A History of the Baltic States

Andres Kasekamp

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781350307285
• Edition: 2
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Russian History
• Index: History

In this key textbook, Andres Kasekamp masterfully traces the development of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, from the northern crusades against Europe's last pagans and Lithuania's rise to become one of medieval Europe's largest states, to their incorporation into the Russian Empire and the creation of their modern national identities. Employing a comparative approach, a particular emphasis is placed upon the last one hundred years, during which the Baltic states achieved independence, endured occupation by the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany, and transformed themselves into members of the European Union. This is an essential textbook for undergraduate students taking modules on Eastern or Central European History, Communism and Post-Communism, the Soviet Union, or Baltic Culture and Politics. Engaging and accessible, this is also an ideal introduction to the Baltic States for general readers.

1Europe’s Last Pagans

After the retreat of the Scandinavian ice sheet, the eastern Baltic littoral was able to support human habitation, with the first settlers arriving around 11000 BC. For several millennia, these people were hunter-gatherers, a gradual transition to farming was not completed until the Bronze Age. People speaking Finno-Ugric languages moved into the northern part of the region and were followed by Indo-European Balts who settled in the southern part of the Baltic littoral during the Neolithic era. By the Late Iron Age, these tribes were loosely politically organised and interacted with Scandinavia and the neighbouring lands of Rus’ for purposes of trade, as well as hostile raids. German and Danish crusaders subjugated the proto-Latvian and Estonian tribes and converted them to Christianity during the thirteenth century. The Lithuanian tribes united under a single ruler and successfully resisted the encroachments of the Teutonic Knights.

EARLY INHABITANTS

Geography has been an influential factor in shaping the lives of the inhabitants of the Baltic region throughout history. The Baltic region lies on a latitude between 54° and 60° north and a longitude of 21° to 28° east. Compared to other regions at an equally northerly latitude, the eastern Baltic littoral has a milder climate because of the moderating effects of the Atlantic Gulf Stream. The territory of the present-day Baltic states is quite flat: the highest peak is only 318 m above sea level. The landscape’s characteristic features are the numerous forests and bogs, and the sandy Baltic coastline. In the north, Estonia’s western coastline is dotted with over 1500 islands, and some, such as Saaremaa, are fairly large (2673 km²). There are abundant bodies of water, notably Lake Peipus, the fifth largest lake in Europe. There are also numerous rivers, the longest being the Daugava (Zapadnaya Dvina), which flows for 1020 km, emptying into the Baltic Sea near Rīga.

The territory of the present-day Baltic states can be divided into three geographical zones: the western coastal areas, the central zone with fertile soils, most suitable for agriculture, and the eastern region which contains the most lakes, swamps and forests. There are significant differences in climate from west to east and south to north. As the Baltic states lie in a transitional zone from maritime to continental climate, there are substantial variations in precipitation and temperature from the mild climate of the western coastal areas to the more extreme temperatures (colder winters and warmer summers) further inland to the east. Lithuania enjoys a growing period which is three weeks longer than that of Estonia because of the longer summers in the south.¹

The landmass of the present-day Baltic states gradually began to emerge around 14000 BC at the end of the last ice age as the Scandinavian ice sheet retreated. The receding ice sheet shaped the landscape, creating numerous lakes. In its wake, the Baltic Ice Lake, predecessor of the Baltic Sea, was formed. Northern Estonia did not emerge from under the ice sheet until 11000 BC, with the western coastal area of Estonia rising gradually above sea level during the following millennia. As the glacial climate warmed and vegetation began to grow, animals roamed into the area. The first humans ventured into the tundra landscape of Lithuania in pursuit of reindeer around 11000 BC near the end of the Paleolithic era (Early Stone Age). These were small bands of nomadic hunters who set up temporary camps at rivers and lakes. Those who came from the south were bearers of the Swidrian Culture, and those from the west of the Magdalen-Ahrensburgian Culture. The essential difference between these two archaeological cultures is in how they chipped the flint from which they made their tools and weapons.²

The transition from the Paleolithic to the Mesolithic era witnessed further dramatic geological and climatic changes. The Baltic Ice Lake flowed out into the ocean across present-day southern Sweden and drained to sea level (dropping 25 m), forming the short-lived brackish Yoldia Sea. The rising Scandinavian land mass soon cut off the Yoldia Sea from the ocean and around 9000 BC it became the freshwater Ancylus Lake. When ocean levels rose, however, saline water poured through the Great Belt (Denmark) to reconnect with the ocean, creating the Littorina Sea and finally evolving to a shape similar to the Baltic Sea today. These changes were accompanied by a warming of the climate from Preboreal to Atlantic. By the end of the Mesolithic era around 5000 BC, the climate had warmed to the extent where broad-leafed vegetation dominated, as opposed to the coniferous trees of preceding periods. This was the warmest period in the history of the region (a couple of degrees warmer than at present). The warmer climate attracted new species such as elk and wild boar, while the reindeer departed. The region, with its abundant game and its bodies of water teeming with fish, was now able to support a growing human population, whose temporary camps had gradually become permanent settlements. These first settlements were situated along the rivers and lakes of the interior and later also by the sea coast where seal hunting provided sustenance.³

