A scholarly journal from the Centre for Baltic and East European Studies (CBEES) Södertörn University, Stockholm.
Issue 2025, 2: Download.
Edward Kasinec is a Research Associate, Harriman Institute, Columbia University and, since 2014 Visiting Fellow, Hoover Institution, Stanford University. His career includes service as Reference Librarian/Archivist and Staff Advisor in Exhibitions in several prestigious institutions. Since 1969, Kasinec has published more than two hundred refereed articles and books.
Nathaniel Knight is a Professor of History and Chair of the History Department at Seton Hall University. Has published extensively on issues of ethnicity, race and the history of the human sciences in Imperial Russia.
Baltic Worlds will be commenting on the parliamentary and presidential elections taking place in countries around the Baltic Sea region and in Eastern Europe. The comments and analyses, written by researchers and in a few cases by expert journalists, present the parties, the candidates and the main issues of the election, as well as analyze the implications of the results. First out: a report from the election in Poland this summer.
The Polish domestic political scene since the presidential election has been characterized by much sharper political divisions than before the disaster in Smolensk on April 10. At no time since 1989, have the tone of debate and the accusations been as hostile as now. Jaroslaw Kaczynski may have lost the presidential election, but because of the disaster in Smolensk and the good election results, he emerged politically stronger from the campaign. He has now set his sights on the next election campaigns in Poland. In November, municipal elections will be held, including politically important direct elections to mayoral positions in the cities of Poland. Next year it will be time for election to the Polish Sejm. All indications suggest that the strong differences of opinion and the angry tone of Polish politics will continue until the parliamentary election, although some hold hopes that somewhat cooler political winds may blow across the country after the municipal election this fall.
Ann-Cathrine Jungar co-ordinate Baltic Worlds’ election coverage, on elections taking place in countries around the Baltic Sea region and in […]
On June 24, 2010 Regeringsrätten, Sweden’s Supreme Administrative Court, reached a verdict, marking a victory for Professor Birgitta Almgren’s research. Both the Swedish Security Service (Säpo) and the Stockholm Administrative Court of Appeal had rejected Professor Almgren's request to obtain the classified documents from the GDR's foreign espionage that the CIA sent to Säpo.
ICCEES’ (International Council for Central and Eastern European Studies) Eight World Congress “Eurasia: Prospects for Wider Communication” took place in Stockholm, Sweden in July 2010. Host was the Swedish Society for the Study of Russia, Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia (Sällskapet ). Here you may read Mikhail Gorbachev´s speech, presented at the Opening Ceremony by Pavel Palazhchenko, advisor and interpreter to Mikhail Gorbachev. Also available is an essay based on Professor Archie Browns key note lecture “Gorbachev and Perestroika: a 25th Anniversary Perspective”. The Opening Ceremony and a discussion between Archie Brown, Jack Matlock, author and US ambassador in Moscow 1987‐1991 and Pavel Palazhchenko is published as video films here.
Gorbachev here emphasize that the essence of glasnost was a real dialogue between authorities and society. The dialogue, he argues here, required a rejection of all forms of censorship and pressure on the mass media, the existence of rights for freedom of assembly, meetings and demonstrations, freedom of conscience, and the creation of public organisations. All this was done in the perestroika years according to Gorbachev.
Professor Archie Brown argues that Gorbachev was not selected as General Secretary because he was a reformer. He did at the time he became party leader believe both that the system was reformable and that it must be reformed. But he did not, however, reveal the full extent of his existing reformism on the eve of perestroika.
A close reading of Ginzburg’s diaries shows how a fight against a shrinking living space is conducted on two levels: the purely physical fight for survival during the famine in Leningrad and the intellectual fight in a cultural environment increasingly dictated.
In the 1960s, the Soviets took up a rivalry with the US in a hitherto new field, industrial design. ElektroMera was a grandiose effort to produce utilities for everyday use: an effort that nonetheless was never realized in the form of finished products.
The development of a system for producing Russian fashion clothing, along with the discussion surrounding this venture into fashion, is described here. The GUM department store established a studio and hired designers. The quality and wealth of ideas was often poor, but demand grew steadily.