TheBaltic states[a] or theBaltic countries is a geopolitical term encompassingEstonia,Latvia, andLithuania. All three countries are members ofNATO, theEuropean Union, theEurozone, and theOECD. The threesovereign states on the eastern coast of theBaltic Sea are sometimes referred to as the "Baltic nations", less often and in historical circumstances also as the "Baltic republics", the "Baltic lands", or simply theBaltics.[1]
All three Baltic countries are classified ashigh-income economies by theWorld Bank and maintain a very highHuman Development Index.[2] The three governments engage in intergovernmental and parliamentary cooperation. There is also frequent cooperation in foreign and security policy, defence, energy, and transportation.[3]
The termBaltic stems from the name of theBaltic Sea – ahydronym dating back to at least 3rd century B.C. (whenEratosthenes mentionedBaltia in anAncient Greek text) and possibly earlier.[4] There are several theories about its origin, most of which trace it to the reconstructedProto-Indo-European root*bhel[5] meaning 'white, fair'. This meaning is retained in the two modernBaltic languages, wherebaltas in Lithuanian andbalts in Latvian mean "white".[6] However, the modern names of the region and the sea that originate from this root, were not used in either of the two languages prior to the 19th century.[7][needs update]
Since theMiddle Ages, the Baltic Sea has appeared on maps inGermanic languages as the equivalent of 'East Sea': German:Ostsee,Danish:Østersøen,Dutch:Oostzee,Swedish:Östersjön, etc. Indeed, the sea lies mostly to the east ofGermany,Denmark,Norway, andSweden. The term was also used historically to refer to the overseas provinces of Sweden (Swedish:Östersjöprovinserna) and, subsequently, theBaltic governorates of theRussian Empire (Russian:Остзейские губернии,romanized: Ostzejskie gubernii).[7] Terms related to modern nameBaltic appear in ancient texts, but had fallen into disuse until reappearing as the adjectiveBaltisch in German, from which it was adopted in other languages.[8] During the 19th century,Baltic started to supersedeOstsee as the name for the region. This change was a result of theBaltic German elite adopting terms derived fromBaltisch to refer to themselves.[8][9] Its Russian derivativePribaltiyskiy (Прибалтийский) was first used in 1859.[7]
The termBaltic countries orBaltic Sea countries has also sometimes been used in the context of countries neighbouring the Baltic Sea, theBaltic Region, including prior to 20th century.[10][11] AfterWorld War I, the new sovereign states that emerged on the east coast of the Baltic Sea – Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, andFinland – became known as theBaltic states.[8][12] SinceWorld War II, the term has been used to group the three countries Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.
Estonians and Latvians managed to preserve their language and culture despite the invasions and centuries of foreign rule. The formation of the Lithuanian nation was made difficult due to repression by the Russian imperial authorities after the suppresseduprising of 1830–1831 and theuprising of 1863–1864. In the 19th century the nationalist movements ofEstonians,Latvians andLithuanians gained new momentum. Although the historical, economic and cultural development of the peoples in the three countries had been different, the respective Estonian, Latvian, and Lithuanian national identities were formed by the end of the 19th century. Some ideas of unity between Finns and Estonians, as well as between Latvians and Lithuanians started to spread in the 19th century.[13]
According to the 1939Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, "the Baltic states (Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania)" were divided into German and Soviet "spheres of influence" (German copy).Geopolitical status in Northern Europe in November 1939:[14][15]
Neutral countries
Germany and annexed countries
Soviet Union and annexed countries
Neutral countries with military bases established by Soviet Union in October 1939
During theinterwar period the three countries as well as Finland and Poland were sometimes collectively referred to aslimitrophe states (from French language), as they together formed a "rim" along the western border of Soviet Russia and the Soviet Union. They were also part of whatGeorges Clemenceau considered a strategiccordon sanitaire, the entire territory from Finland in the north toRomania in the south, between Western and Central Europe and potential Bolshevik territorial ambitions.[16][17]
All three Baltic countries experienced a period of general stability and rapid economic growth of the period (even if brief), some commenters avoid the label "authoritarian"; others, however, condemn such an "apologetic" attitude, for example inlater assessments of Kārlis Ulmanis.[citation needed]
In accordance with a secret protocol within theMolotov–Ribbentrop Pact of 1939 that divided Europe into German and Sovietspheres of influence, the Soviet armyinvaded eastern Poland in September 1939, and theStalinist Soviet government coerced Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania into "mutual assistance treaties" which granted USSR the right to establish military bases in these countries. In June 1940, the Soviet army invaded andoccupied the entire territory of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, and installed new, pro-Sovietpuppet governments. In all three countries simultaneously, rigged elections (in which only pro-Stalin candidates were allowed to run) were staged in July 1940, the newly assembled parliaments in each of the three countries then unanimously applied to join the Soviet Union, and in August 1940 were incorporated into the USSR as theEstonian SSR,Latvian SSR, andLithuanian SSR.
