Editor: Betty Shuford Zeps Back to Newsletter Home

Table of Contents: Letter from the President, Saulius Sužiedėlis Facsimile of Issue #1, Page 1, 1976 aabs newsletter Rounding Out the Ends The Baltic States in World Statistics In Memoriam, Ādolfs Sprūdžs Book Review: Amber in Archaeology Institutional News: Baltic Office News Edmund Brigmanis Appointed AABS Controller Professional News: Prof. Emer. George Viksnins Prof. Victor Snieckus Prof. Daina Stukuls Eglitis Prof. Emer. Birutė Ciplijauskaitė 19th Conference on Baltic Studies Baltic Studies Fund: Donations and Current Status

For almost three years, the President and Board of Directors of the Association have struggled with the financial impact of the dramatic downturn in the equities markets on which AABS depends for much of our society's operating costs. One of the cost-cutting proposals during this period has been the cessation of our hard-copy edition of the Baltic Studies Newsletter and its replacement by an on-line version published in the AABS home page. As announced in the March 2003 issue of the BSN, the AABS Board, during its 9 November 2002 meeting in Toronto, voted to discontinue publication of the quarterly Baltic Studies Newsletter as of 30 June 2003. The Board of the AABS would like to reiterate that, despite this cost-saving measure, we will continue to provide timely news of the profession as well as important announcements concerning Baltic Studies which the Association's members have come to expect.

AABS will publish academically-oriented information, which had been provided by the hard-copy BSN, in the Journal of Baltic Studies, our quarterly which we are hoping to improve, expand and strengthen in content, appearance and format during the near future. News of this type will include announcements of important conferences and meetings, "news of the profession" typical of academic organizations, and other content relevant to scholars, students and researchers in the field. Organizational matters, as well as various items of additional interest, will be posted both on the AABS web-site's electronic version, the e-Baltic Studies Newsletter (e-BSN), and in an Annual Report to the membership. These will also be the venues for acknowledging our generous supporters and their donations to the AABS, the Baltic Studies Fund, and the Gaigulis Reserve Fund. We should look on electronic publishing not as a step back, but as an opportunity to provide vital information while assigning scarce resources to other priorities, especially the JBS and our biennial conferences. An increasing number of professional and academic associations, both in the Baltic region and in North America, have adopted the Internet as a major source, and means of dissemination, of information. Our financial and membership difficulties to which I alluded in my address to the Eighteenth Conference are by no means unique, especially among learned societies and area studies associations.

We do, however, recognize that there will be a number of our members, including loyal subscribers of long standing, who have difficulty connecting to the opportunities offered through the Internet. We believe that the Annual Report to the membership will provide much of the useful information previously published in the BSN. Members who have little or no access to the Internet are urged to contact me or the Executive Office with suggestions for how best to alleviate their concerns; you can be sure you will find a sympathetic hearing. We are actively exploring alternatives, such as providing a limited number of our members with hard copies of the e-BSN.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the past and (concluding with this issue) present editors of the Baltic Studies Newsletter for their work over the years: Yana Okolo-Kulaks (1977 - 1989), Ināra Punga (1989 - 1995), Sandra Milevska (1995 - 2000), and in the final years Betty Shuford Zeps, in cooperation with Jānis Gaigulis, Anita Juberts, and Ülo Sinberg (2000 - 2003). They worked tirelessly, with the patience of Job and under difficult conditions, to expedite the publication of BSN in a timely and professional manner. The Association benefited from their commitment and enthusiasm. AABS could not exist without such people.

Saulius Sužiedėlis, President
AABS

Below is a facsimile of vol. 1. p. 1 (a mimeographed edition remember that?) of what has become the Baltic Studies Newsletter. Prof. Nollendorfs' article following on Page 4 is incumbent upon your reading this preface.

Valters Nollendorfs, Professor Emeritus, University of Wisconsin-Madison

In the December issue of 2002, I wrote what I thought would be my contribution to rethinking Baltic Studies in times of dwindling resources and new constituencies.  Among other things, I argued for the need to continue some kind of contemporary, lively, interactive communication forums.  Internet, by all means, but an improved newsletter or newsletters as well.  I am quite at home and at ease with the former, but not everybody is, especially in the Baltic, and not everybody has the means or the enthusiasm for it.  Paper is still a powerful medium.  Let me suppose that my ideas were just as thoughtfully considered at last fall's AABS Board meeting as they were written.  Let me also suppose that the decision to terminate the BSN as a paper circular considered all aspects - not only the cost, but the communicative and consensus-building aspects as well - before the Board decided to sway the axe.  I have not heard a response to my essayistic outburst, but I know that it is easier to be reflective than resolute, and resolution is in some ways the only response needed.

