Paper short abstract:

In the early 20th century, Baltic German landowners aquired new type of working force: Russian German peasants. The presentation discusses the reasons why the settlers where brought to the Baltics, the discourses that lead to expanding colonial ambitions, and the subjectivities of the settlers.

Paper long abstract:

According to news media and propaganda publications from the late 19th century onwards, Old Livonia (the territories of today's Estonia and Latvia) was the oldest colony of Germany. Since the 13th century, the territory had been governed by the German landowners: typically for the one oft he forms of settler colonialism, the privileged minority owned the estates and was dependent on local population to cultivate the land. There were no German peasants. In the end of the 19th century, but especially after the revolution of 1905, German landowners started to colonize the land with German peasants due to nationalist, but also economical reasons. In 1939, most of the Baltic Germans left Estonia and Latvia.

I claim that the spread of nationalism created uncertanties in the historically stable Baltic German settler community, leading to the idea of bringing new type inhabitants, namely Russian German settlers to the countries. The issues of this process of „import of agricultural workers“ were discussed in media and among the Baltic German associations. The archival and printed sources show how the settlers were discussed by others: how did the subjectivities of Baltic German elites change throughout the process of bringing new settlers to the Baltics? The lack of sources from the settler perspective makes it harder to understand the motivations and decisions of the newly arrived farmers, but I reflect upon their agency in finding a position for themselves.