Occupation of the Baltic states
Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox event Template:Occupation and annexation of the Baltic states sidebar The Baltic states—Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania—were occupied and annexed by the Soviet Union in 1940 and remained under its control until its dissolution in 1991. For a period of several years during World War II, Nazi Germany occupied the Baltic states after it invaded the Soviet Union in 1941.
The initial Soviet invasion and occupation of the Baltic states began in June 1940 under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, made between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany in August 1939, before the outbreak of World War II.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> The three independent Baltic countries were annexed as constituent Republics of the Soviet Union in August 1940. Most Western countries did not recognise this annexation, and considered it illegal.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="kavass">Template:Cite book</ref> In July 1941, the occupation of the Baltic states by Nazi Germany took place, just weeks after its invasion of the Soviet Union. The Third Reich incorporated them into its Reichskommissariat Ostland. In 1944, the Soviet Union recaptured most of the Baltic states as a result of the Red Army's Baltic Offensive, trapping the remaining German forces in the Courland Pocket until their formal surrender in May 1945.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
During the 1944–1991 Soviet occupation, many people from Russia and other parts of the former USSR were settled in the three Baltic countries, while the local languages, religion, and customs were suppressed in an "extremely violent and traumatic" occupation.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Colonization of the three Baltic countries included mass executions, deportations, and repression of the native population.
While there has been a broad international consensus that the Baltic states were illegally occupied and annexed,<ref name="OPL"/><ref name=estemb/><ref name="europarl.europa.eu"/><ref name="ReferenceA"/><ref name="DE"/><ref name="malksoo"/> the Soviet Union never acknowledged that they were forcefully taken over.<ref name="Marek1968"/> The post-Soviet government of Russia maintains the claim that the incorporations of Baltic states was in accordance with international law,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> and school textbooks state that the Baltic states voluntarily joined the Soviet Union after home-grown popular socialist revolutions.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> As most Western governments maintained that Baltic sovereignty had not been legitimately overridden,<ref name="quiley"> Template:Cite book</ref> they thus continued to recognise the Baltic states as sovereign political entities represented by the Baltic Legations, which functioned in Washington and elsewhere as governments in exile.<ref> Template:Cite journal
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The Baltic states regained de facto independence in 1991 during the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Russia started to withdraw its troops from the Baltics starting with Lithuania in August 1993. However, it was a violent process and Soviet forces killed several Latvians and Lithuanians.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The full withdrawal of troops deployed by Moscow ended in August 1994.Template:Cn Russia officially ended its military presence in the Baltics in August 1998 by decommissioning the Skrunda-1 radar station in Latvia. The dismantled installations were repatriated to Russia and the site returned to Latvian control, with the last Russian soldier leaving Baltic soil in October 1999.<ref>Template:Usurped Baltics Worldwide. Accessed 11 June 2013.</ref><ref>"Russia Pulls Last Troops Out of Baltics" The Moscow Times. 22 October 1999.</ref>
History
Background
Early in the morning of 24 August 1939, the Soviet Union and Germany signed a ten-year non-aggression pact, called the Molotov–Ribbentrop pact. The pact contained a secret protocol by which the states of Northern and Eastern Europe were divided into German and Soviet "spheres of influence".<ref name="mrtext">Text of the Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact Template:Webarchive, executed August 23, 1939</ref> In the north, Finland, Estonia and Latvia were assigned to the Soviet sphere.<ref name="mrtext" /> Poland was to be partitioned in the event of its "political rearrangement"—the areas east of the Narev, Vistula and San Rivers going to the Soviet Union while Germany would occupy the west.<ref name="mrtext" /> Lithuania, adjacent to East Prussia, would be in the German sphere of influence, although a second secret protocol agreed in September 1939 assigned the majority of Lithuanian territory to the Soviet Union.<ref name="christie">Christie, Kenneth, Historical Injustice and Democratic Transition in Eastern Asia and Northern Europe: Ghosts at the Table of Democracy, RoutledgeCurzon, 2002, Template:ISBN</ref> Under the secret protocol, Lithuania would regain its historical capital Vilnius, previously subjugated during the inter-war period by Poland.
Following the end of the Soviet invasion of Poland on 6 October, the Soviets pressured Finland and the Baltic states to conclude mutual assistance treaties. The Soviets questioned the neutrality of Estonia after the escape of an interned Polish submarine on 18 September. On 24 September, the Estonian foreign minister was given an ultimatum: the Soviets demanded a treaty of mutual assistance to establish military bases in Estonia.<ref name="Salmon30">Hiden & Salmon (1994). p. 110.</ref><ref name="The Baltic States Page 24">The Baltic States: Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania by David J. Smith, Page 24, Template:ISBN</ref> The Estonians were coerced to accept naval, air, and army bases on two Estonian islands and at the port of Paldiski.<ref name="Salmon30" /> The corresponding agreement was signed on 28 September 1939. Latvia followed on 5 October 1939 and Lithuania shortly thereafter, on 10 October 1939. The agreements permitted the Soviet Union to establish military bases on the Baltic states' territory for the duration of the European war<ref name="The Baltic States Page 24" /> and to station 25,000 Soviet soldiers in Estonia, 30,000 in Latvia, and 20,000 in Lithuania starting October 1939.
Soviet occupation and annexation (1940–1941)
In May 1940, the Soviets turned to the idea of direct military intervention, but still intended to rule through puppet regimes.<ref name="Salmon33">Hiden & Salmon (1994). p. 113.</ref> Their model was the Finnish Democratic Republic, a puppet regime set up by the Soviets on the first day of the Winter War.<ref name="Salmon32">Hiden & Salmon (1994). p. 112.</ref> The Soviets organised a press campaign against the allegedly pro-Allied sympathies of the Baltic governments. In May 1940, the Germans invaded France, which was overrun and occupied a month later. In late May and early June 1940, the Baltic states were accused of military collaboration against the Soviet Union by holding meetings the previous winter.<ref name="PB">Template:Cite book</ref>Template:Rp On 15 June 1940, the Lithuanian government was extorted to agree to the Soviet ultimatum and permit the entry of an unspecified number of Soviet troops. President Antanas Smetona proposed armed resistance to the Soviets but the government refused,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> proposing their own candidate to lead the regime.<ref name="Salmon33" /> However, the Soviets refused this proposal and sent Vladimir Dekanozov to take charge while the Red Army occupied the state.<ref name="Salmon34">Hiden & Salmon (1994). p. 114.</ref>
On 16 June 1940, Latvia and Estonia also received ultimata. The Red Army occupied the two remaining Baltic states shortly thereafter. The Soviets dispatched Andrey Vyshinsky to oversee the takeover of Latvia and Andrey Zhdanov to Estonia. On 18 and 21 June 1940, new "popular front" governments were formed in each Baltic country, made up of Communists and fellow travelers.<ref name="Salmon34" /> Under Soviet surveillance, the new governments arranged rigged elections for new "people's assemblies." Voters were presented with a single list, and no opposition movements were allowed to file candidates. To get the required turnout to 99.6%, votes were forged.<ref name="PB" />Template:Rp A month later, when the new assemblies met, the sole item of business for each of them was a resolution to join the Soviet Union. In each case, the resolution passed by acclamation. The Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union duly accepted the requests in August, thus sanctioning them under Soviet law. Lithuania was incorporated into the Soviet Union on 3 August, Latvia on 5 August, and Estonia on 6 August 1940.<ref name="Salmon34" /> The deposed presidents of Estonia and Latvia, Konstantin Päts and Kārlis Ulmanis, were deported to the USSR and imprisoned. They died later in the Tver region<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> and Central Asia respectively. In June 1941, the new Soviet governments carried out mass deportations of "enemies of the people". Estonia alone lost an estimated 60,000 citizens.<ref name="PB" />Template:Rp Consequently, many Balts initially greeted the Germans as liberators when they invaded a week later.<ref name="GernerHedlund-b1">Gerner & Hedlund (1993). p. 59.</ref>
The Soviet Union immediately started to erect border fortifications along its newly acquired western border — the so-called Molotov Line.
