Texte remanié de: Staatsexamensarbeit--Universität Hamburg. / Bibliogr. p. 159-173. Index.

No / By early 1920, literally hundreds of thousands of prisoners of war still had not been repatriated between Russia and Central Europe. To rectify matters a major humanitarian initiative followed, carried out largely under the auspices of the League of Nations. In a little less than two years, 427,886 people were repatriated. Of these, 406,091 were transported through the Baltic region. This paper highlights the important role of British officials in managing the ambitious project and emphasizes that Estonia, and Narva especially, played a pivotal role facilitating movement between East and West. The success of the venture meant that subsequent humanitarian agreements concluded in the 1920s built on international success rather than failure.

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<p>Context: The challenges in going from a system of planned economy to a free market system are without a doubt enormous both for countries and individual companies. One company that has been in this situation is Krenholm. Krenholm is an Estonian textile company. When Estonia gained its independence in 1991, Krenholm faced a completely different environment with no customers and market economy. After four very difficult years, Krenholm was bought by a Swedish company, Borås Wäfveri AB in 1995. At this point Krenholm was a state owned company in absolute chaos. A leap forward from that point in time brings us to the year of 2000. In this year Krenholm shows a profit of 21 Million SEK. </p><p>Purpose: The purpose with this study is to investigate how a company can successfully change from operating in a planned economy to operate with profit in a market economy. </p><p>Scope: The major time focus in this thesis is 1995 - 2002 and on a micro level of changes at Krenholm. The years from 1944 to 1995 provide a macro level background of the Soviet Union period and the transition of Estonia towards market economy. These periods are only analyzed in short. When analyzing Krenholm in the areas of managerial resources, strategy and structure, we will focus on top level management and exclude the more operational management conducted by managers on lower levels. In the same way we will solely research strategy on a high level and exclude the more detailed strategic planning on the operational level. Organizational culture will no be considered. </p><p>Method: To be able to fulfill our purpose we committed a case study of Krenholm, Narva. In our view Krenholm is a very suitable object of study, as an industrial company that has succeeded in adapting itself from being a company in a planned economy to being a profitable company in a market economy. We started of by acquiring an excellent preunderstanding. The most important step in doing so was an initial trip a trip to Krenholm. When ourfocus and frame of references were ready we went back to Krenholm and collected our primary data through interviews with key personnel. In total, 11 interviews were conducted at Krenholm; these included all the directing managers at Krenholm. We also conducted one mail interview with Narva Business Center and had an interesting meeting in Narva with a consultant at Krenholm from Borås Wäfveri. When we returned to Sweden from Estonia our empirical findings were analyzed with the help of our frame of references and we reached our conclusions. </p><p>Conclusions: We conclude that the characteristics of the industry that Krenholm was developed in many respects helped the company to succeed in its successful adaptation to the market economy environment. The single most important factor in Krenholms successful adaptation was however the privatization of the company. We also conclude that in the transition it is vital to develop the managerial resource base immediately in order to be able to survive and also later to develop competitive strategies for the future. On a micro level we found that it seems to be of vital importance who guides a company in the times off difficult and revolutionary change</p>

