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Ostsee provinces as the outlying West of the Russian Empire in the 18th century. Ostsee provinces (1845) Baltic provinces of the Russian Empire

And as a result of the third partition of Poland (Courland province).

Until the middle of the 19th century, the provinces had significant autonomy and, until the end of their existence, retained a part of the legal system separate from the general imperial legal system. In 1915-1918. the provinces were occupied by German troops; independent Latvian and Estonian states arose on their former territory, and a small part of the Courland province (the extreme south-west of its territory with the city of Palanga) went to Lithuania.

background

From the 13th to the 16th century, the territory of the future Baltic provinces was part of the crusades Livonian Confederation. During this period, such features as the dominance of Western Christianity (initially Catholicism, then Lutheranism) and Baltic Germans in the society were formed in the region. After the Livonian War, Estonia belonged to Sweden (Swedish Estonia; Ezel briefly belonged to Denmark), Courland - to the Commonwealth, Livonia - originally to Poland (as part of the Zadvinsky Duchy), but in the 17th century it was conquered by Sweden (Swedish Livonia).

North War

Petrovsky provinces

Catherine's provinces

The Livland Rules of 1804 abolished the former serfdom, replacing it with a system of subordination of peasants to landlords according to the Prussian model

The abolition of serfdom in the Ostsee provinces occurred earlier than in the Great Russian - under Alexander the First (1816 mainland Estland 1817 Courland 1818 Ezel 1819 Livonia), but the peasants were freed without land.

Control Features

As part of the Russian Empire, the Baltic provinces had a special status. The basis of their management was local legislation (“Code of Local Laws of the Ostsee Provinces”), according to which the internal administration of the region was carried out by the nobility along with government agencies. Although the sphere of competence of the latter expanded from the end of the 18th century, until the outbreak of World War I, the governor, as a representative of the central government, was forced to organize his official activities in such a way as not to violate the privileges of the Baltic nobility.

The question of the relationship between the general imperial and local legislation in the Baltic provinces was actively discussed by Russian lawyers in the 1830s-1890s. Local (Ostsee) jurists, representing the school of a prominent representative of the Baltic-German law school F. von Bunge, insisted that only laws specially issued for him could be valid in the region, and from Russians, only those whose distribution to the Baltic states was specifically stipulated. The Bunge school allowed the application of general imperial legislation only if the applied norms corresponded to the foundations of the local legal order, and only when there was a gap in the Baltic.

In the late 1890s, P. I. Belyaev acted as an opponent of the Bunge school. In his opinion, general imperial law was in force in the region, and he considered the Baltic laws as part of Russian legislation. This concept justified government intervention in social and economic relations in the Baltics.

Literature

Alexy II, Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus'. The question of the privileges of the Livonian nobility // Orthodoxy in Estonia. - M..

Mikhailova Yu. L. The Ostsee question in the Russian press and journalism on the eve and during the Franco-Prussian war of 1870-1871. // Baltic region in international relations XVIII-XX centuries: Abstracts of the international conference.

Sergeev S. Imperial Mamluks.

Andreeva N. S."Ostsee question" in the policy of the Russian Empire (1900 - February 1917) // St. Petersburg Institute of History of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Abstract diss..

Andreeva N. S."Ostsee question" in the domestic policy of the Russian government (early XX century) // St. Petersburg Institute of History of the Russian Academy of Sciences..

Tuchtenhagen, Ralph Ostsee provinces in the 18th century.

Notes

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(Research within the framework of the virtual workshop "Power and society in the political and ethno-confessional space of Russia: history and modernity".)

The Baltic provinces within the Russian Empire had a special status: general management they carried out on the basis of local legislation - the Code of Local Laws of the Ostsee provinces, which fixed the specific features of the administrative structure of the region. They consisted in the fact that the functions of internal administration of the region were carried out by the bodies of the nobility along with government agencies. Despite the steady since the end of the 18th century. expanding the sphere of competence of the latter, the governor, who was a representative of the central government, until the outbreak of the First World War, was forced to organize his official activities in such a way as not to violate the privileges of the nobility.

The question of the relationship between the general imperial and local legislation in the Ostsee provinces (i.e., could the norms of Russian law and in what cases could apply there) is not an easy one. This problem was actively discussed by Russian and Baltic lawyers in the 30-90s of the 19th century. According to Baltic jurists, who in this respect relied on the theory substantiated by F. von Bunge, a prominent representative of the Baltic German law school (he led the codification of local legislation), only laws issued specifically for him could be valid in the region, and from Russian only those which were specifically reserved for the Baltic states. The application of the general imperial legislation was allowed (provided that the applied norms corresponded to the basics of the local legal order) only when there was a gap in the Baltic legislation.

This point of view was criticized by the lawyer P.I. Belyaev in the late 90s of the 19th century, according to whom general imperial law was in force in the region, the Baltic laws were part of Russian legislation, and there was no special local legal order there2. This concept fully justified the intervention of the government in the Baltic social and economic relations.

On the whole, the Ostsee provinces before the First World War were governed on the basis of the Code of Local Laws and laws issued especially for them (which were included in the continuation of the Code). As practice showed, the legislative activity of the government in relation to the Baltic states was based on principles close to the theory of F. von Bunge. However, in the 19th century there was a tendency (in particular, the jurist Baron B.E. Nolde pointed to it) of replacing local law with general imperial law,3 which indicated the gradual unification of the Baltic states with the indigenous Russian provinces.

1. The role of the nobility in the management of the region.

Due to the fact that the Baltic nobility was the main social pillar of the special status of the Baltic States within the state, it seems necessary to dwell in detail on the characterization of its role in local government.

Unification measures of the government of the late 70-80s. 19th century, directly affected the fundamental interests of the Baltic-German nobility. So, in 1877, the Baltic provinces were extended city position 1870, which liquidated the medieval guilds and workshops and rebuilt the city government on purely bourgeois principles. In 1888, a police reform was implemented, replacing the estate police institutions with state ones (however, at the same time, the volost and manor police remained; the right of the manor police lasted until 1916); followed in 1889 judicial reform, which extended the judicial charters of 1864 to the Baltic provinces (however, the institution of jurors was never introduced here). Laws of 1886 and 1887 public schools and teacher's seminaries were withdrawn from the jurisdiction of the nobility and passed under the control of the Ministry of Public Education. The Russian language was finally introduced as the language of correspondence between government and local class institutions, as well as among the latter (the transition to this was carried out from 1850)4.

Despite the fact that all these government reforms significantly curtailed the competence of the chivalry (organizations of the Baltic nobility), removing court cases, the police, and the management of rural schools from their jurisdiction, it still remained quite wide. The knighthoods continued to enjoy important, as they were called in journalism, "political rights": the right to participate in the management of the Lutheran Church of the provinces and the empire (a number of its highest positions were filled by representatives of the Baltic nobility), and leadership of the zemstvo affairs and, thus, retained their decisive role in the inner life of the region.

