Finno-Ugric Languages in Russia

In his lecture, Dr. Mürk spoke about his fieldwork among the Finno-Ugric populations in the Russian Federation. These cultures are remnants of the original aboriginal populations of northwestern Eurasia. Their current struggle to retain their distinctive languages and cultures offers many insights into a variety of problems faced by small minority populations around the world. Their experience is a litmus test for the development of democracy and pluralistic society in the Russian Federation.

Estonian Folk Legends

Baltic Studies on the Internet

She is directing an ambitious project to make the Estonian Folklore Archive accessible on the Internet, and visited folklore collections in Washington and Indiana to discuss future collaboration on this project. (Visit the homepage created by Kõiva and the Estonian folklorists at http://haldjas.folklore.ee.) She discussed technological matters in a meeting at the UW Center for Advanced Research and Technology in the Arts and Humanities (CARTAH). A group of faculty and students at the University of Washington has begun work on a Baltic Cultures homepage, which will complement the materials available in Estonia. The UW Baltic Cultures homepage, scheduled for launching in Spring of 1998, aims to serve as an English-language public information resources for persons interested in Baltic peoples and the treasures of their cultures.

Finno-Ugric Identity Today

Participants at these lectures agreed that international collaborative research and communication are highly beneficial to all. Visiting scholars such as Harri Mürk and Mare Kõiva help update our knowledge about Estonian and Finno-Ugric studies, and stimulate the growth of new ideas and research at the University of Washington.

Visit the Department of Scandinavian Studies through the Internet!

Questions about the Baltic Studies Program and the Baltic Program Endowment may be sent to:
University of Washington
Baltic Studies Program
Box 353420
Seattle WA 98195-3420
E-mail: uwscand@u.washington.edu

Upcoming Events

March 6: Celebration marking a major gift to the University of Washington Baltic Studies Program Endowment, 7:00 pm in Kane Hall 130 and the Walker Ames Room. The evening will feature a performance of Latvian songs by the University of Washington Chorale and a keynote speech by a founder of the Baltic Studies Program, Professor Thomas DuBois. All friends of the Baltic Studies Program are invited. Please call the Department of Scandinavian Studies, (206)543-0645, to let us know that you are coming.

May 28-29: Lectures by Professor David G. Kirby (School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University of London). Kirby is author of numerous books and articles about Baltic and Scandinavian History, including Northern Europe in the Early Modern Period: The Baltic World 1492-1772 (London: Longman, 1990) and The Baltic World 1772-1993: Europe's Northern Periphery in an Age of Change (London: Longman, 1995). Times and places for Kirby's lectures will be announced. For information, call the Department of Scandinavian Studies.

June 19-August 14: Fifth Annual Baltic Studies Summer Institute at Indiana University. BALSSI, established by the University of Washington in 1994, will be hosted this year by Indiana University. The Institute is financed by a consortium of six American universities. This summer's courses include Intensive First-Year Instruction in Estonian, Latvian, and Lithuanian, as well as courses taught in English about Baltic Culture and Baltic History. Scholarships may be available for outstanding students. For information, write to Professor Toivo Raun, Department of Central Eurasian Studies, Goodbody Hall 157, Indiana University, Bloomington IN 47405.
Email: raunt@indiana.edu

Baltic Courses at the University of Washington, Winter Quarter 1998

"Baltic Cultures" (SCAND 345/SIS RE 345) is taught by Guntis Smidchens. The course is taught in English and requires no knowledge of Baltic languages. Students are reading masterpieces of Estonian and Latvian literature, and exploring Baltic art, music and film.

Christine Ingebritsen is teaching "Scandinavia in World Affairs" (SCAND/POLSCI 326). Ingebritsen points out, "Scandinavia in World Affairs surveys the most important foreign policy issues and problems facing the five northern European states since the Second World War. One of the ways in which contemporary Scandinavia is changing is expanding the concept of region to include the Baltics. Foreign direct investment, defense policy advising, environmental clean-up, and informal connections are important in the new Scan-Baltic relationship."