The June 1940 Soviet invasion of the Baltics was immediately followed by mass repressions, including arrests, executions, andmass deportations by the new Soviet totalitarian regime.[18][19] The Stalinist central government in Moscow attempted toSovietize its occupied territories. Between 1940 and 1953, the Soviet central government deported more than 200,000 people from the Baltics to remote locations in the Soviet Union. In addition, at least 75,000 were sent toGulags. About 10% of the adult Baltic population was deported or sent to labor camps.[20] (SeeJune deportation,Soviet deportations from Estonia,Sovietization of the Baltic states)
The Soviet occupation of the Baltic countries was interrupted byNazi German invasion of the region in 1941. Initially, many Estonians, Latvians, and Lithuanians considered the German army as liberators, while having hoped for the restoration of each of the three countries' independence, but instead the Nazi German invaders established a civil administration, known as theReichskommissariat Ostland.[citation needed] During the occupation the Nazi authorities carried outghettoisations and mass killings of the Jewish populations in Lithuania and Latvia.[21] Over 190,000Lithuanian Jews, nearly 95% of Lithuania's pre-war Jewish community, and 66,000Latvian Jews were murdered. The German occupation lasted until late 1944 (inCourland, until early 1945), when the countries were reoccupied by the Red Army and Soviet rule was re-established, with the passive agreement of theUnited States andBritain (seeYalta Conference andPotsdam Agreement).
The forced collectivization of agriculture began in 1947, and was completed after the mass deportation in March 1949 (seeOperation Priboi). Private farms were confiscated, and farmers were forced to join the collective farms. In all three countries,partisans, known colloquially as theForest Brothers,Latvian national partisans, andLithuanian partisans, waged unsuccessful guerrilla warfare against the Soviet occupation for the next eight years in a bid to regain their nations' independence. The armed resistance of the anti-Soviet partisans lasted up to 1953. Although the armed resistance was defeated, the majority of the population remained anti-Soviet.
Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia were considered to be underSoviet occupation by the United States, the United Kingdom,[22] Canada, theEuropean Parliament,[23]NATO, and many other countries and international organizations.[24] During the Cold War, Lithuania and Latvia maintained legations in Washington DC, while Estonia had a mission in New York City. Each was staffed initially by diplomats from the last governments before USSR occupation.[25]
TheBaltic Way was a mass anti-Soviet demonstration in 1989 where c. 25% of the total population of the Baltic countries participated.
In the late 1980s, a massive campaign ofcivil resistance against Soviet rule, known as theSinging revolution, began. On 23 August 1989, theBaltic Way, a two-million-strong human chain, stretched for 600 km fromTallinn toVilnius. In the wake of this campaign,Mikhail Gorbachev's central government in Moscow had privately concluded that the departure of the Baltic republics had become "inevitable".[26] This process contributed to thedissolution of the Soviet Union, setting a precedent for the other Soviet republics to secede from the USSR. The Soviet Union recognized the independence of three Baltic states on 6 September 1991. Troops were withdrawn from the region (starting from Lithuania) from August 1993. The last Russian troops were withdrawn from there in August 1994.[citation needed]Skrunda-1, the last Russian military radar in the Baltics, officially suspended operations in August 1998.[27]
All three Baltic countries are todayliberal democracies, withunicameral parliaments elected by popular vote for four-year terms:Riigikogu in Estonia,Saeima in Latvia andSeimas in Lithuania. In Latvia and Estonia, the president is elected by parliament, while Lithuania has a semi-presidential system whereby the president is elected by popular vote. All are part of theEuropean Union (EU) and members of theNorth Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), being the onlypost-Soviet states to be so.
Each of the three countries has declared itself to be the restoration of the sovereign nation that had existed from 1918 to 1940, emphasizing their contention that the Soviet occupation of the Baltic states during World War II and the followingCold War period had been an illegal occupation and annexation.
The same legal interpretation is shared by the United States, the United Kingdom, and most other Western democracies,[28] who held the forcible incorporation of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania into the Soviet Union to be illegal. At least formally, most Western democracies never considered the three Baltic states to be constituent parts of the Soviet Union. Australia was a brief exception to this support of Baltic independence: in 1974, theLabor government of Australia did recognize Soviet dominion, but this decision was reversed by the nextAustralian Parliament.[29] Other exceptions included Sweden, which was the first Western country, and one of the very few to ever do so, to recognize the incorporation of the Baltic states into the Soviet Union as lawful.[30]
After the Baltic states had restored their independence in August 1991, integration with Western Europe became a major strategic goal. In 2002, the Baltic governments applied to join the European Union and become members of NATO. All three became NATO members on 29 March 2004, and joined the EU on 1 May 2004.