German occupation (1941–1945)
Ostland province and the Holocaust
On 22 June 1941, the Germans invaded the Soviet Union. The Baltic states, recently Sovietized by threats, force, and fraud, generally welcomed the German armed forces.<ref name="Salmon_d1">Hiden & Salmon (1994). p. 115.</ref> In Lithuania, a revolt broke out and an independent provisional government was established. As the German armies approached Riga and Tallinn, attempts to reestablish national governments were made. Baltic citizens hoped that the Germans would reestablish Baltic independence. Such hopes soon evaporated and Baltic cooperation became less forthright or ceased altogether.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The Germans aimed to annex the Baltic territories into the Third Reich, where "suitable elements" would be assimilated and "unsuitable elements" exterminated. In practice, the implementation of occupation policy was more complex; for administrative convenience, the Baltic states were included with Belorussia in the Reichskommissariat Ostland.<ref name="Salmon_e1">Hiden & Salmon (1994). p. 116.</ref> The area was governed by Hinrich Lohse, who was obsessed with bureaucratic regulations.<ref name="Salmon_e1" /> The Baltic area was the only eastern region intended to become a full province of the Third Reich.<ref name="Salmon_e2">Hiden & Salmon (1994). p. 117.</ref>
Nazi racial attitudes to the peoples of the three Baltic countries differed between Nazi authorities. In practice, racial policies were directed not against the majority of Balts but rather against the Jews. Large numbers of Jews were living in the major cities, notably in Vilnius, Kaunas, and Riga. The German mobile killing units slaughtered hundreds of thousands of Jews; Einsatzgruppe A, assigned to the Baltic area, was the most effective of four units.<ref name="Salmon_e2" /> German policy forced the Jews into ghettos. In 1943, Heinrich Himmler ordered his forces to liquidate the ghettos and to transfer the survivors to concentration camps. Some Latvians and Lithuanian conscripts collaborated actively in the killing of Jews, and the Nazis managed to provoke pogroms locally, especially in Lithuania.<ref name="Salmon_e3">Hiden & Salmon (1994). p. 118.</ref> Only about 75 percent of Estonian and 10 percent of Latvian and Lithuanian Jews survived the war. However, for the majority of Lithuanians, Latvians and Estonians, the German rule was less harsh than Soviet rule had been, and it was less brutal than German occupations elsewhere in eastern Europe.<ref name="Salmon_e4">Hiden & Salmon (1994). p. 119.</ref> Local puppet regimes performed administrative tasks and schools were permitted to function. However, most people were denied the right to own land or businesses.<ref name="Salmon_e5" />
Baltic nationals within the Soviet forces
The Soviet administration had forcibly incorporated the Baltic national armies at the wake of the occupation in 1940. Most of the senior officers were arrested and many of them murdered.<ref name="ents">Template:Cite book</ref> During the German invasion, the Soviets conducted a forced general mobilisation that took place in violation of the international law. Under the Geneva Conventions, this act of violence is seen as a grave breach and war crime, because the mobilised men were treated as arrestants from the very beginning. In comparison with the general mobilisation proclaimed in the Soviet Union, the age range was extended by 9 years in the Baltics; all reserve officers were also taken. The aim was to deport all men capable to fight to Russia, where they were sent to convict camps. Almost half of them perished because of the transportation conditions, slave labour, hunger, diseases, and the repressive measures of the NKVD.<ref name=ents/><ref name="white">Template:Cite book</ref> In addition, destruction battalions were formed under the command of the NKVD.<ref name="paavle">Template:Cite book</ref> Hence, Baltic nationals fought in both German and Soviet army ranks. There was the 201st Latvian Rifle Division. The 308th Latvian Rifle Division was awarded the Red Banner Order after the expulsion of the Germans from Riga in the autumn of 1944.<ref name=statiev/>
An estimated 60,000 Lithuanians were drafted into the Red Army.<ref>Romuald J. Misiunas, Rein Taagepera. Baltic Years of Dependence 1940—1990. Tallinn, 1997, p. 32</ref> During 1940, on the basis of the disbanded Lithuanian Army, the Soviet authorities organized the 29th Territorial Rifle Corps. The decrease in quality of life and service conditions, and forceful indoctrination of Communist ideology, caused discontent amongst recently Sovietized military units. Soviet authorities responded with repressions against Lithuanian officers of the 29th Corps, arresting over 100 officers and soldiers and subsequently executing around 20 in Autumn 1940. By that time, allegedly nearly 3,200 officers and soldiers of the 29th Corps were considered "politically unreliable". Due to high tensions and soldiers' discontent, the 26th Cavalry Regiment was disbanded. During the 1941 June deportations, over 320 officers and soldiers of the 29th Corps were arrested and deported to concentration camps or executed. The 29th Corps collapsed with the German invasion into Soviet Union; on June 25–26, a rebellion broke in its 184th Rifle Division. The other division of the 29th Corps, the 179th Rifle Division, lost most of its soldiers during the retreat from Germans, mostly to deserting of its soldiers. A total of less than 1,500 soldiers from the initial strength of around 12,000 reached the area of Pskov by August 1941. By the second part of 1942, most of the Lithuanians remaining in the Soviet ranks, as well as male war refugees from Lithuania, were organized into the 16th Rifle Division during its second formation. 16th Rifle Division, despite officially called "Lithuanian" and mostly commanded by officers of Lithuanian origin, including Adolfas Urbšas, was ethnically very mixed, with up to 1/4 of its personnel made of Jews and thus being the largest Jewish formation of Soviet Army. A popular joke of those years said that the 16th Division was called Lithuanian, because there were 16 Lithuanians among its ranks.