In a third course, "Scandinavian Women Writers" (SCAND 490), taught by Lotta Gavel-Adams, students are reading books by Karen Blixen and Selma Lagerlöf alongside those of Baltic authors Agate Nesaule and Birute Baltrusaityte.

In Spring Quarter 1998 (March 30 to June 12), a new course will be taught in the Department of Scandinavian Studies: SCAND 344, "The Baltic States and Scandinavia," will survey the history of the Baltic States from the Viking Age to the present, with particular attention to Baltic-Scandinavian contacts. The class will meet Monday through Thursday, 12:30-1:20 in Balmer Hall 211.

Another history course will also include the Baltic region. SCAND 380, "History of Scandinavia to 1702," will devote a substantial section to the Swedish Empire. In the 17th century, Sweden ruled all of today's Estonia, Northern Latvia, and the city of Riga, leaving a legacy of law, education, and egalitarian politics in Latvian and Estonian history for centuries after Swedish rule.

Fulbright Exchange in Estonia:

I arrived in Tartu at the beginning of October, when the leaves had already washed the town in hues of orange and yellow rarely seen in Seattle. My late arrival (the semester started a month earlier, and most students arrived by mid-August) meant that not only did I miss the last few days of a warm and long summer, but that my classes were already in full swing. Not to worry, however, for the language training I received over the previous few years at the University of Washington let me slip into courses late with little transitional problems, a feat which would have been impossible without my previous coursework. Although my goal here is to carry out research for my Ph.D. dissertation (an environmental history of Estonia), I decided to enroll in an intensive language course for the first few months in order to facilitate faster reading skills. Fortunately, Tartu is already used to dealing with foreigners who want to study Estonian, so there are currently several courses from which to choose.

The international character of Tartu was quite a surprise for me. In my class are two other Americans, a Romanian, a Swede, and women from England, Lithuania and Trinidad. The university's offer of free tuition to many international students seems to be a great draw, for I have met others (outside of my class) from Sri Lanka, Iraq, South Korea, etc. Most are taking at least some Estonian language courses, although it is possible to get by in the university with only English (at least for the first two years of study). I hear Russian occasionally around town and campus, but not nearly as frequently as I had expected, and certainly not nearly as frequently in Tallinn. The few Russians I have met so far spoke very little Estonian, and this despite their youth. Nevertheless, few of them seem troubled by the possible barriers their lack of initiative may pose. When I ask Estonians about the troubles these Russian speakers might face in the future, they mention that they will probably have difficulties in the workplace. Perhaps we should send a shipload of them to the Baltic Studies Program at the University of Washington!

Robert Smurr

Valdas Adamkus - President of Lithuania

In May of 1995, Adamkus, who at the time was serving as Regional Administrator for the US Environmental Protection Agency, gave a keynote lecture at the University of Washington's Symposium on Environmental Problems of the Baltic Sea. He outlined the historical legacy of the Soviet Union, which did not take environmental considerations into account, and he identified key problems. The Baltic Sea is essentially a closed ecosystem in which it takes about twenty five years for natural currents to fully exchange water with the North Sea, far too slow to flush out growing amounts of military, municipal and agricultural pollution. The 1995 symposium brought University of Washington faculty and students together with specialists from the United States and Europe, and the World Bank, to discuss steps to be taken toward solutions.

In a recent interview with the Chicago Tribune, Adamkus was asked, "How can Americans help Lithuania?" He answered, "Through a closer relationship with the people here." We at the University of Washington hope to contribute to this goal. As our Baltic Studies Program's foundations gradually grow stronger, its ties to Lithuania and the Baltic states are deepening. International conferences such as the Baltic Sea symposium in 1995 and the Conference on NATO Enlargement and the Baltic Region in 1997, as well as other lectures at the UW by Baltic political and academic leaders have shown our faculty and students that we have much to gain from meetings with our Baltic colleagues. Growing book exchange programs with Baltic libraries are helping make the University of Washington's Library a substantial resource center for Baltic Studies in the United States. Language courses are helping train a new generation of American scholars in Baltic Studies. The future holds endless possibilities!