So the resolution has been reached, the decision taken.  Yet I am afraid, that is just the first of actions that may make the AABS lose steam and momentum.  It surely is my age, I know - but I wonder where the AABS will be in the Baltic Studies on the shores of the Baltic.  That was, after all, the import of what I was trying to ponder - how to bring Baltic Studies and the AABS in line with the new European and Baltic realities.  They are here.  By chance, just today I got the preliminary program of the Fifth Conference on Baltic Studies in Europe in Turku 5 - 7 June 2003.  What strikes me - besides the AABS not even being mentioned - is: (1) there are only a few of the old AABS stalwarts there; (2) there are many new names from all around the Baltic, not just the core Baltic countries; (3) "Baltic" is no longer just the Baltic states, but more or less the Baltic littoral; and (4) there are new interesting interdisciplinary, intercultural and comparative approaches.  I must be getting old if even among the persons I know about a half are younger colleagues.  And I must be getting old if the things we had to work hard to achieve seem to be coming around by themselves.  But that is the way it should be, and I will be a happy observer and perhaps even a sometime participant.  The only question for me is - will the AABS be there when I start feeling nostalgic and elegiac as I start the slide from senescence into senility? 

Anyway, this is, after all, the last issue of what was once the aabs newsletter.  A medium for communication and exchange of ideas.  A rather sprightly one at that.  I had grown rather fond of it as a good impersonal friend who did not mind my sometime poetic excursuses.  But there were two real friends in Van Hise Hall at the University of Wisconsin - Madison in 1976 when the first issue came out, banging away at the IBM Selectric to make it happen:  Valdis Zeps and Valters Nollendorfs.  That was the only issue we signed; we were only media ourselves, midwives of sort, passing the newborn newsletter on and on and on.  That is how it started.  This is how it ends - not with a bang ...

Yet a Zeps was there when it began and a Zeps is there as it ends.  It is somehow fitting.  The beginning meets its end, and - let us hope - makes the ends meet and thus start new annual electronic rings.  It would be too sad otherwise. 

George J. Viksnins, Professor of Economics (Emeritus), Georgetown University
Paper presented at the 18th Conference on Baltic Studies, 6-8 June, 2002

Few people are fully aware of the size of the collapse in the economies of the Comecon area (the Comecon was called the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance, CMEA, by its members, the USSR and its satellites). Simply put, the fall in output in Russia and the Baltic countries was twice as large as the Great Depression, 1929-33, in the US -   50% versus about 25%. In the officially independent countries, such as Hungary and Poland, the fall in output was a good deal less, but in a number of situations (e.g., Georgia and Turkmenistan), the decline was even larger.

According to official World Bank income statistics, the three Baltic countries in 2000 were in the lower middle-income category - Estonia's Gross National Income per capita was at $3410, Lithuania's $2900, and Latvia's $2860. It is well known that these numbers greatly understate the "true value" of the final goods and services being produced in relatively poor countries. About thirty years ago, development economists spoke of the "Rule of Four-Ninths," which showed that these official statistics, calculated by using local prices and the US dollar exchange rate, understated the value of output. In a poor country, the price of potatoes or bread will often be less than half of what it is in the US or the EU. The price of a liter of milk consumed by a farm family in the Baltic countries may enter GDP at five santims ("the farmgate price"), while the price in the US might be around a dollar. Personal services - barbers and school-teachers - have a much lower cost in poorer countries. This general principle is also demonstrated by the so-called "Big Mac Index," published by The Economist, which shows that the purchasing power of the Baltic currencies is about one-third above the official exchange rate. Therefore, over the past thirty years a methodology has been developed to use American prices to revalue the current output of final goods and services, which results in considerably higher per capita figures for the Baltics, as can be seen in Table 1. These GDP statistics, known as the "Purchasing Power Parity" numbers, show Estonia's per capita income at a bit more than $10,000 and the other two at about 2.4 times the official level. (In passing, the relative spread for the poorest countries, such as China and India, is considerably larger, with a multiplier of about 4.)

