The room was already filled, but more people were still squeezing into a standing-room-only crowd for “NATO, Russia & 21st Century Atlanticism,” but Deputy Chief of Mission Tanel Sepp said that he is getting used to such receptions. “Before Crimea, I was knocking on different doors on the Hill, maybe they would have 10 or 15 minutes to talk. Now people from the Hill come to me.”

Guntis Šmidchens, the head of the Baltic Studies program at UW, will launch his just-published book, The Power of Song, at the Nordic Heritage Museum Tuesday, Feb. 11 at 7 p.m. The Power of Song shows how the people of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania confronted a military superpower and achieved independence in the Baltic “singing revolution.”

The link between the UW and Baltic singing traditions will be strengthened again this January as Guntis Šmidchens, head of the Baltic Studies Program, releases his new book, The Power of Song. The book explores the Baltic Singing Revolution of the 1980s and 1990s — a non-violent resistance movement to regain independence from the Soviet Union. Read

By Indra Ekmanis On July 7, 40 University of Washington choral students stood 5,000 miles from home surrounded by a 15,000 member choir singing patriotic songs in an obscure Baltic language. The UW delegation was one of only two non-Latvian choirs to participate in the Latvian cultural event of the decade, the XXV National Song

by Indra Ekmanis In a ghoulish mash-up of American Halloween and Baltic St. Martin’s Eve (or Martinmas) traditions, supporters of the UW Baltic Studies program flock to the Latvian Community Center in vibrant costumes each October. Celebrating the end of the traditional harvest season and the enduring success of the Baltic Studies Program, community members