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To this end, this work employs an interdisciplinary approach with particular emphasis on historiography and comparative historical and anthropological methods of the late eighteenth century.
My evaluation, therefore, necessitates a reconsideration of the implications that the transformation of the agrarian and social reform discourse had for the cultural, social, and national identity of the Latvian peasantry in the latter half of the eighteenth and first half of the nineteenth century. This, therefore, entails not only a comparative historical analysis of the contemporary writers of the 1780s and 1790s in Livonia with that of the cumulative historical record upheld in both German and Latvian scholarly literature, but also the careful consideration of how the introduction of a historical, anthropological, and ethnographical dimension transformed—and subsequently “nationalized”—the Livonian agrarian and social reform discourse in the 1790s. This is important as it contributes to the investigation of the historical, anthropological, and ethnographical discourse initiated by Germans, especially in relation to issues such as serfdom and the national characteristics of peoples in eastern Europe that took place in Germany from the 1770s to the 1790s. This had important implications for the way cultures, nations, and societies—including those in western Europe—were understood. This is then considered within the context of Livonia as a case study. Thus the argument presented in this book to assess the nationalization of the Latvians is historical, descriptive, and analytical. The evidence substantiates the argument that a nationalization of the Latvians was strongly enhanced through a discourse critically describing the historical origins and the national character and identity of the Latvians and ascribing ethnicity and language as determinants of social station and status.
Background and Discussion
Feodor Dostoyevsky, in his novel Crime and Punishment, crystallized a perception of a Livonian peasant and the extreme hardship of serfdom in Livonia, although he was writing many years after the institution of serfdom in Livonia had been abolished.