Baltic states under Soviet rule (1944–91)

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This Baltic states were under Soviet rule from the end of World War II in 1945, from Sovietization onwards until independence was regained in 1991. The Baltic states were occupied and annexed, becoming the Soviet socialist republics of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. After their annexation by Nazi Germany, the USSR reoccupied the Baltic territories in 1944 and maintained control there until the Baltic states regained their independence nearly 50 years later in the aftermath of the Soviet coup of 1991.

World War II 1939–1945, between Axis and Allies

World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. The vast majority of the world's countries—including all the great powers—eventually formed two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis. A state of total war emerged, directly involving more than 100 million people from more than 30 countries. The major participants threw their entire economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities behind the war effort, blurring the distinction between civilian and military resources. World War II was the deadliest conflict in human history, marked by 70 to 85 million fatalities, most of whom were civilians in the Soviet Union and China. It included massacres, the genocide of the Holocaust, strategic bombing, premeditated death from starvation and disease, and the only use of nuclear weapons in war.

The Sovietization of the Baltic states refers to the sovietization of all spheres of life in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania when they were under control of the Soviet Union. The first period deals with the occupation from June 1940 to July 1941 when the German occupation began. The second period covers 1944 when the Soviet forces pushed the German out, until 1991 when independence was declared.

Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic union republic of the Soviet Union

The Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic was a republic of the Soviet Union. The ESSR was initially established on the territory of the Republic of Estonia on 21 July 1940, following the invasion of Soviet troops on 17 June 1940, and the installation of a puppet government backed by the Soviet Union, which declared Estonia a Soviet constituency. The Estonian SSR was subsequently incorporated into the Soviet state on 6 August 1940. The territory was occupied by Nazi Germany from 1941 to 1944 and administered as a part of Reichskommissariat Ostland.

Contents

Sovietization

Resistance and deportations

Riga in May 1941 Riga. Latvia. 1941 May Day holiday demonstration.png
Riga in May 1941

Between 1940 and 1987, the Soviet Union carried out a process of sovietization which aimed to weaken the national identities of the Baltic peoples. An important factor in the attempt to achieve this was large-scale industrialisation then direct attacks on culture, religion and freedom of expression. [1] For the Soviet authorities the elimination of opposition and the transformation of the economics went hand in hand. The Soviet used massive deportations to eliminate resistance to collectivisation and support for the partisans. [2] The Baltic partisans resisted Soviet rule by armed struggle for a number of years. The Estonian Forest brothers, as they were known, enjoyed material support among the local population. [3] The Soviets had already carried out deportations in 1940–41, but the deportations between 1944 and 1952 were much larger in number. [2] In March 1949, the top Soviet authorities organised a mass deportation of 90,000 Baltic nationals, whom they labelled as enemies of the people, to inhospitable areas of the Soviet Union. [4]

Industrialisation period of social and economic change from agrarian to industrial society

Industrialisation is the period of social and economic change that transforms a human group from an agrarian society into an industrial society, involving the extensive re-organisation of an economy for the purpose of manufacturing.

Deportation expulsion of the people from a place or country

Deportation is the expulsion of a person or group of people from a place or country. The term expulsion is often used as a synonym for deportation, though expulsion is more often used in the context of international law, while deportation is more used in national (municipal) law.

A partisan is a member of an irregular military force formed to oppose control of an area by a foreign power or by an army of occupation by some kind of insurgent activity. The term can apply to the field element of resistance movements. Most common use in present parlance in several languages refers to anti-fascist fighters from World War II, and more specifically, the Communist or Socialist troops during WW II of Poland, Italy, Hungary, Yugoslavia and Greece. Led by communist parties, they opposed the occupation and led guerilla warfare against the Nazi and Nazi-allied powers during the Second World War.

