International Law and Justice Working Papers - IILJ
International Law and Justice Working Papers - IILJ
International Law and Justice Working Papers - IILJ
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Iur'ev, was designed to remind of that ancient continuity of the Russian presence. In the first<br />
place, I'urev passed a message to the Baltic Germans: we were here before you.<br />
The Kulturkampf between the Baltic Germans <strong>and</strong> the Russian central power in the second half<br />
of the 19th century was carried out at the background of the emancipation of the native peoples,<br />
the Estonians <strong>and</strong> the Latvians. A distinct feature of those peoples was there relative smallness in<br />
terms of numbers - in fact, Friedrich Engels' diminutive word Völkerabfälle in characterizing the<br />
Slavonic peoples of the Austria-Hungarian Empire could have even more be used with respect to<br />
the Estonians <strong>and</strong> the Latvians. The Estonian <strong>and</strong> the Latvian nations were born of the idea that<br />
distinct languages form the bases of distinct nations. Estonian, a Fenno-Ugric language close to<br />
Finnish <strong>and</strong> Latvian, a Baltic language close to Lithuanian, were unlike German or Russian.<br />
Herder's national ideas empowered the Estonian <strong>and</strong> Latvian quest for identity <strong>and</strong> selfdetermination.<br />
The national identity of the Estonians <strong>and</strong> the Latvians was primarily a linguistic<br />
one. As the Russians started to challenge the position of the Baltic Germans, both the Russians<br />
<strong>and</strong> the Germans appealed to the interests <strong>and</strong> sympathy of the native peoples making at that<br />
time though a process of emancipation. This emancipation finally led to the creation of the<br />
Estonian <strong>and</strong> Latvian nation States in 1918.<br />
With this background information in mind, we can now turn to the life <strong>and</strong> work of August<br />
Bulmerincq.<br />
3. Vita: Noblesse oblige