It should be noted that the Baltic nobility, in contrast to the nobility of the inner provinces, enjoyed broad self-government. The competence of the Landtag (meeting of the nobles of the province), which formed the basis of the self-government bodies of this class (with the exception of Courland, where the parish assemblies played the most important role), was not limited; the subject of his meetings could be all, without exception, issues relating to the affairs of the corporation and the life of the region as a whole. According to the legislation in force, the decisions taken by the Landtag on estate matters were not subject to approval by the provincial authorities and were communicated to them only for information5. This order caused frequent clashes between the governors and the nobility and served as a pretext for accusing the latter of opposition to state power. The chivalry, on the other hand, considered such demands from the provincial administration as an infringement on their legal rights. In particular, the conflict that arose between the governor and the landrat collegium (one of the highest bodies of noble self-government) due to its refusal to provide the governor with detailed information and documents on the decisions adopted by the Landtag was dealt with by the Senate, the Committee of Ministers and the Minister of the Interior for five years: from 1898 to 1903 All the demands of the governor were recognized as justified, and the landrat collegium was obliged to present to the provincial authorities the provisions of the Landtags, conventions and county assemblies in a clear and precise presentation6. Frequent conflicts of this kind prompted the local authorities to petition the government for the transformation of the chivalry along the lines of the noble organizations of the inner provinces.

The degree of self-government granted to the Baltic nobility is evidenced by the fact that in Courland and Estonia, the leaders of the nobility and noble officials, after their election by the Landtag, took office without approval from the highest authorities, in Livonia and on the island of Ezel a different procedure was in effect - two candidates for the positions of landrats and leader of the nobility were submitted for approval by the governor, who held the final choice7.

The existence of the noble fund, replenished by self-taxation of the corporation members, and the income received from the “chivalry estates” (estates granted for the maintenance of noble officials), guaranteed the financial independence of noble organizations. The right of direct appeal (in fact, legislative initiative) granted to them to the local authorities, the Minister of the Interior, and, in the most important cases, to the emperor, provided the Baltic nobility with wide autonomy in matters of estate self-government8.

At the same time, according to the legal status in the society, the Baltic nobility formed two unequal groups: one, not numerous, included representatives of the so-called. immatriculated (or matrikulirovannye) childbirth, that is, included in the matrix - the noble genealogical book (each of the four chivalry - Estland, Livonia, Courland and Ezel had its own matrix). They were called chivalry, in contrast to the non-matriculated nobles - landzass (also called zemstvo); in 1863, special genealogical books were created for this category, different from matrikul9. According to the data provided by M.M. Dukhanov, at the beginning of the 80s of the 19th century, there were 405 surnames in Livonia, 335 in Estonia, 336 in Courland, and 11010 on Ezel Island. The chivalry had full rights as part of a corporation - positions in noble self-government were filled only from among its representatives (provided that they owned noble estates), with the exception of some insignificant ones, such as the position of treasurer (it could be occupied by persons of any status), a secular member General Consistory and some others11. Matriculated nobles who did not own estates were not allowed to participate in self-government, with the exception of Courland, where representatives of the chivalry, who were not owners of estates, participated in the affairs of the corporation, provided that their income corresponded to the established level of property qualification12.

Landzasses, who owned knightly estates, in each of the three noble societies enjoyed a different amount of rights, for example, in Livonia, from 1841, they were granted the right to vote at the Landtags on issues of noble folds (contributions in the order of self-taxation, part of which went to meet the needs of the Zemstvo ), in Estonia they acquired this right in 1866, in Courland - in 187013. Decrees 18.02. and 11/5/1866, persons of all classes of the Christian faith were allowed to acquire real estate of any kind in Courland and Livonia (including knightly estates), this measure was extended to Estonia and Ezel in 1869. Followed in 1871 and 1881. Decrees, in the form of a temporary measure (later not canceled), the owners of estates - not nobles with the right to personal vote, were allowed to participate in the Livland Landtag, with the exception of issues related to the internal life of the corporation, such as the election of noble officials, inclusion in the matrix, exclusion from her, etc.; persons of all estates were granted the right to be elected to positions of self-government, except for leading ones (leader, landrats, county deputies), as well as with the exception of positions filled by noble officials15. In Courland, this legalization came into force in 1870; here, from among non-nobles, it was allowed to elect deputies to the Landtag, but in this case, the chivalry additionally elected one more deputy from itself16.

Original title: ?Military Statistical Review of the Russian Empire. Published by the Highest command at the 1st branch of the Department of the General Staff. Volume VII. Ostsee provinces. Part 3. Estonian province.?

In the middle of the 19th century, for 17 years from 1837 to 1854 inclusive, the headquarters and chief officers of the General Staff compiled and, under the Department of this Headquarters, sequentially lithographed and then printed editions of the Military Statistical Reviews of 69 provinces and regions of the empire (the remaining 6 provinces and 7 regions of the Caucasus and Siberia were left until the time in manuscripts). These reviews include: military topographical descriptions; a variety of information about natural conditions, means of communication, the number of inhabitants, the location and movement of the population, customs, state Agriculture, crafts, crafts, industry and trade (with a list of factories, plants, trade establishments); characteristics of county towns; descriptions of spiritual, educational, charitable institutions, historical sights. Each volume is dedicated to a separate region of Russia. In turn, all volumes are divided into parts that describe individual provinces.

The publication will be of interest, first of all, to lovers of the history of Russia, because. it contains a lot of information that will help to better imagine the life of Russians in the middle of the 19th century. Personally, I was very interested to know the prices of goods at that time.

Other volumes on the site:

Volume 3. Northwestern provinces. Now broken down by province!
Volume 4. Riding Volga provinces. Now broken down by province!
Volume 6. Great Russian provinces. Part 1. Moscow province.
Volume 6. Great Russian provinces. Part 2. Vladimir province.
Volume 6. Great Russian provinces. Part 3. Ryazan province.
Volume 6. Great Russian provinces. Part 4. Tula province.
Volume 6. Great Russian provinces. Part 5. Oryol province.
Volume 6. Great Russian provinces. Part 6. Kaluga province.
Volume 7. Ostsee provinces. Part 1. Courland province.
Volume 7. Ostsee provinces. Part 2. Livland province.
Volume 8. Belarusian provinces. Part 1. Vitebsk province.
Volume 8. Belarusian provinces. Part 2. Smolensk province.
Volume 8. Belarusian provinces. Part 3. Mogilev province.
Volume 9. Western provinces. Part 1. Kovno province.
Volume 9. Western provinces. Part 2. Vilna province.
Volume 9. Western provinces. Part 3. Grodno province.
Volume 9. Western provinces. Part 4. Minsk province.
Volume 10. Southwestern provinces. Part 2. Podolsk province.
Volume 10. Southwestern provinces. Part 3. Volyn province.
Volume 11. Novorossiysk provinces. Part 4. Yekaterinoslav province.
Volume 12. Little Russian provinces. Part 1. Kharkov province.
Volume 12. Little Russian provinces. Part 2. Chernihiv province.
Volume 13. Middle (chernozem) provinces. Part 4. Penza province.
Volume 15. Kingdom of Poland. Part 1. August province.
Volume 15. Kingdom of Poland. Part 2. Plotsk province.
Volume 15. Kingdom of Poland. Part 3. Warsaw province.
Volume 15. Kingdom of Poland. Part 4. Lublin province.
Volume 15. Kingdom of Poland. Part 5. Radom province.

