the region since the glasnost years of the late 1980s. hand-drawn — probably with the ordinance survey item requested. The changes have been gradual, but they are in the map as a basis — and there was only one copy. With regard to the published maps, the quality right direction. Fortunately, the maps do not seem to has constantly, albeit slowly, improved since the be experiencing the “information recoil” that, accor- early 1990s. The pace of change has however varied ding to a growing number of observers is manifesting Not even greatly among the former republics. As early as 1992 itself in a number of countries in the region, inclu- the military maps . . . a relatively accurate map of Riga was released3 while ding Russia. The commercial maps are improving Ordinance survey maps may well have been secret, developments in Russia outside Moscow and St. Pe- while the rest of the information landscape is cooling or intended for official use, but that did not mean that tersburg had not gone further than in Figure 5, which down. This was the situation in 2008. ≈ they were not subject to manipulation. This suggests shows a fragment of a map from 1998 of the Siberian that there may have been an additional level of secu- city of Ulan-Ude. This essay was previously published (in Swedish) in rity in the publication of the maps, though there is In Tashkent, no map had been released to the Ymer 2008, vol. 128. no trace of this. On the medium-scale military maps locals as late as the end of the 1990s, but for visitors, of the Soviet Union, it is not uncommon for military a greatly improved variant of the Soviet tourist map facilities or objects in particular not to be included was made, which now was afforded with both a references (Figure 3), which may have been part of a deliberate scale and accurate angles, while the selectivity sur- 1 See Tommy Book, “Kartmanipulation i öst” [Manipulation strategy designed to confuse the capitalist enemies. rounding the street network outside the city center of Maps in the East], in Kartan och verkligheten [Maps Nor, moreover, is the secret Russian city of Seversk remained4. Sometimes the zeal to highlight the main and Reality], Ymer 2008, vol. 128, Svenska Sällskapet för (Tomsk-7) included in 1991 in the ordinance survey streets can result in strange cartographic effects, as Antropologi och Geografi. map with a scale of 1:200,000 in the case of the map of the Albanian capital, Tirana 2 Thomas Borén, Meeting-places of Transformation : Urban On the large-scale maps (1:10,000) of the domestic (Figure 6). Here, the user knows nothing about what Identity, Spatial Representations, and Local Politics in St Petersburg, Russia, Meddelande 133, Stockholm 2005 towns the same tendency can be seen (Figure 4), in is hiding between these streets, while a large number (Kulturgeografiska Institutionen). addition, it can happen that a significant number of of buildings along the main streets is described in the 3 Ja¯ña s¯eta, Riga M 1:25000, Jaun¯akais Pils¯etas Pl¯ans, Riga 1992. details that are included are not correctly represen- legend as public buildings, but this is not the case — in 4 Uzgeodezcadastre, Tashkent Tourist Plan, Tashkent 1997. ted. That the latter is the case is something I expe- some cases it might be shops on the ground floor. 5 A very rare exception is the city of Khabarovsk in eastern rienced on-site in the Georgian steel mill town of Rus- A similar, if slightly better map of Almaty, the Siberia, which recently released a city atlas, the maps of tavi — here the power lines run somewhat differently former capital of Kazakhstan, was released around which come from updated but of course also somewhat in reality, and the buildings of the nearby prison the same time (Figure 7). The amount of information censured fragments of the old ordnance survey map at a scale of 1:10,000. colony don’t correspond to those on the map either. included about areas outside the city center is still quite limited, but the map is nonetheless useable. At around the same time, the Kazakh cartographic The cartographic authority released an excellent map of Astana, the transition then new capital, at a scale of 1:10,000, based on the With the dissolution of the Soviet Union, most of the old ordnance survey map. Why similar maps of the former Soviet republics experienced somewhat of an country’s other cities did not in time come to be re- information revolution, but, with the exception of leased is not clear, and the “silence of the maps” still the Baltic countries and to some extent Georgia, the remains in the country, despite Google Earth’s watch- improvement in the availability of good cartographic ful eye. Further evidence of this is that geography

The cartographical transition of the former Soviet Union reviews 35 illustration: R agni s ve nsson illustration: On the road towards a “European culture of memory”? Coming to grips with Stalinism

Julia Obertreis & Anke his anthology is a collection of be specific to different natural languages. In the case memory have to do with the Holocaust. Stephen (eds.) papers from a conference held of oral history and memory studies, we are confronted After World War II, the “Aufarbeitung” Erinnerungen nach der in Wiesneck, Germany in the with the pre-eminence of German: and the related concept “Vergangen- Wende: Oral History Tfall of 2005. The contributors heitsbewältigung” (indirectly referred und (post)sozialis- are young scholars and senior research- German has the advantage of certain termi- to with the expression “coming-to-grips tische Gesellschaften ers. The editors are careful to note that nology which are [sic!] difficult to express with” in the quote above) came to the contributors are “from 12 different in other languages, such as “Zeitzeuge” stand for a new, sophisticated stance in Essen: Klartext Verlag countries”. However, whereas the indi- (eye-witness to a whole period of time) and history and the social sciences. It was 2009 viduals were, of course, born and raised “Aufarbeitung” (the coming-to-grips with, generally recognized by scholars who 401 pages. in nation-states, as a group they repre- assessing, debating and processing of his- subscribed to the notions of democracy sent the fact that social scientists and tory, especially of a collective catastrophe and human rights that it is necessary, in historians in contemporary Europe and or crime). German language oral history history and the social sciences, to take North America move around during the also stands for an especially conscientious into account the fact that there cannot course of their academic careers and treatment of the sources and for a research be any “pure”, “scientific” history, as thus belong to and identify with a multi- tradition in which less practical but more in- with mathematics or physics. The moral national community of scholars. terpretive and methodological problems are and political impact of history and The editors recognize the indisput- paramount. (p. 47) social science writing must be acknowl- able fact that the contemporary inter- edged and taken into cognizance. national scholarly community uses The German-language version of the introductory When “coming-to-grips with” the English as its lingua franca, while also chapter just quoted omits the explanations that the communist period, Stalinism would realizing that English is not a panacea English text provides within parentheses, for obvious have to be treated in a manner similar to that makes other languages superfluous reasons. The historical and sociological reasons for the German approach to the Nazi peri- as instruments of history and social sci- the specific and prominent role of German as the ulti- od. Although Russia, in the guise of the ence. They observe that concepts can mate language for analyzing and discussing historical Soviet Union, experienced a genocidal 36reviews

Continued. On the road towards a “European culture of memory”?

