In Search of New Identities Russian Minority Literature in the Post-Soviet Baltic States

This paper discusses Russian Literature in the Baltic States (Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania) as a specific minority literature phenomenon, occurring in the post-Soviet cultural arena. Focusing on the issues of cultural identity, the author explores the intertwining forces that shape the Russian minority discourse in the Baltic States and the literary strategies of the two successful novelists, Lena Eltang from Lithuania, and Andrei Ivanov from Estonia, whose wide recognition in both Russia and their countries of residence marks a new period in the history of Baltic Russian literature. It is concluded that despite the similarities in their literary trajectories, Eltang and Ivanov embody two different ways of approaching the minority problematic and literature itself.