Privileged Ostsee region within Russia in 1721-1730

During the existence of the Russian Empire, the Baltic or Ostsee provinces were called the territories of modern Estonia, Latvia, at that time they were called Estonia, Livonia and Courland. Estonia and Livonia were annexed to Russia as a result of the Great Northern War and the Nishtad Peace Treaty in 1721, part of Courland - Latgale - became part of Russia under the first division of the Commonwealth in 1772, and in 1795 under the third division of the Commonwealth to Russia ceded the Duchy of Courland and the Piltene region.

By the time Latvia joined Russia, there were about 269,130 Latvians. There were 150,000 Estonians in Estonia. The dominant minority in the Baltic provinces - the Germans - accounted for about 10% of the total population. Of these, the entire German elite of the Baltics - the nobility, the clergy and the urban bourgeoisie - amounted to no more than 1% of the population of the region.

Having annexed Estland and Livonia to Russia in 1721, Peter I, hoping to win over the German feudal lords, left behind the German nobles and burghers (Ostsee) all the old privileges and the system of estate management that had developed during the existence of the Livonian Order and Swedish rule.

The privileges of the Ostsees consisted, first of all, in the ownership of land. superiority among different types estates in the Baltic belonged to several hundred German knightly families, whose names are recorded in the matrikula (genealogical book of German knights), which allowed them to concentrate in their hands the entire economic and political power in the edge. It was these several hundred families that were the true masters of the Baltic region.

The estate organization of the Baltic-German chivalry looked as follows. Its main link is the Landtag - an assembly of the nobles of the province. The Landtag, the key and central body, convened once every three years and elected bodies of estate self-government and officials of the nobility: noble conventions in Livonia and on Ezel and noble committees in Estonia and Courland, provincial and district leaders of the nobility, as well as landrats.

It is also worth noting that no one was allowed into the Landtag, except for exclusively German nobles and representatives of the German bourgeoisie. Landrats performed administrative and judicial functions and were elected for life. In addition, in Estonia and Livonia, landrats united in landrat colleges, which, in turn, controlled the activities of judicial and administrative bodies. The Ostsee landowners also controlled the grassroots (volost) authorities: the volost council, the volost court and the so-called manor police (E.P. Fedosov).

In turn, all the major cities of the Baltic region, such as Riga, Revel (Tallinn), Derpt, Pernov (Pärnu), were independent of the German knighthood and had the right of city self-government based on Magdeburg law, as well as the right to own estates. The highest bodies of urban self-government in large cities were magistrates, headed by burgomasters, who combined legislative, administrative, judicial and fiscal functions. In county towns, judicial functions were represented by elected bodies of the local nobility.

Despite the clear superiority in power and influence in favor of chivalry, there was constantly fierce competition between the nobility and the German burghers for economic and political influence in the edge. Completely aloof from this struggle was the vast majority of the population of the region - Latvian and Estonian, devoid of any signs of national awakening. In fact, the indigenous people, Latvians and Estonians, being second-class people, were generally excluded from political life region and from all the ruling classes, occupying the lowest floors of the Baltic society (mainly being peasants).

The main principles of the Russian imperial policy in the Baltics were guarantees for the preservation of the privileges of the German chivalry and burghers, as well as close cooperation with the local Baltic-German elite in governing not only this region, but the entire territory of the empire. Among other things, the Ostsees were also guaranteed freedom of religion, the activities of the local (Lutheran) Church, the preservation of German Ostsee law, the German judicial system, the use of the German language in office work and judicial practice.

Baltic provinces headed by appointed Russian tsars governor-generals, natives of the Baltic barons, constituted an autonomy practically not integrated into the Russian Empire (G.V. Ibneeva).

Moreover, the Baltic Sea people were allowed to be co-opted into the Russian elite as "first among equals". The Ostsee elite, which controlled the entire life of the Baltic region and ruled over these territories, the Russian authorities, in exchange for their loyalty to the Russian crown, began to attract to the highest government posts in the imperial administration and the army. How to explain such privileges to the German-Baltic elite from the Russian authorities? Some kind of emphasized love for Germany and the German people? Of course no.

The special attitude towards the Ostsee region in the first half of the 18th century was determined mainly by the transformative efforts of the Russian authorities to modernize the country. From the point of view of the St. Petersburg authorities, the economic and human resources of the region and all its infrastructure, formed according to the European model, should have been used for the subsequent westernization of Russia, for turning it into a European power.

The socio-political and economic structures that developed here were supposed to serve as a kind of prototype for the structure of a new, Europeanized Russia (G.V. Ibneeva). In cultural terms, the Baltics occupied a special place in the empire, being a link between Russia and the German West, and then all of Europe.

Undoubtedly, the emergence of an influential German diaspora in St. Petersburg at the end of the reign of Peter I (Osterman, Bassevich) played into the favorable policy of the Center in relation to the German-speaking Baltic states. Even then they were joined by Baltic barons, who had served in the army and public service since 1710. The era of palace revolutions that followed the death of Peter, especially in the period from 1725 to 1741, turned out to be even more favorable for the dominant position of the Baltic nobility in the Baltic states.

For example, Catherine I significantly expanded the rights of German chivalry at the expense of the rights of townspeople and peasants. By a personal decree of September 24, 1725, all former fief estates with the right to inherit only through the male line (manlena) were extended the right to inherit through the female line up to the fifth generation. At the same time, the holders of fiefs were exempted from the unpleasant obligation at the beginning of each new reign to ask for confirmation of their rights to estates. As a result of the decree of September 24, in practice, the differences in rights between patrimonial and fief estates began to be erased, since both of them began to pass from hand to hand.

It was unusual here that in the practice of the Russian Empire of that time, the alienation of fiefs without the permission of the supreme authority was considered an illegal act. In addition, in the form of a special favor, the request of the chivalry “to rent crown estates” (vacant lands) to the gentry was followed by a royal promise that it “will have an advantage over citizens” (J. Zutis).

According to the following decree of Catherine I dated July 13, 1726, in the interests of the Baltic landowners, the two-year prescription for the return of fugitive peasants to the landlords was canceled if the latter had lived in the city for 2 years. In addition, the city of Riga lost its ancient right to judge the nobles who committed crimes in the city territory by the city court. From now on, all complaints against the nobles from the townspeople were brought to the Hofgericht, which received the character of a noble class court. Thus, the nobility finally got rid of the burggrave (city) court and control from the Riga governor. In addition, the chivalry and the Riga magistrate achieved during this period the establishment of the practice of maintaining their permanent representation in the capital.

How to explain such generosity of the St. Petersburg court to the Baltic chivalry? By direct lobbying by the Ostsees to expand their rights among the highest tsarist dignitaries, such as Yaguzhinsky, Shafirov, Menshikov, Osterman, and others. They quickly decided on the rules of the game in the royal court at that unstable time and often bribed the Russian "oligarchs" and got their way. Moreover, the all-powerful prince Menshikov showed the greatest favor to the Ostzey people for generous rewards on their part (J. Zutis).

