The Baltic Story

Focusing on key events and episodes, this book shows the ties of blood and commerce that have bound the different lands that lie today in Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Western Russia, Belarus, and Eastern Germany. This story encompasses the foundation, rise and fall of some of Europe's greatest dynasties and cities, including St. Petersberg, Stockholm, Copenhagen, Warsaw and Berlin. From the growth of monarchical power and the rise of autocracy, it then looks at the period of the Enlightenment, in particular at the achievements of Frederick II of Prussia and Catherine II. It considers the problems facing Poland's last king and the events that ended with the country's collapse. And it shows how new Enlightenment thinking influenced Denmark and Sweden, and rocked the monarchies. It shows the threat of Napoloeon's France to the Baltic and the impact of both World War I and the Russian Revolution, which led to the re-shaping and establishing of states.

Caroline Boggis-Rolfe is a writer and lecturer. After receiving a B.A. in Italian from London University, she followed her husband to Berlin in 1969 where he worked for the British Commanders'-in-Chief Mission to the Soviet Forces. Their proximity and access to Iron Curtain countries piqued Caroline's interest in the Baltic region, and she was able to regularly visit Dresden, Leipzig, and Potsdam in the 1970s. This led to her first work of history, The Baltic Story. Her interest in northern Europe was renewed thanks to her thesis on Voltaire, who knew both Frederick II of Prussia and Catherine II of Russia. Over the past ten years, Caroline has been a regular visitor to the Baltic as a guest lecturer. Caroline's new book draws on her Italian degree and experience of living on the Adriatic coast, where she began to research the long history of the nations of the region. She holds a Master and Doctor of French from UCL.