Soviet prison doors on display in the Museum of Occupations in Tallinn. SovietPrisonDoorsTallinn.JPG
Soviet prison doors on display in the Museum of Occupations in Tallinn.
Antanas Snieckus, the leader of the Communist Party of Lithuania from 1940 to 1974 AntanasSnieckus7-11-1970Vlns.jpg
Antanas Sniečkus, the leader of the Communist Party of Lithuania from 1940 to 1974

The total numbers of those deported between 1944 and 1955 has been estimated at 124,000 in Estonia, 136,000 in Latvia and 245,000 in Lithuania. The deportees were allowed to return after the secret speech of Nikita Khrushchev in 1956, however many did not survive in their years in Siberia. [2] Large numbers of the inhabitants of the Baltic countries fled westwards before the Soviet forces arrived in 1944. After the war, the Soviets established new borders for the Baltic republics. Lithuania gained the regions of Vilnius and Klaipeda, but Estonia and Latvia ceded some eastern territories to the Russian SSR. Estonia lost 5 percent and Latvia 2 percent of its prewar territory. [2]

Soviet deportations from Estonia were a series of mass deportations by the Soviet Union from Estonia in 1941 and 1945–1951.

Soviet deportations from Lithuania were a series of 35 mass deportations carried out in Lithuania, a country that was occupied as a constituent socialist republic of the Soviet Union, in 1941 and 1945–1952. At least 130,000 people, 70% of them women and children, were forcibly transported to labor camps and other forced settlements in remote parts of the Soviet Union, particularly in the Irkutsk Oblast and Krasnoyarsk Krai. Among the deportees were about 4,500 Poles. These deportations do not include Lithuanian partisans or political prisoners deported to Gulags. Deportations of the civilians served a double purpose: repressing resistance to Sovietization policies in Lithuania and providing free labor in sparsely inhabited areas of the Soviet Union. Approximately 28,000 of Lithuanian deportees died in exile due to poor living conditions. After Stalin's death in 1953, the deportees were slowly and gradually released. The last deportees were released only in 1963. Some 60,000 managed to return to Lithuania, while 30,000 were prohibited from settling back in their homeland. Similar deportations took place in Latvia, Estonia, and other parts of the Soviet Union. Lithuania observes the annual Mourning and Hope Day on June 14 in memory of those deported.

Nikita Khrushchev First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union

Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev was a Soviet statesman who led the Soviet Union during part of the Cold War as the First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964, and as Chairman of the Council of Ministers, or Premier, from 1958 to 1964. Khrushchev was responsible for the de-Stalinization of the Soviet Union, for backing the progress of the early Soviet space program, and for several relatively liberal reforms in areas of domestic policy. Khrushchev's party colleagues removed him from power in 1964, replacing him with Leonid Brezhnev as First Secretary and Alexei Kosygin as Premier.

Industrialization and immigration

The Soviets made large capital investments for energy resources and a manufacture of industrial and agricultural products. The purpose was to integrate the Baltic economics into the larger Soviet economic sphere. The industrial plans and a transport infrastructure were advanced by the Soviet standards. [5] In all three republics, manufacturing industry was developed at the expense of other sectors, notably agriculture and housing. The rural economy suffered from the lack of investments and the collectivization. [6] Baltic urban areas were damaged during wartime and it took ten years to make up for losses in housing. New constructions were often poor quality and ethnic Russian immigrants were favored in housing. [7]

Estonia and Latvia received large-scale migration of industrial workers from other parts of the Soviet Union that changed the demographics dramatically. Lithuania also received immigrants, but to a lesser degree. [5] Ethnic Estonians constituted 88 percent before the war, but in 1970 the figure dropped to 60 percent. Ethnic Latvians constituted 75 percent, but the figure dropped to 56.8 percent in 1970 [8] and further down to 52 percent in 1989. [9] In contrast, in Lithuania the drop was only 4 percent. However, absence of Russian immigration was only a part of explanation as Lithuania gained the Vilnius area, fewer Lithuanians fled west and the state lost its Jewish minority. [7] There was a difference between ethnic Russians. People who moved from Russia before 1940 annexation and knew the local language were named as "local Russians", for they had better relations with locals than those who settled later. [10]

Lithuanian Jews Jews with roots in the present-day Lithuania, Belarus, Latvia, northeastern Suwałki and Białystok region of Poland and some border areas of Russia and Ukraine

Lithuanian Jews or Litvaks are Jews with roots in the present-day Lithuania, Belarus, Latvia, northeastern Suwałki and Białystok region of Poland and some border areas of Russia and Ukraine. The term is sometimes used to cover all Orthodox Jews who follow a "Lithuanian" style of life and learning, whatever their ethnic background. The area where Lithuanian Jews lived is referred to in Yiddish as ליטע Lite, hence the Hebrew term Lita'im (לִיטָאִים‎).