Large-scale corruption at court and political lobbying of corporate and narrow-class interests at the expense of state interests went hand in hand. It should also be noted that at that time none of the political groupings of the Russian nobility possessed such organizational capabilities as were available to the German chivalry in the Baltic provinces. Ostsee estate privileges and local autonomy gave the right to maintain a kind of diplomatic representation in the capital, and the presence of an influential "oligarchic caste" in the capital allowed the bribery of senior officials on such a scale that far exceeded the solvency of individuals from among the richest Russian landowners.

The time of "Bironism" - the apogee of the power and influence of the Baltic Germans in Russia

The time of the so-called Bironovshina of 1730–1740 became the zenith of the power and influence of the Baltic-German nobility in Russia. It was during this period that representatives of the Ostseans found themselves in the highest state posts of the empire. Already on the eve of the accession of Anna Ioannovna in 1730, 20% of civil officials, over 30% of the generals and up to 70% of senior officers in the fleet accounted for foreigners and Ostsee (A. Kappeler).

How did the German nobles outplay Russian "colleagues in class", besides their advantage in education and efficiency? It has long been noted that national minorities in relation to the national majority are distinguished by greater mobility, solidarity and mutual assistance. On the side of the Baltic Germans who ended up in the capital, there were such qualities as organization and solidarity, which provided them with a number of advantages over Russian nobles and foreign immigrants. In addition, the German knights - Livonians and Estonians - did not break with their small homeland, continued to be members of the knightly corporation and provided mutual support and assistance to each other.

Their cohesion was further strengthened by family ties between them. For example, the families of many noble families of the Baltic Germans were relatives of Field Marshal Munnich, Biron and a number of other senior statesmen of the imperial center. However, it would be wrong to inflate the interethnic confrontation between the Russian nobility and the German-Baltic during the period of the so-called Bironism.

Nation-building processes in Russian empire will occur only at the very end of its existence. And the Russian nobles were not at all drawn to becoming spokesmen for the interests of the emerging Russian national identity, as well as the German nobles, too. Both those and others had only class interests. On the other hand, the interests of the Ostsees completely coincided with the interests of the Russian nobility on the main issue - the preservation of autocracy in order to ensure the unlimited power of the landowners over the serfs. Here they were most likely allies.

The German nobles, like no one else, were devoted to the Russian crown, which gave them such unheard-of rights and privileges that they did not have under the Swedes, or even with the existence of the German Livonian Order. What separated the German and Russian landowners? The Russian nobles were annoyed by the over-representation of the Germans and their influence at court. The Ostsees opposed in every possible way the possible permission of the Russian nobles to own estates in the Baltic states. In addition, they often accused the latter of harboring their fugitive peasants.

For the Russian nobles, in turn, the Baltic privileges were a model worthy of emulation. Undoubtedly, they sought to realize such rights in the central regions of Russia. The Ostsee landlords acted as teachers of the Russian landowners in the organization of corvée farming and in strengthening serfdom. Recall that the Russian nobles did not have such broad class rights and privileges. And they watched them with envy among their colleagues in the “estate shop”.

The German knights made the most of the fact that the Ostsee Biron was the favorite of the Empress Anna and her uncrowned husband. By the highest decree of the Empress of September 15, 1737, export duties on barley were reduced in the interests of the German nobles. With the assistance of high patrons at the court, Livland vodka, the export product of the German barons, found the widest market in the domestic market of the empire, while the importation of “hot wine” from Poland and Ukraine to Riga and Tallinn was strictly prohibited. This was done so as not to create competition for the German nobles.

On the initiative of the Livonian and Estonian governors (they were actually proteges of the knights), entire military teams were sent to the Russian provinces and even neighboring Courland (J. Zutis) to return the fugitive peasants. But, probably, the most excessive, both from a legal and factual point of view, was the attempt of the German barons to push through the Senate and consolidate the all-Russian legislation, the so-called declaration of the landrat of Baron Rosen in 1739, then supplemented by the Budberg-Schrader code.

The essence of this declaration: the serfdom of the Latvian and Estonian peasants can be equated with slavery on the grounds that all the property of the serf peasantry (Estonian and Latvian) is considered the full property of the landowner (German), based on the ancient military law of the victors (knights) over the defeated (Estonians and Latvians). And this rather cynical declaration was confirmed by the Senate. True, after 1741 this declaration was still not confirmed by the Russian government, but its basic principles found their application in practice.

It is striking that one of those who actively resisted the expansion of Ostsee privileges was the ethnic German Osterman, who, however, did not belong to the Ostsee. This fact only confirms that in the 18th century there were no national feelings of solidarity at all. They were replaced only by class and corporate interests.

If we try to answer the question of whether the dominance of the Germans during the period of Bironism in Russia, then we should discard the theses about the German national enslavement of Russia and Russians, but it is worth recognizing the striking unequal representation in power and the degree of influence on the power of Russian and Baltic landowners, based on their percentage ratio in shares of the total mass of the population.

At the same time, judgments about German dominance in these years should be discarded. It can, in extreme cases, be about the dominance of the Baltic Sea, but not the Germans. Perhaps only Lomonosov, far ahead of his time, wrote in verse about the German dominance of the Germans in Russia and tried to awaken Russian national consciousness.

Ostsee region during the reign of Empress Elizaveta Petrovna

The coming to power of Elizabeth Petrovna during the next palace coup in 1741 led to the resounding resignation from the highest government posts of prominent Ostseans (Biron, Munnich). However, at the same time, all the privileges and rights previously granted to the German Baltic Sea people were confirmed by the new empress. An unpleasant surprise for the knighthood of Livonia was only the Decree of the Empress of July 25, 1744 on the granting of certain lands in the Baltic states to a number of senior government dignitaries, namely A. Rumyantsev, V. Saltykov, P. Shuvalov, M. Vorontsov and others. To some extent the German knights were able to neutralize this decree, which was unfavorable for themselves, by acting as tenants or buyers of granted lands (J. Zutis).

By the middle of the 18th century, German chivalry finally turned into completely closed feudal corporations, access to which for all outsiders (even for non-Ostsee Germans) depended on the decision of the local Landtag, that is, on persons listed in the Estonian and Livonian matrikula. And here is the incident. Even the Russian emperors, who had absolute power, although they could make any of their subjects into the Russian nobility, even they could not make him a Livonian or Estonian nobleman if the chivalry of these provinces refused to include his name in their matrix. Therefore, until Catherine II, the government, with rare exceptions, refrained from granting Baltic estates to Russian nobles.

Both German burghers and large merchants tried to keep up with the expansion of the rights and privileges of the nobles. It is characteristic that it was the German townspeople, and not the Russian nobles, who were most afraid of the German-Baltic nobles. Cities and even German pastors claimed to purchase lands that the chivalry had traditionally regarded as their monopoly. And just like the knights, the Baltic cities turned to the central government. The Riga magistrate, for its part, literally "bombed" St. Petersburg in the 30s and 40s. XVIII century complaints and requests for granting them the right to buy knightly lands. At the same time, rivalry between Germans, Latvians and Estonians was unfolding in the sphere of urban trade.

