Features

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

From brain drain to brain gain

Eastern and Central Europe are seeing emigrants returning. The trend for more people to return to their home countries started as a trickle before Brexit and the pandemic — but has grown over the last couple of years. Over the last 30 years the opposite trend has been the rule: Lithuania and Latvia have lost close to 25% of their citizens since 1990; Bulgaria and Romania approximately 20%. In Poland, over two million people have left, primarily to the UK, Germany, France, and Ireland. Of course, over the years, some people have returned, although those leaving have always outnumbered those returning. Until now.

By Påhl Ruin October 25, 2021

The Nobel Prize and Russia

Russia’s relationship with the Nobel Prize in literature has always been dramatic. This, of course, is connected with the enormous and fundamental role the Word has played in Russian society. Contributing to the fascination surrounding the prize is surely the fact that the Nobel family, some of whom even spoke Russian, had such close ties to Russia.

By Magnus Ljunggren April 22, 2021

The case of Yurii Dmitriev and the case of Russian Karelia

This commentary aims to provide a context for the Dmitriev “affair” by presenting Karelia, its people, its history and its economic and political development. At the end of the text, some comparative conclusions for Russia in general are drawn. The commentary is primarily based on Russian press and official material, as well as on Finnish research.

By Ingmar Oldberg April 22, 2021

The protests in Belarus and the future of the LGBTQ+ community

In the ongoing protests in Belarus against Alexander Lukashenka and the sitting regime, the LGBTQ+ community walks alongside other demonstrators, with a common wish to see a regime change.

By Marina Henrikson April 22, 2021

Traces of Jewish life. In the eyes of the German soldiers

The photo albums from German soldiers during WW II have, 75 years after the war’s ending, increasingly been auctioned off at internet auctions. Several photo albums contain traces of Eastern Europe’s Jewish life and how this is suddenly set against the rapidly emerging terror. Throughout many of the images, the photographer’s gaze is on something that is seen as inferior, laughable, exotic, war tourists’ motives worth documenting to show them at home: Eastern European Jews.

By Peter Handberg April 21, 2021

Girjas Sami Village vs. the Swedish State Breakthrough for indigenous people

Reindeer herding Sami won huge success when the Supreme Court last year gave the Sami village Girjas the right to decide on hunting and fishing within the village boundaries. Now the Sami hope to have a greater influence over land use also in other areas, such as mining and construction of wind farms. But the prospects there are not as good.

By Påhl Ruin April 21, 2021

Repetition of Silence Monuments for a new time

When we look at our monuments, why is there so much presence and, at the same time, so much absence? Or is there not enough presence and not enough absence? Or is there too much presence and not enough absence? Or is there not enough presence and too much absence? And what can we do about this (dis)balance?

By Paulina Pukyté February 15, 2021

The voices of women across the generations

In this article the author, a multidisciplinary artist, reflects on the process of making the video project Red, 2015, (21:45 min.) and a sound installation The White Wall, 2015 (9:30 min.) about post-Soviet times and transgenerational silence about experiences with the Soviet Union.

By Kati Roover February 15, 2021

A city of amnesia Marcin Kącki’s Białystok. White Power. Black Memory

In his book of reportage: Białystok. White Power, Black Memory Marcin Kącki documents oblivion and denial of the memory of the former Jewish inhabitants of the city; paradoxically, it is also a call for this memory to be restored. In other words, we are dealing here with the two basic attitudes and forms of remembering historical trauma, distinguished by LaCapra: The first results in the process of “working-through”; the other is based on denial and results in “acting-out”.

By Jan Miklas-Frankowski February 15, 2021

Jānis Lipke. A hero of Latvian history

This article will present the story of Jānis (Žanis) Lipke, a Latvian man living an ordinary life who became a national hero by saving fifty-five Jews from the brutality of the Nazi regime.

By Michela Romano October 7, 2020