National Historical Myth as an Element of the Baltic States’ Strategic Cultures: Examining Postage Stamps

The article examines the structure of national historical mythology of the Baltic states (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania) with an emphasis on the foreign policy dimension based on the analysis of their issues of the postage stamps. Since issuing of the postage stamps is a product of consensus between the state and civil society, their topics and images presented on them, on the one hand, may be considered as a part of the semiotic model of the state image, thus reflecting its stance on processes, events, phenomena or personalities of the past and the present and, accordingly, shaping, transforming or supporting a certain nation-forming mythology or state ideology; on the other hand, they reflect mass perceptions of the dominant national historical narrative, and often the priorities of contemporary politics. Due to the specifics of the Baltic states’ history and the dominant values and ideology of their political class, the mainstream historical narrative is inevitably turned outward, that makes the analysis of its main elements extremely operational in the study of their strategic cultures. The article proposes the author's attitude to categorizing and highlighting the main chronological and thematic elements of the arrays of postage stamps of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia from 1990 to 2020. On the basis of discourse and selective iconographic analysis, the key elements of national historical narratives and their coherence with the foreign political positioning and strategies of the Baltic states are identified and analyzed. A comparative analysis of the three country cases allows us to pinpoint their relative proximity as well as some specific features.

Keywords

Baltic states, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, strategic culture, historical mythology, visual politics, symbolic politics, historical policy, foreign policy, postage stamps, philately

Acknowledgment

This research is funded by the Russian Science Foundation (project № 20-78-10159 “The Phenomenon of Strategic Culture in World Politics: Specifics of Influence on Security Policy (On the Example of the States of the Scandinavian-Baltic Region)”.

Received

12.06.2021

Publication date

16.08.2021

Number of characters

85381

Cite

GOST	Vorotnikov V. National Historical Myth as an Element of the Baltic States’ Strategic Cultures: Examining Postage Stamps // ISTORIYA – 2021. – V. 12. – Issue 7 (105) [Electronic resource]. URL: https://history.jes.su/S207987840016559-3-1 (circulation date: 18.05.2024). DOI: 10.18254/S207987840016559-3
MLA	Vorotnikov, Vladislav "National Historical Myth as an Element of the Baltic States’ Strategic Cultures: Examining Postage Stamps." ISTORIYA 12.7 (105) (2021) DOI: 10.18254/S207987840016559-3
APA	Vorotnikov V. (2021). National Historical Myth as an Element of the Baltic States’ Strategic Cultures: Examining Postage Stamps. ISTORIYA 12(7 (105)) DOI: 10.18254/S207987840016559-3

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