Slavonic and East European Review

SEER, 94, 3, july 2016 540 Kalnins, Mara. Latvia: A Short History. Hurst & Company, London, 2015. xxviii + 237 pp. Maps. Illustrations. Glossary. Chronology. Selected bibliography. Notes. Index. £17.99 (paperback). Hurst has published some notable books about the Baltic region. They include Georg von Rauch’s classic history of the independent Baltic States and John Hiden’s path-breaking biography of Paul Schiemann. Unfortunately Kalnins’s book does not really fit in with this company. While Latvia: A Short History might be a useful ‘read’ for those who know little or nothing about the Baltic region, it won’t satisfy those looking for a bit more depth and insight. The rather superficial feel of the book is surprising. The author tells us that her mother and father fled Latvia in 1944, in the face of advancing Soviet troops, and that the latter joined the Latvian Legation to Washington D.C. in 1950. As the child of first generation immigrants, Kalnins was brought up speaking English, German and Latvian, and came to experience her Latvian identity in cultural and emotional terms. She tells us that ‘the language, the songs, the myths and folklore’ penetrated deep into her consciousness (pp. 203–04). As a result, despite taking on the habits of the countries where she lived, she also grew up to feel ‘distinctively Latvian’ (p. 204). The stated purpose of the text fits well will Kalnins’s autobiographical comments. It is to plot the origins and development of ‘this Eastern European nation’, how it survived during long period of ‘conquest and oppression’, how it became independent, and its position in the twenty-first century as a member of the EU (p. xxviii). Just to make sure no one misses the personal quality that the author brings to the topic, she dedicates her work to ‘The People of Latvia’. The aim of writing a complete history of the Latvian nation is ambitious, particularly for a book that weighs in at just a little over 200 pages of text. Sure enough, however, Latvia: A Short History starts out discussing the world at the end of the Ice Age and in eight essentially chronological chapters moves to the present day. Certainly Kalnins brings a sense of enjoyment to her discussion of ancient and medieval history as it concerned events in the Baltic region. Less certain, however, is whether the discussion tells us very much at all about ‘Latvians’ as such. Baltic peoples may well crop up now and again in the pages of ancient chroniclers, but this book does not really fill out a picture of them in a way that is satisfying. Similarly, in due course we read a lot about the Teutonic Knights, but not so much about Latvians. On other occasions, opportunities to expand on our understanding of the Latvian nation are left to one side in a way that seems strange. That’s to say, Kalnins highlights the importance of the dainas collected by Krisjanis Barons but does not tell us what they actually say. Likewise she talks about the growth of publications written in Latvian in the nineteenth century but, once again, doesn’t tell us about their contents. Hence REVIEWS 541 the reader is denied the possibility of understanding that much more closely something of the substance of Latvian identity. Of course the book does contain some interesting material. For instance, we learn of the founding of a Baltic University in Hamburg in 1945 and the fact that it soon enrolled 1,200 students (p. 154). Unfortunately, however, the book also says a number of things that are of much less value. Some readers will scratch their heads at a sentence reading, ‘When Adolf Hitler came to power as president of Germany on 19 August 1934’ (p. 139). (Surely the ‘seizure of power’ had begun the previous year?) That the Baltic States managed to overcome serious economic problems in the late 2000s is said to be ‘greatly to the credit and hard work of their peoples, who stoically endured the necessary austerity measures’ (p. 198). The comments barely qualify as scholarly analysis. But maybe Kalnins had to cut corners on account of running out of words towards the end...