Baltic communists had supported and participated the 1917 October Revolution in Russia. However, many of them died during the Great Purge in the 1930s. The new regimes of 1944 were established native communists who had fought in the Red Army. However, the Soviets also imported ethnic Russians to fill political, administrative and managerial posts. For example, the important post of second secretary of local Communist party was almost always ethnic Russian or a member of another Slavic nationality. [11]

October Revolution Bolshevik uprising during the Russian Revolution of 1917

The October Revolution, officially known in Soviet historiography as the Great October Socialist Revolution and commonly referred to as the October Uprising, the October Coup, the Bolshevik Revolution, the Bolshevik Coup or the Red October, was a revolution in Russia led by the Bolshevik Party of Vladimir Lenin that was instrumental in the larger Russian Revolution of 1917–23. It took place through an armed insurrection in Petrograd on 7 November 1917.

Great Purge Soviet campaign of political repression, imprisonment, and execution

The Great Purge or the Great Terror was a campaign of political repression in the Soviet Union which occurred from 1936 to 1938. It involved a large-scale purge of the Communist Party and government officials, repression of kulaks and the Red Army leadership, widespread police surveillance, suspicion of saboteurs, counter-revolutionaries, imprisonment, and arbitrary executions. Historians estimate the total number of deaths due to Stalinist repression in 1937–38 to be between 680,000 and 1,200,000.

Red Army Soviet army and air force from 1917–1946

The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, frequently shortened to Red Army, was the army and the air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and, after 1922, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. The army was established immediately after the 1917 October Revolution. The Bolsheviks raised an army to oppose the military confederations of their adversaries during the Russian Civil War. Beginning in February 1946, the Red Army, along with the Soviet Navy, embodied the main component of the Soviet Armed Forces; taking the official name of "Soviet Army", until its dissolution in December 1991. The former official name Red Army continued to be used as a nickname by both sides throughout the Cold War.

Everyday living

Estonian Song Festival in Tallinn in 1980 Tallinna lauluvaljak 1980.jpg
Estonian Song Festival in Tallinn in 1980

The Baltic republics were largely isolated from the outside world between the late 1940s and the mid-1980s. The Soviets were sensitive about the Baltic area not only because concerns about its loyalty, but also because of a number of military installations located there due to its proximity to several non Eastern Bloc states, including surveillance centres and a submarine base. [10] During the late 1960s, Soviet democratic movements found support amongst Baltic intellectuals. The Soviet Union signed the Helsinki Accords and the following year, a monitoring group was founded in Lithuania which produced dissident publications during the 1970s and 1980s. [12] Nationalism and religion inspired people to small-scale demonstrations and underground activities. The European Parliament passed a resolution supporting the Baltic cause in 1982. [13]

The Soviet Union maintained ethnic diversity, but on the other hand it made efforts to impose uniformity. A new wave of Russification of education system began in the late 1970s attempting to create a Soviet national identity. The education of Baltic children was conducted in their native languages, but the Russian language was compulsory. In addition, the Soviet authorities limited freedom of expression in literature and the visual arts. The song festivals remained a means of national self-expression. Nevertheless, intellectual life and scientific research were advanced by Soviet standards. [14] However, after 1975 there were increasing problems with shortages of consumer and food products, social problems, unchecked immigration and damage to the environment. [15] By the 1980s there was social and political tension both within the Baltic republics and between them and Moscow. [16]

