Occupation of the Baltic states
The three independent Baltic countries – Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania – were invaded and occupied in June 1940 by the Soviet Union, under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union in August 1939, immediately before the outbreak of World War II.[1][2] The three countries were annexed by the Soviet Union as "constituent republics" in August 1940. Most Western countries did not recognise this annexation, and considered it illegal.[3][4] On 22 June 1941, Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union and within weeks occupied the Baltic territories. In July 1941, the Third Reich incorporated the Baltic territories into its Reichskommissariat Ostland. As a result of the Red Army 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.[5]
Date
15 June 1940 – 6 September 1991
Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania
- Soviet occupation and annexation of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania (1940)
- German occupation and incorporation of the Baltic countries into the Reichskomissariat Ostland (1941)
- Soviet re-occupation (1944)
- Restoration of Baltic countries' independence during the Singing Revolution (1990–91)
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.[6] David Chioni Moore classified it as a "reverse cultural colonization", where the colonized perceived the colonizers as culturally inferior.[7] Colonization of the three Baltic countries included mass executions, deportations and repression of the native population. 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 and economic migrants.[8]
The Baltic states' governments themselves,[9][10] the United States[11][12] and its courts of law,[13] the European Parliament,[14][15][16] the European Court of Human Rights[17] and the United Nations Human Rights Council[18] have all stated that these three countries were invaded, occupied and illegally incorporated into the Soviet Union under provisions[19] of the 1939 Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact. There followed occupation by Nazi Germany from 1941 to 1944 and then again occupation by the Soviet Union from 1944 to 1991.[20][21][22][23][24] 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.[25][26][27]
However, the Soviet Union never formally acknowledged that its presence in the Baltics was an occupation or that it had annexed these states[28] 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".[29]
Historically revisionist[30] Russian historiography and school textbooks continue to maintain that the Baltic states voluntarily joined the Soviet Union after their each of their peoples carried out socialist revolutions independent of Soviet influence.[31] The post-Soviet government of Russia and its state officials insist that incorporation of the Baltic states was in accordance with international law[32] and gained de jure recognition by the agreements made in the February 1945 Yalta and the July–August 1945 Potsdam conferences and by the 1975 Helsinki Accords,[33][34] which declared the inviolability of existing frontiers.[35] However, Russia agreed to Europe's demand to "assist persons deported from the occupied Baltic states" upon joining the Council of Europe in 1996.[36][37][38] 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.[39][40]
Most Western governments maintained that Baltic sovereignty had not been legitimately overridden[41] and thus continued to recognise the Baltic states as sovereign political entities represented by the legations appointed by the pre-1940 Baltic states, which functioned in Washington and elsewhere.[42] 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.[43] The full withdrawal of troops deployed by Moscow ended in August 1994.[44] 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.[45][46]
The Baltic states proclaimed independence after the signing of the Armistice, and Bolshevik Russia invaded at the end of 1918.[147] 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,[148] additional non-aggression treaties were concluded with all three Baltic States: