Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-ndw9j Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-16T23:38:56.271Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

From Nationalism to Nation-Building: Latvian Politics and Minority Policy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

David J. Galbreath
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

With the collapse of the Soviet Union and the subsequent independence of Latvia, a minority group became a majority and a majority group became a minority. This has been the situation for Latvians and Russians after August 1991. The Baltic States led the way towards first autonomy and then independence. The nationalist movement in the Latvian SSR was primarily a minority nationalist movement. Why do minorities mobilise? Gurr finds that minorities rebel for two reasons: relative deprivation and group mobilisation. Relative deprivation answers the question of why and it characterizes the status of the Latvian language and culture vis-à-vis that of Russia during the Soviet period. While relative deprivation has come under considerable criticism because of its inability to explain when a group will mobilise, the notion can be found in the nationalist rhetoric before and since the restoration of Latvian independence. Group mobilisation goes further in explaining when minorities may assert political claims. Considered in terms of changes in the political opportunity structure, the changing politics of glasnost allowed the nationalist movements to mobilise in the Baltic States.

Type
Articles
Information
Nationalities Papers , Volume 34 , Issue 4 , September 2006 , pp. 383 - 406
Copyright
Copyright © 2006 Association for the Study of Nationalities 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Apine, I., “Ethnic Policy in the Baltic States,” in Jundzis, T., ed., The Baltic States: A Historical Crossroads (Riga: Latvian Academy of Sciences, 2001).Google Scholar
Auers, D., “European Elections in Eight New EU Member States,” Electoral Studies, Vol. 24, 2005, pp. 741–784.Google Scholar
Bilinsky, Y., “The Soviet Education Law of 1958–9 and Soviet Nationality Policy,” Soviet Studies, Vol. 14, No. 2, 1962, pp. 138–157.Google Scholar
Brubacker, R., Nationalism Reframed: Nationhood and the National Question in the New Europe (Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1996).Google Scholar
Connor, W., “A Nation is a Nation,” Ethnic and Racial Studies, Vol. 1, No. 4, 1978, pp. 379–388.Google Scholar
Galbreath, D. J., “The Politics of European Integration and Minority Rights in Estonia and Latvia,” Perspectives on European Politics and Society, Vol. 4, No. 1, 2003, pp. 35–54.Google Scholar
Galbreath, D. J., “Latvia,” in Lodge, J., ed., 2004 Elections to the European Parliament (Basingstoke, England: Palgrave, 2005a).Google Scholar
Galbreath, D. J., Nation-Building and Minority Politics in Post–socialist States: Interests, Influence and Identities in Estonia and Latvia (Stuttgart: Ibidem Verlag, 2005b).Google Scholar
Galbreath, D. J., “European Integration through Democratic Conditionality: Latvia in the Context of Minority Rights,” Journal of Contemporary European Studies, Vol. 14, No. 1, 2006a, pp. 69–87.Google Scholar
Galbreath, D. J., “The Role of the OSCE, the Council of Europe and the EU in the Promotion of Minority Rights in the Baltic States,” in Joachim, J., Reinalda, B. and Verbeek, B., eds, International Organizations and Effective Policy Implementation (London: Routledge, 2006b).Google Scholar
Galbreath, D. J., and Galvin, M. E., “The Titularization of Latvian Secondary Schools: the Historical Legacy of Soviet Policy Implementation,” Journal of Baltic Studies, Vol. 4, No. 36, 2005, pp. 449–466.Google Scholar
Goble, P., “A Disaster that Didn't Happen,” RFE/RL Newsline, 22 March 1999. <http://www.friends-partners.org/friends/news/omri/1999/03/990322I.html>..>Google Scholar
Gurr, T. R., Minorities at Risk: A Global View of Ethnopolitical Conflict (Washington: United States Institute of Peace, 1994).Google Scholar
Jacoby, W., The Enlargement of the European Union and NATO: Ordering from the Menu in Central Europe (Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 2004).Google Scholar
