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God, thine earth is burning: Nature attitudes and the Latvian drive for independence

  • Part Two: Academic, Official and Folk Geographies: Tensions of Local and Global Concern
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Abstract

The dominant element in Latvian culture is nature rather than history. Latvians are as bound to place, to landscape, to particular geographies, as other peoples are bound to tribal legends and religions. Incorporation of this Baltic land into the Soviet Union in 1940 occasioned dramatic conflicts between these deeply-rooted orientations to the concrete facts of nature and the abstract formulations of Marxism-Leninism. The nature culture of Latvia, celebrated in daina, folk arts and crafts, is the bedrock on which the current independence movement has been built. Two major challenges are being addressed: the overt political one between Moscow center and the Baltic republics, and a deep intellectual conflict between the closed ideology of Marxism-Leninism and the open-ended nature and place-oriented cultures of the Baltic peoples.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Delaware, Department of Geography, 19716, Newark, DE, USA

    Bunkše E. V. (Prof. Dr.)

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  1. Bunkše E. V.
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Bunkše, E.V. God, thine earth is burning: Nature attitudes and the Latvian drive for independence. GeoJournal 26, 203–209 (1992). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00241218

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