For the Baltic output statistics, a couple of additional ideas can be discussed briefly. First, a good deal of economic activity carried on by urban dwellers is treated as a hobby. Only food and fuel produced on the farm enters official accounts, but people in much of the former planned economy system relied, and even today continue to rely, on products from their "victory gardens" as a vital part of their subsistence. On Sunday afternoons and evenings, all forms of transportation are hauling huge sacks of fruits and vegetables from the fall harvest into the capital cities. Also, activities such as hunting, fishing, berry-picking and mushroom-hunting are a significant part of life for many people. A great deal of time is also devoted to cultural activities, which do not generate much money income. A second reason for a downward bias in official data is the reporting system. In the days of the planned economy, emphasis was placed on "physical success indicators," such as tons of potatoes and cabbage, the number of cans of fish or meat produced, and the size of the dairy herd. This led to a great deal of dysfunctional behavior by Soviet managers, discussed at length by scholars such as Janos Kornai of Harvard University. After the implosion of central planning, in complete contrast, financial  incentives have favored activity in the "shadow economy" as well as systematic under-reporting for tax purposes as well. Payments in the envelope escape both the tax collector as well as the national accounts statistician, in all likelihood.  One rather general criticism of using GDP as a measure of economic welfare is that it is too production-oriented and does not consider the quality of life, broadly speaking. For about the past ten years, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) has been publishing the Human Development Index (HDI), also presented in Table 1. The HDI averages an index of life expectancy (LE), and an  education measure combining literacy and school enrollment, and the afore-mentioned adjusted GDP entered as a logarithm (this has the effect of setting an arbitrary ceiling on per capita income at about $6000). It can be seen that the data in the table show a v-shaped pattern for the transition decade. In 1991-92, all three countries ranked within the top 30 in the world on the basis of HDI, but GDP fell rapidly in the early 1990s. Many people blame "Western experts," in some cases even members of AABS, for the decline, which in fact was caused by the collapse of the Comecon system. It can be seen, the fall in GDP was steepest in Estonia during the first couple of years, and Estonia's HDI rank continued to fall until 1995. Even by the year 2000, its life expectancy had not recovered to its 1991-92 level. In Latvia, the HDI rank fell from No. 30 in the world to No. 92, where it remained in 1994-96. The lowest HDI rank reached by Lithuania was No. 81 in 1993, but all three nations have shown rapidly rising HDI scores in the second half of the decade.  As is generally recognized, economic growth and political freedom tend to be positively correlated. There are two well-known indices of economic freedom. The  first, by James Gwartney at Florida State and other academic collaborators, as of 2000, ranks Estonia 36th, up from 68th in 1995. Latvia is #46, Lithuania #62. The more widely cited "Index of Economic Freedom," a collaboration of the Heritage Foundation and the Wall Street Journal, has compiled eight years of data and covers 155 countries. Hong Kong is first with a 1.356. Estonia is tied for 4th  - which it shares with four others, including the US - with a score of 1.8. Lithuania has a score of 2.35 and is 29th  - and Latvia ranks 38th with a 2.50. North Korea and Iraq are tied for last with a perfect 5.00.

The three countries have shown considerable improvements under various other rating schemes as well, such as the bond valuations made public by Moody's, Fitch, and the like. These ratings are heavily influenced by the so-called "country risk assessments."  Country risk is assessed by many. Euromoney covers 185 countries. Maximum score is 100 (Luxembourg 99.75). Estonia ranks 44th, Latvia 61st and Lithuania 69th. Since 1992, Estonia has gone from a 23 to 63, Latvia from 22 to 54, and Lithuania from 21 to 53.  A surprisingly dark spot in the favorable international assessment of the Baltic countries is the relatively recent "Corruption Perceptions Index," compiled by a German NGO called "Transparency International" (which appears to have affiliates in a number of countries - the one in Latvia is called "Delna"). Latvia appeared in this listing in 1998, sharing 71st place with Pakistan (out of a  list of only 85 countries). By 2001, Latvia was tied with Ghana; but in 2002, the situation is somewhat improved - Latvia shares No. 52 with the Czech Republic, Morocco, the Slovak Republic and Sri Lanka. Lithuania is in the 36th spot, but Estonia ranks 29th. It is interesting to speculate a bit about why Latvia fares so much more poorly than its neighbors. One possible hypothesis involves the ethnic issue - many business people are Russophones, while government officials are generally Latvians, or at least people fluent in the language. There may be significant problems in communication, and it is not impossible that some discriminatory practices have existed as well. Since the index is based on questionnaires having to do with perceptions, it may well be that the business people perceive potential discrimination and prepay bribes as insurance even without being asked. More careful research on this issue would be helpful.  There are a couple of more indices which could be discussed; both are quite complicated and the reader's patience may be wearing thin. The World Bank maintains a huge database on various criteria of governance, which appears to be a largely subjective assessment. The Scandinavian countries do a lot better than the Balts, but the Balts are well ahead of Russia and Zimbabwe. Finally, for Latvian patriots, Latvia outscores its neighbors in a new measure, the Environmental Sustainability Index, maintained by some social scientists at New York's Columbia University. Latvia ranks 10th in the world (Finland is No. 1), Estonia 18th, and Lithuania 27th (when the index first appeared Lithuania ranked much higher, but the compilers have probably now learned about the nuclear plant at Ignalina…). Perhaps Latvian patriots should not celebrate this ranking all that enthusiastically, however - since it reflects a low level of industrial activity and lots of vacant land. But, sustainable development is politically correct after all . . .