Jubulis, M. A., “The External Dimension of Democratization in Latvia: The Impact of European Institutions,” International Relations, Vol. 13, No. 3, 1996, pp. 59–73.Google Scholar
Kemp, W. A., Nationalism and Communism in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union: A Basic Contradiction (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1999).Google Scholar
Kemp, W. A., Quiet Diplomacy in Action: The OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities (The Hague: Kluwer Law International, 2001).Google Scholar
Kolst⊘, P., Russians in the Former Soviet Republics (London: Hurst, 1995).Google Scholar
Laitin, D. D., Identity in Formation: The Russian-Speaking Populations in the Near Abroad (Ithaca, NY/London: Cornell University Press, 1998).Google Scholar
Lievan, A., The Baltic Revolution: Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and the Path to Independence (London: Yale University Press, 1993).Google Scholar
Lipset, H., “The Status of National Minority Languages in Soviet Education,” Soviet Studies, Vol. 19, No. 2, 1967, pp. 181–189.Google Scholar
Malloy, T. H., National Minority Rights in Europe (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005).Google Scholar
Pabriks, A., and Purs, A., Latvia: the Challenges of Change (London: Routledge, 2002).Google Scholar
Pettai, V., “The Games of Ethnopolitics in Latvia,” Post-Soviet Affairs, Vol. 12, No. 1, 1996, pp. 40–50.Google Scholar
Pettai, V., and Hallik, K., “Understanding Processes of Ethnic Control: Segmentation, Dependency and Co-operation in Post-Communist Estonia,” Nations and Nationalism, Vol. 8, No. 4, 2002, pp. 505–529.Google Scholar
RFE/RL Daily Report, ‘OSCE Official Wants Latvians Language Law to Meet International Norms’, 14 January 1999.Google Scholar
RFE/RL Daily Report, ‘Van der Stoel in Latvia’, 25 May 1999.Google Scholar
RFE/RL Newsline ‘Russia Criticises Revised Language Law’, 15 April 1992.Google Scholar
RFE/RL Newsline ‘More People Naturalised in Latvia in 1997’, 9 January 1998.Google Scholar
RFE/RL Newsline ‘Latvia to Draw Up Guidelines for Integrating Russian-Speakers’, 19 March 1998.Google Scholar
RFE/RL Newsline ‘Latvian Government Approves Citizenship Law Changes’, 7 May 1998.Google Scholar
RFE/RL Newsline ‘Latvian Premier Urges Public Discussion on Integration of Society’, 11 March 1999.Google Scholar
RFE/RL Newsline ‘Latvian Language Law Sent Back to Parliament’, 15 July 1999.Google Scholar
RFE/RL Newsline ‘Latvian Coalition Partners Disagree on State Language Law’, 19 August 1999.Google Scholar
RFE/RL Newsline ‘Latvian Parliament Approves New Language Law’, 10 December 1999.Google Scholar
Schmid, C., Zepa, B. and Snipe, A., “Language Policy and Ethnic Tensions in Quebec and Latvia,” International Journal of Comparative Sociology, Vol. 45, Nos 3–4, 2004, pp. 231–252.Google Scholar
Silver, B. D., “The Status of National Minority Languages in Soviet Education: An Assessment of Recent Changes,” Soviet Studies, Vol. 26, No. 1, 1974, pp. 28–40.Google Scholar
Statistical Yearbook of Latvia 2001 (Riga: Central Statistics Bureau, 2002).Google Scholar
Suny, R., “States, Civil Society, and Ethnic Cultural Consolidation in the USSR - Roots of the National Question,” in Lapidus, G. W., Zaslavsky, V. and Goldman, P., eds, From Union to Commonwealth: Nationalism and Separatism in the Soviet Republics (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1992).Google Scholar
Zaagman, R., Conflict Prevention in the Baltic States: The OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities in Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania (Flensburg, Germany: European Centre for Minority Issues, 1999).Google Scholar
Zaagman, R., and Vetik, R., “Conflict Prevention in the Baltic States: The OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania,” Journal of Baltic Studies, Vol. 33, No. 4, 2002, pp. 456–458.Google Scholar
Zellner, W., On the Effectiveness of the OSCE Minority Regime: Comparative Case Studies on Implementation of the Recommendations of the High Commissioner on National Minorities of the OSCE (Hamburg: Hamburger Beitrage zur Friedensforschung und Sicherheitspolitik, Heft, 1999).Google Scholar
Zepa, B., “Social Thought in the Transition Period: The Dynamics of Latvian and Foreign Points of View,” Latvijas Zinatnu Akademijas Vestis, Vol. 2, 1992, p. 23.Google Scholar