Features of the Baltic Sea Region

1. Features of the Baltic Sea Region

2. the origins of the BSR • the entire BR was covered by a Pleistocene ice sheet • some 20,000 to 15,000 years BC the ice sheet retreated, biological life established • early inhabitants of the BR were probably nomadic hunters and gatherers • approximately 6,000 BC the climate was considerably warmer than it is today • probably in the Bronze Age (4,000 BC) agriculture and animal husbandry were gradually introduced

3. Settlement based on languages present in the region • Connected with the Great Migration process • The origins of Estonian, Finish (and Hungarian) languages are to be found amongst the ancient tribes that settled the taiga region of northern Russia (nomadic hunters) • Saami people represent an indigenous people in northern Scandinavia – ancestors of the Saami must have been isolated from other human populations that make them uniquely different; Swedes and Norwegians gradually colonized the north and forced Saami people further north • Indo-European family of languages includes a wide range of interrelated languages spoken throughout Europe, Iran and northern India

4. Theories explaining a wide range of family of languages • the original Indo-European language speakers spread to Europe and to India by military conquest • there is an approach that e.g Fino-Ugric language as well as Basque were spoken in Europe before the diffusion of the Indo-European tongues; • Colin Renfrew’s theory – the spread of the Indo-European languages was related to the very transition from an economy based on hunting and gathering to one based on agriculture and animal husbandry

5. Baltic region language groups • Baltic group is more closely related to the Slavic family of languages than it is to the Germanic languages • in ancient times Baltic languages seem to have been spoken by tribes living south of the Finno-Ugric speakers and north of Slavic speaking peoples • Germanic languages was spoken by Germanic peoples inhabitting the country north of the Roman empire in central and eastern Europe • Western Slavs and Eastern Slavs migrated to the southern shores of the Baltic, encountered and assimilated Baltic and Finish tribes as they spread north • Since the 15th century until WW II the southern part of the Baltic region was the spiritual and cultural centre of Judaism • there is no other part of the world, apart Israel where so many Jews have lived for such a long time • Yiddish developed into a distinct language

6. The region under religion division 1) between East and West – the “Icon Wall” - Western Churche under the leadership of Rome and the Eastern Churche under the Constatinopole • taken as a symbol of eastern liturgy and churche architecture • the borderline follows the western border of Russia-Belarus-Ukraine 2) between North and South (drown in the 16th century during the Reformation • Protestantism is dominant in Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Estonia • In Germany the dividing line goes from North West (Protestantism) to South East (the Roman Catholic Churche) • In Poland and Lithuania Catholicism is dominant

7. Russian influence the neighboring areas with its religion • in Ukraine there is the boundary between East and West dividing Uniates from members of the Orthodox Church (1596 – Brest-Litovsk Union) • There are members of the Orthodox Church in Finland • The presence of the Orthodox Church in the three Baltic republics mainly upon the Russian incorporation since 18th century (the policy of the Russian emperors) • 1929 Freedom for religious cult and anti-religious propaganda – obstruction work of the church, atheistic world view

8. WW II influence on the religious diversity of the region • Jews has nearly disappeared from the region and their places of cult • The repatriation and mass deportation of the German population from East Prussia where Russian dominance was established (Königsberg – Kaliningrad) • The impact of labor migrants and refugees contributing religious pluralism (especially in Sweden)

9. The formal position of the church in different countries and its role • In the West, by the end of the 19th century a close ralationship between the state and the dominant church appeared (after the WW I a turning point) • In Germany “separation between church and state’ proclaimed in the Weimar Constitution of 1919; the church taxes collected by means of the state • At the end of the 20th century the Swedish state-church system came to an end • in the East restrictions aimed to the Church turned into Roman Catholicism getting stronger especially in Poland and Lithuania and became a national force against communism • after Soviet Union collapse (and some time before) restoration and turning to the church appeared in Russia

10. the cultural map of BR under the European/ World Value Study • Four different cultural zones • “Protestant Europe” zone (the Nordic countries and Germany) • “Ex-communist Baltic” zone (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania) • “Orthodox” zone (Russia) • “Catholic Europe” (Poland) • Similarities with regard to importance to secular-rational values • Differences with regard to different kind of self-expression values

11. BSR and social capital and traditional conservative values • With regard to traditional-conservative values the Baltic countries seems fairly similar except Poland • On social capital three Nordic countries score highest, while Russia, Latvia, Estonia and Poland score lowest • Russia, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania can be said to be more similar to Germany than to the Nordic countries • Poland can be seen as a kind of cultural outsider in the Baltic context, scoring comparably high on the traditional-conservative values and low on social capital. • In the Nordic countries the levels of social trust are about three or four times higher compared to Estonia, Latvia, Russia, Poland • More people are socially engaged in the Nordic countries, demonstrate a post-materialist values • Religion is more important in Poland, Lithuania compared to Estonia, Denmark or Sweden • A traditional view on family life is expressed of about 90% of the Polish population as compared to only one third in Sweden and Denmark

12. areas of cultural exchange in BSR • Scandinavian Europe • The Baltic Area (countries that gained independence after 1991) • The Area of Unified Germany and Poland