Table 1 -- Selected Indicators, Baltic States, 1991-2000
	EST					LAT					LIT
	LE	GDP	HDI	Rank		LE	GDP	HDI	Rank		LE	GDP	HDI	Rank
'91-'92	71.2	$8090	.867	29		71.0	$7540	.865	30		72.6	$5410	.868	28
1992	69.3	6690	.862	43		69.1	6060	.857	48		70.4	3700	.769	71
1993	69.2	3610	.749	68		69.0	5010	.820	55		70.3	3110	.719	81
1994	69.2	4294	.776	71		67.9	3332	.711	92		70.1	4011	.762	76
1995	69.2	4062	.758	77		68	3583	.707	92		70.2	3843	.750	79
1996	70.0	4431	.762	65		69.3	3464	.727	92		70.6	4004	.755	70
1997	68.7	5240	.773	54		68.4	3940	.744	74		69.9	4220	.761	62
1998	69.0	7682	.801	46		68.7	5728	.771	63		70.2	6436	.789	52
1999	70.3	8355	.818	44		70.1	6264	.791	50		71.8	6656	.803	47
2000	70.6	10066	.826	42		70.4	7045	.80	53		72.1	7106	.808	49
Source: 2002 World Development Report, Oxford University Press, 2002. LE = Life expectancy; GDP = Gross Domestic Product, using Purchasing Power Parity Prices; HDI = Human Development Index (UNDP).

excerpted from the Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun

Ādolfs Sprūdžs, 80, a retired University of Chicago foreign law librarian, died of a heart attack Wednesday, 12 February 2003, in  the University of Chicago Hospital.  He was a long-time member of AABS  because, according to his daughter, Ilze Hirsh, "although he was an American citizen and truly appreciated the freedoms and liberties that we enjoy," he felt the need to remain connected to his Baltic roots. 

Before he left Latvia, Mr. Sprūdžs attended the Universi­ty of Latvia School of Law.  He first fled to West Germany where he attended Tübingen University School of Law.  Before graduating, he moved to Belgium where he earned bachelor's and master's degrees in economics and international relations from the Catholic University of Louvain.  In 1956, he settled in Chicago and earned a library-science degree from Rosary College, now called Dominican University.  Besides Latvian and English, Mr Sprūdžs spoke fluent German and French and had a reading knowledge of several other languages.  He always loved books, so becoming a librarian was a natural career choice for him, Hirsh said.  Mr. Sprūdžs began working as a law librarian at Northwestern University and then at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.  In 1967, he began working at the University of Chicago, where he stayed until his retirement in 1992, building up the university's foreign law collection which is known worldwide. 

Since Latvia regained its independence from Soviet rule in 1991,  Mr. Sprūdžs had been helping  to develop a Latvian National Library in Riga.  Last year, he received an award from the Latvian Special Presidential Council called the "Order of Three Stars," which honors people who have benefited Latvia.  In 2001, he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Latvian Academy of Science and in 2000 he was given a distinguished service award from the American Association of Law Libraries.  Mr. Sprūdžs was a member of that association, the Association for the Advancement of Baltic Studies, and was a founding member and past president of the International Association of Law Libraries.

In addition to his daughter, Ilze, Ādolfs Sprūdžs is survived by his wife, Janina: two sons, Uģis and Pēteris, a daughter, Rita; and six grandchildren.

AMBER IN ARCHAEOLOGY: Proceedings of the Fourth International Conference on Amber in Archaeology, Talsi 2001. © Institute of the History of Latvia Publishers 2003. ISBN 9984-601-77-3., Edited by Curt W. Beck, Ilze B. Loze, and Joan M. Todd. Presented by the Amber Committee of the International Union of Prehistoric and Protohistoric Sciences, the Association for the Advancement of Baltic Studies, and the Institute of History, University of Latvia. 259 pp.

For many archaeologists working with the amber finds of Central Europe and the Mediterranean, in particular Greece, Italy, the Balkans, and the Near East, the Amberland of the North had remained in the mists of the cold shores and hard winds, shrouded in the same mystery as the Hyperboreans of Antiquity. It had been difficult in the past to get to the Baltic countries, and until recently it was difficult for Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania to send representation to Baltic meetings, even in Scandinavia.

Finally, on 9 September 2001, and for the next three days, representatives of fourteen countries boarded a bus from Rīga to Talsi, Latvia, to participate in the 4th International Conference on Amber in Archaeology. The previous meeting of amber minds had taken place in 1996 at the Amber Workshop of the International Union of Prehistoric and Protohistoric Sciences in Forli, Italy.

