scholarly journals Keys to Human Development: The Baltic Miracle

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-29
Author(s):  
Walter C. Clemens Jr.
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Human Development ◽  
Former Soviet Union ◽  
Free Market ◽  
Cultural Development ◽  
Self Organization ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Challenges And Opportunities ◽  
Free Thought ◽  
The Baltic

The three Baltic republics—Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania—are the only units of the former Soviet Union to deal effectively with the complex challenges of transitioning to free market democracy with advancing levels of human development. These countries have developed high levels of societal fitness—defined in complexity science as the ability to cope with multifaceted challenges and opportunities. What are the sources of these achievements? Many factors intertwined to produce what some call the “Baltic miracle.” One key element has been the three revolutions stemming from the Protestant mandate to read and discuss the Bible: mass literacy, free thought and repression, and respect for individual dignity. Protestant influences were strongest in what is now Estonia and Latvia, but they reached Lithuania as well. Religiosity in now low in the Baltic republics, as in the Sweden that once nurtured both Christianity and literacy in its Baltic provinces. But the sparks it ignited in centuries past have shaped the rationalist and humanistic ethos of the region. Religion, of course, is just one of the European influences that conditioned economic and other cultural development in the region. But the dates when the Bible reached all of Europe in the vernacular are strong predictors of human development today. Balts also gained from not being occupied by the Golden Horde. On the other hand, they had to overcome several centuries of Russian and then Soviet domination. Fifty years of Communist rule dimmed but did not extinguish the positive qualities that reemerged with great vitality in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. The Baltic transformations were not "managed" from above or from outside—not from Brussels, not from Washington. They were encouraged and supported by Sweden and other European powers, but each transformation emerged from the bottom-up rather than from the top-down or from outside-in. Balts acted synergistically to contribute to the self-organization that is crucial to meeting complex challenges.

Russia and the Use of Trade Policy: Concentration with Soviet Successor States

2017 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 20170068 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carol Lutz ◽  
James Lutz
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Trade Policy ◽  
Former Soviet Union ◽  
Policy Position ◽  
Trade Patterns ◽  
Baltic Countries ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Central Asian ◽  
The Baltic

Economic policy has often been an integral part of foreign policy usage by governments. Many states will use trade, aid, and investment as instruments to attain other objectives deemed to be in the national interest. Albert Hirschman in an early and classic study suggested that governments in the Weimar Republic and Nazi Germany consciously attempted to dominate the trade of weaker states in Europe as a means of enhancing the German foreign policy position. Russian trade policy since the breakup of the Soviet Union has followed a similar policy, especially in regard to the other successor states of the former Soviet Union. Patterns were different for the Baltic countries, other European successor states, the Transcaucasian states, and Central Asian countries. Notwithstanding differences that were present, there was evidence in the trade patterns to indicate that Moscow was using trade policy to gain influence in the successor states.

There are Many Alternatives: Margaret Thatcher in the History of Economic Thought

2002 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 307-311 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bradley W. Bateman
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Former Soviet Union ◽  
Free Market ◽  
The United States ◽  
Economic Thought ◽  
Margaret Thatcher ◽  
The Times ◽  
The Moment ◽  
Investment Boom

The last twenty-five years of the twentieth century were freighted with important moments for historians of economic thought: the collapse of the Keynesian consensus, the rise (and fall) of monetarism, the collapse of the former Soviet Union and the other Marxist-Leninist states in central and eastern Europe, the rise of neo-liberalism, and arguments over the possible emergence of a “New Economy” following the internet investment boom at the end of the 1990s. Each of these moments will require its own history as we slowly move away from the tumult of the times and begin to weigh them for their own significance. But several of the moments have a common iconic face in Margaret Thatcher, the Prime Minister of Great Britain from 1979 to 1990. Few other individuals so readily embody the sense of the times. Thatcher's election—a full year and a half before Ronald Reagan's—marks for many people the moment when Keynesian policies finally and irretrievably lost their legitimacy. Likewise, the timing of her election, just two months before Paul Volcker's selection as the chair of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors in the United States, also means that for many people Thatcher's is the public face of monetarism's ascendancy. Finally, there is probably no one person whose name is so clearly associated with the rise of free market thinking and neo-liberalism during the end of the twentieth century.

