The Chameleon West: Lithuania as a Set for Soviet Cinema
Vilnius and Kaunas often stood in for Western cities in Soviet films. Does this still fuel misperceptions about the Baltic states in the Soviet era?Continue Reading →
"Did You Eat the WHOLE Cake?" On Learning Estonian
"Estonian is popularly known as a difficult language to learn. The only other national languages it’s related to are Finnish and Hungarian."Continue Reading →
"The Forest Is in Our DNA": Lithuania's Ancient Woods
"We can be proud that we have these in Lithuania, because in Western Europe these were already gone a hundred years ago"Continue Reading →
"Nobody, Nobody Is Alone": What Singing Means to Estonians
“Singing brings Estonians joy. Singing gives Estonians courage. Singing makes Estonians free.”Continue Reading →
Twenty Speakers, But Three Poets: Writing in Livonian
Two books of poetry originally written in the Livonian language, spoken by just twenty people, have recently appeared in English translationContinue Reading →
The Unbuilt Soviet Metro System that Haunts Latvia's Capital: Beginnings
Riga was down for a metro – a formally and conceptually adventurous system that would have been the most expensive ever built in the Soviet UnionContinue Reading →
Bridges of Time: How Baltic "Poetic Documentaries" Exposed Soviet Reality
"They helped audiences to learn to see... not only to watch, but to see. To see and think and read between the lines."Continue Reading →
Learning Yiddish and Searching for Jewish Lithuania: Laura Esther Wolfson
Laura Esther Wolfson's collection of non-fiction covers the author’s life and travels in the United States, France and the former Soviet Union, including a couple of interludes in LithuaniaContinue Reading →
"It Flew Like a Shooting Star": Sartre and De Beauvoir's Week in Soviet Lithuania
In July 1965, Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir arrived in Soviet-occupied Vilnius. Their week-long stay in Lithuania was to leave a deep impressionContinue Reading →
Sixteen Thousand Voices in Perfect Harmony: Latvia's Incredible Song Festival
Latvia's huge Song and Dance Festival has been recognised as a masterpiece of humanity by UNESCO – and its participants are increasingly multinationalContinue Reading →
From Soviet Border Guard Station to Sauna: Off-Road on Vormsi Island
One cabin was used for accommodating border guards while the other housed a projector that was large enough to light up the coastline.Continue Reading →
Answering the Call of the Bonfire: Estonia's Poetics of Endangered Species
Severe pollution threatens the entire Baltic Sea ecosystem. Blending poetry and art, a new book draws attention to Estonian wildlife at risk of disappearance.Continue Reading →