From Here to Aistija (2022)

James Montgomery Baxenfield, “From Here to Aistija: The Baltic State that Never-was”, Diacronie: Studi di Storia contemporanea, Vol. 52, No. 2, “Imagining North-Eastern Europe. Baltic and Scandinavian states in the eyes of local, regional, and global observers” (2022), pp. 43−60.

Abstract: Ideas to unite the Latvian and Lithuanian nations within a single state are little-known episodes of the twentieth century. This idea is generally traced back to the closing decades of the nineteenth century. At the end of the First World War, it briefly achieved enthusiastic endorsement from prominent figures from among the Lithuanian émigrés before vanishing into obscurity. Although it did not find wide-spread support, it attracted the interest of numerous individuals and non-governmental societies, re-emerging decades later as an ideal among a small contingent of the Latvian exile community. Transitions between generations and political landscapes resulted in the transformation and reinvention of the imagined state, partially concealing the longevity of the idea.

Keywords: Latvian-Lithuanian State, Baltic States, Aistija, Jonas Šliūpas, Jūlijs Bračs.

Read the article in Diacronie: Studi di Storia contemporanea, Vol. 52, No. 2 (2022).