One of the features of the Baltic cities was a large stratum of foreigners (mainly from Germany, which also included the Dutch and the British). The proximity of the mentality and the rules of trade in the Baltic cities that were more free from the arbitrariness of officials affected. In the 80s. in Livonia, there were up to 10 thousand foreign nationals who lived mainly in Riga, Revel, Pernov (J. Zutis).

Riga already in the middle of the 18th century became the leading foreign trade harbor of Russia. In 1752, the number of ships that visited the port of Riga was 542, in 1766 - already 605, and late XVIII V. their number reached 1000. At the same time, in the second half of the 18th century, the population of Riga doubled, from 13 thousand people. in 1750 to 28 thousand people. by the end of the century.

Particularly severe forms of exploitation of the native peasantry developed in the Baltic States: in addition to corvée and various collections in kind, the duties of the peasants included the provision of carts for sending landowner's bread to the city, the preparation of malt, distillation; spinning; some cash payments, etc. Even the purchase of salt, iron, tobacco and a drunken feast in a tavern had to be carried out by a peasant from a landowner (ownership monopoly).

At the same time, unlike the Russian peasants, the Latvian and Estonian serfs did not pay poll tax and were exempted from recruitment duty. However, the ruin of peasant estates due to exorbitant exploitation by the Baltic landlords led to a constant reduction in budget revenues from the Baltic states. So, if in the 40s. the state received 135 thousand thalers or efimks of income from the Livonian village, then in 1759 - only 105 thousand thalers (G.V. Ibneeva).

The Germans and the local population of the Baltic states were separated by an insurmountable wall of class and national enmity. This is evidenced by folk songs and folklore, in which hatred of the oppressors is strong. In the first half of the XVIII century. among the Latvian and Estonian peasants, the gernguterism, or the movement of fraternal communities, spread to Livonia from German Saxony, where it was brought by Czech emigrants, the so-called Czech or Moravian brothers.

Hernguters considered themselves descendants and successors of the Hussites, but at the same time opposed revolutionary violence. They preached the moral and moral re-education of people on the basis of Christian humility, diligence, but among the Latvian and Estonian serfs. Characteristically, the Herrnguters denied any violence. These congregations were led by elders (presbyters) outside the church because the pastors were German. Therefore, to a certain extent, the Hernguther movement acquired a peculiar political and anti-German coloring.

In their congregations, they learned to read and write and were engaged in enlightenment. However, in a seemingly harmless movement, the German barons and pastors saw a danger to themselves. The Russian authorities met the wishes and requests of the Baltic landowners and by decree of 1743 the Herrnguter communities were liquidated. Soon this movement completely ceased to exist. But his place was taken by the open armed struggle of the Estonian and Livland peasants against their oppressors.

The imperial policy of Catherine II - on the integration of the Ostsee region into Russia

The beginning of the reign of Catherine II and the policy of enlightened absolutism led to a change in imperial priorities. The new educational model of autocracy focused on the discrepancy between Baltic privileges and plans for creating a single legal space and unifying the administration of all parts.

It is paradoxical, but true: it was the ethnic German - the Russian Empress who not only swung at the age-old privileges of the German barons, but also set the task of their Russification. So, in his secret instruction A.A. Ekaterina wrote to Vyazemsky: “These provinces ... should be brought to Russification by the easiest means and stop looking like wolves in the forest” (E.N. Marasinova).

However, even Catherine, who set herself the task of putting an end to the isolation of the Baltic states, underestimated the complexity of the task. Most importantly, the firmness of the intentions of the Baltic Germans to maintain an existence independent of the imperial center was underestimated. And the Ostsees maintained this firmness and firmly defended their privileges until the collapse of the Romanov empire.

At the same time, St. Petersburg did not want to turn a blind eye to the reduction in budget revenues from the Baltics. The authorities were also worried by the growth of peasant uprisings against feudal oppression by the Baltic landowners. This caused an attack on the Ostsee by the imperial authorities.

From November 12, 1763, persons who had services to the state were allowed to apply for leases in Livonia. By a decree of March 4, 1764, 15 German officers and dignitaries, but of foreign noble and bourgeois origin, who were not Ostsees, were included in the Livonian and Estonian knighthood with inclusion in the matrix. The decree caused strong dissatisfaction, as it violated the established monopoly of the Baltic chivalry to receive leases in the Baltics. All this testified to the intention of the empress to limit the privileges of the Baltic chivalry based on the interests of the empire.

In addition, the authorities decided to restore order in relation to the Baltic peasants. The fiscal interests of the state demanded a revaluation of land and peasant duties, which the Baltic knights did not agree to. They stubbornly resisted the exact demarcation of land - taxable peasant land and landowners, free from taxes - and fixing the duties of the peasants, and therefore resisted any change in the existing situation, referring to their privileges given by previous sovereigns. They also resisted the government's revision. Nevertheless, Catherine II took note of the peasants' complaints against the landlords and made sure that these complaints were largely justified (G.V. Ibneeva).

At the end of June 1764, Catherine made a trip to the Baltic region. The Baltic chivalry expressed their loyal feelings to her. But on her trip, Catherine II emphasized her image as an Orthodox Russian empress, and not as a German princess on the Russian throne. And here she attended Orthodox churches and services. She also visited foreign Courland, where, with the support of Russia, in 1763 Biron became the Duke of Courland, a year earlier released from hard labor by Catherine II.

Therefore, it is not surprising that Biron openly adhered to a pro-Russian orientation in his policy. Russian troops and ships could freely pass through the territory of the duchy and use its ports, and Russian landlords could rent Courland lands. Orthodox churches in Courland, in turn, began to be protected by law. In fact, Courland, despite the fact that it was officially considered a Polish vassal, turned into a Russian protectorate. Biron himself met Catherine II, traveling in July 1764, solemnly, as a faithful vassal of his benefactor (G.V. Ibneeva).

The empress offered her version of a compromise between the native peasants and the Baltic landowners. On April 12, 1765, a patent was published. Its main provisions are: the recognition of the peasant's right to his personal, movable property, the prohibition of landlords to sell their peasants on the market, and the refusal to increase peasant duties. The peasants were given the right to complain about their landowners, however, it was stipulated that the filing of an unfair complaint by the peasants would be punishable by corporal punishment.

These decrees were in force until 1804. Despite the published patent, many of its provisions remained only on paper, since there was no control over its execution. And so the resistance of the peasants to their oppressors continued.

The Ostsee question resurfaced at the meetings of the Legislative Commission in Moscow in 1767, where an exchange of views between representatives of the Russian and German nobility revealed great differences in views on the existence of Ostsee autonomy. At it, many deputies from the Russian provinces opposed Baltic privileges. Thus, a deputy from the Chamber Office of Livonian, Estonian and Finnish Affairs Artemy Shishkov at a meeting on December 13, 1767, on behalf of the majority of Russian deputies, expressed the opinion "about the need to have the same laws for the Baltic provinces with the laws of the Russian Empire."