Road to independence

Soviet reforms

The period of stagnation brought about the crisis of the Soviet system and reforms could not be long delayed. The new Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev came to power in 1985 and responded with glasnost and perestroika. They were attempts to reform the Soviet system from above to avoid revolution from below. The reforms failed to take into account that the USSR was held together by military force which repressed all forms of nationalism. The freedoms of Glasnost released long-held feelings of nationalism in the Baltic republics, in a development known as the Singing Revolution. [17] The first major demonstrations against the system were in Riga in November 1986 and the following spring in Tallinn. Small successful protests encouraged key individuals and by the end of 1988 the reform wing had gained a decisive position in the Baltic republics. [18]

At the same time, coalitions of reformists and populist forces assembled in Popular Fronts. They concentrated largely on calls for autonomy rather than independence. [19] The Supreme Soviet of the Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic made the Estonian language the state language again in January 1989, and similar legislation was passed in Latvia and Lithuania soon after. Next, the Baltic republics declared their sovereignty: in November 1988 in Estonia, in May 1989 in Lithuania and July 1989 in Latvia. [20] The Estonian Supreme Soviet reserved the right to veto laws of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union. The Lithuanian Supreme Soviet even referred to Lithuania's independent past and its illegal annexation into the Soviet Union in 1940. The Supreme Soviet of the Latvian SSR was more cautious. The presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union condemned the Estonian legislation as unconstitutional. [21]

Head of KGB in Lithuania Eduardas Eismuntas argues with Lithuanian protesters, January 1990 1990 01 12 GorbaciovasSiauliuose19Eigirdas.jpg
Head of KGB in Lithuania Eduardas Eismuntas argues with Lithuanian protesters, January 1990

The first Supreme Soviet elections took place in March 1989. There was still only one legal communist party, but the availability of multi-candidate choice encouraged the popular fronts and other groups to spread their own electoral message. [21] The Communist Party in all three Baltic republics was divided along nationalist lines, and political leaders were increasingly responding to people rather than the party. [22] The biggest demonstration was the Baltic Way in August 1989, where people protested on the fiftieth anniversary of the Molotov–Ribbentrop treaty by a human chain linking hands across the three republics. [23] Still, by 1990, there were not yet calls for political independence but demands for economic independence from Moscow. [22]

Restorations of independence

In February 1990, the Russia Supreme Soviet elections led to the independence Sąjūdis-backed nationalists achieving a two-thirds majority. On 11 March 1990, the Lithuanian Supreme Soviet declared Lithuania's independence. [24] As a result, the Soviets imposed a blockade on 17 April. [25] Latvia and Estonia, with large Russian minorities, lagged behind. [24] At the same time, the Popular Fronts were in increasing the pressure in Latvia and Estonia, as the citizens committee movement prepared for wholly non-Soviet elections to take place at or near the time of the Supreme Soviet elections. They saw that independence could never be restored legally by organs of the occupying powers. [26] The pro-independence candidates received overwhelming majorities in the Supreme Soviet elections of March 1990. [27] On 30 March 1990, the Estonian Supreme Soviet declared independence. In particular, it declared the 1940 annexation illegal and began the transition towards an independent Republic of Estonia. On 4 May 1990, the Latvian Supreme Soviet made a similar declaration. [28]

On 12 May 1990 the leaders of the Baltic republics signed a joint declaration known as the Baltic Entente. [29] By mid-June the Soviets started negotiations with the Baltic republics on condition they agreed to freeze their declarations of independence. The Soviets had a bigger challenge elsewhere, in the form of the Russian Federal Republic proclaiming sovereignty in June. [30] Simultaneously the Baltic republics also started to negotiate directly with the Russian Federal Republic. [29] In Autumn 1990, they set up a customs border between the Baltic states, the Russian Federation and Belarus. [31] After the failed negotiations the Soviets made a dramatic attempt to break the deadlock and sent troops to Lithuania and Latvia in January 1991. The attempts failed, dozens of civilians were killed, and the Soviet troops decided to retreat. [32] In August 1991, the hard-line members of the Soviet government attempted to take control of the Soviet Union. One day after the coup on 21 August, the Estonians proclaimed independence. Shortly afterwards Soviet paratroops seized the Tallinn television tower. The Latvian parliament made similar a declaration at the same day. The coup failed but the Collapse of the Soviet Union became unavoidable. On 28 August, the European Community welcomed the restoration of the sovereignty and independence of the Baltic states. [33] The Soviet Union recognised the Baltic independence on 6 September 1991. The Russian troops stayed for an additional three years, as Boris Yeltsin linked the issue of Russian minorities with troop withdrawals. Lithuania was the first to have the Russian troops withdrawn from its territory in August 1993. On 26 July 1994 Russian troops withdrew from Estonia and on 31 August 1994, Russian troops withdrew from Latvia. [34] The Russian Federation ended its military presence in Estonia after it relinquished control of the nuclear facilities in Paldiski on 26 September 1995 and in Latvia after Skrunda-1 suspended operations on 31 August 1998 and subsequently dismantled. The last Russian soldier left Skrunda-1 in October 1999, thus marking a symbolic end to the Russian military presence on the soil of the Baltic countries. [35] [36]

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Baltic states Countries east of the Baltic Sea

The Baltic states, also known as the Baltic countries, Baltic republics, Baltic nations or simply the Baltics, is a geopolitical term, typically used to group the three sovereign states in Northern Europe 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 countries do not form an official union, but engage in intergovernmental and parliamentary cooperation. The most important areas of cooperation between the three countries are foreign and security policy, defence, energy and transportation.

Singing Revolution Events leading up to the end of Soviet rule in the Baltic nations

The Singing Revolution is a commonly used name for events between 1987 and 1991 that led to the restoration of the independence of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. The term was coined by an Estonian activist and artist, Heinz Valk, in an article published a week after 10–11 June 1988, spontaneous mass evening singing demonstrations at the Tallinn Song Festival Grounds.

Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic union republic of the Soviet Union

The Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic, also known as Soviet Latvia or Latvia, was a republic of the Soviet Union.

Occupation of the Baltic states period in history of the Baltic States (1940–1991)

The occupation of the Baltic states involved the military occupation of the three Baltic states—Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania—by the Soviet Union under the auspices of the 1939 Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact in June 1940. They were then annexed into the Soviet Union as constituent republics in August 1940, though most Western powers and nations never recognised their incorporation. On 22 June 1941, Nazi Germany attacked the Soviet Union and within weeks occupied the Baltic territories. In July 1941, the Third Reich incorporated the Baltic territory into its Reichskommissariat Ostland. As a result of the Red Army's Baltic Offensive of 1944, the Soviet Union recaptured most of the Baltic states and trapped the remaining German forces in the Courland pocket until their formal surrender in May 1945. The Soviet "annexation occupation" or occupation sui generis of the Baltic states lasted until August 1991, when the three countries regained their independence.

Territorial changes of the Baltic states refers to the redrawing of borders of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia after 1940. The three republics, formerly autonomous regions within the former Russian Empire and before that of former Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, gained independence in the aftermath of World War I and the Russian Revolution of 1917. After a two-front independence war fought against both Bolshevist Russian and Baltic German nationalist forces, the countries concluded peace and border treaties with Soviet Russia in 1920. However, with World War II and the occupation and annexation of these republics into the Soviet Union twenty years after their independence, certain territorial changes were made in favour of the Russian SFSR. This has been the source of political tensions after they regained their independence with the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Some of the disputes remain unresolved.

Russians in the Baltic states

Russians in the Baltic states describes self-identifying ethnic Russians and other primary Russian-speaking communities in Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, commonly referred to collectively as the Baltic states. In 2017, there were 0.9 million ethnic Russians in the Baltic States, having declined from 1.7 million in 1989, the year of the last census during the Soviet era.

The People's Seimas was a puppet legislature organized in order to give legal sanction the occupation and annexation of Lithuania by the Soviet Union. After the Soviet ultimatum in June 1940, a new pro-Soviet government was formed, known as the People's Government. The new government dismissed the Fourth Seimas and announced elections to the People's Seimas. The elections were heavily rigged, and resulted in a chamber composed entirely of Communists and Communist sympathizers. The new parliament unanimously adopted a resolution proclaiming the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic and petitioned for admission to the Soviet Union as a constituent republic. The Supreme Soviet of the USSR accepted the Lithuanian petition on August 3, 1940. The People's Seimas adopted a new constitution, a close copy of the 1936 Soviet Constitution, on August 25 and renamed itself to the Supreme Soviet of the Lithuanian SSR.

Act of the Re-Establishment of the State of Lithuania

The Act of the Re-Establishment of the State of Lithuania or Act of March 11 was an independence declaration by the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic adopted on March 11, 1990, signed by all members of the Supreme Council of the Republic of Lithuania led by Sąjūdis. The act emphasized restoration and legal continuity of the interwar-period Lithuania, which was occupied by the USSR and lost independence in June 1940. It was the first time that an occupied state declared independence from the dissolving Soviet Union.

German occupation of the Baltic states during World War II

The occupation of the Baltic states by Nazi Germany occurred during Operation Barbarossa from 1941 to 1944. Initially, many Estonians, Latvians, and Lithuanians considered the Germans as liberators from the Soviet Union. The Balts hoped for the restoration of independence, but instead the Germans established a provisional government. During the occupation the Germans carried out discrimination, mass deportations and mass killings generating Baltic resistance movements.

State continuity of the Baltic states

State continuity of the Baltic states describes the continuity of the Baltic states as legal entities under international law while under Soviet rule and German occupation from 1940 to 1991. The prevailing opinion accepts the Baltic thesis of illegal occupation and the actions of the USSR are regarded as contrary to international law in general and to the bilateral treaties between the USSR and the Baltic states in particular.

Soviet occupation of Latvia in 1940

The Soviet occupation of Latvia in 1940 refers to the military occupation of the Republic of Latvia by the Soviet Union under the provisions of the 1939 Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact with Nazi Germany and its Secret Additional Protocol signed in August 1939. The occupation took place according to the European Court of Human Rights, the Government of Latvia, the United States Department of State, and the European Union. In 1989, the USSR also condemned the 1939 secret protocol between Nazi Germany and herself that had led to the invasion and occupation of the three Baltic countries, including Latvia.

Baltic–Soviet relations

Relevant events began regarding the Baltic states and the Soviet Union when, following Bolshevist Russia's conflict with the Baltic states—Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia—several peace treaties were signed with Russia and its successor, the Soviet Union. In the late 1920s and early 1930s, the Soviet Union and all three Baltic States further signed non-aggression treaties. The Soviet Union also confirmed that it would adhere to the Kellogg–Briand Pact with regard to its neighbors, including Estonia and Latvia, and entered into a convention defining "aggression" that included all three Baltic countries.

Welles Declaration

The Welles Declaration was a diplomatic statement issued on July 23, 1940 by Sumner Welles, the United States' acting Secretary of State, condemning the June 1940 occupation by the Soviet Union of the three Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, and refusing to recognize their annexation as Soviet Republics. It was an application of the 1932 Stimson Doctrine of non-recognition of international territorial changes that were executed by force. It was consistent with U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt's attitude towards territorial expansion.

Background of the occupation of the Baltic states

The background of the occupation of the Baltic states covers the period before the first Soviet occupation on 14 June 1940, stretching from independence in 1918 to the Soviet ultimatums in 1939–1940. The Baltic states gained their independence during and after the Russian revolutions of 1917; Lenin's government allowed them to secede. They managed to sign non-aggression treaties in the 1920s and 1930s. Despite the treaties, the Baltic states were forcibly incorporated into the Soviet Union in 1940 in the aftermath of the German–Soviet pact of 1939.

Soviet occupation of the Baltic states (1940)

The Soviet occupation of the Baltic states covers the period from the Soviet–Baltic mutual assistance pacts in 1939, to their invasion and annexation in 1940, to the mass deportations of 1941.

