For the Latvian nation, a recurring challenge is the exercise that – depending on how cynical you want to be – can be described as "trying to sit on two chairs", "choosing the lesser of two evils", or the ability to see long-term interests for which compromises can be made. Sounds familiar, doesn't it? Let us look at the 19th century. On one hand, researchers of this period are right to point out: the Baltic Germans should certainly not be idealised, yet the alternatives were not exactly encouraging either. Toms Ķikuts says: "Looking at Latvian history over a longer period, it can be observed that the Baltic nobility, while defending their class privileges, were capable of standing up for provincial autonomy and promoted the preservation of the region's distinctiveness. Under Swedish, Polish-Lithuanian or Russian rule, there was neither ethnic assimilation nor a cultural levelling of the region in the Baltics, and this is an essential prerequisite for the path towards the formation of Latvian statehood – as we know it today." (...)