In her opening remarks to the Conference, Latvian president, Dr. Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga said: "Amber is the embodiment of a paradox: it is an inert stone, an organic part of nature - however it is also the relic of once-living organic matter, the very life-blood of a plant. Amber as a fossil is eternal as all stone in sharp contrast to the ephemeral nature of human life. Yet amber, as the sap of prehistoric plants, re-awakens in the modern consciousness a sense of the traditional cycles of eternal return; those of the seasons, following the cosmic path of the Sun, and the stages of an individual's life-span, following the same pattern throughout generations . . . The academic study of amber is a joint research theme in European and world Archaeology, which serves to bring researchers closer together."

The papers presented at the conference and available in these Proceedings are in six categories with a concluding Bibliography prepared in Oxford on the specific topic of Amber Beads in Archaeology (since 1993), which provides information on general accounts, exchange and trade, natural sources analysis, conservation, philology, and literature. Most of the entries in the bibliography concern beads rather than other kinds of artifacts such as figurines (although two items on the controversial "Assyrian" statuettes are included, e.g. Oscar Muscarella in 2000 published the paper "The Lie Became Great: The Forgery of Near Eastern Cultures," in Studies in the Art and Archaeology of Antiquity, which dismisses as fakes two "Assyrian" amber statuettes in Boston's Museum of Fine Arts and Jerusalem's Biblelands Museum's Borowski Collection)

Comprising the entire first section of the Proceedings proper, Curt Beck's Talsi paper "The Chemistry of Sicilian Amber (Simetite)," delves into the question of the chemical composition of Sicilian amber. Beck concludes that Simetite was produced by trees in the leguminosae family and that all previous botanical assignments have been in error. Beck puts forward the suggestion that the evidence to date does not permit the identification of a genus, much less a species, and that there are two plausible explanations for this: (a) Simetite will have suffered considerable damage in the process of fossilization, and (b) the trees that produced Simetite may now be extinct, as is the case in the source trees of Baltic amber in Succinite.  The bibliography also refers to a paper by Curt and Lily Beck "Analysis and Provenience of Minoan and Mycenoean Amber, V: Pylos and Messenia," in Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies, 36/2: 119-135, the beads analyzed are nearly all of Baltic amber, but a few are probably Sicilian Simetite.

The second section of the Proceedings under the heading, The East Baltic Area, looks at amberworking as a specialist occupation at the Sārnate Neolithic site in Latvia; Lithuanian amber artifacts from the Roman Iron Age to Medieval times; and Middle Neolithic amber workshops in the Lake Lubāns depression of Latvia.

In Section III,  Northern Europe, the paper by Tony Axelsson and Anders Strinnhol, "Beads of Belonging and Tokens of Trust: Neolithic Amber Beads from Megaliths in Sweden," concluded that amber beads are among the most frequent finds from the Megalithic burials and also appear as votive offerings in bogs during the Neolithic period.

In her dynamic paper, "When Amber Speaks: The Archaeological Evidence and the Historic Record," Joan M. Todd puts forward the idea that "Amber evidently poses a particular problem for the historian - as a material, and by the ways in which it travels and the confusion about its role as an indicator."

These proceedings make a timely appearance in the literature on the subject and are excellently presented with a most attractive cover page showing amber pendants from the Lake Lubāns Depression (Courtesy of Dr. Ilze Loze). English language usage throughout is excellent (even in translation) and this book is really representative of superb international scientific cooperation between fourteen countries on a topic of multi-disciplinary significance.

I would only like to have seen a listing of all visual diagrams/plates etc. for easy reference and an index would have been a major timesaver for the professional. The icing on this most delicious amber torte would have been the provision of abstracts for each paper in the original language of the various writers.

This publication, available at modest cost through both the ALA Bookstore and the Latvian History Institute in Rīga will be destined for a reprint. Order now to avoid disappointent in being able to access an example of outstanding Baltic scholarship. It is a serious scientific report and at the same time a most atractive Coffee table book. Congratulations to all involved.