Soviet occupation of the Baltic states (1944)

The Soviet Union occupied most of the territory of the Baltic states in its 1944 Baltic Offensive during World War II. The Red Army regained control over the three Baltic capitals and encircled retreating Wehrmacht and Latvian forces in the Courland Pocket where they held out until the final German surrender at the end of the war. The German forces were deported and the leaders of Latvian collaborating forces were executed as traitors. After the war, the Soviet Union reestablished control over the Baltic territories in line with its forcible annexations as communist republics in 1940.

Soviet–Estonian Mutual Assistance Treaty

The Soviet–Estonian Mutual Assistance Treaty, also known as the Bases Treaty was a bilateral treaty signed in Moscow on 28 September 1939. The treaty obliged both parties to respect each other's sovereignty and independence, and allowed the Soviet government to establish military bases in Estonia. These bases facilitated the Soviet takeover of the country in June 1940.

Soviet–Latvian Mutual Assistance Treaty

The Soviet–Latvian Mutual Assistance Treaty was a bilateral treaty signed in Moscow on October 5, 1939. The treaty obliged both parties to respect each other's sovereignty and independence, while in practice allowed the Soviet government to establish military bases in Latvia, which facilitated the Soviet invasion of that country in June 1940.

References

Citations

  1. Hiden & Salmon (1994). p. 126.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Hiden & Salmon (1994). p. 129.
  3. Petersen, Roger Dale. Resistance and rebellion: lessons from Eastern Europe. Cambridge University Press. p. 206. ISBN   978-0-521-77000-2.
  4. Strods, Heinrihs; Kott, Matthew (2002). "The File on Operation 'Priboi': A Re-Assessment of the Mass Deportations of 1949". Journal of Baltic Studies. 33 (1): 1–36. doi:10.1080/01629770100000191 . Retrieved 2008-03-25. "Erratum". Journal of Baltic Studies. 33 (2): 241. 2002. doi:10.1080/01629770200000071 . Retrieved 2008-03-25.
  5. 1 2 Hiden & Salmon (1994). p. 130.
  6. Hiden & Salmon (1994). p. 131.
  7. 1 2 Hiden & Salmon (1994). p. 132.
  8. Ethnic composition of population by USSR republics. 1970 census (in Russian)
  9. Ethnic composition of population by USSR republics. 1989 census Archived March 16, 2010, at the Wayback Machine (in Russian)
  10. 1 2 Hiden & Salmon (1994). p. 134.
  11. Hiden & Salmon (1994). p. 139.
  12. Hiden & Salmon (1994). p. 135.
  13. Hiden & Salmon (1994). p. 136.
  14. Hiden & Salmon (1994). p. 138.
  15. Hiden & Salmon (1994). p. 142.
  16. Hiden & Salmon (1994). p. 144.
  17. Hiden & Salmon (1994). p. 147.
  18. Hiden & Salmon (1994). p. 149.
  19. Hiden & Salmon (1994). p. 150.
  20. Hiden & Salmon (1994). p. 151.
  21. 1 2 Hiden & Salmon (1994). p. 152.
  22. 1 2 Hiden & Salmon (1994). p. 153.
  23. Hiden & Salmon (1994). p. 154.
  24. 1 2 Hiden & Salmon (1994). p. 158.
  25. Hiden & Salmon (1994). p. 163.
  26. Hiden & Salmon (1994). p. 159.
  27. Hiden & Salmon (1994). p. 160.
  28. Hiden & Salmon (1994). p. 162.
  29. 1 2 Hiden & Salmon (1994). p. 165.
  30. Hiden & Salmon (1994). p. 164.
  31. Hiden & Salmon (1994). p. 181.
  32. Hiden & Salmon (1994). p. 187.
  33. Hiden & Salmon (1994). p. 189.
  34. Hiden & Salmon (1994). p. 191.
  35. The Weekly Crier (1999/10) Archived 2013-06-01 at the Wayback Machine Baltics Worldwide.
  36. "Latvia takes over the territory of the Skrunda Radar Station". Embassy of the Republic of Latvia in Copenhagen. 21 October 1999. Archived from the original on February 29, 2012. Retrieved 15 June 2013.

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