Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from Memorandum on the Baltic Provinces Question
The population of the Baltic Provinces does not form a single compact Whole, but is composed of several nationalities, not infrequently inimical to one another. In the East (esthonia and part of Livonia) the bulk of the population consists of Esthonians, ethnographically akin to the Finns. The West (the other part of Livonia and Courland) is inhabited by Letts, dis tinct both as to ethnographical origin and national characteris tics. Germans have likewise been living there for several centuries. They form the landowning class and the middle class in the towns. They have always been in the minority, but until the advent of the Russians they were theruling nation, and, strong in their feudal privileges, exploited the local popula tion shamelessly. Hence the animosity and hatred of the Esthonians and Letts towards their oppressors, the landowning barons. The Russians living in these provinces were either tradesmen or Government officials of various departments, who frequently strayed far from the path of moral rectitude. Their relations with the local population were determined principally by the policy of the Russian Government. This policy passed through many stages. Alexander I. Abolished serfdom in the Baltic Provinces in 1803, sixty years before it was done away with in Russia proper. Then, in the middle of the nineteenth century the Russian Government carried out a series of land reforms, considerably extending the rights of Letts and Estho nians in regard to the purchase of land. At the same time the medizeval feudal privileges were repealed; above all, the right of the landlords to judge their subjects. This law reform, by raising the standard of justice and the legal position of the population, naturally weakened the power of the German land lords; nevertheless, until the reign of Alexander III. (1881-1894) the Baltic Provinces outwardly showed the predominance of German in?uence and German culture, which, until the middle of the last century, were very pronounced in the Baltic Pro vinces. The Germans had their own university in Dorpat, their own schools, their own church, their own law and extensive rights of local self-government, with provincial Landtags at the head. A great many Germans were in the Russian service, and at times had great in?uence at Court, this in?uence being invari ably directed to the preservation and strengthening of the auto cratic regime. In the reign of Alcxander III. The situationunderwent a great change. This Tsar frankly disliked Germans. There was a great decline in German Court influence. Alex ander 111. Did not favour the provincial separativeness of the Baltic Germans, and so there came a period of persecution of German institutions and the russification of the Baltic Provinces. A series of measures were taken to cancel and abolish those legal and cultural privileges which had managed to take such a firm hold for generations. The towns got back their old Russian names. Dorpat, the seat of the university, was renamed Uriev, and the university itself was russified. Many of the professors who lectured in German were forced to retire, and went to Germany, * and were replaced by new professors from Russia. The local population, the Letts and Esthonians, greeted this policy of russification with undisguised malicious pleasure. For one thing, it was pleasant to see the oppressors oppressed - those very German landlords who had so long exploited them piti lessly; besides that, thispolicy enabled them to develop their own culture more freely. It is at this period that we find Lettish and Esthonian culture beginning to ?ourish. The Russian Government helped the Letts and Esthonians in every way in the development of their culture, as an offset to the Germans.
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