Priorities of Estonian History
vicious towards Baltic peoples, but perhaps not. Whatever the case, his
biases colored his writing, likely distorting the truth as to how things actually
were and how events actually happened.1 The same can be said of chronicles
written by German B. Russow, who praised Swedish rule, and D. Fabricius, a
Catholic Pole who favored Polish rule and rendered a Polish perspective of
history.
Russian history during the imperial period also shows such an ideological
influence. Juri Fiodorovitsch Samanarin, for example, strove to explain to the
Russians its mission and identity as the ruling people, not merely a minority,
1 Johann Renner, "Liivimaa ajalugu 1556-1561" (Tallinn: Olion, 2006), 2-13.
and to show to the native peoples that they were second rate citizens. Jefgraf
Vassilievitsch Tscheshikhin also displayed such partiality when he wrote,
"There can be no place in Russia . . . for any patriotism other than Russian
patriotism
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