The Russian nobles, who did not have the “liberties” of the Ostsees, became more and more annoyed by the Baltic privileges. The Ostzians, in turn, took up all-round defense and cooperated in the work of the meetings of the Legislative Commission with the Ukrainian, Smolensk and Vyborg deputies, protecting their rights and liberties. At the same time, they, forgetting about their differences with the German burghers, also defended their interests, defending the special rights of the entire Baltic region, which irritated Catherine, who reminded the latter that “they are subjects of the Russian Empire” (J. Zutis).

In 1783, in order to bring the Baltic provinces closer to the rest of Russia, the tsarist government extended a nationwide system of administrative and judicial administration to these provinces. As a result, instead of two provinces, three were singled out. At the same time, the Riga province was divided into two regions: Riga and Revel. All three provinces were headed by a common governor-general (governor), to whom the provincial and district administrations were subordinate, as well as in other provinces of Russia. The governors were appointed by the Empress and were accountable to her and the Senate.

At the head of each province was a governor who headed the provincial government. Distinctive feature The local administrative apparatus from most Russian provinces was the formation of two expeditions under the provincial government, which conducted office work: one in Russian, and the other in German. As in the rest of the country, in the Baltics the highest judicial bodies were the chambers of civil and criminal courts, whose chairmen were appointed by the queen, and their members by the Senate.

Another blow for the Baltic Sea people was the liquidation by decree of Catherine II in 1786 of the knightly landrats and landrat colleges. Assessors from serfs, who mostly acted as passive observers, but sometimes took part in the investigation of cases, became an unprecedented phenomenon for the Baltic states (E.P. Fedosova). The latter circumstance aroused particular indignation among the Baltic knights, who were accustomed to regarding their peasants as dumb, living property.

But the introduction of a poll tax for the peasants in favor of the state caused real peasant unrest. The peasants themselves interpreted the introduction of the poll tax for them in such a way that they are now state peasants and no longer belong to the Baltic nobles, and therefore they began to refuse to bear feudal obligations in favor of their landowners. As a result, uprisings broke out in 1784 in 130 estates in Livonia and Estonia, which were brutally suppressed by the authorities.

However, the situation of confrontation between the German knights and the Estonian and Latvian peasants not only did not disappear, but turned into a state of total enmity, which at any moment could lead the region to a social explosion. This was well understood by G. Merkel in Riga, I.K. Petri in Tallinn, progressive-minded German publicists who published articles and books that attracted attention throughout Europe and in Russia. In their works, Merkel and Petri accused the Ostsee landowners of inhuman cruelty towards the Baltic peasants, while pointing out that their (Ostsee) blind greed could lead to a general uprising of the peasants in the future. “The people have ceased to be a slavishly devoted dog… He is a tiger that gnaws his chains in quiet anger…” wrote G. Merkel (J. Kahk, K. Siilivask).

Suddenly, the Latvian and Estonian peasants had another ally in the form of the German urban bourgeoisie. Of course, it was not a matter of pure philanthropy, but of a purely business calculation. In addition, the German bourgeoisie opposed any attempts to equalize the rights of the Latvian and Estonian bourgeoisie with it.

The Baltic-German bourgeoisie needed free cheap labor and the purchase of peasant agricultural products for subsequent wholesale sales On the market. Therefore, the Riga German merchants demanded an improvement in the situation of the peasants and granting them the right to free trade. Baltic publicist from the city of Riga I.G. Eisen von Schwarzenberg turned to Catherine with a request to improve the situation of the Latvian and Estonian peasants. Eisen openly denounced the cruelty of the Baltic nobles towards their peasants (J. Kahk, K. Siilivask).

The peasant question, thus attracting the attention of the general public, became a topic for discussion in the Baltics. And this, in turn, brought closer the hour of the liberation of the Baltic peasants from serfdom from the German feudal lords.

The short reign of the extravagant Paul I was marked by a change in government policy towards the Baltic provinces. Pavel decided to move away from the policy of abolishing the Baltic autonomy, which had begun during the reign of Catherine II, and tried to enlist the support of the Germans for his regime again.

Already in 1796, he abolished the governorship in the Baltic states and returned all the privileges of the knights that had been canceled earlier by Catherine II. Pavlovian indulgence in class privileges of the Ostsee was actively assisted by the St. Petersburg Ostsee, i.e. immigrants from the Baltic provinces: Palena, Liveny, Bergi, Benkendorf, etc. (E.P. Fedosova). As mentioned earlier, established ties with St. Petersburg were a great support in maintaining and ensuring the dominance of the Baltic in the Baltic provinces.

But the stake on the Baltic Germans did not help Paul I to keep the Russian throne. The short era of Pavlovian "enlightened despotism" ended tragically for him in the Mikhailovsky Castle on the night of March 11-12, 1801. With the short reign of Paul I, the era of Petersburg's reckless support of Baltic privileges was ended. The 19th century began with a new attack by the imperial authorities on the anachronistic privileges of the Ostseans and a course towards the integration of the Baltic region into the general imperial space.

The small but proud Baltic peoples like to talk about their Europeanness, which was constantly hindered by the Russian "occupation". Intellectually advanced (in different directions) Russian liberals unanimously sympathize with the Balts. People who have experienced the Soviet era sometimes recall with nostalgia the Western European medieval architecture of Riga and Tallinn, and are also inclined to consider the Baltics "Europe". But almost no one talks about the fact that the very existence of the small Baltic nations is connected with the policy of the Russian imperial authorities. Most of the inhabitants simply know from the Baltic history only the “occupation” of 1940. Meanwhile, the transformation of the amorphous aboriginal population into full-fledged, albeit small nations, is entirely the fruit of the policy of the authorities of the Russian Empire in the Ostsee region a century and a half ago, which was called Russification. And, of course, it is precisely for this reason that modern Estonians and Latvians are distinguished by such pathological Russophobia - such is the gratitude of small nations.

Among the most important issues of Russian life, the second half of XIX century was the question of the Baltic, or Baltic. Three Baltic provinces were called the Ostsee region - Estland, Courland and Livonia (now it is the territory of Estonia and Latvia). Annexed to Russia in the 18th century, these provinces retained many features of local government. Along with the Grand Duchy of Finland, the Kingdom of Poland (until 1831), the Baltic provinces, which even in the Russian press were often called Ostsee in the German manner (recall that in Germany the East Sea - Ostsee, the Baltic Sea is called), remained almost unintegrated into the composition of Russia. All power - political, economic and cultural - was in the hands of the local German nobility and burghers, direct descendants of the Teutonic "knight-dogs" of the 13th century. Having conquered this region in those days, where the tributaries of Rus' lived, who later became known as Estonians and Latvians, the knights created their own state - the Teutonic Order, which for more than three centuries threatened all neighbors and brutally oppressed the conquered natives. After the Livonian War, the Order disintegrated, but Sweden and Poland, which took possession of the Baltic lands, retained all the rights and privileges of the German barons inviolable. In a certain sense, the dominance of the barons even increased, since the central power, which was previously represented by the order authorities, was now entirely in the hands of the chivalry and the burghers.