At the start of the Mesolithic (Middle Stone Age) period (9000–5000 BC) the first indigenous culture evolved from the Swidrian Culture. This was known as the Kunda Culture, after the site on the northern Estonian coast which was the first to be studied in depth. The Kunda Culture stretched from northern Lithuania to southern Finland and embraced part of north-western Russia as well. These people were hunter-gatherers: they occupied themselves with hunting, fishing and seal-hunting in the coastal areas. In the seventh millennium BC another closely related local culture, the Nemunas Culture, began to form in southern and central Lithuania.⁴ Flint deposits were abundant in this area, hence the Nemunas Culture produced more flint tools and weapons than the bearers of the Kunda Culture and its successor, the Narva Culture, both of which relied more on bone and antlers.

The beginning of the Neolithic era (New Stone Age) in the Baltic region (5000–1800 BC) is marked by the beginning of the production of ceramic vessels. The Neolithic period is also characterised by the rudiments of agriculture – the cultivation of wheat and barley, utilising a two-field system, with one lying fallow for a year, and the domestication of livestock – cows, goats, sheep and pigs. During the Neolithic era two distinct new cultures emerged: the first, Comb Ware Culture (4000–1800 BC), characterised by pottery decorated with imprints made with comb-like objects, and the second, Corded Ware Culture (3000–1800 BC), characterised by pottery decorated with cord imprints. The latter is also identified by its boat-shaped axe head. The Comb Ware Culture is commonly associated with the arrival of Finnic-speaking peoples and the Corded Ware Culture with the influx of Indo-Europeans, the Balts. Recent research has questioned whether the advent of these two new archaeological cultures can indeed be ascribed to a new wave of settlers displacing the former inhabitants and has suggested instead a more gradual and complex process which involved an intermingling of cultures and language exchange.⁵

By the end of the Neolithic period the linguistic map of the Baltic region was relatively clear, with speakers of Finnic languages situated north of the Daugava river and speakers of Baltic languages south of it. Finnic Livs also inhabited the northern part of the Courland peninsula. From the emergence of Corded Ware Culture until the end of the Iron Age, the Daugava river also marked the cultural border between the northern and southern Baltic regions.⁶ This can be seen in the evolution of burial customs: the finds at grave sites provide archaeologists with the major source of information about Baltic societies.

The ethnogenesis of the people inhabiting the Baltic region is, nevertheless, an open question. Linguists, archaeologists and geneticists employ different tools and methods, but evidence from all these fields is necessary to piece together a plausible interpretation of the ethnic and linguistic development of the area. The conventional theory holds that the Finno-Ugrians arrived from the east, having originated from the Urals, and that the Balts arrived later from the south-west. Some recent research has challenged these assumptions and suggested that the ancestors of the Finno-Ugrians had arrived several millennia earlier, and not from the Urals but from the south and west. This theory, however, has not found wide acceptance.⁷ Indeed, the earlier assumptions which posited a clear connection between archaeological cultures and ethnicity are now considered overly simplistic. Ethnogenesis was a multilayered process involving language exchange among natives and newcomers, rather than migration. Genetically, it is clear that Estonians, Latvians and Lithuanians are almost identical, having the same genetic forefathers (DNA lines).⁸

The end of the Stone Age and the beginning of the age of metals in the eastern Baltic is generally dated as 1800 BC when the first bronze items appeared in the region. During the Bronze Age (1800–500 BC), stone and flint tools and weapons were gradually superseded by weapons made of bronze, initially imported from Scandinavia and Central Europe. This period saw the advent of small hillfort settlements, which were the centres of bronze-casting. Fortified settlements were also associated with the spread of livestock-breeding (since valuable animals had to be protected from potential raiders). Along with the importation of bronze from Central Europe, the custom of cremation gradually gained popularity.

The next transition – from bronze to iron tools – proceeded more rapidly, taking only three centuries. Iron was simpler to make and the necessary ore could be obtained locally from bogs. Bronze-casting had required larger fortified settlements and the maintenance of a trade network but these were largely abandoned because iron could be forged almost anywhere.⁹ Slash-and-burn farming methods necessitated the cultivating of new plots and also contributed to the dispersal of the larger communities of the Bronze Age. There was a move inland from the shores of larger bodies of water to areas more suitable for agriculture. The use of iron farming implements, such as ploughshares, hoes, sickles and scythes, increased agricultural yields and enabled the spread of land cultivation to new forested areas which would have been too difficult to till with more primitive tools. By the Early Iron Age (500 BC–AD 450), the gradual transition from the hunting-fishing-gathering subsistence lifestyle to a pattern of settlement based on a single-farm system was completed.¹⁰ The expansion of farming contributed to population growth, and the Early Iron Age appears to have been a peaceful time for the region.¹¹