regime, there has been no counterpart is that Russians have obliterated any remembrance memory studies and oral history — in to the German “Aufarbeitung” and of the Stalinist repressions from their memory. An spite of the fact that the French scholar “Vergangenheitsbewältigung” in Rus- explanation of this fact is that “generally the traumatic Maurice Halbwachs was the founding sian historiography — despite the fact experience was kept away from the Soviet collective father of historical memory studies and that Russian oral-history studies are, memory. […] Soviet society couldn’t offer social mech- in spite of the long tradition of oral his- today, a vital area of studies. Thus, in a anisms of reacting to the historical trauma.“ Golubev tory in Britain — the bilingual presenta- recent review of a Russian book on the quotes a report from his compatriot, historian Alexan- tion might be interpreted as an attempt kristian gerner history of the Soviet occupation of the der Daniel, who “considers this true even for the con- to induce the reader to grasp the whole Professor of history at Baltic States, the reviewer praises the temporary Russian collective memory”. (p. 269) intellectual universe of the project. Lund University. He took book in question because it subscribes It is worthwhile elaborating on the difference be- On the one hand, the conceptual and his degree in history at to the principle of observing ”a sharp tween the Russian and the European stances concern- thus theoretical advantage of using Ger- Lund University in 1984 contrast between history as a science of ing history and remembrance culture. Whereas an man terms in the context of their natu- with a Ph.D. thesis on past events and, on the other hand, the obviously representative Russian view is that “it would ral language is obvious. On the other Soviet–Central European memory of the past or the politicized be bad history, if not a flatly falsified history, to use the hand, it is certainly advisable to anchor relations in the postwar use of historical events”.1 Erinnerungen/ values and standards of our time as a screen for the the project in the hegemonic language era. Gerner’s research Remembering is a forceful refutation of representations of the past”1, the alternative attitude of contemporary international histori- has focused on 20th cen- that futile principle. that inspires contemporary European historical re- ography and social science, i.e. English. tury Central and Eastern In his overview of oral history in search and especially memory studies and oral history It must be assumed that readers of the European history and Western and Eastern Germany, Alex- takes into consideration the importance of “the values book have at least reading knowledge of cultural history. Recent ander von Plato directly challenges the and standards of our time”. In a perceptive chapter both languages. publications include “The smug Russian approach cited above on “identity elaboration” (“Identitätsarbeit”) in this Holocaust and Jewish- by referring disapprovingly to the cult anthology, Ulrike Jureit observes that “our memory is The five sections, all of which are pre- Polish-German Historical of Stalin in contemporary Russia. von inscribed in social relations and thus in current and sented in the table of contents with the Culture”, in Festskrift Plato quotes a vice director of a major past discourses”. (p. 88) The observation is valid not German title first, cover a wide range till Anders Fogelklou state museum in Moscow, who in the only for the evaluation of oral history sources but also of subjects. The first section, “Regime [Festschrift for Anders year 2005 described Stalin as the most for the evaluation and analysis of texts, such as letters, Changes, Identity Construction and Fogelklou] (Åke Fränd- eminent politician and military com- state papers and other documentary material that Current Disputes about the Past”, ap- berg et al., eds., 2008), mander (“Feldherr”) of the twentieth is preserved in historical archives. Jureit’s reference proaches the legacy of both Nazism and “Open Wounds? Trianon, century. One is reminded of the con- to the salience of current and past discourses in the Communism in post-GDR and Ukraine the Holocaust, and the temporary reference, in Nazi Germany, investigation of remembrance culture is an updated and probes into the sensitive question Hungarian Trauma”, to Adolf Hitler as “Grösste Feldherr version of the German critical hermeneutic tradition of how former Communist party mem- in Collective Traumas: aller Zeiten” (ridiculed as “Gröfaz” by epitomized by the name of Jürgen Habermas. bers remember and interpret their his- Memories of War and critics). von Plato asks us to imagine the The uses of oral history in Erinnerungen/Remem- tory. A chapter on memories of the 1989 Conflict in 20th-Century reaction to the 2005 Moscow statement brance are examples of emancipative history. The Romanian revolution (this is the term Europe (Conny Mithander if it had, instead, taken place in the Ger- conscious and elaborative confrontation between used for the events) is noticeable for its et al., eds., 2007), “The man Historical Museum in Berlin with different epochs with different official values, social sophisticated analysis of the interplay Holocaust in Hungarian Adolf Hitler as the venerated hero. relations and frameworks of interpretation results between the institutional production and Romanian Historical in a multifaceted and intriguing image of the socie- of testimonies and the remembrance Culture”, in Klas-Göran von Plato’s objection to the Russian ties of “really existing socialism” (“Realsozialismus”) of individuals. The author writes about Karlsson & Ulf Zander, way of not-coming-to-grips with the and of the experiences of identity and history in the “competing narratives”, thus calling at- eds., The Holocaust on past is supplemented with a plea, which post-socialist societies. This is history from below that tention to the fact that insight from oral Post-War Battlefields he himself admits may sound pathetic, places state-centered historiography in a sobering history projects helps give substance (2006), and “Building Civil for the creation of a scholarly ethos perspective. It is recognition of the fact that historical to the notion that postmodernism is an Society and Democracy along the lines of the European tradi- actions and processes, that are the effects of political ample label for the state of mind of peo- East of the Elbe: Prob- tion of the history of science. Accord- decisions at the highest level, are not the whole his- ple who try to come to grips with the lems and Prospects”, in ing to von Plato, the different national tory, perhaps not even the most important history for past in post-socialist societies. Building Democracy and memory cultures in Europe must be ordinary people, those who constitute the social fabric The second section, “The Inherit- Civil Society East of the investigated in a spirit of independ- of society. ance of the Emancipation ‘from above’: Elbe: Essays in Honour of ence and tolerance, with the final aim Female Experience and Gender Roles Edmund Mokrzycki (Sven of creating a “European remembrance The chapter on the theories that guide and the meth- in Socialism and Post-socialism”, can Eliaeson, ed., 2006). culture” (p. 81). Although von Plato’s ods used in historical memory research and oral be read as a refutation of Joan W. Scotts uneasiness concerning the Stalin cult in history is published in both German and English. Of unconditional anti-essentialism. Social- Russia is warranted, it must be acknowl- the remaining 25 chapters, 15 are in English and 10 ist reality, as well as the tribulations of edged that there are Russian scholars in German. After von Plato’s principal discussion, in the transition period, has made it sen- who view the Stalin period critically, German, on the German experience of two succes- sible and fruitful to approach women especially members of local Memorial sive dictatorships, the Nazi Reich and the Communist as women, as individuals with gender- Societies. A fine example of critical oral GDR, and the resultant special German obsession with specific experiences. In this context, it research in Russia is Alexey Golubev’s coming-to-grips with the past, five special sections is worth quoting from the conclusion of contribution in Erinnerungen/Remem- follow. These all have both a German and an English the short chapter on women’s history brance. His conclusion, based on a title, but the articles themselves are in either German in the Bulgarian town of Ruse: “Women research project carried out among dif- or English. Bearing in mind von Plato’s emphasis on have become more emancipated dur- ferent ethnic groups in Russian Karelia, the salience of the German language in the field of ing socialism and post-socialism, but 37

Hardships and pleasures during the Soviet era. Life stories nevertheless the female way of life has Estonian Life Stories At present, both Estonians and Russians use sudden, violent death, when her spouse not been made any easier: its changes Edited and translated history as a weapon, so, sad to say, I am suspi- is shot dead by the Red Army in July follow the ‘traditional model of division by Tiina Kirss cious of a history book published on commis- 1941. But the story also contains a few between the male and the female’.” Compiled by Rutt “ sion by the government”, a Russian student “confessions”, for example, that it was The quote within the quotation is from Hinrikus said in connection with the Estonian and Latvian “easier to breathe” under Nazi-German Pierre Bourdieu. A footnote inserted governments’ publication of a Russian-language his- occupation than under Soviet rule. The after the word “post-socialism” reads: Budapest: Central tory book in 2005; the year that Russia celebrated Red Army’s entry into Tallinn is de- “The female way of life is being relieved European University its 60-year commemoration of its victory over Nazi scribed as a pure slaughter of humans of the socialist obligations to be a man- Press 2009 Germany. and animals, the destruction of houses nish girl.” (p. 170) 539 pages The fact that history is still being used as a political and farms — indeed, pretty much every- The remaining three sections are weapon in the former Soviet Republics is exactly what thing that got in the army’s way. devoted, respectively, to “Compet- has led the citizens of these countries to lose faith in ing Images of History”, “Victims and official history-writing. During the entire Soviet era, In the spring of 1945, Hilja Lill was ap- Perpetrators”, and “Everyday Life in history writing had more to do with ideology than with prehended and interrogated by the Socialism”. Space does not permit a science. It is primarily against this background that NKVD (the Soviet Secret Police). She separate presentation of the different the governments in the Baltic States have intervened was accused of having hidden Estonian items. Suffice it to say that these studies, to structurize history: the “true” history was finally to resistance fighters. Her story, printed in and the volume as a whole, give highly be told. For the purpose of showing “communism’s the book, includes the full names of the readable and empathic accounts of the maija runcis crimes against humanity” the government archives men who worked at the NKVD’s head- hard life of people in the eastern half Associate professor, began to publish selections of formerly classified quarters in Viljandi (where Hilja was of Europe under Communism as well history, Södertörn Uni- documents from the communist party’s and KGB’s ar- apprehended). She was arrested and as during the transition period and in versity. Runcis’s research chives. The archives were often gefundenes Fressen for taken to the infamous prison Patarei, the post-socialist societies. Last but not has focused primarily on those who had a vested political interest in accusing where she was again interrogated. Her least, the contributions by the young the Swedish welfare state individual authority figures and political opponents of story also provides the full names of her scholars from the region bear witness and Swedish social poli- participating in communism’s “crimes against human- fellow prisoners. to the fact that — at least when it comes cies from the perspective ity”. Partly in order to deal with this issue, historians’ Given the ways in which history, to history and social sciences — one can of minorities (e.g., the commissions were set up in the three Baltic States and archives and documents have been speak of one coherent European intel- sterilization of devi- given the task of investigating these crimes. used for bringing accusations against lectual space. ants, forced removal of individuals, one might question the children from the home, Another way of dealing with the citizens’ deep-rooted wisdom of publishing full names, with- kristian gerner educational programs for distrust of public history-writing has been to let peo- out any attempt to provide protective 1 Lennart Samuelson, “The history of Soviet immigrants). At present, ple relate their own history. After the fall of commu- secrecy. Hilja was sentenced to 10 years incorporations” (Review of Elena Zubkova, she is a member of the nism, the collection and preservation of biographies of penal servitude in Siberia on anti- Pribaltika i Kreml, 1940­—1943, 2008), Baltic research project “The from the Soviet era have served to compensate for Soviet conspiracy charges. Her life story Worlds, vol. I:1. Family and the Powerful the deficiencies of public history-writing. Events that ends, more or less, with her release and 2 Samuelson, op. cit. State: On Family Politics it had been forbidden to talk about could now be return to Estonia in 1957. It is as if, once in an East European Per- recorded for posterity. In Estonia, the first campaign everyday life took over, there is nothing spective”, in the context was started as early as 1988, and produced more than else to tell, even though Hilja lived for of which she is writing on 2000 life stories. This campaign has been followed by another 40 years after her release. She family politics in Soviet several others. The stories are kept in the collections died on July 4, 1997. Latvia. of the Estonian Literary Museum. The book under review is part of the Estonian col- Elmar-Raimund Ruben’s life story is lection of life stories that is published by the Literary also full of wartime drama. As a trained Museum in Tartu. The life stories are selected from service man, Elmar-Raimund was re- the series “One Hundred Lives of the Century”. They cruited into the Red Army, where he are 25 in number and are written by people with very remained for the entire war. He gives different lives, aged 35 to 92. The stories have foot- detailed accounts of each battle and notes that refer to a “Glossary” that provides broad troop movement and describes his own background information to the concepts and events “heroic deeds” with a certain pride and mentioned in the stories, e.g. the “Cultural Autonomy joy. The same joy can be sensed in the Law for Ethnic Minorities”, “Deportations” or “De- story’s continuation after the war. El- struction battalions”. The glossary contextualizes the mar-Raimund was demoted because of stories, whose events are thus anchored in historical “nationalism”, but remained, nonethe- facts. less, in military service for another 14 The oldest storyteller is a woman and teacher, Hilja years. I cannot help wondering whether Lill, born in 1905. Her story covers several decades, the mention of this demotion, included and includes many dramatic events and private sor- in a life story told in 1996, was meant to rows. Following her life story is like reading an exciting legitimize his long Red Army service. In novel. It starts with a happy childhood — a childhood spite of his heroism during the war and that comes to an abrupt end when both of her parents in the army, he was denied a military ca- are murdered by unknown persons when she is 11 reer because his superiors had classed years of age — and continues with passionate love and him as an Estonian and “nationalist” 38reviews