Edgars Kariks
AABS Baltic Office

Edgars Kariks, Baltic Office Manager

Brown Bag Lectures Transition into Workshops
Following the cross-cultural tradition of Brown Bag lectures this past semester, we have seen some interesting developments and trends in our audience participation.  It seems that Latvians value every spare second of their time, be it lunch-time, work-time, or relaxation-time (no deficit here).  Quality time, in terms of attendance at AABS Brown Bag lectures has shown that, while people are very much informed as to who is doing what, the precious time available to the busy individual is measured out.  At our Brown Bag lectures, there are rarely to be found innocent by-standers who really have nothing better to do or nobody with whom to share their sandwiches. The lectures in this past Spring series have helped us identify people with particular interests in our community. For example, Gundar Kings' 12 February  presentation attracted several higher education administrators as well as concerned University of Latvia students.  My own presentation on 5 March, "The Great Baltic Brain Robbery," while widely publicized and polemically titled, attracted an audience of nine - but what an audience, and what a discussion! Students at various levels, two university lecturers, and the former rector of the University of Latvia.  The tone of the presentation was in fact intended to be quite positive and the presentation/discussion which lasted for more than two hours non-stop indicated that this is indeed a topic for further analysis.  On the other hand, it is quite possible that the low attendance at this particular session was indicative of a fait accomplis - dread the thought. Dr Juris Prikulis' paper on 12 March, "Latvia's Experience in Europe: A Comparative Long-Term Perspective" was an excellent prelude to Associate Professor Andris Spricis' presentation, "International Courses for Baltic Studies in Latvia," in which he outlined the major project going on  through the Baltic University Programme (BUP) which is a network of more than 170 universities and other institutes of higher learning throughout the Baltic region. The network is coordinated by the Baltic University Programme Secretariat at Uppsala University, Sweden.  It is a pity that audiences and chief speakers at these seminal presentations could not be present at each  other's outstanding papers.  While both presentations had active audience participation, it seems that this situation is a vivid example of the criticism Baltic countries have received of late for being "vertical minded factologists" rather than "cross-spectrum interfacing specialists."

Trying to sustain innovation, and following the successful experience of my own two-hour session on  5  March, the Baltic Office presented in April three "marathon length" workshops.  The first on 9 April was led by our regular Baltic Office guest, Professor Arthur Cropley,  "Wrestling with the Bearslayer: The Trials of an Amateur Translator."  Cropley has undertaken the enormous and culturally/historically important task of translating the great Latvian  epic "Lāčplēsis" into English. What a surprise to discover that while this epic has been translated into Estonian, Lithuanian, Russian, and even into Japanese, there exists no serious English language translation.  Cropley had an excellent audience of like-minded participants (all armed with sandwiches, fruit and soda pop), heavily involved in critical discussion  and exchanges of professional opinions.  Those of you who missed this great debate/discussion will have to wait some two years until Cropley reveals his final product, but it will be worth the wait and the AABS Baltic Office takes pleasure in being able to say that it has been a staunch supporter of  the achievement of this initiative.

Fifteen Minutes of Fame
On 23 April, eight young finalists for the two University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire (UWEC) scholarships (valued at USD 19,500 each) made eight interesting and diverse fifteen-minute presentations on the topic, "Presenting Latvia to the World in the 21st Century." Digital snapshots of this event may be seen on the website.  All candidates were dynamic and creative in their talks and also provided critical evaluations and feedback on each other's "performances." The final decision of  the recipients for the UWEC scholarships (to be made in late May-early June) will be difficult, but we may rest assured that if these students:  Līva Bērziņa, Velga Dišlere, Ģirts Mīlgrāvis, Ilze Millere, Edgars Pelcis, Zane Smilga, Elīna Spūle, and Māra Zālīte are indicative of the new generation of Baltic university students, then the situation for future scholarship seems bright, indeed.  The AABS Baltic Office is pleased to act as a catalyst in the development of these scholars.

History Lectures Maintain Core Attendance
Dr . Kaspars Klaviņš, at the time of writing, has covered eight of twenty planned bi-weekly two-hour seminars on the general topic "From the Crusades to the Barricades: A Brief History of Latvia: 1201 - 1991." Attendance has always been regular and discussions emanating from these meetings have been fruitful. It seems that the same pattern of people attending only sessions of immediate significance and special interest is the norm.

Klaviņš is a Fulbright finalist at present and hopes to undertake further research during 2003-2004 in the U.S. on the question of the History of Ideas in the context of present-day Latvian history of science. These lectures, promoted by the AABS Baltic Office, will form the principal materials for his forthcoming book of the same title.  Klaviņš' home page is http://www.dr-kaspars-klavins.com.

Baltic Musicology on the Move this Summer
Discussions and communications have been in progress for several months now between Latvian musicologist Edgars Kariks, M.Mus., Ph.D.(cand.), of the Baltic office of the AABS and Prof. Dr. Joahīms Brauns, the distinguished Baltic musicologist presently affiliated with Bar Ilan University Music Department in Israel. For some background on Prof.  Brauns, see my review of his latest book in JBS  XXXIV/1 (Spring 2003) pp. 123-4.

We are helping lay plans for his forthcoming visit to Riga this summer to present a special Brown Bag Workshop on the topic, "Musicology as a Discipline in Latvia: Past, Present, Future." Professor Brauns was special editor of the Spring  1983 (Vol XIV/1) edition  of the Journal of Baltic Studies. We hope his visit to Riga will lead to the creation of a Latvian Chapter of the International Musicological Society (IMS), to  the initiation of procedures for the creation of a quarterly journal (tentatively titled Miscellanea Musicologica: Latvian Studies in Musicology), and to laying the foundations for the establishment of an independent Research Institute of Baltic Musicology.  We look forward to a long and productive summer.