PREHISTORIC SOCIETIES

By the beginning of the Iron Age, social stratification had developed, evidenced by distinct differences in burial customs. The upper stratum lived on the dominant farm within a settlement or in hillforts. They were buried in stone graves and were accompanied by important artefacts. Ordinary farmers were buried with only modest grave goods. The remains of the poorest people, those who were probably dependent on the larger farms, were placed in earthen graves or simply laid on the ground at designated areas.¹²

During the Roman Iron Age (AD 50–450), the dead were buried in above-ground graves: tarand graves¹³ in Estonia and northern Latvia; stone barrows in Lithuania and southern Latvia. By the eighth century new burial customs had spread across all of Lithuania and soon began to spread northwards: first inhumations and then, by the ninth century, cremations.¹⁴ There were notable differences in the burial customs in the region, which allow archaeologists to delineate the settlement areas of the various Baltic tribes. For instance, during the Late Iron Age (800–1200), the Lettigallians buried men with their heads facing to the east and women with their heads facing to the west. Men were usually buried together with an axe and two spears. A custom practised only by the Lithuanians was the ritual burial of horses after the death of their owner.¹⁵

Written sources about the peoples of the eastern Baltic before the second millennium are sparse. The Roman historian Tacitus in his Germania, written in AD 98, was the first to describe Baltic tribes, most likely the Prussians, whom he referred to as the Aestii. He portrays them as worshipping a Mother of the Gods and gathering amber from the sea.¹⁶ In Roman times, amber was the commodity of the region which was most highly valued by traders. The Vistula river provided the trade route by which the amber reached the outposts of the Roman Empire.

During that time, the Baltic tribes inhabited a much wider area than at present: from the Vistula to beyond the Dnieper river in central Russia. After the collapse of the Roman Empire, the great migrations in the fifth and sixth centuries, particularly of the Slavs, pushed the Balts into a more compact area and also further northwards into the territory inhabited by Finnic-speaking peoples, particularly the Livs.

The Lithuanians consisted of two large groups: the Žemaitians or Samogitians (‘Lowlanders’) who lived around the mouth of the Nemunas river, which emptied into the Baltic Sea, and the Aukštaitians (‘Highlanders’) who lived further upriver to the east. Both of these groups themselves consisted of several tribal territories, or lands. Other Baltic tribes closely related to the Lithuanians, living to their west and south-west, were the Scalvians, Yotvingians and Prussians, inhabiting the territory of what is today north-eastern Poland and the Kaliningrad oblast of the Russian Federation.

The largest Baltic tribe inhabiting the territory of today’s Latvia, and from whom the name Latvians or Letts later derived, were the Lettigallians. They were the last tribe to arrive, having been pushed out of present-day Belarus by Slavic migration into the eastern part of Latvia north of the Daugava river. The other proto-Latvian tribes were the Selonians and Semigallians whose lands were both south of the Daugava river. The lands of the Curonians were along the western coast of present-day Latvia and Lithuania. The coast around the Gulf of Riga was inhabited by the Livs, close linguistic relatives of the Estonians. Although the proto-Estonians were not split into ethnically distinct tribes, there were notable cultural differences among those Estonians inhabiting the south and the north of the country, as well as those who lived in the western coastal areas and the islands who were most directly exposed to Scandinavian influence. In the north-eastern corner of Estonia lived another Finnic tribe, the Votes (Votians), whose territory extended to the area of present-day St Petersburg.

Throughout the Iron Age, agriculture developed, evolving from the slash-and-burn system to a two-field rotational system, and eventually to a more efficient three-field system. By the end of the first millennium a strip-field system had emerged, which facilitated the formation of villages.¹⁷ Villages banded together to form political communities ruled by elders. These districts were typically centred on a hillfort. Later, with Christianisation, these hillfort districts usually formed the basis of parishes which became the primary administrative units until the twentieth century. Larger territorial units were formed in the early second millennium when several of these districts united together to form a land or chiefdom.¹⁸ For instance, the area inhabited by the Livs consisted of four lands, and that inhabited by the Semigallians consisted of seven distinct lands. These were sovereign units which themselves determined their relationship with neighbouring lands. While a common language formed a strong bond, these territories made their own decisions about going to war, similar in fashion to the raising of war-bands by chieftains among Celtic, Germanic and Slavic tribes.

The development of hillforts and open settlements demonstrates the evolution of social and political structures – that is to say, the ambitions of the elite – in the Baltic region. Hillforts were erected first in Lithuania in the early Roman Iron Age, in Latvia at the end of the Roman Iron Age and finally in Estonia during the sixth century. The differences in the level of social and political development during the late Iron Age are illustrated by the number of hillforts: there were approximately 700 hillforts in use in Lithuania, almost 200 in Latvia and fewer than 100 in Estonia.¹⁹ These figures also suggest that Lithuanian society was more hierarchical and placed greater emphasis on martial virtues, whereas further north, especially in the Estonian areas, communities remained more egalitarian, and feminine values were still important. By the twelfth century some hillforts, such as Jersika (Gerzika) on the Daugava, had evolved into sites of permanent inhabitation, with military ch...