Nationalism and Socialism in historical perspective

White, J. D. (1996) Nationalism and Socialism in historical perspective. In: Smith, G. (ed.) The Baltic States: The National Self-Determination of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Macmillan: London, pp. 13-40. ISBN 9780333665800 (doi: 10.1007/978-1-349-14150-0_2)

Abstract

Because it is customary to think in terms of nation-states, it is easy to slip into the anachronsim of saying that in the eighteenth century Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania were incorporated into the Russian Empire. In fact, in the eighteenth century neither an ‘Estonia’ nor a ‘Latvia’ existed or ever had existed; and only Lithuania had experienced independent statehood. By then, however, Lithuania no longer had any separate identity, having become an integral part of the Polish Commonwealth. The Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian states which achieved independence at the end of the First World War were, therefore, not so much conquests of the Russian Empire, as entities which came into being in the context of the Russian Empire.

• Item Type: Book Sections
• Status: Published
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: White, Professor James
• Authors: White, J. D.
• College/School: College of Social Sciences > School of Social and Political Sciences
• Publisher: Macmillan
• ISBN: 9780333665800

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