Ideas are Things
From the above brief summary of activities and initiatives of the past three months I hope that readers and members of the Baltic Studies Newsletter will appreciate the exciting developments happening in Riga.  I would like to see more interface with our colleagues in Estonia and Lithuania. If members contact me with expressions of interest (as, for example, did Professor Joahīms Brauns), this would be further incentive for action.  The fundamental motto of the present Baltic Office management is "Ideas are Things."  We represent energy, enterprise, scholarship, and achievement. During the last two and one-half years our website, www.balticstudies-aabs.lanet.lv, has attracted more than 10,500 visitors. Imagine what potential YOUR scholarly project may have if you support our mission in the Baltic Office: http://www.lu.lv/jauna/strukt/c_studveicapv.html

Reporting directly to the AABS Administrative Executive Director, Edmund Brigmanis will be a key adviser on financial developments in the Association.  He will also be responsible for the computerized AABS Information System consisting of a variety of data bases integrated with the accounting program, including membership records, financial transactions such as the collection of membership dues and donations, as well as subscriptions to the Journal of Baltic Studies.

Mr. Brigmanis holds an MS in Physics from the Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute and an MBA from New York University (NYU).  He is retired Manager of the Operational Safety Department at American Cyanamid Corporation and brings a strong business background to the position of AABS Controller.

In addition, Edmund has served as President of the Latvian Foundation, Inc., a major ethnic heritage foundation making annual grants of $40,000 - $50,000 in support of Latvian cultural projects.  Currently, he is serving as a member of the Board of Directors of the Latvian Opera Guild, which provides significant support to the Latvian National Opera in Riga.  He is married, and Mrs. Brigmanis also serves on the same Latvian Opera Guild Board. 

It must be noted that, despite the heavy workload, Edmund has waived the token compensation for his professional services, which is provided for in the AABS budget, and will serve instead as a volunteer. With our currently strained financial situation, this has, for all practical purposes, saved the AABS Baltic Office, whose closing at the end of the current fiscal year was seriously contemplated.  The Association appreciates, and is grateful for, Edmund's generosity!

Prof. Emer. George J. Viksnins Awarded Latvia's Civilian Honor
Congratulations to George J. Viksnins, Director of the Baltic Studies Fund, and Professor Emeritus, Georgetown University, who on 11 April  2003, was awarded Latvia's civilian honor, the "Order of  Three Stars."  On 5 March, Professor Viksnins participated in the 10th anniversary celebration of the reintroduction of the Latvian Lats, which he helped to define in 1993 as a US Treasury consultant to the Bank of Latvia."

Prof. Daina Stukuls Eglitis Receives Fulbright Grant to Teach in Latvia
Daina Stukuls Eglitis, assistant professor at The George Washington University (D.C.) Columbian College of Arts and Sciences (CCAS), was awarded a Fulbright Senior Specialists grant in sociology at Riga Stradins University (RSU) in Riga, Latvia.  Eglitis will teach a comparative course on the sociology of sex and gender using cases from the U.S. and East Europe, especially Latvia. This class is the first of its kind at RSU.

The program, sponsored by the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and managed by the Council for International Exchange of Scholars, runs for five weeks, beginning the end of April. While in Latvia, Eglitis will be participating in a conference on culture and society where she will discuss her research on gender and family transformation in a post-communist society. Finally, she will take part in a seminar about pedagogy in the teaching of theory - this will be another first for Latvia.

Professor Eglitis is well aware of Latvian issues and has published many articles and dedicated a chapter in her book, Imagining the Nation, History, Modernity, and Revolution in Latvia, to gender issues in the country.

Prof. Victor Snieckus Receives the Order of Grand Duke Gediminas Award
Victor Snieckus, FCIC, FRSC, inaugural appointee to the Bader Chair of Organic Chemistry, Queen's University, has been awarded the "Order of Grand Duke Gediminas" by the President of Lithuania, Valdas Adamkus.

The citation for the award, the highest honour granted in Lithuania, reads, "for services rendered to the State of Lithuania and efforts to promote Lithuania in the world." Snieckus has been active in bringing appreciation of chemical research to the Baltic States (including Estonia and Latvia), independent since 1991 from communist occupation, especially by organizing a conference, Balticum Organicum Syntheticum, which highlighted two of the 2001 Nobel Laureates, one of whom, Barry Sharpless, Scripps Institute, also spoke at Queen's University at the 2000 Alfred Bader Symposium. 

