Features

Features offer in-depth accounts of issues related to the region without prior peer-review process.

baltic sea library about “Balticness”

The Baltic Sea Library is a web-based literary project run by a group of editors from all the countries surrounding the Baltic Sea, plus Iceland. The website resembles an anthology and contains poetry, novel excerpts, and other genres in all the literatures of the region. The unifying aspect is something the editors call “Balticness”, and each text is accompanied by an explanation of its connection to the Baltic Sea.

By Unn Gustafsson June 27, 2012

among wine and walnut growers. in the poorest country in europe

A journey through Gagauzia, where walnuts and wine are important industries.

By Torgny Hinnemo April 12, 2012

icon writing. A journey through time

It’s hard to say whether the revival of icons is the outcome of rising religiosity in general, a growing need to manifest one’s faith, or simply the search for some kind of salvation in a time of political and economic uncertainty. Nancy Westman went to St. Petersburg for a closer study of modern iconography; she also spoke to a couple of Swedish iconographers.

By Nancy Westman April 10, 2012

Lost in Transition?

Croatia is finally at the doorstep of the EU. Now the door is open and there is no need to knock and wait to get in. Croatia will be part of Eu and be able to participate and be active in social, economic and political projects of common interest.

By Slavenka Drakulic March 26, 2012

spomeniks symbolism gone for good?

Spomeniks are monuments commemorating the World War  II dot the landscape: gigantic futuristic creations that in some cases have been spared destruction.

By Sara Bergfors January 16, 2012

Survival Kit festival in Riga art against crisis

When the shops in the center of Riga emptied out in the wake of the economic crisis, the artists were given free reign over the spaces – the result was an art festival.

By Kathrin Bernard January 16, 2012

Report from Aurora Fashion Week Russia russian glamour in competition

The fact that Moscow and St. Petersburg house in total five fashion events every season makes one think that the fashion business is considered attractive and economically sound in Russia. However, despite the growth of the Russian fashion market since the 1990s, the fashion industry is losing ground to other promising fashion hubs.

By Ekaterina Kalinina January 16, 2012

Revisiting Kaliningrad and Its Region

The city of Kaliningrad itself with its 450,000 inhabitants has acquired a European face. New buildings and shops have appeared all over the center, and the modern shopping malls are packed with both imported and Russian products, marked and sold with electronic bar codes.

By Ingmar Oldberg January 9, 2012

TOO MUCH NITROGEN OR TOO MUCH PHOSPHORUS? CONTROVERSY IN BALTIC waters

Scientists have not always agreed on either the causes or the possibility of restoring the cloudy, fish-poor, partially oxygen-deficient, algae-blooming, oil-slicked Baltic Sea. Wherein lies the disagreement? There seem to be two main controversies: 1. The Baltic Sea is eutrophic. Or is the Baltic Sea not eutrophic? 2. Algae blooms are controlled by the nutrient phosphorus. Or is the bloom controlled by both phosphorus and nitrogen?

By Ann-Louise Martin October 3, 2011

Inventing Galicia The province that became a project

Even though, with the dissolution of Austria-Hungary, Galicia ceased to exist, the idea of Galicia has a kind of ghostly presence in contemporary politics. The area was incorporated in 1919—1923 in the resurrected Polish state, only to be divided twenty years later between Germany and the Soviet Union as a result of the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact. This cleaving in two endured through the “shift” of Poland westwards after the Second World War. East Galicia became part of Soviet Ukraine and thereafter of independent Ukraine.

By Anders Hammarlund October 3, 2011