To Prof.Thomas Dubois Department of Scandinavian Studies University of Washington fax 206 685 9173 Vilnius, 6 May, 1997 Dear Mr. Dubois, After the Baltic Assembly Presidium Meeting, I want to take my first opportunity to inform you briefly, that the Baltic Studies Program was discussed at the Meeting and given a very positive evaluation. Some new proposals for the future co-operation were introduced, which, might be of interest to you. Our opinion is, that the Baltic Assembly could initiate a kind of technical assistance (books, videotapes, etc.,) to the Scandinavian Studies Department, in case you find it useful. We would appreciate a letter from you, specifying your particular interests. The Presidium of the Baltic Assembly is also positive about the possibility to invite representatives of the Baltic Studies Program to some of the events, organized by the Baltic Assembly. Yours cordially, Mecys Laurinkus Chairman of the Presidium

In Memoriam Kenneth Coulter

Kenneth Brewster Coulter, Lithuanian language student at the University of Washington's 1994 Baltic Studies Summer Institute, passed away on July 8, 1996. He was born on September 30, 1927, in Mineola, New York. He is survived by Marguerite Coulter.

In October of 1997, Marguerite visited the Scandinavian Department as Ken had done from time to time in the past, sharing memories about their happy life over a cup of coffee in the Burke Museum Cafe. She brought along a gift of about 200 linguistics books and dictionaries from Ken's extensive library, and news that Kenneth had left a bequest of $15,000 to the Baltic Studies Program Endowment at the University of Washington.

Kenneth's mother, a teacher of the Latin language, inspired him in his pursuit of languages. He began with Latin, then went on to learn many others. His travels brought him to the far corners of the world. In his youth, a packet of family letters written in German led him to the Goethe language school in Germany, where he studied while tracking down relatives in Austria. He told stories of his military service in the Philippines, about his job as an English teacher in Norway, and about visits to St. Petersburg, Moscow, and Derbent, Dagestan, which is a sister city to his hometown of Yakima, Washington.

Kenneth graduated from Princeton University with a degree in History, then received a masters in Law from George Washington university in Washington, DC. He served in the Russian division of the National Security Agency for ten years, then moved to the Northwest to work at the Boeing Company. He enrolled in the University of Washington Graduate School, and received an M.A. from the Linguistics Department in 1968. He was a passionate scholar of languages, fascinated by the intricacies of grammar and historical linguistics. In 1994, when the University of Washington founded the Baltic Studies Summer Institute, Kenneth enrolled in the Intensive Lithuanian course, falling in love with the archaic grammatical patterns that he found. That same year, he travelled to Lithuania. A week passed quickly with visits to Trakai Castle, Vilnius Old Town, and a happy meeting with a Lithuanian doctor whom he had befriended in the USA. After returning to Seattle, he visited the University of Washington, brimming with stories about Lithuanian hospitality and carrying a gift of the newest Lithuanian textbooks and tapes that he had found.

As a scholar of languages, Kenneth was a model to us all. His linguistics library features classic authors such as Mencken, Sapir, Bloomfield, Chomsky and Townsend, as well as dictionaries and grammars of Sanskrit, Homeric Greek, Russian, German, Ukrainian, Serbo-Croation, Lithuanian, Georgian, Hawaiian, Esperanto, and many other languages, challenging us also to pursue broad and deep knowledge in the scholarly field we love. Kenneth will be remembered fondly at the University of Washington, as a student, colleague and friend.

Coming on October 17: 1998 Baltic Auction

The 1998 goal is to raise $50,000 for the Baltic Studies Program Endowment Fund, to support the University of Washington's growing program in Baltic languages, history and culture. We hope that you will join us for an evening of fun in support of Baltic Studies at the University of Washington.

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