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On April 11th, 2024, data on the historical GDP of Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia over a period of 100 years starting from 1920, will be made public for the first time. Comparative GDP calculations for various regions within the Baltic States have also been conducted.
These and many other data on the demographics and agriculture of the Baltic States have been compiled into an interactive database, which will be accessible to all interested parties starting from April 11th.
Scientific leader of the project Gatis Krūmiņš, a lead researcher at Vidzeme University of Applied Sciences, explains the main results of the research: "The result of an intensive work over a period of three years will allow us to look at the last 100 years of the Baltic States' history from a different perspective. It will be more based on facts than emotions. The results of our study will challenge some assumptions about the economic history of Latvia, such as the slowdown in economic development during the authoritarian regime of Kārlis Ulmanis, or the decline in production that began only after the restoration of the state independence in 1990-1991. The results of our study will help answer questions about when and how the development of our regions, especially Latgale, began. How the land use has changed and many other things."
On April 11th, a public event to present the results of the research project will take place at the EU House (28 Aspazijas Boulevard, Riga) from 14:00 to 16:00. Gatis Krūmiņš, Kaspars Osis (Associate Professor at Vidzeme University of Applied Sciences), and Adomas Klimantas (Vilnius and Oxford University) will present the main results of the research work and the database created, followed by a panel discussion (participants: Viktors Valainis (Minister of Economics), Egils Levits (former President of the country), Ojārs Kehris (President of the Association of Economists and former Minister of Economics), Adomas Klimantas (PhD candidate at Oxford University), and Ola Honningdal Grytten (Professor at the Norwegian School of Economics); moderator – Pauls Raudseps).
The project "Quantitative Data on Social and Economic Transformations in Three Baltic States Regions Over the Past Hundred Years for the Analysis of Historical Transformations and Overcoming Future Challenges" (No. EEA-RESEARCH-174, 2021-2024) is one of the projects of the Baltic Research Program financially supported by the European Economic Area (EEA) grants.
The event will take place within the framework of the international scientific conference of Vidzeme University of Applied Sciences SOCIETY. TECHNOLOGIES. SOLUTIONS, and will be broadcasted live.
Institute of Social, Economic and Humanities Research (HESPI) at Vidzeme University of Applied Sciences (ViA) invites applicants for a PhD fellowship aimed at studying challenges and opportunities related to managing and funding public goods that support nature-based recreation and tourism in the Nordic-Baltic region. The project is part of the research project VIMAS (Visitor monitoring and management in protected and recreational areas: new challenges, novel solutions for the Anthropocene) which is financed by the European Union’s MARIE SKŁODOWSKA-CURIE ACTIONS, Doctoral Networks (DN), Call: HORIZON-MSCA-2022-DN-01-01. VIMAS will 1) develop new, effective monitoring combining digital and traditional methods, 2) explore how better monitoring contributes to increase social and economic benefits and reduce unwanted environmental impacts, and 3) develop new, multidimensional governance-relevant indicators, based on collaborative and participatory principles.
Application deadline: March 19, 2024
Yuliia Kovalenko from the Kharkiv State Academy of Culture has been involved in the implementation of the Baltic 100 project thanks to the additional funding granted by the Latvian Council of Science aimed at attracting research personnel from Ukraine. Various socio-economic and demographic data from the Baltic States during the last 100 years have been collected and analyzed in the project, including data at the level of current statistical and planning regions. The gross domestic product of the Baltic States is being calculated, and an interactive database has been created where the collected data will be available to the interested parties.
The leader of the Baltic 100 project, leading researcher of Vidzeme University of Applied Sciences Gatis Krūmiņš comments: “Yuliia's joining is important for us as it allows us to expand our field of activity – to get even more data and especially about the complicated period of occupation of the USSR. Most of the documents from this period containing the information we need, are only in Russian which creates difficulties in attracting the new generation of researchers from the Baltic States. Yuliia is fluent in Russian and has experience working in archives. Currently, together with Yuliia and ViA doctoral student Baiba Kļaviņa, we are working on the data characterizing Latvian agriculture during the period 1945-1960. It is already evident that the analysis of the obtained data will allow us to look at the history of this period in a different way, especially at the regional level. How collectivization affected different regions of Latvia, for example Latgale and Vidzeme, and what were the demographic and socioeconomic consequences – the data will help find another answer to the questions we are looking for in the context of today and even future.” Yuliia will have similar tasks analyzing the documents as well from Lithuania and Estonia.
Yuliia has not only started research work in the Latvian archives, but thanks to care of ViA researcher Ieva Gintere, she is getting to know Latvia, for instance, by attending a concert in the Cēsis concert hall. Yuliia continues to keep in touch with Ukraine and shares her experience of how lectures are conducted at her university – all the lectures are held online, and the schedule is unpredictable, as there are frequent interruptions in electricity and internet communications due to Russian attacks on the civil infrastructure. However, the studies are ongoing, and the students’ motivation has even increased.
Project “Quantitative data about societal and economic transformations in the regions of the three Baltic states during the last hundred years for the analysis of historical transformations and the overcoming of future challenges” No. EEA-RESEARCH-174 @ViA @EEANorwayGrantsLatvia #standforukraine
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