The 7000-strong 22nd Estonian Territorial Rifle Corps got heavily beaten in the battles around Porkhov during the German invasion in summer 1941, as 2000 were killed or wounded in action, and 4500 surrendered. The 25,000—30,000 strong 8th Estonian Rifle Corps lost 3/4 of its troops in the Battle of Velikiye Luki in winter 1942/43. It participated in the capture of Tallinn in September 1944.<ref name=ents/> About 20,000 Lithuanians, 25,000 Estonians, and 5000 Latvians died in the ranks of the Red Army and labor battalions.<ref name=white/><ref name="statiev">Alexander Statiev. The Soviet counterinsurgency in the western borderlands. Cambridge University Press, 2010. p. 77</ref>
Baltic nationals in the German forces
The Nazi administration also conscripted Baltic nationals into the German armies. The Lithuanian Territorial Defense Force, composed of volunteers, was formed in 1944. The LTDF reached a size of roughly 10,000 men. Its goal was to fight the approaching Red Army, provide security, and conduct anti-partisan operations within the territory claimed by Lithuanians. After brief engagements against Soviet and Polish partisans, the force self-disbanded.<ref name="bubnys">Template:Cite book</ref> Its leaders were arrested and sent to Nazi concentration camps,<ref name=MM/> and many of members were executed by the Nazis.<ref name="MM">Template:Cite journal</ref> The Latvian Legion, created in 1943, consisted of two conscripted divisions of the Waffen-SS. On 1 July 1944, the Latvian Legion had 87,550 men. Another 23,000 Latvians were serving as Wehrmacht "auxiliaries".<ref name="legion2">Template:Cite book</ref> Among other battles, they participated in the Siege of Leningrad, in the Courland Pocket fighting, the defence of the Pomeranian Wall, at the Velikaya River for Hill "93,4", and in the defence of Berlin. The 20th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (1st Estonian) was formed in January 1944 through conscription. Consisting of 38,000 men, it took part in the Battle of Narva, the Battle of Tannenberg Line, the Battle of Tartu, and Operation Aster.
Attempts to restore independence and the Soviet offensive of 1944
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There were several attempts to restore independence during the occupation. On 22 June 1941, the Lithuanians overthrew Soviet rule two days before the Wehrmacht arrived in Kaunas, where the Germans then allowed a Provisional Government to function for over a month.<ref name="Salmon_e5">Hiden & Salmon (1994). p. 120.</ref> The Latvian Central Council was set up as an underground organisation in 1943, but it was destroyed by the Gestapo in 1945. In Estonia in 1941, Jüri Uluots proposed restoration of independence; later, by 1944, he had become a key figure in the secret National Committee. In September 1944, Uluots briefly became acting president of independent Estonia.<ref name="Salmon_c1">Hiden & Salmon (1994). p. 121.</ref> Unlike the French and the Poles, the Baltic states had no governments in exile located in the West. Consequently, Great Britain and the United States lacked any interest in the Baltic cause while the war against Germany remained undecided.<ref name="Salmon_c1" /> The discovery of the Katyn massacre in 1943 and callous conduct towards the Warsaw uprising in 1944 had cast shadows on relations; nevertheless, all three victors still displayed solidarity at the Yalta Conference in 1945.<ref name="Salmon_c2">Hiden & Salmon (1994). p. 123.</ref>
By 1 March 1944, the siege of Leningrad was over and Soviet troops were on the border with Estonia.<ref name="Bellamy1">Bellamy (2007). p. 621.</ref> The Soviets launched the Baltic Offensive, a twofold military-political operation to rout German forces, on 14 September. On 16 September, the High Command of the German Army issued a plan in which Estonian forces would cover the German withdrawal.<ref name="Bellamy2">Bellamy (2007). p. 622.</ref> The Soviets soon reached the Estonian capital Tallinn, where the NKVD's first mission was to stop anyone escaping from the state; however, many refugees did manage to escape to the West. The NKVD also targeted the members of the National Committee of the Republic of Estonia.<ref name="Bellamy3">Bellamy (2007). p. 623.</ref> German and Latvian forces remained trapped in the Courland Pocket until the end of the war, capitulating on 10 May 1945.
Second Soviet occupation (1944–1991)
Resistance and deportations
After reoccupying the Baltic states, the Soviets implemented a program of sovietization, which was achieved through large-scale industrialisation rather than by overt attacks on culture, religion, or freedom of expression.<ref name="Salmon_b1">Hiden & Salmon (1994). p. 126.</ref> The Soviets carried out massive deportations to eliminate any resistance to collectivisation or support of partisans.<ref name="Salmon_b2" /> Baltic partisans, such as the Forest Brothers, continued to resist Soviet rule through armed struggle for a number of years.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
The Soviets had previously carried out mass deportations in 1940–41, but the deportations between 1944 and 1952 were even greater.<ref name="Salmon_b2" /> In March 1949 alone, the top Soviet authorities organised a mass deportation of 90,000 Baltic nationals.<ref name="heinrihs">Template:Cite journal Template:Cite journal</ref> One estimate for the number of Lithuanians deported from 1945-1946 was 100,000. About 60,000 were estimated to have been deported from Latvia from 1945-1946.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
The total number deported in 1944–55 has been estimated at over half a million: 124,000 in Estonia, 136,000 in Latvia and 245,000 in Lithuania.Template:Citation needed
The estimated death toll among Lithuanian deportees between 1945 and 1958 was 20,000, including 5,000 children.<ref>International Commission For the Evaluation of the Crimes of the Nazi and Soviet Occupation Regimes in Lithuania, Deportations of the Population in 1944–1953 Template:Webarchive, paragraph 14</ref>
The deportees were allowed to return after Nikita Khrushchev's secret speech in 1956 denouncing the excesses of Stalinism; however, many did not survive their years of exile in Siberia.<ref name="Salmon_b2">Hiden & Salmon (1994). p. 129.</ref> After the war, the Soviets outlined new borders for the Baltic republics. Lithuania gained the regions of Vilnius and Klaipėda, while the Russian SFSR annexed territory from the eastern parts of Estonia (5% of prewar territory) and Latvia (2%).<ref name="Salmon_b2" />
Industrialization and immigration
The Soviets made investments to integrate the Baltic economies into the larger Soviet economic sphere to extract energy resources and the manufacture of industrial and agricultural products.<ref name="Salmon_b3">Hiden & Salmon (1994). p. 130.</ref> In all three republics, manufacturing industry was developed, resulting in some of the best industrial complexes in the sphere of electronics and textile production. The rural economy suffered from the lack of investments and the collectivization.<ref name="Salmon_b4">Hiden & Salmon (1994). p. 131.</ref> Baltic urban areas had been damaged during wartime and it took ten years to recuperate housing losses. New constructions were often of poor quality and ethnic Russian immigrants were favored in housing.<ref name="Salmon_b5">Hiden & Salmon (1994). p. 132.</ref> Estonia and Latvia received large-scale immigration of industrial workers from other parts of the Soviet Union that changed the demographics dramatically. Lithuania also received immigration but on a smaller scale.<ref name="Salmon_b3" /> Industrialization offered a path to moving large numbers of Russian settlers among local populations.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Ethnic Estonians constituted 88 percent of the population before the war, but in 1970, the figure dropped to 60 percent. Ethnic Latvians constituted 75 percent, but the figure dropped 57 percent in 1970, and further down to 50.7 percent in 1989. In contrast, the drop in Lithuania was only 4 percent.<ref name="Salmon_b5" /> Baltic communists had supported and participated the 1917 October Revolution in Russia. However, many of them were killed during the Great Purge in the 1930s. The new regimes of 1944 were established with native communists who had fought in the Red Army, but most positions were filled with imported Russian settlers to fill political, administrative, and managerial posts.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> For example, the important post of second secretary of local Communist party was almost always ethnic Russian or a member of another Slavic nationality.<ref name="Salmon_b10">Hiden & Salmon (1994). p. 139.</ref> Party membership continued to be heavily Russian long into the postwar period. During the last quarter of 1944, the Estonian Communist Party had only 56 members, and recruitment in 1945 totaled a few hundred.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
