Purs, Aldis Baltic Facades: Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania since 1945 (review)

Abstract

SEER, 94, 3, july 2016 568 Amar’s compelling narrative arc situates the story of L’viv at the seemingly perpetual crossroads of major political currents. The book traces the unmixing of the city as a process that was not actually planned by any state but rather systematically executed by each successive regime. Amar collected research for the book across Central Europe’s state archives with the intent of producing ‘a local and transnational study’ (p. 1). The text also incorporates the experiences of individuals who lived in this urban borderland, perhaps to the greatest extent in the chapter dealing with the Nazi occupation. As a whole, The Paradox of Ukrainian Lviv is clearly written and coherently structured. It presents readers with an accessible entry point to a bewilderingly complicated moment in history. What the title suggests, but the book does not address, is the particularity of L’viv as an urban centre within the Central European borderlands. Amar discusses the administrative changes each consecutive state implemented that, for instance, yielded campaigns of naming or mandated a ‘local’ identity in the post-war years, but he does not explore how they applied to the city differently than to its surroundings. Yet the erasure of urban multiculturalism in Thessaloniki, Wroclaw, Sarajevo and, indeed, L’viv, even when not explicitly identified as a state agenda, manifested as a deep incursion into everyday practices, for instance, of space, class and gender. An urban lens would have added another insightful dimension to this study. This critique notwithstanding, The Paradox of Ukrainian Lviv is an impressive undertaking with an even more impressive result. Amar skilfully weaves together a lineage of state policies that vied for power over the Central European borderlands during the twentieth century. The book is a valuable resource for scholars and students of the Soviet Union, Eastern Europe and Nazi Germany, as well as those interested in authoritarian regimes, nation building and nationalism. Department of History Jovana Babović Louisiana Tech University Purs, Aldis. Baltic Facades: Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania since 1945. Contemporary Worlds. Reaktion Books, London, 2012. 203 pp. Maps. Notes. Further reading. Index. £15.95 (paperback). The aims of this book are modest. In the first instance it’s not written for academic audiences, but for general, educated readers in order to give them a sense of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. To be fair to the author, he achieves this aim well and, in fact, he has produced a text which more than likely will be useful for educational audiences too. REVIEWS 569 The book’s structure blends chronology and themes to good effect. The first substantial chapter provides an historical overview from ancient times to the interwar period. It’s an ambitious undertaking, but Purs accomplishes the task well. The text is made all the more enjoyable by the inclusion of occasional pithy comments designed to provoke some readers at least. So, for instance, when discussing the arrival of German merchants, knights and priests in the twelfth century the author dismisses those who would interpret this as the start of ‘700 years of German oppression’ (p. 25). Such writing he dismisses as typical of Latvian and Estonian ‘nationalist historiography’ (p. 25). The second chapter, nicely entitled ‘Potemkin Republics’, addresses periods of Soviet, Nazi and, once again, Soviet occupation. It contains some good material that will encourage readers to find out more, for example the all too brief characterization of post-1945 partisan warfare. But once again this chapter contains views that will force some readers to argue against what they find. So, for instance, Purs maintains that the Soviet Union appears not to have had a policy of genocide towards the Baltic peoples. Rather, in his words, ‘Soviet rule in the Baltic followed the pattern of Soviet rule throughout the Soviet Union’ (p. 66). The title of the third chapter, ‘Soviet Union to European Union’, highlights the tremendous changes experienced in the Baltic States following the collapse of the Soviet Union. In the process, it provides an interesting view of the Communist empire as it fell apart, including the way one-time Party men made an easy transition to the nationalist camp. It shows how the Popular Fronts constructed in...