Ambiguous loyalty to the Russian Tsar: the universities of Dorpat and Helsinki as nation building institutions

'Despite several attempts in the eighteenth century to re-establish the University of Dorpat, the Baltic Germans succeeded only in 1802 in re-founding this precious institution meant for the education of the local German-speaking elite. The Baltic German nobility had power over the whole area, ruling it in political, religious, economic and cultural respect. In return for their numerous privileges…