Imperiale und lokale Loyalitäten im Konflikt: Der Einzug Russlands in die Ostseeprovinzen in den 1840er Jahren

Abstract

Imperial and Local Loyalties in Conflict: Russia’s Coming to the Baltic Provinces in the 1840s The paper focuses on the issue of imperial representation in a non-Russian and non-Orthodox “European” environment in a time when these categories gradually became more important. In this respect, the 1840s marked a watershed for the mutual relationship between the imperial centre and the Baltic periphery. The traditional estate-based loyalty between local German elites and St Peters - burg officials was challenged by two factors: First, the conversion movement that affected around 100,000 Estonian and Latvian peasants who converted to the “Tsar’s faith” in order to express social protest against the local agrarian order - much to the surprise not only to German landlords but even more so to imperial officials. This was seen first and foremost as disloyalty to the protestant German agrarian upper-class, but in challenging the provincial Status quo conversion challenged imperial order as well. Second, the emerging vision of a national empire (Mark Bassin) questioned not only German local domination but also the government’s estate-based relationship with the strategically and economically vital Baltic provinces. Nicholas I ordered his officials in the region to square the circle - to guarantee peace and order and to make sure that Orthodoxy was protected without encouraging conversion. Nevertheless, in 1845 he appointed an Orthodox Russian as Governor-General to Riga, a position previously held most often by non-Russians of predominantly local German origins. However, Governor-General E. A. Golovin, a well-served soldier, had to face another representative of the imperial order - suffragan bishop Filaret who did all he could to support the converts. After Golovin was dismissed in 1848, Nicholas sent another Russian officer to Riga, A. A. Suvorov, who represented the European vision of the Empire. Suvorov served in Riga for more than 20 years despite a sharp conflict with Filaret right from the start. Only after Filaret was transferred to another church province, Suvorov displayed a pro-Orthodox agenda as well, without, however, insulting the Baltic Germans. First, he supported the initiative to make Riga and Mitau an independent diocese (erected in 1850). Second, he vigorously discriminated the Old-Believers in the Baltic provinces in order to bring them back home to the Orthodox Church. Thus, under Suvorov “Russification” began with forcefully integrating local Russians. It was precisely this traditional way of administering the Baltic provinces based on estate solidar - ity that provoked harsh criticism from another Russian key figure who happened to be a witness of the Baltic conversion movement. Iurii Samarin created a national Russian vision of the empire to be displayed in the Baltic provinces. However, in claiming Russian ethnos and religion to be the main objects of loyalty for every non-Russian subject, Samarin went too far not only for the Baltic German elite, but also for the Emperor who had him arrested accusing him of disobedience and creating ethnic hatred. The 1840s thus were a watershed precisely because of the estrangement of German and Russian elites, as outlined in the paper, caused by the issue of Estonian and Latvian converts.