A Different Approach to the History of Islam and Muslims in Europe: A North-Eastern Angle, or the Need to Reconsider the Research Field

2010 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 350-373 ◽  
Author(s):  
Göran Larsson ◽  
Egdūnas Račius
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Former Soviet Union ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Research Field ◽  
North Eastern ◽  
History Of ◽  
Muslims In Europe ◽  
The Baltic ◽  
Muslim Communities ◽  
Eastern Baltic

AbstractWhile the ever more strongly felt presence of Muslims in western Europe has already stimulated numerous scholars of various social sciences to embark upon research on issues related to that presence, it is apparent that just a few studies and introductory text books have so far dealt with the evolution of Muslim communities in other parts of Europe, especially in countries of central, eastern, and northern Europe. Without appreciation of and comprehensive research into the more than six-hundred-year-long Muslim presence in the eastern Baltic rim the picture of the development of Islam and Muslim-Christian relations in Europe remains incomplete and even distorted. Therefore, this article argues for the necessity of approaching the history of Islam and Muslims in Europe from a different and ultimately more encompassing angle by including the minorities of Muslim cultural background that reside in the countries of the European part of the former Soviet Union—the Baltic states and Belarus. Besides arguing that it is necessary to reconsider and expand the research field in order to develop more profound studies of Islam and Muslims in Europe, the article also outlines suggestions as to why the Muslim history in the eastern Baltic rim has been generally excluded from the history of Islam in Europe.

Post-Austrian Lemberg: War Commemoration, Interethnic Relations, and ban Identity in Lľviv, 1918-1939

2003 ◽  
Vol 34 ◽  
pp. 83-102 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Veronika Wendland
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Urban History ◽  
Former Soviet Union ◽  
Eastern European ◽  
City Development ◽  
Interethnic Relations ◽  
European Cities ◽  
Number Of Publications ◽  
The Baltic ◽  
Multiethnic Societies

East and east central European cities are a neglected field of research in urban history. While a certain number of publications exist on select urban phenomena such as urban Jewry, only recently have attempts been made to focus research on entire cities. Studies published in the last decade have tried to discover the unknown urban world of multiethnic societies in countries such as Russia, Poland, Ukraine, and the Baltic states. Researchers must cope with specific problems. General city histories are very rare, with the exception of several “city biographies” dating from the 1920s and 1930s. Archival sources are rather poorly documented in inventories, and holdings (especially on the territory of the former Soviet Union) suffered wartime losses and are often scattered. Multilingual skills and knowledge of “exotic” languages such as Ukrainian, Lithuanian, or Yiddish are mandatory. And finally, the usual approaches do not lead to satisfactory results. “Traditional” urban history deals with Western European and North American urban societies that were shaped by a special set of social, economic, and juridical circumstances, in which longstanding city autonomy, rapid modernization since the eighteenth century, a powerful city bourgeoisie, and highly developed and differentiated public spheres played important roles. When one applies the standards of Western city development to the multinational Central and Eastern European cities during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the latter appear to be underdeveloped and lacking in many of the institutional preconditions that make a mere urban agglomeration a city. Such considerations may even be applied to a city such as Lemberg (L'viv in Ukrainian, Lwow in Polish), which belonged to Austria-Hungary until 1918, and was always regarded as a stronghold of “Vienneseness” and “Europeaness” in the “East.”

scholarly journals Human Development index and Informatisation of Society in CIS

2010 ◽  
Vol 13 (13) ◽  
pp. 79-87
Author(s):  
Irina Rodionova ◽  
Anastasia Gordeeva
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Human Development ◽  
Human Development Index ◽  
Former Soviet Union ◽  
Considerable Extent ◽  
Calculation Methods ◽  
Development Index ◽  
Know How ◽  
Independent States ◽  
In Cis

Human Development index and Informatisation of Society in CIS Knowledge and know-how of calculation methods of indicators and indices allow to evaluate, compare and correlate if not fully then to a considerable extent the situation in different countries and regions of the world. Moreover, in countries with "transitional economy" to which Russia and other countries of former Soviet Union are attributed to, the situation has significantly changed and it is necessary to adjust the directions and perspectives of development considering the changed environment.The article characterizes a position of Russia and other CIS's countries (Commonwealth of Independent States) on the international rating of Human Development Index and Networked Readiness Index.

