ABSTRACT
The concept of pravovoe gosudarstvo is hailed as progressive and “socialist” in the Soviet Union after having been denounced for almost seven decades as a device of the reactionary classes. One aspect in the heated debate has been largely ignored—regional variations. Rechtsstaat in the Baltic media, they can be explained by the plurality of opinion rather than by national or regional characteristics. The idea of a law-governed state has its own history in the Baltic states. Lithuania, the only Baltic country with a previous record of independence, was divided into three provinces: Vilna, Grodno, and Kovno. In a draft, published in 1988, Lithuania was described as a “sovereign socialist law-governed state”. The printed word is the most important channel in the Baltic for the communication of West European values. Some Russian laws and statutes remained in force in the Baltic region until replaced by national legislation.
