SUMMARY:

This article discusses how Russian governors serving in the Baltic provinces in the late tsarist era acted as representatives of the empire during a time when center–periphery relations were quite tense. The conflict between the modern discourse of nationalism and the apparently obsolete category of estate-based loyalty had a particular complex quality in the Baltic provinces. Here, the traditional cooperation between local German and imperial elites was challenged by Russian (and later also German) nationalism at the same time that Estonians and Latvians started to articulate their own distinctive cultures and gradually established their presence in the cities. Thus, representatives of the center in the provinces had basically two possibilities: either they chose the traditional way and tried not to worry the local elites or they opted to act as if they were to carry out the integration of the non-Russian and non-Orthodox region into the empire. The article presents the cases of three different Russian governors. Each of them tried to find a compromise between local traditions, state interests, and the changing discursive environments of “Russianness.” Apparently, in the Baltic provinces as well the personal qualities and beliefs of the officials played a decisive role in individual interpretations of the imperial agenda.
Thus, in the decade before World War I, central Baltic policy reached a dead end: the growing understanding that only “Russianness” guarantees “integrity” had transformed the population of the provinces, now including the demographic majority of Estonians and Latvians, into potential separatists. In the absence of a strong Russian faction in the provinces, any kind of reform was suspected of supporting the wrong party, and the status quo seemed to be the lesser evil. In this respect, only the Revolution of 1917 paved the way for new relations between the center and the Baltic periphery.