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What Is Balticness?

From "nation branding” to "region branding”: As the current holder of the presidency of the Baltic Council Latvia has developed the concept of "Balticness” in order to market the region more effectively. But what are the ingredients of this shared cultural identity?

It may seem a little strange that it was Latvia that launched the Balticness initiative. For in fact the Estonians, Latvians and Lithuanians hate being lumped together under the label Balts (a designation regarded as dubious because it was coined by the Nazis).

Photo: Laine Zunte, Balticness/ Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Latvia

The three nations are careful to emphasise their differences and never miss an opportunity to throw a spanner in each other's works. It was a Lithuanian, for example, who initially thwarted Latvia's attempt to have the traditional Latvian folksongs known as Dainas included on UNESCO's list of oral cultural heritage. And Lithuania successfully managed to avoid making a joint guest appearance with Latvia at the Frankfurt Book Fair in 2002.

Moving into the Limelight

While in terms of surface area the three Baltic states are not as small as generally thought, they still play a rather marginal role in European, and certainly in global consciousness. So what could be better than a synergy effect to bring themselves a little closer to the limelight? The label "Baltic region” or "Balticness” would seem to fit the bill. By focusing public attention in the general direction of the Baltic, the three states could use this macro-regional entity as a foil to offset their distinctive micro-regional identity. This is by no means a question of disintegration, fragmentation or demarcation. On the contrary: only a nation able to realise its own identity and hence gain recognition and appreciation from others is willing and able to appear on a common stage – that is what an image strategy is all about.

Historic Roots

Historic links between the states certainly make the Baltic region a suitable platform. Of course, the Hanseatic League is the first thing that springs to mind – but that is not the only connecting factor. Back in the eleventh century the Danes used to pray: "Almighty God, preserve us from the Curonians”! Livonia and Riga were under the Swedish crown for the entire seventeenth century (and thrived). East Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Finland all suffered the same fate when Hitler and Stalin carved up Europe between them – the only difference being that Finland managed to resist the Red Army and hence remain part of the Western world. Many Latvians fled across the Baltic to Sweden to escape Soviet terror. Nowadays Latvian authors write their books in Visby, the capital of the Swedish island province of Gotland.
The list could be continued ad infinitum. But what ultimately emerges is a multi-national, sensitive economic region – in which the natural resources exporter Russia plays a not insignificant role – and a shared responsibility for a fragile ecosystem. Do we need any more arguments to prove that Balticness is indeed a weighty concept?

Matthias Knoll

Born in 1963 in Berlin, Matthias Knoll is a translator of Latvian literature and runs the Internet portal www.literatur.lv. He lives in Berlin and ...
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