Continued. The legacy of shock therapy. Life stories Russian liberalism in the political wilderness rather than as a Soviet citizen. One must Michail Kasianov ichail Kasianov was Vladimir Putin’s first that ended Yeltsin’s political career. Ac- keep in mind that the life stories are re- Bez Putina: prime minister, serving between 2000 cording to Kasianov, the announcement counted in an entirely different context Politicheskiye dialogi s and 2004. In Russia, he was generally of a default was, in fact, unnecessary. than the ones in which the events took Yevgenyem Mviewed as a compromise head of gov- The government could have either paid place, which makes the source-critical Kiselyovym ernment, appointed by the former president Boris or restructured its debts. The default reader constantly suspect the intention Yeltsin’s family to supervise the new leader, Vladimir was a deliberate political decision, underlying the story. Life stories may be [Without Putin: Political Putin. According to this popular belief, Kasianov’s made by a small number of high-posi- exciting reading, but they must not be Dialogues with Yevgeny main mission was to guarantee the interests of the oli- tioned Russian government officials. interpreted as giving the “truth” as, for Kiselyov] Moscow: garchic groups that emerged during Yeltsin’s reign. In Who were these persons and why did instance, a historian would define it. An Novaya gazeta 2009 2004, when Putin became a powerful political leader, they reach this decision? These ques- analysis of these stories does, however, 320 pages Kasianov and his government were finally dismissed. tions are never explicitly answered. allow us to examine the positions from Putin appointed his own men to the most important which the narrative is created and the positions in the Russian administration. Shortly there- Kasianov is reserved in discussing his positions to which it gives rise. after, to the surprise of many, Kasianov placed himself time as prime minister under presi- in opposition to Putin, making an abortive attempt dent Putin. Here, Kiselyov’s text and In the introduction to the book, Tiina to challenge Putin’s presidential candidate Dmitry questions are far more interesting and Kirss emphasizes the problematic rela- Medvedev during the 2008 presidential elections. In provocative. Kiselyov’s background tion between history and life stories: fact, he never even gained permission to register as a in the Russian security services in the “Undoubtedly a life story is a narrative presidential candidate. 1980s (he then taught Persian at the about the past, but history is not the Despite the author’s former high-ranking posi- KGB’s higher school) has given him sum of life stories, of remembered tion, the book would probably have been of limited considerable insights into how the Rus- ‘great lives’.” The purpose of publishing interests if it had only consisted of conventional mem- sian political kitchen has functioned the book’s twenty-five life stories is to oirs. Kasianov represents the rather typical Russian after 2000, during Putin’s reign. He thus reflect the history that has previously bureaucrat, mundane and uninspiring — although poses questions based on a multitude not been told, namely the years of oc- he has always given the impression of being a cau- of rumors, speculations, and different cupation 1940–1941, then 1941–1944 tious and skilful courtier and politician, qualities of versions of important political events. under Nazism and 1944–1991 under use to him in a successful career. Kasianov has never Because Russian politics depend more Communist rule. The purpose is not to emerged as a controversial or passionate oppositional heavily on the activities of influential use the narratives as complements to politician who appealed to the broad masses. What individuals at the center of power than “scientific” history, but rather as texts makes this book special is that it is written in the on the functions of independent institu- and memories of particular historical form of interviews with Yevgeny Kiselyov. Kiselyov tions, this information is of considera- events. In any case, this is not the kind was a leading Russian political journalist during the ble value. Kasianov definitely rejects the of book one reads from beginning to Yeltsin era, the “face” of the Russian TV channel NTV rumor that he owed his appointment as end — one can safely skip those life- that was, in turn, controlled by one of the oligarchs, Putin’s prime minister to the influence stories that are not of interest to one’s Vladimir Gusinsky. However, Kiselyov is much more of the Yeltsin family. Nevertheless, Ka- own research objectives, while others than a famous journalist. His influence on the political sianov’s own version, that his advance- may be very rewarding. Personally, I processes of the 1990s and, later, his uncompromis- ment was entirely due to his profession- have benefited greatly from taking part ing critique of Putin have made him into one of the al qualities, is not entirely convincing. in the women’s life stories about every- symbols of Russian liberalism. Not surprisingly, after The book includes pictures taken at Ka- day hardships and pleasures during the Putin’s succession as president, Kiselyov lost his job sianov’s private parties, pictures which Soviet era. and disappeared from Russian TV. He currently works show, among the guests, several Yeltsin as an anchor for several popular political programs on oligarchs — such as Roman Abramow- Ukrainian TV. ich, Alexander Mamut — and, not least, maija runcis Yeltsin’s daughter Tatyana Yumasheva. Kasianov’s memories of the 1990s constitute the most Kasianov’s description of how Putin informative part of the book. The reader becomes concentrated power into his own hands familiar with aspects of this dramatic period in Rus- in the early 2000s is quite credible, but sian political history that were previously unknown. does not add much that is new to the Kasianov informs us, for the first time, of how Ger- picture. The exception is his account of man chancellor Helmut Kohl and French president the events surrounding the 2003 Yukos Jacques Chirac helped Yeltsin survive politically when, affair. Kasianov contends that some just before the 1996 presidential elections, he needed months before the arrest of the Yukos money to pay wages and pensions in his economically owner Michail Khodorkovsky, the latter, ruined country. At this point, Yeltsin’s rating was as with the support of leading oligarchs, low as 2 percent. The loans to Yeltsin’s government, had presented Putin with a plan meant which came to about 5 billion dollars, were a decisive to legalize the outcome of the Russian factor in Yeltsin’s electoral victory. Kasianov, then privatization of the 1990s. This was to deputy finance minister, was involved in negotiating be institutionalized in the form of a spe- these loans and was, subsequently, greatly favored by cial law. In exchange, the most promi- Yeltsin. nent oligarchs were to make one-time Kasianov also gives us a good deal of information payments into a special state-owned about the Russian financial crisis and default of 1998 fund to finance public expenditures on 39

