ABSTRACTS | Bulwark against the East or Imperial Outpost? Baltic Germans in the Russian Empire

Bulwark against the East or Imperial Outpost? Baltic Germans in the Russian Empire 7–8 February 2025 Yale University, Luce Hall (34 Hillhouse Ave), room 203 ABSTRACTS A “Balcony” to Control Europe or a “German Fortress” on Russian National Territory? Changing Perception of the Baltic Provinces in the Late Tsarist Empire Prof. Karsten Brüggemann (Tallinn University) This paper discusses the changing modes of Russian perceptions of the culturally diverse Baltic littoral during the age of nationalism. Beginning in the 1820s, Russian texts discovered the “Russian Germany” on the shores of the Baltic Sea and portrayed as a medieval wonderland with castles, knights and tournaments. This imagined European past on tsarist territory significantly contributed to the self-image of imperial elites as being in charge of a European empire. Towards the 1840s, however, this perception of a mutually beneficial Russo-German idyll in the Baltic provinces was challenged by the nationalism of the local populations. Increasingly, foreignness in terms of culture, societal organization, and ethnic composition was seen as a potential threat to the unity of the empire. What followed was a re-definition of mutual relations. Instead of the traditional pre-modern alliance of the aristocracies, a vision of a national empire was created, in which “Russian foundations” were to be fostered in non-Russian regions. The Baltic Germans, previously seen as an important social group contributing to the Europeanization of the whole empire, were now increasingly portrayed as unjust intruders who had violently prevented the full merger of the indigenes (tuzemtsy) of the region with the Rus’ in the thirteenth century. This research makes use of the increasing numbers of publications that served to introduce the Baltic lands and peoples to the Russian-reading public from the 1860s onwards. As will be shown, these drew the traditional picture of peasant nations that sooner or later were expected to become Russian. Thus, these non-scholarly publications essentially gave a colonialist view of Baltic populations, with the Baltic Germans assigned the role of potential enemies of the state. Baltic German Responses to Imperial Russia’s Judicial Reform, 1860–1917 Dr. Patrick Monson (Brigham Young University-Idaho, Rexburg) In 1862, Tsar Alexander II proclaimed the progressive Basic Principles of Judicial Reform, which heralded the introduction of lawyers; oral, adversarial procedure; judicial independence; and more. Much, however, was left unclear about how these principles should be applied to the borderlands, where non-Russian elites often administered and controlled local legal systems. How did Baltic Germans respond to these proposals? Many Baltic Germans, as well as some central officials, recognized and emphasized that the local courts already observed many tenets of the reforms and were even superior in some respects. This paper argues that while many Baltic Germans urged the retention of local autonomy, many wanted to implement various aspects of the reforms to make the legal system more inclusive of non-elites. Some prominent Baltic German jurists even argued for greater oversight by the central government, indicating 1