Baltic Studies at the Institute of World History of the Russian Academy of Sciences: Round Table on the 25th Anniversary of Research and the Release of the 10th Collection of the Serial Publication “Russia and the Baltic States”

Abstract

The academic meeting was held on the occasion of 25 years of studies into the history of the Baltic states and peoples in the Institute of World History of the Russian Academy of Sciences and of the publication of the 10th issue of the series “Russia and Baltia”. The meeting was opened by the Scientific Director of IVI RAS, Academician A. O. Chubarian. The head of the Centre for the History of the Northern Europe and the Baltic States Dr. A. A. Komarov, the Centre's researchers Dr. E. L. Nazarova and Dr. Y. L. Mikhailova, as well as the researcher of the Institute of World History of the Russian Academy of Sciences Dr. I. A. Kukushkina made presentations on the reasons and main objectives of this research area. The speakers stressed that the need for a systematic study of the history of the Baltic countries and peoples arose in IVI RAS after the reestablishment of the independent Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania republics in 1991. The history of the Eastern Baltic region as a part of the Nordic space is studied in parallel with the history of Scandinavia and Finland. The main problems to be studied are related to the history of the formation of the modern Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian nations in the context of the imperial policy of the Russian state, the creation of the Latvian, Estonian and Lithuanian states, their domestic and foreign policies, including their diplomatic relations with the Soviet Russia/USSR, the history of Latvian, Estonian and Lithuanian diasporas in Russia and the post-Soviet space.