The new Lithuanian Communist Party was only 38% Lithuanian in 1953.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The Latvian Communist Party was 52% Latvian in 1949.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Estonians made up 42% of Estonia’s Communist Party in 1946.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Thousands of non-indigenous administrators were imported at all levels in Lithuania, Russian settlers in particular. Even the native Lithuanian population included a group that lived in Russia, 13% of the ministers of Russian Lithuanians out of a total indigenous percentage of 32% in 1947.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
In March 1949, of the 30 non-staff lecturers in the Agitprop Department of the City of Riga, only 8 knew Latvian, and these people were tasked with spreading Soviet ideology among the native population.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Home-grown Communists in all three countries represented about one-third of the total membership around 1949. Despite the career opportunities involved in the occupation regimes, only 0.3% of the Lithuanians and 0.7% of the Latvians and Estonians had joined the Communist Parties after five years of continuous Russian occupation, reflecting the unpopularity of the occupation. This rate was 5 to 10 times less than the Soviet Union's average for Soviet Republics at the time.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
The Baltic States were net contributors rather than beneficiaries during the illegal occupation. Detailed archival records of budget revenues and expenditures demonstrate that significantly more money was extracted from these territories than was ever invested back, even including large Soviet expenditures on its military and other repressive structures created to oppress the native population. The myth of generous Soviet “aid” in industrializing and developing the Baltics is false propaganda that conceals the substantial revenues and profits were siphoned off by the occupying Soviets.<ref name=":7">Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name=":8">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name=":9">Template:Cite book</ref>Template:Bettersourceneeded
In Latvia’s case specifically, archival evidence proves that from 1946 to 1990, the USSR drew far more resources from Latvian territory than it spent on it, with over 18% of revenues net-transferred out of the republic. The same pattern holds true for Estonia and Lithuania. This economic exploitation and heavy militarization explain why the Baltic nations, which had been relatively advanced before the war, became economically stunted compared to Western Europe, underlining the extractive nature of the Soviet occupation.<ref name=":7" /><ref name=":8" /><ref name=":9" />Template:Bettersourceneeded
Restorations of independence
The period of stagnation brought the crisis of the Soviet system. 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 occasioned the reawakening of nationalism in the Baltic republics.<ref name="Salmon_b13">Hiden & Salmon (1994). p. 147.</ref> The first major demonstrations against the environment were 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 the decisive positions in the Baltic republics.<ref name="Salmon_b14">Hiden & Salmon (1994). p. 149.</ref> At the same time, coalitions of reformists and populist forces assembled under the Popular Fronts.<ref name="Salmon_b15">Hiden & Salmon (1994). p. 150.</ref> 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. The Baltic republics declared their aim for sovereignty: Estonia in November 1988, Lithuania in May 1989, and Latvia in July 1989.<ref name="Salmon_b16">Hiden & Salmon (1994). p. 151.</ref> The Baltic Way, that took place on 23 August 1989, became the biggest manifestation of opposition to the Soviet rule.<ref name="Salmon_b19">Hiden & Salmon (1994). p. 154.</ref> In December 1989, the Congress of People's Deputies of the Soviet Union condemned the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact and its secret protocol as "legally untenable and invalid."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
On 11 March 1990, the Lithuanian Supreme Soviet declared Lithuania's independence.<ref name="Salmon_b20">Hiden & Salmon (1994). p. 158.</ref> Pro-independence candidates had received an overwhelming majority in the Supreme Soviet elections held earlier that year.<ref name="Salmon_b22">Hiden & Salmon (1994). p. 160.</ref> On 30 March 1990, seeing full restoration of independence not yet feasible due to large Soviet presence, the Estonian Supreme Soviet declared the Soviet Union an occupying power and announced the start of a transitional period to independence. On 4 May 1990, the Latvian Supreme Soviet made a similar declaration.<ref name="Salmon_b23">Hiden & Salmon (1994). p. 162.</ref> The Soviet Union immediately condemned all three declarations as illegal, saying that they had to go through the process of secession outlined in the Soviet Constitution of 1977. However, the Baltic states argued that the entire occupation process violated both international law and their own law. Therefore, they argued, they were merely reasserting an independence that still existed under international law.
By mid-June, after unsuccessful economic blockade of Lithuania, the Soviets started negotiations with Lithuania and the other two Baltic republics. The Soviets had a bigger challenge elsewhere, as the Russian Federal Republic proclaimed sovereignty in June.<ref name="Salmon_b25">Hiden & Salmon (1994). p. 164.</ref> Simultaneously the Baltic republics also started to negotiate directly with the Russian Federal Republic.<ref name="Salmon_b25" /> After the failed negotiations, the Soviets made a dramatic but failed attempt to break the deadlock and sent in military troops, killing twenty and injuring hundreds of civilians in what became known as the "Vilnius massacre" in Lithuania and "The Barricades" in Latvia, during January 1991.<ref name="Salmon_b27">Hiden & Salmon (1994). p. 187.</ref> In August 1991, the hard-line members attempted to take control of the Soviet Union. A day after the coup on 21 August, the Estonians proclaimed full independence, after an independence referendum was held in Estonia on 3 March 1991,<ref name=":0">Template:Cite book</ref> alongside a similar referendum in Latvia the same month. It was approved by 78.4% of voters, with an 82.9% turnout. Independence was restored by the Estonian Supreme Council on the night of 20 August.<ref name=":0" /> The Latvian parliament made a similar declaration on the same day. The coup failed, but the collapse of the Soviet Union became unavoidable.<ref name="Salmon_b28">Hiden & Salmon (1994). p. 189.</ref> After the coup collapsed, the Soviet government recognised the independence of all three Baltic states on 6 September 1991.
Withdrawal of Russian troops and decommissioning the radars
The Russian Federation assumed the burden and the subsequent withdrawal of the occupation force, consisting of about 150,000 former Soviet, now Russian, troops stationed in the Baltic states.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> In 1992, there were still 120,000 Russian troops there,<ref name="compatriot">Simonsen, S. Compatriot Games: Explaining the 'Diaspora Linkage' in Russia's Military Withdrawal from the Baltic States. Europe-Asia Studies, Vol. 53, No. 5. 2001</ref> as well as a large number of military pensioners, particularly in Estonia and Latvia.
During the period of negotiations, Russia hoped to retain facilities such as the Liepāja naval base, the Skrunda anti-ballistic missile radar station, the Ventspils space-monitoring station in Latvia, and the Paldiski submarine base in Estonia, as well as transit rights to Kaliningrad through Lithuania.
