The Dream of a Balto-Scandian federation: Sweden and the independent Baltic states 1918-1940 in geography and politics

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LTReikšminiai žodžiai: Baltoskandija; Švedija; Baltijos valstybės; 1918-1940 metai. Keywords: Balto-Scandian federation; Sweden; Baltic states; 1918-1940 period.Reikšminiai žodžiai: 20 amžius; Baltijos šalys (Baltic states); Latvija (Latvia); Estija (Estonia); Švedija (Sweden); Politika; 20th century; Politics.

ENFor a long time in the 20th century, the Baltic region, or Baltikum, here defined as the area south of the Gulf of Finland and east of the Baltic Sea, was more or less a blank spot on the mental map of Swedish politicians and social scientists alike. The “inventor” of geopolitics, political scientist and conservative politician Rudolf Kjellén, urged for Swedish cultural and economic activism towards the Baltic part of Tsarist Russia, but the program was never implemented, and the break-up of the Russian Empire and the new geopolitical situation, as well as Kjellén’s death in 1922, with few exceptions put a new end to Swedish academic interests in the contemporary geopolitical situation of the area. From the perspective of the three states of the Baltikum, any super-state regionalism with Norden was primarily connected with Estonia in combination with Sweden. Sweden and Estonia thus played a special role in the Baltic discussion about regionalism. However, there was a more one-sided interest from Lithuania in contacts with Scandinavia and particularly with Sweden. The independence of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania in 1919–1920 gave Sweden a geopolitical buffer against the neighboring great powers of Russia/the Soviet Union and Germany, which were initially weakened and politically unstable. But as pointed out by Wilhelm Carlgren, Swedish foreign policy towards the three Baltic states was passive, even reluctant. [Extract, p. 21]