Alexander Theodor von Middendorff und die Entwicklung der livländischen Gesellschaft in den Jahren 1860 bis 1885
Alexander Theodor von Middendorff and the Development of Livonian Society in the years 1860 to 1885

Summary/Abstract: Alexander Theodor von Middendorff (1815-1894), of Estonian-German descent, is mainly known as the investigator of the nature and nations of Siberia. In addition to a successful career as a scientist, he was a practical agriculturist and social activist concerned with the development of agriculture in the Russian empire. Middendorff was especially interested in the agriculture of the Livonian province where he had an entailed estate. Of the Russian Baltic provinces, Livonia was most highly developed. In Livonia, landowners were mainly of Baltic German origin. They also had political power in the northern part of Livonia inhabited by Estonians and in its southern area where Latvians lived. In the 1860s, when Middendorff lived in Livonia, the society consisting of social strata began to change there as a result of the reforms introduced by Alexander II. The Estonian and Latvian national movement began to develop, being directed against the Baltic Germans rule and towards strengthening Russian central power in the Russian Baltic provinces. After the death of Alexander II in 1881, the central power began to make use of the prejudice of the Estonians and Latvians against the Baltic Germans to guarantee their power in these provinces. In a Livonian society which from 1861 onwards was becoming increasingly politized, Middendorff tried to improve the agricultural knowledge of the Estonian and Latvian peasantry with the aim of reducing the disparity in the ownership of property between Baltic Germans and the peasants and, as a result, minimizing the strains between different nations. He was partly successful. Middendorff was convinced that although the Estonians and Latvians did not trust the Baltic Germans, such trust was justified and necessary as they all had to develop their country together. With this in mind, he tried to increase the political rights of the Estonians and Latvians by including them in the activities of the Landtag of Livonia. As a result a great majority of the members of the Livonian Landtag considered Middendorff “ultraradical”. Although Middendorff did not succeed in increasing the political rights of the Estonians and the Latvians, his activities contributed greatly to the development of the economy of Livonia and created the preconditions for the formation of modern civil society.

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