Contention arose when Russia threatened to keep its troops where they were. Moscow tied its concessions to specific legislation guaranteeing the civil rights of ethnic Russians, which was seen as an implied threat in the West, in the U.N. General Assembly, and by Baltic leaders, who viewed it as Russian imperialism.<ref name="compatriot" />
Lithuania was the first to see the complete withdrawal of Russian troops—on 31 August 1993<ref>Holoboff, p 113</ref>—owing in part to the Kaliningrad issue.<ref name="compatriot" />
Subsequent agreements to withdraw troops from Latvia were signed on 30 April 1994, and from Estonia on 26 July 1994.<ref name="Holoboff, p 114">Holoboff, p 114</ref> Continued linkage on the part of Russia resulted in a threat by the U.S. Senate in mid-July to halt all aid to Russia in case the forces were not withdrawn by the end of August.<ref name="Holoboff, p 114" /> Final withdrawal was completed on 31 August 1994.<ref name="Salmon_b29">Hiden & Salmon (1994). p. 191.</ref> Some Russian troops remained stationed in Estonia in Paldiski until the Russian military base was dismantled and the nuclear reactors suspended operations on 26 September 1995.<ref>President of the Republic in Paldiski on 26 September 1995 Template:Webarchive Lennart Meri, the president of Estonia (1992–2001). 26 September 1995.</ref><ref>Last Russian Military Site Returned to Estonia. Template:Webarchive The Jamestown Foundation. 27 September 1995.</ref> Russia operated the Skrunda-1 radar station until it was decommissioned on 31 August 1998. The Russian Government then had to dismantle and remove the radar equipment; this work was completed by October 1999 when the site was returned to Latvia.<ref>Latvia takes over the territory of the Skrunda Radar Station Template:Webarchive Embassy of the Republic of Latvia in Copenhagen, 31 October 1999. Accessed 22 July 2013.</ref> The last Russian soldier left the region that month, marking a symbolic end to the Russian military presence on Baltic soil.<ref>Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania Template:Webarchive Lonely Planet. January 5, 2009. Retrieved June 3, 2013.</ref><ref>The Countries of the Former Soviet Union at the Turn of the Twenty-First Century Template:Webarchive Ian Jeffries. 2004. Retrieved July 21, 2013.</ref>
Civilian toll
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During the 1940–1941 and 1944–1991 occupations, 605,000 inhabitants of the three countries in total were either killed or deported (135,000 Estonians, 170,000 Latvians and 320,000 Lithuanians). Their properties and personal belonging were confiscated and given to newly arrived colonists – economic migrants, Soviet military, NKVD personnel, as well as functionaries of the Communist Party.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
The estimated human costs of the occupations are presented in the table below.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
| Period/action | Estonia | Latvia | Lithuania |
|---|---|---|---|
| Population | 1,126,413 (1934) | 1,905,000 (1935) | 2,575,400 (1938) |
| First Soviet Occupation | |||
| June 1941 deportation | 9,267
(2,409 executed) |
15,424
(9,400 died en route) |
17,500 |
| Victims of repressions
(arrest, torture, political trials imprisonment or other sanctions) |
8,000 | 21,000 | 12,900 |
| Extrajudicial executions | 2,000 | Not known | 3,000 |
| Nazi Occupation | |||
| Mass killing of local minorities | 992 Jews
300 Roma |
70,000 Jews
1,900 Roma |
196,000 Jews
~4,000 Roma |
| Killing of Jews from outside | 8,000 | 20,000 | Not known |
| Killing of other civilians | 7,000 | 16,300 | 45,000 |
| Forced labour | 3,000 | 16,800 | 36,500 |
| Second Soviet Occupation | |||
| Operation Priboi
1948–49 |
1949: 20,702
3,000 died en route |
1949: 42,231
8,000 died en route |
1948: 41,000
1949: 32,735 |
| Other deportations between 1945 and 1956 | 650 | 1,700 | 59,200 |
| Arrests and political imprisonment | 30,000
11,000 perished |
32,000 | 186,000 |
| Post-war partisans killed or imprisoned | 8,468
4,000 killed |
8,000
3,000 killed |
21,500 |
Consequences
The Baltic States maintain that the occupations during the war and the Soviet occupation after it had significant demographic, social, and economic consequences, causing huge damage in all spheres, including the damage to the environment.<ref>Anušauskas et al (2007)</ref><ref name="TheWhiteBook2005">Estonian State Commission on Examination of the Policies of Repression (2005).</ref><ref name="baltic-damage">Template:Cite conference</ref> All three countries suffered depopulation and repression. It is estimated that during the 1939–1945 wartime occupations alone, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania lost 25%, 30%, and 15% of their populations respectively.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
The Baltic states suffered huge economic losses because of the Soviet occupation, but estimates vary due to different methodologies. In 1995, Lithuania estimated that the occupation caused more than 23 billion euros (at the prices of that time) in damage, including loss of population, destruction of property, economic collapse, and other losses.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> However, this methodology does not assess the losses in economic growth. Economically, Lithuania was a net donor to the USSR budget.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The country suffered the most before 1958, when more than half of the annual national budgets were sent to the USSR budget; later, this figure decreased, but remained high until 1973, when it was about 25% of the annual national budgets; in total, Lithuania sent about a third of all its annual national budgets to the USSR budget during the entire period of occupation.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The special Latvian commission in 2016 calculated the economic damage of the occupation using a different methodology and estimated it at 185 billion euros (at the prices of that year).<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> According to the Estonian estimates in 2005, the economic losses from the last period of the Soviet occupation alone exceed 100 billion dollars.<ref name="TheWhiteBook2005-22">Estonian State Commission on Examination of the Policies of Repression (2005). p. 22.</ref>
During the occupation period, the Baltic states suffered significant economic underdevelopment and lag compared to the other European countries. For example, in the late interwar period, Latvia's GDP per capita in international dollars (PPP) did not differ significantly from Finland's, but by 1965, it had already fallen to 64% of Finland's level (Finland – $2,221, Latvia – $1,418).<ref name="baltic-damage"/> In 1975, this figure was 45%; in 1986, it was 50%, and in 1990, it was 45%, so by the end of the Soviet occupation, Latvia's GDP per capita (PPP) was less than half that of Finland.<ref name="baltic-damage"/> Pre-war Estonia was also at a similar economic level to Finland, but experienced similar economic lag and underdevelopment during the occupation.<ref name="baltic-damage"/>
The Soviet Union and its successor Russia have never paid reparations to the Baltic countries.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Due to colonization and russification, the Soviet occupation also significantly changed the demographic and linguistic situation, especially in Latvia and Estonia. In 1944, Estonians made up 88–90% of the population, but according to the 1989 census, this number had decreased to 61.5%.<ref name="TheWhiteBook2005-21">Estonian State Commission on Examination of the Policies of Repression (2005). p. 21.</ref> In Latvia, between 1945 and 1955 alone, the number of immigrants reached 535,000, most of whom came from Russia.<ref name="baltic-damage"/> In 1940, Latvians made up about 79% of Latvia's population, but by 1989 this number had dropped to 52%.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
According to Israeli author Template:Ill of the Minerva Center for Human Rights at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, illegal regimes typically take measures to change the demographic structure of the territory held by the regime, usually via two methods: the forced removal of the local population and transfer their own populations into the territory.<ref name="ronen">Template:Cite book</ref> He cites the case of the Baltic states as an example of where this phenomenon has occurred, with the deportations of 1949 combined with large waves of immigration in 1945–50 and 1961–70.<ref name="ronen" /> When the illegal regime transitioned to a lawful regime in 1991, the status of these settlers became an issue.<ref name="ronen" />
Legal and historical perspectives
