Dissidence in Our Blood: Survival in a 1984 Soviet Bunker
“You, obviously, have got to play the dissident. You Lithuanian-Americans were all dissidents to the Soviets.”Continue Reading →
The Quick Brown Fox: Remembering Slothrop's English-Language Bookshop
We opened Slothrop’s English language bookshop in Tallinn in December 2011. It was Estonia’s first second-hand English language bookstore.Continue Reading →
How a Song About a Coin Made Jöran Steinhauer Latvia's Favourite German
Musician Jöran Steinhauer's song, "Paldies Latiņam", a paean to Latvia's now-obsolete currency, became an unexpected viral hit.Continue Reading →
"The Capital of Empty Spaces": Dealing with the Shrinking of the Great Baltic City
Since the restoration of Latvia’s independence in 1991, Riga has shrunk by more than 25%.Continue Reading →
The Project to Restore the 200-Year-Old Jewish Cemetery Destroyed Under Soviet Rule
Under Soviet rule, tens of thousands of Jewish gravestones were ripped from the graves they marked at the historic "Old" and "New" Jewish cemeteriesContinue Reading →
Aigars Bikše: The Latvian Sculptor Who is Lord of His Own Manor
Bikše’s irreverent and political sculptures have been seen from Riga to Venice and Tokyo, while his eccentric sense of style perfectly suits his role as head of Fashion at the…Continue Reading →
Vilnius Through a 50mm Lens: A Year Photographing Lithuania's Capital
Since last summer, the 50mm Vilnius blog has carried a daily photo of Lithuania's beautiful capital, showing one of its many different sides...Continue Reading →
Landscapes of Communism Revalued: An Interview with Owen Hatherley
In Landscapes of Communism, published earlier this year, Owen Hatherley turned his attention to the architecture of Communism across the former Eastern Bloc, including in the BalticsContinue Reading →
Latvia's Hidden Viking Heritage: the Lost City of Seeburg
If you visit Grobiņa nowadays, you will see almost no signs of the past settlement.Continue Reading →
Split By a Border and Fading Fast: Estonia's Unique Seto People
For Estonia’s Setos, it wasn’t the Soviet Union’s Iron Curtain that split their community in two – but the border Estonia built to keep the Russians out.Continue Reading →
Living in a State of Non-History: Growing Up Lithuanian-American
For almost half a century, my grandfather stubbornly maintained the New York Consulate of prewar independent Lithuania in a cramped rent-controlled apartment on Manhattan’s Upper West Side.Continue Reading →
Final Point of the Russian Empire: Liepāja's Half a Million Emigrants
In the eight years of emigration from Liepāja to New York, over 500,000 people used the Russian-American line to reach the ‘Big Apple’.Continue Reading →