Tartu 2012
“World War Two in the Baltics”
January 14-15, 2012
Tartu, Estonia
The Estonian National Defence College and the Baltic Defence College invite you to the international conference ‘World War Two in the Baltics’. The conference will take place in Tartu from January 14-15, 2012. It will be organised by scholars from the Estonian National Defence College and the Baltic Defence College. The organisers wish to bring together historians working on various aspects of the Baltic history in the late 1930s and the 1940s.
The organisers believe that the Baltics is still a ‘blank spot’ in most histories of the Second World War. It is seldom realised just how important the Baltics was in the outbreak and the spread of the war in Europe. Before war engulfed Western Europe and the rest of the world, there was a ‘Baltic Conflict,’ unleashed by Nazi Germany and the USSR in 1939 to decide which powers would control Poland, Finland and the three Baltic states. The impact of the war was profound. Finland fought its great-power neighbor twice and survived, but the costs were high. Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania experienced not one but three successive occupations; their societies were subjected to genocidal policies and to social engineering on an unprecedented scale. As states they were wiped off the map at the end of the war. Indeed, they were the only states of Nazi-occupied Europe to lose their sovereignty altogether.
The war in the Baltic was not only severe, it lasted longer than in most places. German forces in Courland fought on until the bitter end, but in the forests another war started, a bitter armed resistance against the Soviet regime. It was here that the Cold War began almost immediately, and it was really a hot war, at least in the beginning.
The organisers wish to re-examine the Second World War in the Baltics by covering the issues of grand strategy and diplomacy, politics and social issues, as well as military affairs.
The conference language is English, however, exceptions may-be made for Russian-speakers.
A publication of the conference papers is planned.
There are no registration costs.
Organisers: Kaarel Piirimäe PhD, James S. Corum PhD
Information: tartu2012@ksk.edu.ee