The Nationalization of Latvians and the Issue of Serfdom: The Bal ...

In the decade following the end of the cold war in Europe, there was a renaissance in historical, cultural, and Enlightenment studies of the Baltic states by authors writing in German. This resulted in a substantial increase in publications examining all aspects of Germany’s historical and cultural ties with this region. These publications have contributed greatly to the acknowledgment and recognition of the historical and cultural significance of Germans in this region of Europe. Important contributions have been made in many areas of study, but particularly to the agrarian, constitutional, and sociocultural history of the late eighteenth-century Enlightenment period in the Baltic region. As a result, the issue of serfdom has been critically reexamined in the attempt to formulate an adequate theory of serfdom and social relations through an analysis of the historical causes and forms of serfdom.

The study of agrarian relations and the nationalization of the Latvians in the late eighteenth century has been relevant, given the fact that it echoed certain similarities in post-Soviet Latvia following the reestablishment of national independence in 1991 and the accompanying decollectivization of agriculture. More recently, as Latvia has reorientated towards the West—becoming a willing member of the European Union and NATO—it has again become topical and important to examine the origins of the nationalized modern identity, which, as this study details, has its origins in the late eighteenth-century Livonian agrarian and social reform discourse. While the works examined in this book are principally primary sources from the late 1780s and the 1790s related to the Latvians in the context of the agrarian and social reform discourse in Livonia, an extensive range of secondary literature is also considered and, where particularly pertinent, discussed in greater detail.¹²

Primary Sources

Hupel’s publications—the Topographische Nachrichten von Lief- und Ehstland (1774–1782), Nordische Miscellaneen (1781–1791), and Neue Nordische Miscellaneen (1792–1798)—are referred to extensively, particularly the Nordische Miscellaneen and the Neue Nordische Miscellaneen, given the particular focus of this study in the 1780s and 1790s.