ON THE HISTORIOGRAPHY OF THE 19TH - FIRST HALF OF THE 20TH CENTURY ISSUE PERTAINING TO THE CHRISTIANIZATION OF THE BALTIC PEOPLES AND THEIR RELATIONS WITH EASTERN AND WESTERN CHRISTIANS IN THE MIDDLE AGES

During the 19th and the first half of the 20th century, there were

cases when the issue of the relations of the Orthodox Church believers, the

Russians people, with the indigenous ethnic groups of the Baltics, and then

with the Catholics of the Swordbrothers Order and the Livonian Order, was

quite acutely discussed by historians. The process of conversion to Christianity

of Livs, Latgalians, Zemgli, Curonians (Latvians’ ancestors), Estonians, their

cultural, commercial, military and diplomatic ties with the surrounding peoples

and missionaries from the West and East, formation of national statehood

among those peoples were the topics that were actively considered at the above

time not only by the representatives of historical science. The issue turned

out to be relevant for ethnographers, archaeologists, geographers, as well as

for the representatives of journalism, propaganda and the politicians of Russia

(USSR) and of a number of neighboring states. The principles of objectivity and

historicism, which are necessary in the interpretation of those events, provide

the reader and researcher with an opportunity to understand more deeply the

origins of acute contradictions and the complexity of the relations between the

Russian-speaking and the titular citizens of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, as well

as between Russia and the Baltic states.

The analysis of the sources and reference material allows us to conclude

that despite the complexity of the relations in the Middle Ages, the Russian

princes and the Church hierarchy of the North-East (Vladimir-Suzdal)

land adhered to a balanced and stable course. The Russian Vladimir-Suzdal

princes, unlike the feudal elite of the Russian North-West and Russian

West regions, pursued a policy of forming alliances of the Novgorodians and

Pskovians with the Estonians and supported Estonians in the fight against

the Western conquerors. Peaceful missionary endeavors were far from alien

to them.