Russian administration, opting instead for a role in sian society, which in turn undermined the opposition. Kasianov’s own explanation, that he the credibility of the institutions re- was kept from serving in Putin’s government by his sponsible for the stable development of determination to safeguard the democratic values of the market economy. Most importantly, the Russian people and oppose the concentration of Russians still lack respect for private power in the hands of Russian security services, as property, an indispensable condition .n e .s / v la d i m ir- p utin embodied by Putin, is hard to believe. The demolition for a well-working market economy. of Yeltsin’s illusory “democracy” and the concen- Such respect could not be fostered un- ilja viktorov tration of power had begun long before Kasianov’s der “shock therapy” conditions, which PhD in Economic History,

P h oto: www dismissal in 2004 — it had been a continuous process, means that privatization from the start 2007. Ilja Viktorov is a Yeltsin introduced the refoms that paved going on for years, yet Kasianov had not felt called was based on fraudulent schemes lead- university lecturer in the way for Putin’s increased power and upon to resign. ing to the impoverishment of the major- International Relations at influence. The title of the book is rather ambitious since it ity of the Russian population. Stockholm University. His does not reflect the book’s contents; it is instead an main research interest is Russian infrastructure. It was hoped indication of Russia’s political future, when Putin The refusal of the liberal opposition to economic development that this “one-time tax” would prevent a will no longer be a leader of his country. This is not as accept this failure will, probably, keep of post-Soviet reversal of the privatization results and farfetched as it may seem at first glance. The current it from gaining power, at least through Russia, especially guarantee greater stability for the new economic crisis, which has brought insecurity and a democratic means. Putin’s popularity Russian financial post-Soviet business elite. However, Pu- decrease in the standards of living to the majority of among Russians is not only due to his markets and Russia’s tin rejected this plan, since he wished to Russians, may lead to a rapid decline in the popularity concentration of power that includes informal economy. keep the leading Russian businessmen of Putin as the “national leader” of Russia. According his control of television and of election under his personal control. to the constitution, president Medvedev has the pow- procedures. As the Levada Center’s According to Kasianov, Putin dis- er to dismiss Putin’s government without notice or public opinion polls show, the major- missed his government in 2004 be- explanation, just as Putin dismissed the government ity of Russians have a clear and disil- cause he could not tolerate Kasianov’s of Kasianov. A group of influential liberal-minded ex- lusioned perception of Putin’s policies, independence and professionalism perts at the Institute for Contemporary Development, both when it comes to the economy in opposing Putin’s steering Russia founded under the auspices of president Medvedev, and in terms of the development of towards an authoritarian regime. Putin are openly discussing this alternative. These experts, democratic institutions. Nonetheless, supposedly feared a prime minister who appear to be more or less active behind-the-scene Putin has managed to present himself who was or could become a political politicians, share Kasianov and Kiselyov’s ideological as an alternative to the “damned 90s” rival. This statement is not completely convictions. If such a development were to take place, (Putin’s own expression). Memories of reliable. Kasianov was not in a position the result could be a chain of unpredictable political the 1990s are still fresh with a majority to challenge Putin politically. Indeed, events that could completely change Russia’s political of the Russian citizens, as is the Russian according to the Levada Center’s public landscape. The liberal opposition to Putin will need a liberals’ historical responsibility for opinion polls of 2000–2004, the poli- leader, one who is well-known to the Russian public the atrocities of the era. By praising the cies of Kasianov’s government was al- and who is not compromised — as are the majority of legacy of the Yeltsin period, Kasianov ways unpopular with the majority of the the most influential liberals — by direct participation and Kiselyov are, in effect, defending Russian electorate — in stark contrast to in the notorious privatizations of the 1990s. Under the 1990s’ suppression of the political Putin’s growing popularity during those such conditions, Kasianov might be launched as the opposition, Yeltsin’s anti-constitutional same years. Russian liberal leader. This is the reason why this book coup in 1993, and that same year’s tank was published towards the end of 2009, and not be- attack on the democratically elected The last part of the book, devoted to fore, and also, probably, the reason why Kiselyov has parliament. More importantly, Yeltsin’s Kasianov’s political activities as an op- participated in the project. introduction of a new constitution cre- positional politician, is rather boring ated the very super-presidential power and not to be trusted, with one impor- Reading the book evokes some reflections on the system that Putin was later to master so tant exception. Kasianov gives a good nature of Russian post-Soviet liberalism, or, to give skillfully. Both Kasianov and Kiselyov, deal of information about his contacts it its proper name, neoliberalism. Russian liberals, the former as a member of the govern- with Yeltsin before his death in 2007. for a short historical moment in the early 1990s, ment and the latter as an influential The former president expressed his were leaders of the transformation of Russia from a TV profile, personally contributed disappointment with the policy fol- state-led centralized society into a market economy. to Yeltsin’s re-election in 1996 — a re- lowed by Putin on several occasions, In this historical mission they failed. Russia’s liberal election that ruled out the option of a complaining to Kasianov that Putin governments preferred “shock therapy” to gradual democratic change of political power in was reversing the democratic gains of transition, and the highly controversial privatization Russia for a long time to come. the previous period. Yeltsin, who lived of the huge state-owned enterprises led, eventually, Whatever political and ideological under constant surveillance, feared, to the whole economy falling into the hands of a few values the authors of the book repre- Kasianov tells us, for the personal safety so-called oligarchs. A dramatic process, the equivalent sent, Without Putin is full of interesting of his family should he make such criti- of a civil war, followed as a result of the economic facts about and insights into political cism public. collapse in the late 1990s. Hundreds of thousands of life in post-Soviet Russia. It is valuable It is still unclear why Kasianov Russian men killed themselves during the years of reading for those interested in contem- rejected a number of offers, made by privatization and redistribution of what had been state porary Russian politics and economics. Putin after Kasianov’s dismissal in 2004, property. Not surprisingly, this led to a greater accept- ilja viktorov to assume important positions in the ance of violence and the spread of criminality in Rus- 40reviews

Language disputes and modernization. Dissertation review

Oddmund Løkensgard Hoel Målreising og modernisering i Noreg I. 1885–1940 Sweden is a country that has, for almost two hundred years, been spared not [The New Language only from wars but from disputes over Movement and national and minority languages. It is Modernization in Norway true that in the decades around the turn 1885–1940] of the 20th century, the Swedish state Trondheim: Noreg’s opposed the official use of Finnish in University of Science and Tornedalen, but the language issue did Technology, NTNU, 2009 not give rise to national or political con- 589 pages flicts. From the point of view of other Baltic Sea countries, this is indeed an anomaly. In the Baltic States, political and cultural antagonisms between the native and Russian languages weigh heavily in today’s politics. Even if the opposition between Swedish and Finn- ish is, today, less bitter than it has been, it remains constantly present in Fin- land’s cultural and social life. In Norway, the language dispute has had a different character. The issue, here, does not concern competition be- tween two separate languages, despite what the most pugnacious have some- times claimed. It is, rather, a matter of two variants of Norwegian, which, in turn, has much in common with Dan- ish. In the beginning, these variants were called landsmål and riksmål — that is, country language and national/ standard language — respectively. Af- ter 1929, the official terms have been nynorsk [New Norwegian] and bokmål [Old Norwegian, lit. Book Norwegian]. The source of the conflict between these two “languages” lies in events that illustration: katrin stenmark took place during the nineteenth cen- tury, the century of nationalism. dled by the ministry of foreign affairs in Stockholm. radical writer Arne Garborg (1851—1924) Although Norway was given some influence, such a emerged as Aasen’s follower. By this Politically, Norway’s emerging nation- limited voice could never satisfy the steadily growing time, landsmål had obtained an or- alist movement was directed against national opinion, gathered, first and foremost, within ganizational anchor, not only in the Sweden, which dominated Norway the liberal farmers’ party Venstre [The left]. In 1905, countryside and, in time, various urban within a Swedish-Norwegian Union the Union was peacefully dissolved, and Norway be- associations, but also, increasingly, in — created in 1814. In the aftermath of the came a sovereign nation-state. among other places — publishing hous- Napoleonic Wars, Norway had been It was Denmark, however, that was the cultural op- es, newspapers, theaters, folk colleges, liberated from Denmark, but forced ponent in the eyes of the nationalists. After centuries grammar textbooks, and coffee houses. to join Sweden in a loosely coupled of Danish rule, Norway’s civil servants spoke Danish, According to the most radical landsmål Personal Union. The Swedish king was albeit with a Norwegian intonation; ever since the advocates, Norway’s language differ- Regent of both Norway and Sweden, but middle ages, Norwegian scholars had gone to Copen- ences (between those who spoke Nor- Norway retained its constitution and hagen for their training. Ivar Aasen (1813—1896) was a wegian dialects and those who spoke enjoyed extensive autonomy. For a long pioneer in the struggle against Danish cultural and lin- Danish-inflected Norwegian) reflected time, Norwegian discontent focused on guistic influence. Starting in the 1840s, he conducted the country’s division into two nations: inequities within the political structure his studies of the different rural dialects in Norway. the people of the countryside and the of the Union. Not until the 1880s did Using these as his base, he constructed a language of cities’ civil-servant class. The latter was nationalists begin to openly demand the country, the so-called landsmål. In this language, defined as an “unnational” element in its dissolution. The immediate cause of Danish expressions and linguistic forms were replaced the Norwegian body politic. Unsurpris- disagreement was the Union’s foreign by what were considered ancient, original Norwegian ingly, an opposition movement soon policy, which was exclusively han- equivalents. Around the turn of the 19th century, the arose. The writer Bjørnstjerne Bjørn- 41