The Baltic states' governments themselves,<ref name="OPL">The Occupation of Latvia Template:Webarchive at Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Latvia</ref><ref name=estemb>Template:Cite web</ref> the United States<ref name=Feldbrugge>Template:Cite book</ref><ref name=Fried>Template:Cite web</ref> and its courts of law,<ref name=Lauterpacht>Template:Cite book</ref> the European Parliament,<ref name="europarl.europa.eu">Motion for a resolution on the Situation in Estonia Template:Webarchive by the European Parliament, B6-0215/2007, 21.5.2007; passed 24.5.2007 . Retrieved 1 January 2010.</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> the European Court of Human Rights,<ref name="ReferenceA">European Court of Human Rights cases on Occupation of Baltic States</ref> and the United Nations Human Rights Council<ref name="DE">Template:Cite web</ref> have all stated that these three countries were invaded, occupied, and illegally incorporated into the Soviet Union under provisions of the 1939 Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact.<ref name="malksoo">Template:Cite book</ref> There followed occupation by Nazi Germany from 1941 to 1944 and then again occupation by the Soviet Union from 1944 to 1991.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Country Profiles: Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania Template:Webarchive at UK Foreign Office</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>See, for instance, the position expressed by the European Parliament, which condemned "the fact that the occupation of these formerly independent and neutral States by the Soviet Union occurred in 1940 following the Molotov/Ribbentrop pact, and continues." Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>"After the German occupation in 1941–44, Estonia remained occupied by the Soviet Union until the restoration of its independence in 1991." Template:Cite court</ref> This policy of non-recognition has given rise to the principle of legal continuity of the Baltic states, which holds that de jure, or as a matter of law, the Baltic states remained independent states under illegal occupation throughout the period from 1940 to 1991.<ref name="smith">David James Smith, Estonia: independence and European integration, Routledge, 2001, Template:ISBN, p. xix</ref><ref name="Parrott 1995">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name=":1">Template:Cite book</ref> The Baltic states have repeatedly sought financial compensation from Russia for damages inflicted during the illegal occupation, both individually and collectively.<ref name=":2">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name=":3">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name=":4">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name=":5">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name=":6">Template:Cite web</ref>
However, the Soviet Union never formally acknowledged that its presence in the Baltics was an occupation or that it had annexed these states<ref name="Marek1968">Marek (1968). p. 396. "Insofar as the Soviet Union claims that they are not directly annexed territories but autonomous bodies with a legal will of their own, they (The Baltic SSRs) must be considered puppet creations, exactly in the same way in which the Protectorate or Italian-dominated Albania have been classified as such. These puppet creations have been established on the territory of the independent Baltic states; they cover the same territory and include the same population."</ref> and considered the Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic, Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic, and Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republics three of its constituent republics. On the other hand, the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic recognized in 1991 that the events of 1940 were an "annexation".<ref>Zalimas, Dainius "Commentary to the Law of the Republic of Lithuania on Compensation of Damage Resulting from the Occupation of the USSR" – Baltic Yearbook of International Law. Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, Template:ISBN</ref>
Historically revisionist<ref name="Sokolov" /> Russian historiography and school textbooks continue to maintain that the Baltic states voluntarily joined the Soviet Union after each of their peoples carried out socialist revolutions independent of Soviet influence.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The post-Soviet government of Russia and its state officials insist that incorporation of the Baltic states was in accordance with international law<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> and gained de jure recognition by the agreements made in the February 1945 Yalta Conference, the July–August 1945 Potsdam Conference, and by the 1975 Helsinki Accords,<ref name="midrf1">МИД РФ: Запад признавал Прибалтику частью СССР Template:Webarchive, grani.ru, May 2005</ref><ref name="midrf2">Комментарий Департамента информации и печати МИД России в отношении "непризнания" вступления прибалтийских республик в состав СССР Template:Webarchive, Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Russia), 7 May 2005</ref> which declared the inviolability of existing frontiers.<ref name="HidenMadeSmith2008">Khudoley (2008), Soviet foreign policy during the Cold War, The Baltic factor, p. 90.</ref> However, this claim has been described by British army think tank CHACR as both "nefarious" and a "horrifying insult" — part of an intentional propaganda campaign to spread a myth of Baltic "incorporation".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Russia also agreed to Europe's demand to "assist persons deported from the occupied Baltic states" upon joining the Council of Europe in 1996.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="CoEoccupied" /> Also, when the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic signed a separate treaty with Lithuania in 1991, it acknowledged the 1940 annexation as a violation of Lithuanian sovereignty and recognised the de jure continuity of the Lithuanian state.<ref> Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name="RussLithTreaty" />
State continuity of the Baltic states
The Baltic claim of continuity with the pre-war republics has been accepted by most Western powers.<ref>Van Elsuwgege, p378</ref> As a consequence of the policy of non-recognition of the Soviet seizure of these countries,<ref name="smith" /><ref name="Parrott 1995" /> combined with the resistance by the Baltic people to the Soviet regime, the uninterrupted functioning of rudimentary state organs in exile in combination with the fundamental legal principle of ex injuria jus non oritur, that no legal benefit can be derived from an illegal act, the seizure of the Baltic states was judged to be illegal<ref>For a legal evaluation of the annexation of the three Baltic states into the Soviet Union, see K. Marek, Identity and Continuity of States in Public International Law (1968), 383–91</ref> thus sovereign title never passed to the Soviet Union and the Baltic states continued to exist as subjects of international law.<ref>D. Zalimas, Legal and Political Issues on the Continuity of the Republic of Lithuania, 1999, 4 Lithuanian Foreign Policy Review 111–12.</ref>
The official position of Russia, which chose in 1991 to be the legal and direct successor of the USSR,<ref>Torbakov, I. Russia and its neighbors. Warring histories and historical responsibility. FIIA Comment. Finnish Institute of International Affairs. 2010.</ref> is that Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania joined the Soviet Union freely and of their own accord in 1940, and, with the dissolution of the USSR, these countries became newly created entities in 1991. Russia's stance is based upon the desire to avoid financial liability, since acknowledging the Soviet occupation would set the stage for future compensation claims from the Baltic states.<ref>Gennady Charodeyev, Russia Rejects Latvia's Territorial Claim, Izvestia, (CDPSP, Vol XLIV, No 12.), 20 March 1992, p.3</ref>
Reparations for the illegal occupation
The principle of the legal continuity of the Baltic states recognized by the international community, holds that de jure, or as a matter of law, the Baltic states remained independent states under illegal occupation throughout the period from 1940 to 1991.<ref name="smith" /><ref name="Parrott 1995" /><ref name=":1" /> However, during the illegal occupation, the Baltic states suffered damages valued at hundreds of billions of dollars. A report by an independent commission formed by the Latvian government in 2016 concluded that the criminal actions of the Soviet occupation had inflicted on Latvia alone constituted over €185 billion in economic damages.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 2011, a report concluded that the damage continued to incur costs to the Latvian government of €100 million a year.<ref>Damage Caused by the Soviet Union in the Baltic States</ref>
The Baltic states have repeatedly sought financial reparations from Russia for damages inflicted during the illegal occupation, both individually and collectively.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":3" /><ref name=":4" /><ref name=":5" /><ref name=":6" />
In 2000, the Seimas (Lithuania's parliament) passed a law seeking compensation from Russia for the criminal damages inflicted upon Lithuania during the illegal Soviet occupation of the Baltics.<ref name=":32">Template:Cite web</ref> The move was endorsed by then-Estonian Prime Minister Mart Laar and then-Latvian Prime Minister Andris Berzins, who both supported cooperation in the Baltic Assembly on the issue.<ref name=":32" />
In 2008, the Lithuanian government again stated that seeking financial compensation from Russia for the illegal Soviet occupation of Lithuania was a priority.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 2011, Lithuania continued to seek reparations, with foreign minister Audronius Azubalis labeling it "ridiculous to talk with Russia without resolving issues related to the occupation."<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> On 23 May 2012, Lithuanian Prime Minister Andrius Kubilius formed a commission to move the issue forward and called for the issue of financial compensation from Russia to be included as a condition of EU-Russia relations.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name=":42">Template:Cite web</ref>
Soviet and Russian historiography
Template:Main Soviet historians saw the 1940 annexation as a voluntary entry into the USSR by the Balts.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Soviet historiography promoted the interests of Russia and the USSR in the Baltic area, and it reflected the belief of most Russians that they had moral and historical rights to control and to Russianize the entire former Russian empire.<ref name="GernerHedlund-f1">Gerner & Hedlund (1993). p. 60.</ref> To Soviet historians, the 1940 annexation was not only a voluntary entry but was also the natural thing to do. This concept taught that the military security of mother Russia was solidified and that nothing could argue against it.<ref name="GernerHedlund-f2">Gerner & Hedlund (1993). p. 62.</ref>
Soviet point of view
Prior to perestroika, the Soviet Union denied the existence of the secret protocols and viewed the events of 1939–40 as follows:<ref name=guardian> Template:Cite web</ref>
- the government of the Soviet Union suggested that the governments of the Baltic countries conclude mutual assistance treaties between the countries.