Having annexed Livonia and Estland to himself, Peter the Great retained all the old privileges for the local German barons and burghers, including the estate system of noble administration and court. Courland, annexed to Russia in 1795, also retained the old system of government, unchanged from the time of the Duchy of Courland. The Baltic Germans, even under Russian rule, ruled the Baltics in exactly the same way as in the 13th century.

In this region, there was a special legal regime, different from the system of all-Russian statehood and characterized by the dominance of the German language, Lutheranism, a special set of laws (Ostsee law), legal proceedings, administration, etc. The functions of internal administration of the region were carried out by the bodies of the German nobility. The governor of any of the three Baltic provinces, who was a representative of the central government, until the outbreak of the First World War, was forced to organize his official activities in such a way as not to violate the privileges of the nobility. In 1801, all the provinces were united into a single governor-general, but the power of the barons did not shake from this - most of the governor-generals themselves came from Baltic barons, or were married to Baltic German women, and other governor-generals quickly found a common language with the barons . Is it any wonder that in 1846 there were only six Russian officials under the Governor-General.

The word “Ostzeets”, which meant a Baltic German (as opposed to a St. Petersburg German artisan or a Volga peasant colonist) and, more significantly, a supporter of the preservation of German privileges in the region, by the middle of the 19th century began to denote a kind of political party that had a huge influence in life.

In those days, as, indeed, a century later, in the Soviet era, the Baltic States for some reason was considered an "advanced" and "European" society. But nothing could be further from the truth. In the second half of the 19th century, in the Baltic provinces, feudal institutions and orders were preserved in huge numbers, which had long since disappeared in the rest of Europe. It is no coincidence that the prominent Slavophil Ivan Aksakov called the Ostsee provinces "a museum of historical rarities of the social and social structure." Referring to the Baltic legislation, the German barons skillfully sabotaged all the decisions of the central government, which sought to introduce all-Russian laws in the Baltic states, in particular, zemstvo and city self-government.

The strength of the claims of the barons was given strength by the fact that in their mass they were really absolutely loyal to the Russian emperor. A huge number of sailors, generals, administrators, scientists, came from among the Baltic nobility. Actually, this is exactly what Peter I was striving for, preserving and expanding the Baltic privileges. For a century and a half, such a policy gave excellent results - the Russian authorities could always be calm in relation to the strategically and economically important Baltic lands, and the Baltic chivalry supplied the empire with qualified and loyal personnel in the military and administrative apparatus of the state.

The Ostsees were also distinguished by some personal qualities that distinguished them against the background of certain categories of the Russian nobility. So, they were not characterized by contempt for all types of labor activity, which was so characteristic of the Polish gentry, and even of some Russian old-world landlords. Many Ostseers have been successful in entrepreneurial activities. The desire for education was also inherent in the Ostsee, and it is not by chance that a number of outstanding scientists emerged from among them.

There were few Ostsees in the revolutionary movement. Thus, there were quite a few Germans among the Decembrists, but most of them were St. Petersburg, not Baltic Germans. Similarly, there were almost no Ostsee among the Narodnaya Volya and Bolsheviks.

In the first half of the 19th century, the position of the Ostsee in Russia became especially significant. Alexander I considered the Baltic provinces as a training ground for "running in" the reforms that would then have to follow throughout the empire. If in Finland and Poland the emperor experimented with constitutionality, then in the Baltic states an attempt was made to free the serfs. As you know, Alexander I sincerely sought to put an end to serfdom, but he perfectly understood that, with all his autocracy, it was impossible for him to oppose the main estate of Russia. And that is why the emperor tried to turn the Baltic states into a place for an experiment on the abolition of serfdom. It was all the easier to do this because the landowners and serfs belonged to different peoples.

Back in 1804, under pressure from official St. Petersburg, the German nobility passed the so-called peasant law, according to which the grain cultivators recognized the minimum right to land and determined the amount of peasant duties in relation to their soul owner. Until that time, the indigenous Balts did not have any rights at all, and all their duties were determined at their discretion by their masters!

However, the Baltic nobility quickly managed to neutralize this law, and as a result of various "additions" and "clarifications", the number of feudal duties for the peasants even increased.

In 1816-1819. nevertheless, serfdom in the Baltic provinces was abolished, but all the land remained with the landlords, so that the liberated peasants turned into landless farm laborers. In Estonia, it was only in 1863 that peasants received identification documents, and the right to freedom of movement of the corvee, which was carried out by “free” peasants, was canceled only in 1868, that is, half a century after the “liberation”.

Trying to prevent the organization of their former serfs, the barons sought to settle their peasants in separate farms. Of course, all the land among the farmers was baronial. In 1840, the peasants owned only 0.23% of all arable land in the Livland province! At the same time, a deliberate policy of alcoholization of the indigenous Balts was carried out. Drunkenness really took on a huge scale in the region. As the authors of the Latvian textbook on the history of Latvia admit, "mired in alcoholism, the peasants began to degrade spiritually." It is no coincidence that in native Russia in the middle of the 19th century there was an expression “to go to Riga”, which meant to drink to death.

Numerous symbolic actions have also been preserved, demonstrating the servile obedience of Estonians and Latvians to their German masters. So, until the beginning of the 20th century, the custom of kissing the baron's hand was preserved. Corporal punishment for farm laborers continued until 1905. Actually up to late XIX centuries, that is, decades after the abolition of serfdom, in the Ostsee region, the barons enjoyed the right of the first night

The main categories for determining the social affiliation of a person in the Ostsee region were the concepts: Deutsch (German) and Undeutsch (non-German). Actually, by the middle of the 19th century, in the 2 million population of the three Ostsee provinces, there were approximately 180 thousand Germans, and their number was gradually decreasing not only in relative, but also in absolute numbers. But the power of the Baltic Sea people was strong and the reason for this was very prosaic - official Petersburg was almost never interested in the position of the Baltic aborigines.

However, in opposition to the introduction of all-Russian legislation in the region, not only the opposition of the Baltic Sea people was manifested, but the desire to prevent local Latvians and Estonians from participating in the management, who lived on their own land as second-class people. The arguments against the participation of local residents in self-government were given purely racist ones. So, a native of Estonia, an outstanding Russian scientist - naturalist, founder of embryology, Karl Baer spoke unflatteringly about Estonians: “Estonians are very greedy. Already the northern country itself makes it easy to assume; however, they far surpass their neighbors at the same geographical latitude in this. Hence the reasons why from childhood they fill their stomach too much and stretch it ... Like other northern peoples, Estonians are very fond of vodka ... As for spiritual culture, most European peoples surpass them significantly, because very few Estonians have learned to write ... Of the shortcomings, which cannot be denied in any way, I would list them: laziness, uncleanliness, excessive subservience to the strong and cruelty, savagery towards the weaker. So spoke a prominent scientist who tried to be "above" primitive chauvinism. But the rest of the Eastseas thought the same way.