Context: The challenges in going from a system of planned economy to a free market system are without a doubt enormous both for countries and individual companies. One company that has been in this situation is Krenholm. Krenholm is an Estonian textile company. When Estonia gained its independence in 1991, Krenholm faced a completely different environment with no customers and market economy. After four very difficult years, Krenholm was bought by a Swedish company, Borås Wäfveri AB in 1995. At this point Krenholm was a state owned company in absolute chaos. A leap forward from that point in time brings us to the year of 2000. In this year Krenholm shows a profit of 21 Million SEK. Purpose: The purpose with this study is to investigate how a company can successfully change from operating in a planned economy to operate with profit in a market economy. Scope: The major time focus in this thesis is 1995 - 2002 and on a micro level of changes at Krenholm. The years from 1944 to 1995 provide a macro level background of the Soviet Union period and the transition of Estonia towards market economy. These periods are only analyzed in short. When analyzing Krenholm in the areas of managerial resources, strategy and structure, we will focus on top level management and exclude the more operational management conducted by managers on lower levels. In the same way we will solely research strategy on a high level and exclude the more detailed strategic planning on the operational level. Organizational culture will no be considered. Method: To be able to fulfill our purpose we committed a case study of Krenholm, Narva. In our view Krenholm is a very suitable object of study, as an industrial company that has succeeded in adapting itself from being a company in a planned economy to being a profitable company in a market economy. We started of by acquiring an excellent preunderstanding. The most important step in doing so was an initial trip a trip to Krenholm. When ourfocus and frame of references were ready we went back to Krenholm and collected our primary data through interviews with key personnel. In total, 11 interviews were conducted at Krenholm; these included all the directing managers at Krenholm. We also conducted one mail interview with Narva Business Center and had an interesting meeting in Narva with a consultant at Krenholm from Borås Wäfveri. When we returned to Sweden from Estonia our empirical findings were analyzed with the help of our frame of references and we reached our conclusions. Conclusions: We conclude that the characteristics of the industry that Krenholm was developed in many respects helped the company to succeed in its successful adaptation to the market economy environment. The single most important factor in Krenholms successful adaptation was however the privatization of the company. We also conclude that in the transition it is vital to develop the managerial resource base immediately in order to be able to survive and also later to develop competitive strategies for the future. On a micro level we found that it seems to be of vital importance who guides a company in the times off difficult and revolutionary change

This thesis explores the role played by nationalism in Estonia's transition to capitalism in the post-Soviet era and the way it continues to impact the Estonian economy. I hypothesize that nationalism was the key factor in this transition and that nationalism has placed a disproportionate economic burden on the resident ethnic Russians. First, I examine the history of Estonian nationalism. I examine the Estonian nationalist narrative from its beginning during the Livonian Crusade, the founding of Estonian nationalist thought in the late 1800s with a German model of nationalism, the conditions of the Soviet occupation, and the role of song festivals in Estonian nationalism. Second, I give a brief overview of the economic systems of Soviet and post-Soviet Estonia. Finally, I examine the impact of nationalism on the Estonian economy. To do this, I discuss the nature of nationalist economy, the presence of an ethno-national divide between the Estonians and Russians, and the impact of nationalist policies in citizenship, education, property rights, and geographical location. I find that there is a disproportionate difference in these areas between Estonians and ethnic Russians which affect the economy. I conclude by examining the problems and potential solutions to citizenship law, the use of neoliberalism in assimilation, and proposing a framework which could be used to examine disparities between differing groups in other economies. / Master of Arts / Estonia is a small country in the Baltics. From the time of the Livonian Crusade in the 1300s, the land that would become Estonia had been under the control of one foreign occupier or another. In the late 1800s, the Estonian people started writing literature in their native language and collecting traditional folk songs. Singing these songs at festivals, the Estonian people developed a national identity. After twenty years of independence following the First World War, the Estonians were occupied by the Soviet Union. During this time, Estonians were subjected to deportations, Russification efforts, and control from Moscow. Relying on their language and folk song tradition, they kept the flame of the Estonian nation alive and gained independence in 1991. What followed was a rapid economic transition to a capitalist system with few barriers to trade, low regulations, and foreign direct investment. While the country made a tremendous amount of progress economically after the fall of the Soviet Union, there were still those who had fallen behind: the ethnic Russians. I argue that nationalism was the key factor in Estonia’s post-Soviet economic transition and is responsible for the disproportionate burden on the ethnic Russian population. I look at the impact of geography, education, and citizenship on the economic status of residents of Estonia. I conclude by examining the problems caused by citizenship law, neoliberalism and assimilation, and proposing a framework to examine disparities between groups in other economies.