tural support, and is used in teaching Stein Rokkan’s internationally acknowl- and on the radio and television. edged macro-sociological perspective The landsmål had been introduced (developed in collaboration with Sey- as a reaction to the dominance of high mour Martin Lipset). According to this culture, and to the growth of the cities, model, tensions between center and during a period of rapid industrializa- periphery create a key conflict. The tion and urbanization. The landsmål concept “counter-cultures” was intro- movement could, thus, be understood duced by Rokkan in 1967 in designating as one that unequivocally distanced Norway’s traditionalist free churches, itself from the modernization process, the temperance movement and the fighting to preserve the old peasant language movement. All of these were society against the threats posed by defensive movements, directed against industrialization, proletarization and modernism. Political scientist Trond “sinful” city culture. Of course this view Nordby followed in Rokkan’s footsteps, was an over-simplification, which is supporting his findings with theories demonstrated in a recently-defended presented by Eric Hobsbawm and Mi- doctoral thesis, written in nynorsk, roslav Hroch. For Nordby, the language by Oddmund Løkensgard Hoel. This movement is an expression of tradi- thesis investigates, as its principal tional agrarian nationalism, the defen- question, the reasons for the language sive ideology of a countryside opposing movement’s initial success, and its modernization. subsequent, post-1940 stagnation. As opponent to Hoel’s thesis defense, I will A number of historians have forcefully use his thesis as my point of departure challenged this interpretation. First on for a discussion on modern Norwegian stage was Jens Arup Seip, who, in 1974, development as well as on the use of the took on Rokkan in an article entitled concept ofmodernization in history. “Modellenes tyranni” [The Tyranny of Models]. Seip’s critique was widely accepted among historians, but in soci- ology and public discourse the idea of “counter-cultures” continued to thrive, II. for instance in Henry Valen’s research on voting behavior. Historian Øystein According to Hoel, the concept Sørensen, on the other hand, has — as “modernization” was seldom used in editor of the anthology Norsk idéhistorie Norwegian history research before the [Norwegian History of Ideas] — catego- 1990s. Although the concept has later rized both Venstre’s national-democrat- been used, the language movement has ic politics and the language movement’s rarely been discussed in a moderniza- cultural nationalism as progressive illustration: katrin stenmark tion perspective. Hoel’s study uses, as projects. (Which, of course, does not its point of departure, classic moderni- preclude the coexistence of reaction- son (1832—1910), whose national sympathies were zation theory, according to which the ary agrarian nationalism.) A similar irreproachable, became a leader of those defending degree of industrialization is seen as approach is used by May-Brith Ohman the use of riksmål. Despite his political background the determinant factor. Hoel’s research Nielsen in her historical account of in the liberal Venstre, Bjørnson — a Nobel laureate in focuses on three areas that caused Bondepartiet [the Farmers’ Party], Literature — held that the older written language be problems for the language movement: whereas Svein Ivar Angell has found preferred. It was, he argued, the language of civiliza- urbanization, industrialization, and that the farming society’s skepticism tion; it had developed over hundreds of years and the emergence of the labor movement. was directed against large-scale indus- constituted the foundation of Norwegian literature. He Simultaneously, Hoel makes extensive try, not industry per se. One may add doubted whether landsmål could attain a satisfactory reference to other theoretical concepts, Francis Sejersted’s influential studies level of sophistication that a modern written language e.g. Jürgen Habermas’s “discursive of Norwegian developments, where he with international ambitions would require. rationality” and Israeli sociologist introduces the concept of “democratic Shmuel Eisenstadt’s “multiple moderni- capitalism”; here, small-scale industry Nonetheless, until World War II, landsmål — now ties”. According to Eisenstadt, both the is given a decisive role in promoting called nynorsk or New Norwegian — continued to routes to modernity and the content of egalitarian social norms. Surprisingly, grow in influence. Gradually more schools chose to modernity vary according to place and Hoel in his dissertation does not men- teach in nynorsk, and, as of 1930, all civil servants were time, which is in conflict with classic tion Sejersted. Other scholars, such as required to master both nynorsk and riksmål. After modernization theory’s linear view and Ola Svein Stugu, have criticized social- World War II, however, nynorsk faced a long period sharp distinction between traditional science theories that view history as a of decline. But the legal standing that nynorsk had and modern society. forward-moving, linear process. secured during the inter-war period remained very Interpretations of Norway’s modern Hoel’s study is primarily concerned much intact. Today, the language receives state cul- development have long been based on with the leadership of the language 42reviews

Continued. Language disputes and modernization.

movement’s central leadership — hence dustrialization is, however, more complex. Movement whether the growth of the labor move- a study of an elite. As Hoel points out members could oppose large-scale industry while ment poses a threat or an opportunity. in his introduction, the study does not simultaneously encouraging the development of mod- Is fighting against the labor movement include an analysis of how the different ern technology and smaller industrial initiatives. The indicative of a “traditional” attitude? branches of the movement have func- conclusion is that the movement did not fight mod- Then again, it is difficult to treat urbani- tioned in practice. The starting point ernization per se. Rather, it supported an alternative zation separately from industrializa- is 1885 — that is, the date on which the modernization program, based on small-scale indus- tion, as the former is, if anything, a torbjörn nilsson Norwegian parliament decided that try. It is in this context that Sejersted’s research might result of the latter. Urbanization was Professor of history, “the Norwegian folk language” (i.e. have been cited in support of the argument. the one symptom of the emergence of works at the Institute of landsmål, later nynorsk) should be given industrial society that most palpably Contemporary History, as much space in the school system and In spite of the thesis’s reliance on a modernization- affected everyday life in the country- Södertörn University. Has in public life as the already existing writ- oriented approach to industrialization and urbaniza- side. Industry was primarily located written a major work on ten language (riksmål). The choice of tion, political explanations are granted a significant in the cities and in new, concentrated the history of the 1940 as the ending year of the study has role. The movement’s expansion depended on its inte- industrial areas. Migration to the cities Swedish right. Editor to do with research economy: it allows gration into Venstre’s long successful nation-building became the most obvious example of of the Swedish journal the author to avoid the post-war era project. In the 1930s, when Venstre began to lose the growing difficulties faced by the Personhistorisk Tidskrift with its new conditions, and, further- power, the language movement was weakened as well. language movement, as people left the [Journal of Personal more, an era which has been studied The movement never attained the same close rela- areas loyal to nynorsk in order to set- History]. more thoroughly. tions with the new leading political power, Det Norske tle in the cities, which were filled with Arbeiderparti [The Norwegian Labor Party]. Although nynorsk’s opponents. Industrialization An introductory chapter, which dis- the latter was long formally neutral on the language was more abstract, but without a doubt cusses possible approaches to the prob- issue, in practice the Labor Party supported nynorsk. the driving force behind urbanization. lem, existing research, theories (quite The term samnorsk [Common Norwegian] stood for a Accordingly, industrializations remains extensively), and the language move- fusion of the two Norwegian languages. Even though this study’s determinant factor, given its ment, is followed by an account of em- the proponents of samnorsk met with difficulties, their classic approach to modernization. pirical studies, spread over eight chap- efforts did contribute to a weakening of the language ters and divided chronologically into movement. Hoel has a point when he claims that the three sections: 1885–1900, 1900–1920, At this point, the language movement no longer movement’s opposition to large-scale and 1920–1940. Each section empha- had the sort of national mobilization it had enjoyed in industry did not exclude an alternative sizes the three essential problems that 1905. When groups closely associated with the move- approach to industrialization, one that the movement faced during those eras: ment fought, during the 1920s, for a “Norwegianiza- would enable the agricultural sector urbanization, industrialization and the tion” of town names, they met strong resistance both to use modern technology and would emergence of the labor movement. The from locals and from the opposition riksmål move- allow the needs of small-scale industry source material consists primarily of ment. The fact that the capital Kristiania in 1925 be- to determine the direction of future secondary sources. The movement’s came Oslo was a special case. But the failed campaign developments. The problem is that newspapers make up the bulk of pri- to turn Trondhjem into Nidaros cost the movement his method allows any actors showing mary source material. As the subject dearly, even if the more Norwegian-sounding variant any degree of support for modern eco- matter is closely tied to nation building, Trondheim did see the light of day. nomic ideas, even if only to the extent the concept of nationalism is also dis- The dissertation is voluminous. It gives a broad needed to preserve their own trade, to cussed, to a large extent based on a divi- account of the language movement’s development be categorized as favoring moderniza- sion between modernists (Hobsbawm, during the period, even if historians are already quite tion. This raises the question of what Gellner, Anderson, Hroch) and non- familiar with much of the stuff. In several areas, it shape a Norwegian anti-modernization modernists (Smith, Hutchinson). serves to round off our picture of the movement. movement could, in fact, have assumed The thesis was written within a Although the thesis takes, as its central theme, the at the time. Not even the folk-college research project on language and cul- importance of modernization, the study nevertheless advocate and Farmer’s Party mem- tural change at the Ivar Aasen Institute, tends towards a more traditional, generally descrip- ber Lars Eskeland, who opposed any Volda University College, an institute tive approach. The introductory chapter’s theoretical change that might threaten the stability established by the language movement expositions, which are well worth reading, are rarely of peasant society and who especially itself. Hoel has held a leading position followed up, and the concluding chapter is relatively feared the dissolution of norms brought within that movement. This does not thin. about by secularization, rejected mod- disqualify him from writing on it, but ern technology or the development of there is a tendency, in his thesis, to ac- small-scale industry in the countryside. quit the movement of accusations that it Modernization becomes inevitable if al- espoused non-democratic actions, mili- most any movement can be categorized tarism or, of more central importance, III. as pro-modernization. In spite of the anti-modernist views. author’s introductory, nuanced discus- Hoel admits that, around the turn But let us return to the modernization perspective! sion, he ends by expressing an almost of the nineteenth century, the country- In what respect does it throw new light on how the deterministic view of the development side’s distrust of the towns played an language movement developed during this period? of the Norwegian society. important role in securing the language Here several problems emerge. Of the three criteria Another problem is that moderniza- movement’s first wave of successes. for modernization given, industrialization tends tion, from the study’s theoretical per- The movement’s attitude towards in- to dominate completely. It does not become clear spective, becomes static. The concept 43