The Germans are considered a sentimental nation, but the German government is a tough government, devoid of any sentimentality. If the Russian feudal lords could still retain certain patriarchal feelings towards “their” peasants, then the Ostsee barons, who ruled by right of the conquerors, could only treat the indigenous population of the region as working cattle. In the 17th century, the Dutchman J. Straits, who visited Swedish Livonia, described the life of the local residents as follows: “We passed by small villages, the inhabitants of which were very poor. Women's clothing consists of a piece of cloth or a rag that barely covers their nakedness; their hair is cut below the ears and hangs down, like those of a wandering people, whom we call gypsies. Their houses, or rather huts, are the worst you can imagine, they have no utensils except dirty pots and pans, which, like the house and the people themselves, are so unkempt and untidy that I preferred to fast and spend the night in the open. than to eat and sleep with them.... They have no beds and sleep on the bare ground. Their food is coarse and bad, consisting of buckwheat bread, sauerkraut and unsalted cucumbers, which aggravates the miserable condition of these people, who live all the time in need and sorrow due to the disgusting cruelty of their masters, who treat them worse than the Turks and barbarians treat their slaves. Apparently, this people should be governed in this way, because if they are treated gently, without coercion, without giving them rules and laws, then disorder and discord can arise. This is a very clumsy and superstitious people, prone to witchcraft and black magic, which they do so awkwardly and stupidly, like our children, who scare each other with beeches. I have not seen them have any schools or education, therefore they grow up in great ignorance, and they have less intelligence and knowledge than savages. And despite the fact that some of them consider themselves Christians, they hardly know more about religion than a monkey who has been taught to perform rites and ceremonies .... ”Meanwhile, in the modern Baltic republics, the time of Swedish rule is considered almost a golden age !

N. M. Karamzin, who had already visited Russian Livonia in 1789, noted that the Livland serf brings his landowner four times more income than the Russian serfs of Simbirsk or Kazan provinces. This was due not to the greater industriousness of the Latvians, and not even to the German order, but simply to more efficient and cruel exploitation of the serfs.

Medieval guilds with an ethnic character have been preserved in the Baltic cities. So, for example, in the charter of the butcher's shop there was a decree that only persons whose parents were Germans could be accepted as students, and everyone who married "non-Germans" should be immediately excluded from the shop.

In general, the fact that the Latvians and Estonians were not assimilated by the Germans at all, as happened with the more numerous Polabian Slavs and Prussians, was probably explained precisely by the arrogance of the local barons, who did not at all seek to spread their language and culture to the conquered natives, since a common culture could equalize them in rights. However, in the middle of the 19th century, the Germanization of Latvians and Estonians seemed quite possible. The number of "shameful Latvians" and "juniper Germans" from among the Estonians who switched to the German language and identifying themselves as Germans, really grew. A hundred and fifty years ago, neither Latvians nor Estonians differed national identity. They did not even have the name of their ethnic group. The fact that Estonians and Latvians generally survived as ethnic groups is entirely the merit of the Russian imperial authorities.

For example, at that time, Estonians called themselves "maarahvad", i.e. "peasants", "village people". The Finns still call Estonia "Viro", and the Estonians - "virolainen". This is due to the fact that, in view of the lack of a common name, the Finns called the entire territory by the name of the area closest to them, i.e. in Estonian "Viru". The absence of a self-name speaks of the underdevelopment of self-consciousness and the inability to think of oneself as a single people, and even more so the lack of a need to form a national state. And only in 1857 the founder of the newspaper in Estonian "Perno Postimees" Johann Voldemar Jannsen (1819-1890) instead of the previous name "maarahvas" introduced a new name - "Estonians"

Although both indigenous Baltic peoples had a written language from about the 16th-17th centuries and separate literary works were published using Latin, Polish and Gothic scripts and German spelling, in fact, literary norms did not yet exist. The first newspaper in Estonian was published by pastor O. Mazing back in 1821-23, but in general it was not until 1843 that pastor Eduard Ahrens compiled an Estonian grammar (before that, for a few works in Estonian, spelling based on the German standard spelling was used).

Only in the 60s and 70s. In the 19th century, the Latvian educator Atis Kronvald created such new words for Latvians as: tevija (Motherland), Vesture (history), Vestule (writing), dzeja (poetry), etc. The first textbook of the Latvian language was published in Riga in Russian in 1868 year!

Finally, another, perhaps the most revealing example of the "specialness" of the Baltic region, was the situation of local Russians. In fact, they were in the position of foreigners, although many of them had lived here for many generations. Back in the 17th century, many Russian Old Believers, defending their faith, fled to the then Swedish Baltic states and to the Duchy of Courland, whose ruler Duke Jacob himself invited immigrants from Russia, hoping to make up for the loss of his subjects after the plague. In Courland, the Russians founded the city of Kryzhopol (in German - Kreutzberg, now - Krustpils). After the accession of the Baltic States to Russia, the number of Russian immigrants increased slightly. The reason was clear: there were no free lands here, the oppression of the barons was clearly more ferocious than that of “their own” Russian landlords, and in the cities, Russian merchants and artisans were forced to experience pressure from local German workshops.

Only in the reign of Catherine II, in 1785, the Russian residents of Riga finally received the right to choose city self-government and be elected. So, less than seventy years after the end of the Northern War, the conquerors finally equalized their rights with the conquered. During the reign of Catherine, attempts were made to strengthen the influence of Russian culture and education in the Ostsee region. In 1789, the first educational institution with the Russian language of instruction, the Catherine School, was opened in Riga. But in general, official St. Petersburg probably did not know at all about the Russians of the Ostsee region. Suffice it to say that the astonished Tsar Nicholas I found out about the existence of numerous Old Believers in Riga quite by accident after the Old Believers thoughtlessly published a printed report on their activities.

In 1867, out of 102,000 inhabitants in Riga, Germans accounted for 42.9%, Russians - 25.1%, Latvians - 23.6%. Such an indicator clearly showed the role of each of the ethnic communities in the Baltics.

Local Russians, however, during their life in the Baltic provinces of Russia also acquired special features. “A strange transformation,” writes the Riga Bulletin in 1876, “is done with a visiting Russian when he has lived for several years in the so-called Baltic region. He becomes something miserable... depersonalized, like a worn penny. Isolation from the root leads to the loss of the national character, the ordinary Russian mindset, language and even the very appearance. One of the Russian residents of Riga, V. Kozin, placed in 1873 in the same "Rizhsky Heralds" the following verses:

It's nice to live here ... but not very much:

There is no space here, freedom,

Somewhere wide nature

Here, turn around in full breadth.

Hiding thoughts here under a bushel,

Keep your mouth shut

Keep hearts under a corset

The arms are as short as possible.

The only thing is in our side!

You walk on your own.

Everything is so free, whatever,

Everything is so tempting to roam.

You'll break your damn hat.

Put your hands on your sides:

“You, they say, are not a pointer to me:

I don’t want to know, and it’s full! .. "

This was the position of the Ostsee region in the empire. It is understandable why the Baltic Sea issue was perceived so painfully by Russian society.

(To be continued)

Sergei Viktorovich Lebedev, doctor of philosophical science

Aksakov I.S. Full Sobr. Soch., V.6. 1887. P.15.

Kenins History of Latvia. Textbook. Riga, 1990, p. 108

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