- Pressure from working people forced the governments of the Baltic countries to accept this suggestion. The pacts were then signed<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
- These pacts allowed the USSR to station a limited number of Red Army units in the Baltic countries.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
- Economic difficulties and dissatisfaction of the populace with Baltic government policies had impeded fulfilment of the pacts, and the populace revolted against the Baltic governments' political orientation towards Germany in a revolution in June 1940.
- To guarantee fulfilment of the pact additional military units entered the Baltic countries, welcomed by workers, who demanded the resignations of the governments.
- In June, workers demonstrated under the leadership of the Communist parties of the Baltic countries.
- The fascist governments were overthrown, and workers' governments formed.
- In July 1940, elections for Baltic parliaments were held.
- The "Working People's Unions", created by the Communist parties, received the majority of the votes.<ref name="GSE">Great Soviet Encyclopedia</ref>
- The parliaments adopted declarations restoring Soviet powers in Baltic countries and proclaimed the Soviet Socialist Republics. Declarations of Estonia's, Latvia's, and Lithuania's wishes to join the USSR were adopted and the Supreme Soviet of the USSR was petitioned accordingly.
- The requests were approved by the Supreme Soviet of the USSR.
The Stalin-edited Falsifiers of History, published in 1948, says the June 1940 invasions were needed because "[p]acts had been concluded with the Baltic States, but there were as yet no Soviet troops there capable of holding the defences".<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> It also states regarding those invasions that "[o]nly enemies of democracy or people who had lost their senses could describe those actions of the Soviet Government as aggression".<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
In the reassessment of Soviet history during perestroika, the USSR condemned the 1939 secret protocol between itself and Germany that led to the invasion and occupations in the Baltic countries.<ref name=guardian />
Russian historiography in the post-Soviet era
During the Soviet era, there was relatively little interest in the history of the Baltic states, which historians generally treated as a single entity due to the uniformity of Soviet policy in these territories.
Since the fall of the Soviet Union, two general camps have evolved in Russian historiography. One, the liberal-democratic (либерально-демократическое), condemns Stalin's actions and the Molotov–Ribbentrop pact and does not consider the Baltic states as having joined the USSR voluntarily. The other, the national-patriotic (национально-патриотическое), contends that the Molotov–Ribbentrop pact was necessary to the security of the Soviet Union, that the Baltics' joining the USSR was the will of the proletariat—both in line with the politics of the Soviet period, "the 'need to ensure the security of the USSR', 'people's revolution' and 'joining voluntarily'"—and that supporters of Baltic independence were the operatives of western intelligence agencies seeking to topple the USSR.<ref name="Sokolov">cf. e.g. Boris Sokolov's article offering an overview Эстония и Прибалтика в составе СССР (1940–1991) в российской историографии Template:Webarchive (Estonia and the Baltic countries in the USSR (1940–1991) in Russian historiography). Accessed 30 January 2011.</ref>
Soviet-Russian historian Template:Ill argues that Stalin's ultimatums of 1940 were defensive measures taken against the German threat and had no connection with the 'socialist revolutions' in the Baltic states.<ref>According to Sīpols, "in mid-July 1940 elections took place [...]. In that way, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, that had been grabbed away from Russia as a result of foreign military intervention, joined her again, by the will of those peoples." – Сиполс В. Тайны дипломатические. Канун Великой Отечественной 1939–1941. Москва 1997. c. 242.</ref> The arguments that the USSR had to annex the Baltic states in order to defend the security of those countries and to avoid German invasion into the three republics can also be found in the college textbook "The Modern History of Fatherland".<ref>Новейшая история Отечества. XX век. Учебник для студентов вузов: в 2 т. /Под редакцией А.Ф. Киселева, Э.М. Щагина. М., 1998. c. 111</ref>
Sergey Chernichenko, a jurist and vice-president of the Russian Association of International Law, argues there was no declared state of war between the Baltic states and the Soviet Union in 1940, and that Soviet troops occupied the Baltic states with their agreement, and also that USSR violation of prior treaty provisions did not constitute occupation. Subsequent annexation was neither an act of aggression nor forcible and was completely legal according to international law as of 1940. Accusations of "deportation" of Baltic nationals by the Soviet Union are therefore baseless, he says, as individuals cannot be deported within their own country. He claims the Waffen-SS was being convicted at Nuremberg as a criminal organization and their commemoration in the "openly encouraged pro-Nazi" (откровенно поощряются пронацистские) Baltics as heroes seeking to liberate the Baltics from the Soviets) is an act of "nationalistic blindness" (националистическое ослепление). With regard to the current situation in the Baltics, Chernichenko contends the "theory of occupation" is the official thesis used to justify the "discrimination of Russian-speaking inhabitants" in Estonia and Latvia and prophesies the three Baltic governments will fail in their "attempt to rewrite history".<ref>С.В.Черниченко "Об "оккупации" Прибалтики и нарушении прав русскоязычного населения" – "Международная жизнь" (август 2004 года) – Template:Cite web</ref>
According to the revisionist historian Oleg Platonov, "from the point of view of the national interests of Russia, unification was historically just, as it returned to the composition of the state ancient Russian lands, albeit partially inhabited by other peoples". The Molotov–Ribbentrop pact and protocols, including the dismemberment of Poland, merely redressed the tearing away from Russia of its historical territories by "anti-Russian revolution" and "foreign intervention".<ref>Олег Платонов. История русского народа в XX веке. Том 2. Available at http://lib.ru/PLATONOWO/russ3.txt Template:Webarchive</ref>
On the other hand, Professor and Dean of the School of International Relations and Vice-Rector of Saint Petersburg State University, Konstantin K. Khudoley, views the 1940 annexation of the Baltic states as involuntary. He considers the elections were not free and fair and the decisions of the newly elected parliaments to join the Soviet Union cannot be considered legitimate as these decisions were not approved by the upper chambers of the parliaments of the respective Baltic states. He also contends that the annexation of the Baltic states had no military value in defence of possible German aggression, as it bolstered anti-Soviet public opinion in future allies Britain and the US and turned the native populations against the Soviet Union; the subsequent guerrilla movement in the Baltic states after the Second World War caused domestic problems for the Soviet Union.<ref name="autogenerated3">Khudoley (2008), Soviet foreign policy during the Cold War, The Baltic factor, pp. 56–73.</ref>