of small-scale industry formulated in References 1885 would have an entirely different Uncivil society implication if presented in 1940. As a Svein Ivar Angell, Den svenske modellen og det result, the modernization perspective norske systemet: Tilhøvet mellom modernisering og is not especially illuminating, and in the identitetsdanning i Sverige og Noreg ved overgan- – revisited concluding chapter the author tends to gen til det 20. hundreåret [The Swedish Model and n the book Uncivil Society, Stephen Kotkin depend more on political explanations. the Norwegian System: The Relationship between and Jan T. Gross have questioned the de- The primary explanation of the fate of Modernization and Identity Formation in Sweden and scription of the 1989 transformation of East- the language movement can, somewhat Norway at the Turn of the Nineteenth Century] Oslo ern Europe as a popular revolt against com- brutally, be summarized as: the decline 2002 munism. So far, Kotkin’s and Gross’s book has of Venstre! Hoel’s analysis of the politi- May-Brith Ohman Nielsen, Bondekamp om markeds- been reviewed with enthusiasm in The New York cal development is, in fact, convincing. makt: Senterpartiets historie 1920-1959 [Farmers’ Times and with friendly interest in the London It does, however, indicate that some of Struggle for Market Power: the Center Party’s History Review of Books. Timothy Garton Ash, a leading the choices made at the inception of his 1920-1959]. Oslo 2001 writer and historian who interpreted the course research were methodologically some- Torbjörn Nilsson, Recension av Svein Ivar Angell: Den of events as a peaceful revolution, has, on the what unfortunate. svenske modellen og det norske systemet [Review of other hand, attacked its central premises in the At the same time, there is an em- Svein Ivar Angell: The Swedish Model and the Norwe- New York Review of Books (2009, vol. 56: 17). bryo indicating the possibility of more gian System]. Scandia 2002 He employs two principal lines of argument. fruitful reasoning, one which gives us Trond Nordby, Det moderne gjennombruddet i bonde- According to Garton Ash, one cannot, as Ko- glimpses of more pathbreaking results. samfundet: Norge 1870-1920 [The Modern Break- tkin does, claim that the regimes in Eastern Eu- Hoel’s own research does indicate that through in the Peasant Society: Norway 1870-1920]. rope were bankrupt. States, he maintains, do not concepts of multiple modernities and Oslo 1991 go bankrupt. Had the Soviet Union continued to discursive or communicative rational- Stein Rokkan, ”Geografi, religion og samfunnsklasser: support the GDR, for example, that state would ity might have superior explanatory Kryssende konfliktlinjer i norsk politik” [Geography, have survived for many years to come. This line power. This is also touched upon in the Religion, and Social Classes Crossing Conflict Lines of argument is, however, not particularly pow- final chapter, in his discussions of the in Norwegian Politics], in Stat, nasjon, klasse: Essays erful, as the Soviet Union did withdraw both its language movement’s positive view of i politisk sosiologi [State, Nation, Class: Essays in economic and military support – this is integral science and popular education, as well Political Sociology]. Oslo 1967/1987 to the analysis. as in the discussion of modern organiza- Jens Arup Seip, ”Modellenes tyranni: Analyse av Stein Garton Ash’s other line of argument is, un- tion and democracy. In a section which Rokkans anvendelse av en sentrum-periferi modell på surprisingly, that Kotkin shows what amounts to focuses on the importance of religion norsk historie” [The Tyranny of Models: An Analysis of disdain for the popular resistance of 1989, which (chapter 6), a connection is drawn to a Stein Rokkan’s Use of a Center-periphery Model on terming it a “bank run”. This term suggests that form of rationality that the classic mod- Norwegian History], in Per Maursteh & Sivert Lang- the East European elite threw itself into transient ernization theory misses. Had this type holm (eds.), Studier i historisk metode [Studies in democratic movements only after they felt the of connection been used consistently, Historical Method] (10), Oslo 1983 ground burning beneath their feet. “Ludicrous”, as a point of departure, the study would Francis Sejersted, Demokratisk kapitalisme [Demo- writes Garton Ash. Those who protested took a have escaped the disadvantages of a cratic Capitalism]. Oslo 2002 risk, and expected to be met by tanks. Instead of one-sided industrialization perspective. Dagfinn Slettan & Ola Svein Stugu, Det nasjonale i det giving economic explanations, Kotkin and other lokale, det lokale i det nasjonale [The National in the historians ought to investigate how and under Hoel’s broad-ranging study of the Local, the Local in the National]. Oslo 1997 what circumstances such fast-growing political Norwegian language movement has Øystein Sørensen, Norsk idéhistoria. III: Kampen om movements arise. In this line of argument, one achieved, at least in part, a synthesis of Norges sjel [Norwegian History of Ideas. III: The Battle senses a trace of Rosa Luxemburg’s thesis on the its development during a revolution- for Norway’s Soul]. Oslo 1998 spontaneity of revolutionary movements. ary era, when modern Norway was Garton Ash does not really discuss Kotkin’s established. Both the threats, and the critique of the use of the concept civil society in opportunities, that the movement faced countries with communist governments. This is have been placed in the larger context an issue that will be worth returning to, as the of modernization. Even though the debate continues, to balance the importance of language movement was uniquely Nor- economic factors against the impact of spontane- wegian, the thesis serves to remind the ous popular movements. ≈ reader that historical research in other anu mai kõll countries benefits from studies where the modernization concept is applied in a nuanced way, thus avoiding sweeping judgements about the character of pop- ular movements as well as schematic descriptions of modern development. torbjörn nilsson

Note. Noreg is Norway in New Norwe- gian. 44

HE AD HUNTERS AND COLLECTORS

Primitive societies. At a high level of civilization. commentary essay feature interview 45

HE AD HUNTERS AND COLLECTORS

By fredrik svanberg n the 1904–1926 edition of Nordisk familjebok illustration ragni svensson [Nordic Family Book], which, incidentally, is the most comprehensive Swedish encyclopedia ever Iwritten, one may read under the entry “Huf- vudjakt” [head hunting] that superstitions about the human head, widespread among different peoples, sometimes take the primitive expression of a desire to “own as many skulls as possible”. This is the rationale, the entry tells us, behind head hunting among the Naga People in continental Asia, as well as peoples in America and on the Solomon Islands, New Guinea and various East Indian islands. Head hunting, we are told, reaches its ultimate expression among the Dayak People of Borneo, about whose primitive habits the encyclopedia has much to say.

