Just Finished Reading: The Glass Wall – Lives on the Baltic Frontier by Max Egremont (FP: 2021) [263pp] 

I’ll be the first to admit that my ‘knowledge’ of the Baltic States of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania is confined to the fact that they gained their independence soon after the collapse of the Soviet Union and that some rather vicious battles were fought there towards to end of WW2 to slow the advance of Soviet forces into Germany. Thankfully, after reading this very good book, I’m a LOT less ignorant than before. 

This did take a little effort to ‘get into’ because of the authors style – not that his writing was bad, far from it. Maybe I was expecting a more rigid organisation – geographically or chronologically – rather than him essentially (with some exaggeration on my part) wandering around the region chatting to people and digging into the past of various buildings/monuments or areas. One big thing I did realise early one, is that the Baltic States have had FAR too much History happen to them than is usually warranted in a comparatively small region. The States have been occupied by one major Empire or other for the last 700 years, have been fought over, bargained with, and have had their culture shaped by other countries for generations. It is only now that they are really finding out exactly who they are. 

Heavily influenced by their two most powerful neighbours – Russia and, especially, Germany – it can feel (the author said more than once) that you’re travelling through one of those countries, from the languages you hear on the street to the architecture around every corner. Interviewing, or sometimes simply chatting, with locals throughout the region including serving military officers, teachers and librarians, Holocaust survivors, descendants of the previous ruling elites, returned exiles from all across the globe as well as random people on local buses, the reader gets a real sense both of the present situation, the cultural streams flowing through and the deep sense of history felt by its inhabitants. 

This was a really interesting read about a part of Europe I knew very little about. I’ll definitely be returning to the region when I can to dig deeper around some of its LONG and complex history. Definitely recommended for anyone interested in the zone – in the news quite a bit recently with their unwavering support for Ukraine and the threats aimed at them from Russia (which they are more than used to) - and for anyone thinking of visiting.