Position of the Russian Federation
With the advent of Perestroika and its reassessment of Soviet history, the Supreme Soviet of the USSR in 1989 condemned the 1939 secret protocol between Germany and the Soviet Union that had led to the division of Eastern Europe and the invasion and occupation of the three Baltic countries.Template:Citation needed
While this action did not state the Soviet presence in the Baltics was an occupation, the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic and Republic of Lithuania affirmed so in a subsequent agreement in the midst of the collapse of the Soviet Union. Russia, in the preamble of its 29 July 1991, "Treaty Between the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic and the Republic of Lithuania on the Basis for Relations between States", declared that once the USSR had eliminated the consequences of the 1940 annexation which violated Lithuania's sovereignty, Lithuania–Russia relations would further improve.<ref name="RussLithTreaty">Template:Cite web</ref>
However, Russia's current official position directly contradicts its earlier rapprochement with Lithuania<ref>Žalimas, Dainius. Legal and Political Issues on the Continuity of the Republic of Lithuania Retrieved January 24, 2008. Template:Webarchive</ref> as well as its signature of membership to the Council of Europe, where it agreed to the obligations and commitments including "iv. as regards the compensation for those persons deported from the occupied Baltic states and the descendants of deportees, as stated in Opinion No. 193 (1996), paragraph 7.xii, to settle these issues as quickly as possible....".<ref name="CoEoccupied">as described in Resolution 1455 (2005), Honouring of obligations and commitments by the Russian Federation Template:Webarchive, at the CoE Parliamentary site, retrieved December 6, 2009</ref><ref>Opinion No. 193 (1996) on Russia's request for membership of the Council of Europe Template:Webarchive, at the CoE Parliamentary site, retrieved December 6, 2009</ref> The Russian government and state officials maintain now that the Soviet annexation of the Baltic states was legitimate<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> and that the Soviet Union liberated the countries from the Nazis.<ref name="BDSD">Template:Cite news</ref> They assert that the Soviet troops initially entered the Baltic countries in 1940 following agreements and the consent of the Baltic governments. Their position is that the USSR was not in a state of war or engaged in combat activities on the territories of the three Baltic states, therefore, the word "occupation" cannot be used.<ref>The term "occupation" inapplicable Template:Webarchive Sergei Yastrzhembsky, May 2005.</ref> "The assertions about [the] 'occupation' by the Soviet Union and the related claims ignore all legal, historical and political realities, and are therefore utterly groundless".—Russian Foreign Ministry.
This particular Russian viewpoint is called the "Myth of 1939–40" by international affairs professor David Mendeloff,<ref>Template:Cite thesis</ref> who states that the assertion that Soviet Union neither "occupied" the Baltic states in 1939 nor "annexed" them the following year is widely held and deeply embedded in Russian historical consciousness.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Treaties affecting USSR–Baltic relations
The Baltic states proclaimed independence after the signing of the Armistice, and Bolshevik Russia invaded at the end of 1918.<ref>http://web.ku.edu/~eceurope/communistnationssince1917/ch2.html Template:Webarchive at University of Kansas, retrieved January 23, 2008</ref> Izvestia wrote in its 25 December 1918 issue: "Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania are directly on the road from Russia to Western Europe and therefore a hindrance to our revolutions... This separating wall has to be destroyed". Bolshevik Russia, however, did not gain control of the Baltic States, and in 1920, concluded peace treaties with all three of them. Subsequently, at the initiative of the Soviet Union,<ref>Prof. Dr. G. von Rauch "Die Baltischen Staaten und Sowjetrussland 1919–1939", Europa Archiv No. 17 (1954), p. 6865.</ref> additional non-aggression treaties were concluded with all three Baltic States:
- Peace treaties
- Non-aggression treaties
- Kellogg-Briand Pact and Litvinov's Pact
- The Convention for the Definition of Aggression
- The Pacts of Mutual Assistance
- Treaties the USSR signed between 1940 and 1945
Timeline
See also
- Kersten Committee
- January 1991 events in the aftermath of the Act of the Re-Establishment of the State of Lithuania, resulting in deaths and injuries
- Museum of Occupations, Tallinn, a project by the Kistler-Ritso Estonian Foundation
- Occupations of Latvia
- Population transfer in the Soviet Union
- Russia involvement in regime change
- State continuity of the Baltic states
- Territorial changes of the Baltic states
- United States resolution on the 90th anniversary of the Latvian Republic
- Welles Declaration
Notes
References
Bibliography
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Further reading
- Aliide Naylor, The Shadow in the East
- Template:Cite book
- Regarding the Procedure for carrying out the Deportation of Anti-Soviet Elements from Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia. Template:Webarchive – Full text, English
- The Global Museum on Communism about the occupation of Estonia by the Soviet Union.
- The Occupation museum of Latvia
- GULAG 113 – Canadian film about Estonians mobilized into the Red Army 1941 and forced into labour in the GULAG
- Soviet Aggression Against the Baltic States Template:Webarchive by (Latvian Supreme Court justice) Augusts Rumpeters — Short and thoroughly annotated dissertation on Soviet-Baltic treaties and relations. 1974. Full text
- Yaacov Falkov, "Between the Nazi Hammer and the Soviet Anvil: The Untold Story of the Red Guerrillas in the Baltic Region, 1941–1945", in Chris Murray (ed.), Unknown Conflicts of the Second World War: Forgotten Fronts (London: Routledge, 2019), pp. 96–119, Template:ISBN
- Situation in Soviet occupied Estonia in 1955–1956. Manivald Räästas, Eduard Õun. 1956.
Academic and media articles
- Mälksoo, Lauri (2000). Professor Uluots, the Estonian Government in Exile and the Continuity of the Republic of Estonia in International Law. Nordic Journal of International Law 69.3, 289–316.
- Non-Recognition in the Courts: The Ships of the Baltic Republics by Herbert W. Briggs. In The American Journal of International Law Vol. 37, No. 4 (Oct., 1943), pp. 585–596.
- Alfred Erich Senn What Happened in Lithuania in 1940?(PDF)
- The Soviet Occupation of the Baltic States, by Irina Saburova. In Russian Review, 1955
- The Steel Curtain, Time Magazine, 14 April 1947
- The Iron Heel, Time Magazine, 14 December 1953
External links
- A radio drama about the occupation is presented in "John Alma Johnny and Myra Template:Webarchive", a presentation from Destination Freedom
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- 1940s in Estonia
- 1940s in Latvia
- 1940s in Lithuania
- 1941 in Germany
- 1941 in the Soviet Union
- 1942 in the Soviet Union
- 1943 in the Soviet Union
- 1944 in the Soviet Union
- 1945 in the Soviet Union
- Germany–Soviet Union relations