In 1996, a large collection of human skeleton parts was found packed in boxes in the storerooms of Upp- sala University. The collection included approximately 2,000 human skulls as well as several plaster replicas of human heads. According to the information cur- rently available, the collection, which was amassed during the late 1800s and early 1900s, belonged to the University’s Anatomical Department. It was put into storage in the 1950s; a large part was subsequently transferred to The Museum of National Antiquities in Stockholm. One can find traces of information about the skulls in the catalogue Museum Anatomicum Up- saliense. From this, we learn that the skulls originated in Lapponia (that is, they are Sami), Egypt, Greece, Greenland, Indonesia, Italy, Micronesia, Hawaii, Norway, Peru, Poland, the Kola Peninsula, Spain, Sri Lanka and Sudan, as well as, in all probability, other countries. Most of the skulls, however, were collected from nearby Uppsala cemeteries as well as, among others places, the Swedish island of Gotland.

How did all these skulls end up at Uppsala Univer- sity? Who collected them and why? What purpose did they serve? And what are we to do with them today? First and foremost, it is clear that the greatest head hunters of the past century were not Borneo’s Dayaks, but Western scientists and travelers. Nineteenth-century anthropologists took inter- est in comparing peoples from different parts of the world, seeking to use observed differ- ences to find a method for dividing humanity into neat categories — preferably races. Skulls were considered the best source material. Accord- ingly, anatomical collections were established. Thus, in the 1910s and 1920s, we find zoolo- gist and explorer Erik Mjöberg engaging in the most gruesome types of grave robbery and desecration of the dead while in Australia. His goal 46 HEAD HUNTERS AND COLLECTORS

was to get hold of skulls; these were then smuggled hierarchy. This required the collection and proper the skulls in the Uppsala collection were collected, back to Sweden. When the well-known entomologist, classification of our own as well as others’ cultural her- it is said, after the battle of extermination at Omdur- archaeologist and ethnographer Hjalmar Stolpe sailed itage, including human remains — for instance, skulls. man in 1898, when British colonial troops massacred around the world with the steam frigate Vanadis in Today, aborigines, previously marginalized minor- a Sudanese army. Who strolled about the battlefield 1883—1885, he also wanted skulls. He raided old burial ity groups, regionalist revival movements as well as collecting the heads? And how did all the skulls from grounds in South America and Hawaii; what he dug states with newly awoken nationalist sentiments are Uppsala’s cemeteries end up in the collection? Not to up ended up in the Uppsala collection. Mjöberg and demanding that those historical temples, museums, mention the skulls from Italy, Poland and Indonesia. Stolpe were both systematic skull collectors, although return their cultural heritage. These “new” processes, What can the head hunting and its material cultural they collected many other articles as well. Generally interestingly, follow a logic similar to that which in- bequest tell us, today, about the early 1900s, about speaking, the skull hunt was a varied affair, but it does formed race biology: that is, the need to constitute an the science and world view of that era? Are the skulls seem that, at the time, everybody was after heads Us on the basis of the construction of a shared cultural the exclusive cultural heritage of a particular group, — missionaries and ambassadors, businessmen and heritage. or are they also key to understanding the dark sides of tourists. The museums’ skulls and many cultural artifacts the 20th century? Incidentally, my colleagues tell me are far more than dead objects in a storehouse. They that the skull of a “Swede” is supposedly found in the Skull collections were being amassed all through catalyze social and political processes; they contribute Danish National Museum. Should Swedes demand its the 1800s, which is when race research started to to structuring society. To collect is really all about return? Or perhaps let the matter rest? ≈ come into vogue. After 1910, this “science”, whose taking things out of their original context and placing advocates used skulls to support their arguments, them in a new context with different rules and mea- gained real vigor and momentum. In 1924, race biolo- nings — those of the collection. Museums, suddenly Fredrik Svanberg is head of research and de- gist Hans Günther, who was later to become one of awakened from long-held, traditional views of their velopment at the Swedish Museum of National Nazi Germany’s central race researchers, gave student artifacts, must now ponder the fact that their way of Antiquities in Stockholm and is an associate lectures based on Uppsala’s anatomical collection — ordering their collections was neither as definite nor professor of archaeology. Has written exten- presumably, the same collection of skulls now stored as eternal as previously believed. Attention has once sively on archaeology, museums and issues of in The Museum of National Antiquities. The collec- again focused on Sweden’s skull collections. In 2004, cultural heritage. Currently working on a three- tion’s plaster replicas may include some of those lent Stockholm’s Ethnographic Museum returned Erik year research project dealing with the Uppsala by race anthropologist Gaston Backman — himself Mjöberg’s aboriginals’ skulls. The Museum of National collection of skulls discussed above. author of the infamous article “Negroes” in the second Antiquities is in the process of returning skulls collec- edition of Nordisk familjebok — to Herman Lundborg’s ted by Hjalmar Stolpe to people in Hawaii, as well as a “Folktypsutställning” [Exhibition of folk-types]. The Sami skull from the Uppsala collection to the Swedish exhibition, which toured Sweden in 1919, opened Sami. References doors, a few years later, for the foundation of Uppsa- Tony Bennett, Pasts Beyond Memory: Evolution, Mu- la’s infamous Institute of Race Biology, headed by Lun- Objects have no souls, but they can become power- seums, Colonialism. London & New York: Routledge dborg. In his history of the Institute, Gunnar Broberg , ful agents in social and political processes of change. 2004 a historian of ideas, mentions plans for an anatomical The museums’ collections have a social dimension Gunnar Broberg, Statlig rasforskning: En historik över museum — one that was, perhaps, to house the skulls and dynamic that has been activated by globaliza- Rasbiologiska institutet [State Racial Research: A now found in Stockholm. tion. Knowledge of the skull collections and other History of the Institute of Race Biology]. Lund 1995. During the 1930s and 1940s, race research changed similarly charged subjects is essential to those wishing (Ugglan 4. Lund Studies in the History of Science and direction towards social medicine. In 1935, Herman to participate in an informed discussion about new Ideas) Lundborg was succeeded by the openly anti-Nazi ge- questions and demands. This is an important discus- Gunnar Broberg & Mattias Tydén, Oönskade i folk- netic researcher Gunnar Dahlberg as director of the sion. It concerns, ultimately, not which rules, laws or hemmet: Rashygien och sterilisering i Sverige [Unwan- Institute of Race Biology. Skull-based research was classification systems should be applied to our cultural ted in the Folk Home: Racial Hygiene and Sterilization phased out and the collections were put in storage or heritage, but rather how we would like our society in Sweden]. 2:a uppl. [2d ed.] Gidlunds: Stockholm placed in museums. There, they have bided their time, and our world to be. Cultural heritages can be used to 2005 wrapped in brownish-gray cardboard boxes, stowed construct pure, delimited and exclusive societies and Cressida Fforde, Collecting the Dead: Archaeology away in dark storeroom corners. groups where not everyone can fit in. If we, through a and the Reburial Issue. London: Duckworth 2004 lack of background knowledge and ability to consider Mille Gabriel & Jens Dahl (eds.), Utimut: Past Heri- Now, half a century later, a new head hunt has begun. the facts carefully, comply with demands that serve tage – Future Partnerships. Copenhagen: International Representatives of the peoples and groups from which such purposes, we are, perhaps, no better ourselves. Work Group for Indigenous Affairs & the Greenland the skulls were taken want their ancestors’ skulls re- Meanwhile, as light is increasingly focused on the National Museum and Archives 2008 turned. It is important to make absolutely clear that darker aspects of early twentieth-century science Olof Ljungström, Oscariansk antropologi [Oscarian these demands do not derive from factors comparable and culture, knowledge about the collections also Anthropology]. Hedemora: Gidlunds 2003 to the race-biological concerns that were the primary becomes important for those writing a new history of Fredrik Svanberg, Museer och samlande [Museums motive behind the original collection. However, it is the period and those wishing to assess its impact on and Collecting]. Stockholm: Historiska museet 2009 obvious that despite the lack of race-biological mo- our world. What do all these heads represent? Some of tives, the demands are — and in this, they resemble the processes underlying the original collection of skulls Note: An earlier version of this article has been — integral to larger processes of constituting “Us” and published in the daily Dagens Nyheter (Stockholm). “Them”. The aim of race biology had been to find supposed variations that could be used to con- jure up a white, Western “Us”, positioned at the top of the evolutionary hierarchy. All other peoples, such as the Sami (and the Dayaks, with their primitive head hunting), could be placed lower in this

