Pressure was put on the Baltic Germans in the 19th century through the "Russification", which curtailed their privileges. The Russian revolutions after 1905 and the consequences of the First World War led to an increased migration of the German minority from their Baltic homes, culminating in the resettlement of 1939.
Pressure was put on the Baltic Germans in the 19th century through the "Russification", which curtailed their privileges. The Russian revolutions after 1905 and the consequences of the First World War led to an increased migration of the German minority from their Baltic homes, culminating in the resettlement of 1939.
Illustrations:
1.) Book page from Carl Schirren’s Livonian Answer
Carl Schirren developed into the spokesperson of the defensive battle waged by the Baltic Germans against the so-called "Russification". In 1869 he published his "Livonian Answer" in response to a pan-Slavic publication by the Russian intellectual Jurij Samarin. Schirren invoked the attested rights of the Baltic Germans. He sharply opposed the enforced centralist alignment and defended the values of an active personal responsibility and regional culture.
2.) Trilingual postcard "Dorpat Steinbrücke" / "Tartu Kiwisild" / "Jurjew Kamennyj Most", around 1900
In addition to the German-speaking Baltic Germans, the Estonians and Latvians and their mother-tongue schooling were also affected by the "Russification". The height of the official measures was the abolition of the autonomy of the university of Dorpat (today Tartu) in the 1880s with the gradual introduction of the Russian language for lectures and the renaming of Dorpat to Jurjew in 1893 (until 1918). The Protestant Church also suffered from the new preference for the Russian Orthodox state church. The first Baltic families left for the German Reich.