The study of the history of small countries is one of the research activities of the Institute of World History of the Russian Academy of Sciences. It has its own specific features and fits into the general outline of the global historical process. On November 17—18, 2022, the International Scientific Conference “Russia and the Scandinavian-Baltic Region: Countries and Peoples in a Changing World. 19—20th centuries”, organized by the Centre for the History of Northern Europe and the Baltic States and the Department of International Scientific Cooperation of the Institute. The conference was attended by researchers from leading research centres of Moscow, St. Petersburg, Murmansk, Petrozavodsk, Arkhangelsk, Kaliningrad, Voronezh and Tromsø. During the work of the four sessions contributors discussed such questions as the problems of international relations of the second half of the 20th century, the features of trade and economic cooperation in the region and certain aspects of the history of the two world wars, interethnic communication and the mechanisms of formation of the image of the other.