Acta Historica Universitatis Klaipedensis

Being based on empirical material collected during field work in the Latvian–Russian border zone and theoretical border zone studies, this article analyzes the ways how the state, as well as transnational and global factors, influence the lives of border zone inhabitants. The focus is on the interaction between the state and global agents on the one hand and the local and individual agents on the other hand within the territory, which is also the external border of the European Union and the NATO. The case study permits several theoretical and empirical conclusions about the role of the state and transnational agents in the lives of individuals and the vision for the development of the border zone. In conclusion an author emphasizes the necessity for both practical and theoretical discussions about solidarity and the responsibility of global agents to local communities in the event that under globalization conditions places emerge that are more in the role of patients of globalization rather than beneficiaries from the process. From a periphery-centre viewpoint, the border zone may seem like the end of the Earth to people from the centre, but to those who live there it is the centre of the world.