The Baltic states or the Baltic countries, also known as the Baltic nations, and less often as the "Baltic republics", the "Baltic lands", or simply the Baltics, is a modern unofficial geopolitical term, typically used to group three sovereign states on the eastern coast of the Baltic Sea: Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. The term is not used in the context of cultural areas, national identity, or language, because while the majority of people in Latvia and Lithuania are Baltic people, the majority in Estonia are Finnic. The three governments engage in intergovernmental and parliamentary cooperation. There is frequent cooperation in foreign and security policy, defence, energy, and transportation.
Pērkonkrusts was a Latvian ultranationalist, anti-German, anti-Slavic, and antisemitic political party founded in 1933 by Gustavs Celmiņš, borrowing elements of German nationalism—but being unsympathetic to Nazism at the time—and Italian Fascism. It was outlawed in 1934, its leadership arrested, and Celmiņš eventually exiled in 1937. Still-imprisoned members were persecuted under the first Soviet occupation; some collaborated with subsequently invading Nazi Germany forces in perpetrating the Holocaust. Pērkonkrusts continued to exist in some form until 1944, when Celmiņš, who had initially returned to work in the occupying German administration, was imprisoned.
Vaps Movement, the Union of Participants in the Estonian War of Independence was founded as an Estonian association of veterans of the Estonian War of Independence (1918–1920). Later non-veterans were accepted as its supporter-members. The organisation was founded in 1929, and emerged as a mass anti-communist and anti-parliamentary movement. The leaders of this association were Andres Larka and Artur Sirk.
The Estonian resistance movement was an underground movement to resist the occupation of Estonia by Nazi Germany, 1941–1944 during World War II. Due to the unusually benign measures implemented in Estonia by the German occupation authorities, especially in contrast to the preceding harsh Soviet occupation of Estonia (1940–1941), the movement was slower to develop effective tactics on a wide scale than in other occupied countries.
Jeremy Black is a British historian, writer, and former professor of history at the University of Exeter. He is a senior fellow at the Center for the Study of America and the West at the Foreign Policy Research Institute in Philadelphia, US.
Anatol Lieven is a British author, Orwell Prize-winning journalist, and policy analyst, currently serving as a professor at Georgetown University, visiting professor at King's College London, senior fellow at the Quincy Institute, and early expert on the Taliban of Afghanistan.
On the Boundary of Two Worlds: Identity, Freedom, and Moral Imagination in the Baltics is an academic book series focused on the critical examination of identity, politics, and culture in the Baltic countries. By offering a wide scope of the social science and humanities disciplines, the book series encourages intercultural dialogue and pursues interdisciplinary research in the field of Baltic studies.
History of Estonia from 1920 to 1939 spanned the interwar period from the end of the Estonian War of Independence until the outbreak of World War II and covers the years of 1) parliamentary democracy 2) the Great Depression and 3) the period of authoritarian rule.
Artur Sirk was an Estonian political and military figure. A veteran of the country's struggle for independence Sirk later became a leading figure within the right-wing Vaps Movement and an outspoken opponent of the government.
Far-left politics are politics further to the left on the left–right political spectrum than the standard political left. There are different definitions of the far-left. Some scholars define it as representing the left of social democracy, while others limit it to the left of communist parties. In certain instances, especially in the news media, far-left has been associated with some forms of authoritarianism, anarchism and communism, or it characterizes groups that advocate for revolutionary anti-capitalism and anti-globalization.
The Estonian Provisional Government was formed on 24 February 1918, by the Salvation Committee appointed by Maapäev, the Estonian Province Assembly.
Stephen Gill, FRSC is Distinguished Research Professor of Political Science at York University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He is known for his work in International Relations and Global Political Economy and has published, among others, Power and Resistance in the New World Order, Power, Production and Social Reproduction, Gramsci, Historical Materialism and International Relations (1993), American Hegemony and the Trilateral Commission (1990) and The Global Political Economy: Perspectives, Problems and Policies.
Vilho Veikko Päiviö Helanen was a Finnish civil servant and politician.
Vaba Maa was a daily newspaper in Estonia, published from Tallinn. It was the organ of the Estonian Labour Party. Vaba Maa had a circulation of about 50,000 in the early 1920s.
The National Alliance, officially the National Alliance "All For Latvia!" – "For Fatherland and Freedom/LNNK", is a right-wing populist and national-conservative political party in Latvia.
Estonia, officially the Republic of Estonia, is a country in northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, and to the east by Lake Peipus and Russia. The territory of Estonia consists of the mainland, the larger islands of Saaremaa and Hiiumaa, and over 2,200 other islands and islets on the eastern coast of the Baltic Sea, covering a total area of 45,339 km2 (17,505 sq mi). The capital city Tallinn and Tartu are the two largest urban areas of the country. The Estonian language is the autochthonous and the official language of Estonia; it is the first language of the majority of its people, as well as the world's second most spoken Finnic language.
Jussi M. Hanhimäki is a Finnish historian, specializing in the history of the Cold War, American foreign policy, transatlantic relations, international organizations and refugees.
The Baltic song festivals are traditional amateur song and dance festivals in the Baltic states included in the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage List.
Ordinari Freytags Post-Zeitung is the first newspaper to be published in the Baltic Region in 1675 in Reval. It was published in the German language by Christoph Brendenken.
Cannabis in Estonia is illegal, but possession of up to 7.5 grams is considered an amount for personal use, and is punished with a fine. Large amounts and distribution are criminal offences and punishable with a custodial sentence of up to 5 years. In 2018, the then recently merged municipality of Kanepi in southern Estonia adopted the cannabis leaf as the symbol on its flag and coat of arms. Kanep is the Estonian word for cannabis. Hemp was historically used as a product in shipbuilding. It was traded from the eastern Baltic within the Hanseatic League and in the sixteenth century directly to the Netherlands for this purpose.
