Occupation of the Baltic states

Occupation of the Baltic states
Part of World War II and the Cold War
A protest sign from the 1970s calling on the United Nations to abolish Soviet colonialism in the Baltic states
Date15 June 1940 – 6 September 1991 (1940-06-15 – 1991-09-06)
Military presence: 28 September 1939 – 31 August 1994 (1939-09-28 – 1994-08-31)
LocationEstonia, Latvia, and Lithuania
Participants Estonia
 Latvia
 Lithuania
 Soviet Union[a]
 Nazi Germany[b]
Outcome
Part of a series on the
Occupation of the
Baltic states
Background
Soviet occupation in 1940
German occupation
Estonia
Latvia
Lithuania
Soviet re-occupation in 1944
Under Soviet rule
State continuity
Aftermath

The occupation of the Baltic states was a period of annexation of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania begun by the Soviet Union in 1940, continued for three years by Nazi Germany after it invaded the Soviet Union in 1941, and finally resumed by the Soviet Union until its dissolution in 1991.

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.[1][2] 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.[3][4] 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.[5]

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.[6][7] 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,[8][9][10][11][12][13] the Soviet Union never acknowledged that they were forcefully taken over.[14] The post-Soviet government of Russia maintains the claim that the incorporations of Baltic states was in accordance with international law,[15][16] and school textbooks state that the Baltic states voluntarily joined the Soviet Union after home-grown popular socialist revolutions.[17] As most Western governments maintained that Baltic sovereignty had not been legitimately overridden,[18] 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.[19]

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.[20] The full withdrawal of troops deployed by Moscow ended in August 1994.[citation needed] 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.[21][22]


Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).

  1. ^ Taagepera, Rein (1993). Estonia: return to independence. Westview Press. p. 58. ISBN 978-0813311999.
  2. ^ Ziemele, Ineta (2003). "State Continuity, Succession and Responsibility: Reparations to the Baltic States and their Peoples?". Baltic Yearbook of International Law. 3. Martinus Nijhoff: 165–190. doi:10.1163/221158903x00072.
  3. ^ Kaplan, Robert B.; Baldauf, Richard B. Jr. (2008). Language Planning and Policy in Europe: The Baltic States, Ireland and Italy. Multilingual Matters. p. 79. ISBN 978-1847690289. Archived from the original on 10 February 2023. Retrieved 2 November 2020. Most Western countries had not recognised the incorporation of the Baltic States into the Soviet Union, a stance that irritated the Soviets without ever becoming a major point of conflict.
  4. ^ Kavass, Igor I. (1972). Baltic States. W. S. Hein. ISBN 978-0930342418. Archived from the original on 10 February 2023. Retrieved 9 September 2020. The forcible military occupation and subsequent annexation of the Baltic States by the Soviet Union remains to this day (written in 1972) one of the serious unsolved issues of international law
  5. ^ Davies, Norman (2001). Dear, Ian (ed.). The Oxford companion to World War II. Michael Richard Daniell Foot. Oxford University Press. p. 85. ISBN 978-0198604464.
  6. ^ "How Russian Disinformation Targets the Former Soviet Bloc Around WWII Anniversaries - CHACR". 6 July 2020.
  7. ^ Vardys, Vytas Stanley (Summer 1964). "Soviet Colonialism in the Baltic States: A Note on the Nature of Modern Colonialism". Lituanus. 10 (2). ISSN 0024-5089. Archived from the original on 9 November 2021. Retrieved 25 February 2023.
  8. ^ Cite error: The named reference OPL was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  9. ^ Cite error: The named reference estemb was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  10. ^ Cite error: The named reference europarl.europa.eu was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  11. ^ Cite error: The named reference ReferenceA was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  12. ^ Cite error: The named reference DE was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  13. ^ Cite error: The named reference malksoo was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  14. ^ Cite error: The named reference Marek1968 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  15. ^ Combs, Dick (2008). Inside The Soviet Alternate Universe. Penn State Press. pp. 258, 259. ISBN 978-0271033556. Archived from the original on 10 February 2023. Retrieved 9 September 2020. The Putin administration has stubbornly refused to admit the fact of Soviet occupation of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia following World War II, although Putin has acknowledged that in 1989, during Gorbachev's reign, the Soviet parliament officially denounced the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of 1939, which led to the forcible incorporation of the three Baltic states into the Soviet Union.
  16. ^ Bugajski, Janusz (2004). Cold peace. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 109. ISBN 0275983625. Archived from the original on 10 February 2023. Retrieved 9 September 2020. Russian officials persistently claim that the Baltic states entered the USSR voluntarily and legally at the close of World War II and failed to acknowledge that Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania were under Soviet occupation for fifty years.
  17. ^ Cole, Elizabeth A. (2007). Teaching the violent past: history education and reconciliation. Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 233–234. ISBN 978-0742551435.
  18. ^ Quiley, John (2001). "Baltic Russians: Entitled Inhabitants or Unlawful Settlers?". In Ginsburgs, George (ed.). International and national law in Russia and Eastern Europe [Volume 49 of Law in Eastern Europe]. Martinus Nijhoff Publishers. p. 327. ISBN 9041116540.
  19. ^ "Baltic article". The World & I. 2 (3). Washington Times Corp: 692. 1987.
    • Shtromas, Alexander; Faulkner, Robert K.; Mahoney, Daniel J. (2003). "Soviet Conquest of the Baltic states". Totalitarianism and the prospects for world order: closing the door on the twentieth century. Applications of political theory. Lexington Books. p. 263. ISBN 978-0739105337.
  20. ^ "Suing Gorbachev 31 years after the USSR's collapse, a group of Lithuanians sought to hold its last leader to account".
  21. ^ The Weekly Crier (1999/10) Archived 2013-06-01 at the Wayback Machine Baltics Worldwide. Accessed 11 June 2013.
  22. ^ "Russia Pulls Last Troops Out of Baltics" The Moscow Times. 22 October 1999.