Recent Publications by Prof. Emer. Birutė Ciplijauskaitė
Professor Emerita Birutė Ciplijauskaitė, University of Wisconsin-Madison Department of Spanish, has recently published three books of translations: one from Catalan into Lithuanian, Merce Rodoreda,  Moteris tarp balandžiu, Vilnius: Charibdė, 2002; and two from Lithuanian into Spanish: Vidmantė Jasukaitytė, La milagrosa hierba de la raiz amarge. Madrid, Horas y horas, 2002 (novel); and Entre el sol y la desposesion. Poemas de Janina Degutytė y Birutė Pūkelevičiūtė, Cadiz: Universidad de Cadiz, 2002.  She has also published translations of poems of Vytautas Bložė in  the journal, Salina (Tarragona) 15 (2001) and of Nijolė Miliauskaitė and Aivaras Mockus in Salina 16 (2002).

Dynamics of Integration and Identity:
The Baltics in Europe and the World


3-5 June 2004
University of Toronto
Canada

For information write:

Prof. Dr. Jüri Kivimäe
Department of History
University of Toronto
Toronto, Ontario M53 3G3, Canada
E-mail: jkivimae@chass.utoronto.ca


Additional information about the conference and AABS may be obtained from

AABS Executive Office
14743 Braemar Crescent Way
Darnestown, MD 20878-3911, USA
E-mail: aabs@starpower.net

and

AABS Baltic Office
Raiņa bulv. 19, 248.ist.
Rīga, LV-1586, Latvia
E-mail: aabs@lanet.lv

I. Donations to the Baltic Studies Fund
We gratefully acknowledge receipt of the following amounts during the period 18 February 2003 through 31 May 2003.  All amounts are expressed in US dollars.
          $1,000 to $5,000    
$3,000.00 Juris and Gita Padegs
          $200 to 499
$200.00 David D. Guid, Sigrida A. Renigers
          $100 to 199
$100.00 Gunnar & Silvija Birkerts, Latvian Assocassociation of South California, Latvian Relief Fund of America, Laura Losciale, Ansis M. Uibo, Vilis Vārsbergs
          $50 to 99
$80.00 Vita Bite; $60.00 George A. Kalmet;    $50.00 Leonas Sabaliunas; 
          $25 to 49
$40.00 Kristina Brazaitis, Hans S. Keerig, O. Padjus;  $30.00 Norton T. Dodge, Rita Drone;  $25.00 Sarmīte Elerte, Ilse Lehiste, Zigmas A. Raulinaitis, Paul William Thies
          All Other Donations
$20.00 Michael Strmiska;  $5.00 Bertrams V. Keire

II. Donations for AABS program expenditures
                $1,000 to $5,000
$2,000.00 Juris and Gita Padegs 
                $50 to 99
$50.00Guntis Dāboliņš
                All Other Donations
$10.00 Tekla Kristbergs
II.  Donations to the Gaigulis Reserve Fund
                $500 to 999
$500.00 Aina Galejs-Dravnieks, Sigurd Grava, Arturs R. Neparts
                $200 to $499
$300.00 William R. Schmalstieg, $250.00 Erik A. Niedrītis, Rimvydas P. Šilbajoris  $200.00 Haralds Krieviņš

Donations received for the Baltic Studies Fund Endowment during the reporting period amount to $4,495.00; total fiscal year-to-date $18,053.00.   On 31 May 2003, the Baltic Studies Fund Endowment stands at $869,522.35 (at book value).

Donations received for AABS Program Expenditures during the reporting period amount to $2,060.00;  total fiscal year-to-date $5,175.00.

Donations received for the Gaigulis Reserve Fund during the reporting period amount to $2,500.00; total fiscal year-to-date $7,500.00.

Total of all donations received during the reporting period amount to $9,055.00; Grand total fiscal year-to-date $30,728.00

Bequest Grant Fund balances as of 31 March 2003 stood at $6,397,71 for the Saltups Fund and $7,067,56 for the Grundmanis Fund.  This represents income earned by the Endowment that is currently available for distribution. 

All fund balances (including certain AABS operating reserves)  are managed by the AABS Investment Committee, chaired by Juris Padegs, (Advisory Managing Director, Scudder Kemper Investments, Inc., New York), with members Gundar J. King (Dean Emeritus, School of Business, Pacific Lutheran University), Juris Vīksniņš (Professor of Economics, Georgetown University, Washington, D.C.), and Tiit Heinsoo (Managing Director, Montgomery Watson-Asia [Retired]).  Currently, the Investment Committee has placed all funds in a series of portfolios managed by the Frank Russell Investment Management Co. of Tacoma, WA.  

Financial reports of the Association for the Advancement of Baltic Studies, Inc. are available to the public by writing to: State of New York, Office of the Attorney General, Department of Law, Charities Bureau, 120 Broadway, New York NY 10271, or to AABS Executive Office, 14743 Braemar Crescent Way, Darnestown. MD 20878.