The Baltic States

2019 ◽  
pp. 171-209
Author(s):  
Katherine Graney
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Human Development ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
European Community ◽  
Baltic States ◽  
National Unity ◽  
The Baltic ◽  
The Eu

This chapter examines the successful “return to Europe” by the three Baltic states, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. It details how they presented European gatekeepers in the EU and NATO with expertly shaped historical and cultural-civilizational narratives that cast the Baltic states as “essentially European” states that had been “captured” by the alien Soviet Union in 1939, hence worthy of “rejoining” a European community they had been unjustly severed from. Skilled leadership and high levels of human development and national unity also helped ease the Baltic return to Europe. The chapter discusses the Baltics’ key role in pushing for an expanded understanding of Europe that would encompass other ex-Soviet states like Ukraine and Georgia, while denying Europeanness to Russia, which is seen as a threat to Europe. Case studies of each of the three Baltic states detail their specific Europeanization processes since 1989.

scholarly journals Surveillance of anti-tuberculosis drug resistance in Europe, 1999

2002 ◽  
Vol 7 (6) ◽  
pp. 93-100 ◽  
Author(s):  
A Infuso ◽  
D Antoine ◽  
P Barboza ◽  
D Falzon ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Drug Resistance ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Former Soviet Union ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Previous Treatment ◽  
Foreign Born ◽  
Baltic States ◽  
Representative Data ◽  
Foreign Origin ◽  
The Baltic

With the exception of Israel, representative data from Western and Central Europe indicate consistently low levels of resistance to isoniazid (0-9,3%) or rifampicin (0-2,1%) and of multidrug resistance (0-2,1%) among new tuberculosis (TB) cases. Resistance is more frequent among previously treated cases, but comparisons of data should be done cautiously, as criteria for inclusion in TB notifications may vary across countries. In Western Europe, drug resistance is more frequent among cases of foreign origin, a group with high TB incidence. In 1999, cases of foreign origin accounted for over 90% of the MDR cases in the West, and for all MDR cases notified in Israel. The majority of foreign born cases notified originated from Africa or Asia. In the East, representative data from the Baltic States show that overall, 15% of TB cases notified in 1999 were MDR, among the highest proportion worldwide and indicating inadequacies in previous treatment programmes. In the other countries of the former Soviet Union, non-representative data show high levels of resistance which, along with data from the Baltic states and results of surveys, are very alarming.

Tolerating Economic Reform: Popular Support for Transition to a Free Market in the Former Soviet Union

1993 ◽  
Vol 87 (3) ◽  
pp. 590-608 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raymond M. Duch
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Former Soviet Union ◽  
Free Market ◽  
Market Reform ◽  
Communist Regime ◽  
Market Reforms ◽  
Popular Support ◽  
Market Culture ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Free Market Reforms

The mass public in the Soviet Union is not enthusiastic about free-market reform. How, then, do citizens in a former communist regime develop an appreciation for free-market reforms? Different explanations for attitudes toward free market reforms are tested using data from a survey of the European USSR conducted in May 1990. First, negative assessments of recent economic performance is a catalyst for popular support for the market economy. Although very underdeveloped, there is a nascent free-market culture in the Soviet Union that makes a modest contribution to support for free-market reforms. The free-market culture that is developing in the former Soviet Union resembles that of social democracy, rather than laissez-faire capitalism. Democratic values and support for free markets are mutually reinforcing, suggesting that support for democracy makes a very important contribution to support for free-market reform.

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