Taming Nationalism? Political Community-Building in the Post-Soviet Baltic States by Dovile s> Budryte (review)

Abstract

376 SEER, 85, 2, 2007 prediction of a kind, tied to mid-decade, but the book was publishedin 2005. Were there no clues when it went to press as to which way Bosnia might be heading? The authorseems to have a bit of a thing about dates.There is an irritating portentousness about the phrase 'New Millennium' in the main title, reinforced by the sonorousbut meaninglesssub-title.Certainly,momentous questions of war and peace in the Balkanswere settled when Serbia's army and paramilitariespulled out of Kosovo in I999, but the peoples of the region are still living in the old millennium, historicallyspeaking.Gallagher amply confirms that the turning of the century has brought no new starts anywhere. Readers will also notice that the Balkanshave undergone a drasticshrinkage in thisbook, both conceptuallyand geographically.When he finallyattendsto the concept at all, it transpiresthat Gallagheruses 'Balkans'as simple shorthand for the 'formercommunist states of South-EastEurope' (p. i86). (I had to work out this connection for myself, by digging in the Index, and finding 'Balkans',sub-heading'common legacy'.)For the purposesof argument,let us accept this as a legitimate conflation of analyticalcategories, and leave aside the question of why in that case chapter one is on Greece. The fact remains that the book is not even a survey of the Western Balkans,because Croatia, Montenegro and Albania figureonly in passing.In chaptersfour to seven, the field of vision is limited to Serbia,Kosovo, Bosniaand Macedonia, and indeed three of the eight chaptersare concerned in some way or other with Kosovo. Beyond the boundaries of the former Yugoslavia, only Greece is awarded separatetreatment.Bulgariaand Romania have to wait untilchaptereight for any significant mention, in the context of a discussion of EU policy. The principlesof inclusion and exclusion at work here are unfathomable. The coda, 'Conclusion:an uncertainpoliticalfuturefor the Balkans',is the liveliestpart of the book, but in no way representsa summaryof themes and issues. It would, on the other hand, make an interestingintroduction,pulled into analyticalshape. Department ofPolitics LESLIE BENSON University ofNorthampton Budryte,Dovile. Taming Nationalism? Political Community-Building in thePost-Soviet BalticStates. Post-SovietPolitics.Ashgate, Aldershotand Burlington,VT, 2005. ix + 233 pp. Figures.Tables. Notes. Bibliography.Index. [55.00. DOVILE BUDRYTE has come up with a timely appraisalof the way three new multi-ethnic states are 'coming of age'. Her project begins with an introduction which combines discussionof contemporaryinternationalpolitical structures with an insistence that historical memory is vital to an understanding of how the polities are being constructed 'on the ground'. The first chapter addresses the theory and reality of Baltic nationalismsbefore moving on to a second ('Nation Building or Nation Killing?') which poses some tough questions about the long-term impact Soviet policies have had on the Baltic region. There follow chaptersdealing with the detail of developmentsin each REVIEWS 377 of Estonia ('FromRestoration to Integration?'),Latvia ('MinorityRights and the Majority'sInsecurity')and Lithuania ('PragmaticInclusivenessand Fear of Uncertain Loyalty').To underline the importance of history in the Baltic States, Budryte adds a further discussion of how 'Soviet genocide' has been remembered there. A conclusion wraps everythingup. Much about this book deservespraise.Apart from the odd flirtwith political sciencejargon it is writtenin a decent, accessiblestyle.The consistentcontention that grapplingwith the past reallycan provide a richerunderstanding of the present is hard to fault too. The idea is well grounded in interesting material,for instance a discussionof how Mart Laar'scareerprogressedfrom dissidenthistorianto prime minister(p. 52). Equally the author makes creditable play on the idea that bit by bit Baltic history is being 'democratized'. With this said, she is also realisticenough to note that Baltic involvement in the Waffen-SS remains a difficultarea (pp. I98 and i85). The questionmarkis whether Budryte has managed to balance the complexity of Baltic history. Certainly the Holocaust crops up, but whether the text says enough about it is another matter. Also there is no mention at all of the landmarkexperimentsin organizing multi-ethnic societies which were attempted here between the wars, that is to say the autonomous schooling project in Latvia and full cultural autonomy in Estonia. In this light, the reality of what has been happening recently is rathermore complicated than the hypothesissketchedout in the firstchapter -namely...