If museums are a place for stolen goods, perhaps visitors are committing the misdemeanor of handling stolen goods. main contributors BALTIC 47 W O R L D S

Anders Hammarlund Michael Gentile Tanya Jukkala Ilkka Henrik Mäkinen

Associate professor, cultural historian, and music Doctoral student in sociology at the Baltic and East ethnologist, whose special fields are Central Europe, European Graduate School (BEEGS), Södertörn the Balkans, and Turkey. The link between aesthetic University. Is currently writing her thesis on suicide in and political culture has been a constant theme in Russia. Has previously published articles on Rus- Hammarlund’s work as a researcher, teacher, and sia, e.g. “Economic Strain, Social Relations, Gender, media personality in Swedish Radio and the univer- and Binge Drinking in Moscow” (Social Science & sities of Stockholm, Gothenburg and Uppsala, in the Medicine, vol. 66:3; with I. H. Mäkinen, O. Kislitsyna, last of which he was in charge of the Department of S. Ferlander, and D. Vågerö; see BW I:1) and “Institu- Soviet and East European Studies, and at the Swe- tional Trust in Contemporary Moscow” (Europe-Asia dish National Collections of Music (Stockholm), where Studies, vol. 61:5; with A. Stickley, S. Ferlander, P. he has, as of 2006, held responsibility for multicultural Carlson, O. Kistlitsyna, and I. H. Mäkinen). issues. Among Hammarlund’s published works, the following are particularly noteworthy: Kulturbrytningar: Associate professor of human geography at Söder- Professor of sociology at Södertörn University, direc- Musik och politik i Centraleuropa [Cultural Diffraction: törn University and Umeå University. He has a tor of the Stockholm Centre on Health of Societies in Music and Politics in Central Europe] (1999) and Ett longstanding interest in the dynamics of urbanization Transition (SCOHOST). Has published extensively on äventyr i Staten: Carl Gustav Heraeus (1671–1725) and urban change in post-socialist countries and has suicide in general and on suicide in Eastern Europe från Stockholm till kejsarhovet i Wien [An Adventure recently published in the Annals of the Association of in particular, including chapters on social theories on within the State: Carl Gustav Heraeus (1671–1725) American Geographers and in Eurasian Geography suicide and on labor market positions and suicide in from Stockholm to the Vienna Imperial Court] (2003). and Economics. the recently published Oxford Textbook of Suicidology (2009) and widely cited articles such as “Are there Social Correlates to Suicide?” (Social Science & Medi- cine, vol. 44:12). Mäkinen’s publications also include a variety of other topics related to health and mortality in Eastern Europe. Latest on the Web

Awarded with a prize yet denied access An interview with Birgitta Almgren on www.balticworlds.com

n March, Germanist Birgitta Alm- study. She also explains her motives for nor has the tary said, in an unusual statement, that gren, who holds a chair at CBEES, requesting that the Swedish law courts Swedish govern- he found it “extremely odd that a re- Södertörn University, was given a make it possible for her to continue her ment moved to searcher of Almgren’s high repute was personal award of 100,000 Swedish research by granting her access to the revoke the do- not allowed to complete the important crowns by the Swedish so-called Rosenholz Acts. These acts cuments’ confi- and thorough mapping process by Academy — the institu- consist of material from the East Ger- dentiality. gaining access to the Säpo archives’ in- tion that bequeaths the man Stasi archives secured by Western formation on the fifty or so Swedes who annual Nobel Prize in Lit- intelligence agencies in connection with Wolf’s inter- worked for the East German Stasi. In erature — for her studies the dissolution of the GDR. Of these, view with most countries, this request would have of Nazi-German infiltra- the Swedish Security Service (Säpo) has Almgren can been entirely uncontroversial, but not tion in Sweden and of the received those documents related to be found on here. The Swedish state’s secretiveness offshoots, in Cold War Sweden, of the Swedes’ collaboration with the Stasi. Baltic Worlds’ newly-established Web site about some aspects of Cold War history GDR’s policies. So far, Säpo has refused to give Alm- (www.balticworlds.com), where histori- is, sadly, constant, irrespective of the gren access, citing the confidentiality ans comment on Almgren’s request. political color of the ministry.” ≈ In an interview with Hans Wolf, Alm- of intelligence documents. Almgren’s When the award was published, the gren discusses aspects of the latter request was also turned down in court; Swedish Academy’s permanent secre- A periodical sponsored by the Foundation for Baltic and BALTIC East European Studies W O R L D S

The tension between the bud and the blossom. Peripheries going vanguard

t is a striking but surprisingly often East: Romanians at Café Voltaire], 2005; what life on the outskirts meant — prom- provinces have been literarily produc- overlooked fact that the artistic and Ett svunnet Europa: Om modernis- inent figures such as Edith Södergran, tive, with landscapes such as Värmland and literary modernism of the mens glömda rötter [A Europe that has Henry Parland, Elmer Diktonius, Gun- and its Selma Lagerlöf, Västerbotten 1900s had much of its origins in the Vanished: On the Forgotten Roots of nar Björling had a minority language as and P. O. Enqvist, Småland and Astrid European provinces. The avant-garde Modernism], 2009), art historian Tom their native language or first language. Lindgren, while the giants of the capital — and not just the political avant-garde Sandqvist has reminded us of this rich Being on the geographic fringe did not — C. J. L. Almqvist, August Strindberg, — came from the East. A phenom- heritage from the provinces. Finland, insulate them, the province was not a Hjalmar Söderberg — often became enon such as dadaism for example, is his home turf, can also credit itself with barren terrain, and the metropolises strangers in their own country and inconceivable without the influence a number of the pioneers of literary were often the recipients of input from ended up in temporary or long-term of the intellectual scene in Romania, modernism. These people all knew the outside. In Sweden as well, the exile (America; Paris and Switzerland; especially the influence of the Jewish Copenhagen). intelligentsia. Later, these iconoclasts and anarchists of language had no dif- ficulties establishing themselves and Is there a compensatory aspect in their movement in more central loca- the willingness of the periphery to be tion such as Zurich. Linguistically and the vanguard? One may well wonder. educationally, they were integrated into The big city, multicultural and with- the rest of Europe. out identity, was encircled by rural masses during the phases of national unity (which of course is one aspect of This is contrary to common know- modernity) and became the face of the ledge. In his reference work Modernism: nation to the outer world. Anders Ham- The Lure of Heresy: From Baudelaire to marlund (see pp. 4–9), Swedish cultural Beckett and Beyond (2007), Peter Gray historian, found many of the men of the leaves the periphery largely to its own modern revolution in Moravia, long a devices (unless we want to count Rus- Central European backyard: a Sigmund sia as part of the periphery, something Freud, an Adolf Loos, a Gustav Mahler, we should of course not do). Social and a Tomáš Masaryk, an Alfons Mucha, economic historians have readily char- a Leoš Janáˇcek (Människor bortom acterized Eastern and South-eastern lustprincipen: Mähriska öden [People Europe in terms of feudal backward- Beyond the Pleasure Principle: Some ness, of lagging behind the rest of Eu- Moravian Life Stories], 2006). They rope. It is true that, in the first half of were all, in different ways, leading fig- the 1900s, a country such as Romania ures in broader contexts, pan-European had an extremely archaic social struc- icons — but in some sense were also ture, unequal distribution of property, up-starts and outsiders. They exploited and a political culture that only very the tension between the provincial and reluctantly accepted the principles of the universal, between the bud and the a liberal state governed by law. At the blossom. In the era of globalization, is same time, Bucharest had a university anything of this tension left? ≈ that was the world’s fifth largest, and in the mid-1930s there were more than two thousand daily newspapers in the kingdom, with a combined circulation of just over four million.

In several books (the latest, Dada Öst: Rumänerna på Café Voltaire [Dada