During the Baltic struggle for independence 1989–1992, a personal friendship developed between the (at that time unrecognized) Baltic ministers of foreign affairs and the Nordic ministers of foreign affairs. This friendship led to the creation of theCouncil of the Baltic Sea States in 1992, and theEuroFaculty in 1993.[31]
Between 1994 and 2004, theBAFTA free trade agreement was established to help prepare the countries for their accession to the EU, rather than out of the Baltic states' desire to trade among themselves. The Baltic countries were more interested in gaining access to the rest of the European market.
Currently, the governments of the Baltic states cooperate in multiple ways, including cooperation among presidents, parliament speakers, heads of government, and foreign ministers. On 8 November 1991, theBaltic Assembly, which includes 15 to 20 MPs from each parliament, was established to facilitate inter-parliamentary cooperation. TheBaltic Council of Ministers was established on 13 June 1994 to facilitate intergovernmental cooperation. Since 2003, there is coordination between the two organizations.[32]
Compared with other regional groupings in Europe, such as theNordic Council orVisegrád Group, Baltic cooperation is rather limited. All three countries are also members of theNew Hanseatic League, an informal group of northern EU states formed to advocate a common fiscal position.
Economically, parallel with political changes and a transition to democracy – as a rule of law states – the nations' previous command economies were transformed via the legislation into market economies, and set up or renewed the major macroeconomic factors: budgetary rules, national audit, national currency and central bank. Generally, they shortly encountered the following problems: high inflation, high unemployment, low economic growth and high government debt. The inflation rate, in the examined area, relatively quickly dropped to below 5% by 2000. Meanwhile, these economies were stabilized, and in 2004all of them joined the European Union. New macroeconomic requirements have arisen for them; theMaastricht criteria became obligatory and later theStability and Growth Pact set stricter rules through national legislation by implementing the regulations and directives of the Sixpack, because the financial crisis was a shocking milestone.[33]
As a part of the EU from 2004, Baltic states must comply with the EU's regulations in energy, environmental and security spheres. One of the most important documents that the EU applied to improve the energy security stance of the Baltic states areEuropean Union climate and energy package, including the Climate and Energy Strategy 2020, that aims to reduce thegreenhouse emissions to 20%, increase the energy production from renewables for 20% in overall share and 20% energy efficiency development.[35]
The transition proceeded without outages, but recent incidents involving underwater cable disruptions[39][40][41] have underscored regional energy infrastructure vulnerabilities.[42]
Following desynchronisation, the Baltic states operated in "island mode", relying entirely on domestic electricity generation to balance their grids.[43]
Estonians areFinnic people, together with the nearbyFinns. TheLatvians andLithuanians, linguistically and culturally related to each other, areBalticIndo-European people. In Latvia exists a small community of Finnic people related to the Estonians, composed of only 250 people, known asLivonians, and they live in the so-calledLivonian Coast. The peoples in the Baltic states have together inhabited the eastern coast of theBaltic Sea for millennia, although not always peacefully in ancient times, over which period their populations, Estonian, Latvian, and Lithuanian, have remained remarkably stable within the approximate territorial boundaries of the current Baltic states. While separate peoples with their own customs and traditions, historical factors have introduced cultural similarities in and differences within them.
The populations of each Baltic country belong to several Christian denominations, a reflection of historical circumstances. Both Western and Eastern Christianity had been introduced by the end of the first millennium. The current divide betweenLutheranism to the north and Catholicism to the south is the remnant ofSwedish andPolish hegemony, respectively, withOrthodox Christianity remaining the dominant religion among Russian and other East Slavic minorities.
The Baltic states have historically been in many different spheres of influence, from Danish over Swedish andPolish–Lithuanian, to German (Hansa andHoly Roman Empire), and before independence in the Russian sphere of influence.
The Baltic states are inhabited by several ethnic minorities: in Latvia: 33.0% (including 25.4%Russian, 3.3%Belarusian, 2.2%Ukrainian, and 2.1%Polish),[44] in Estonia: 27.6% (including 22.0%Russian and 10.2% others)[45] and in Lithuania: 12.2% (including 5.6%Polish and 4.5%Russian).[46]
The Soviet Union conducted a policy of Russification by encouraging Russians and other Russian-speaking ethnic groups of the Soviet Union to settle in the Baltics. Today, ethnicRussian immigrants from the former Soviet Union and their descendants make up a sizable group particularly in Latvia (about one-quarter of the total population and close to one-half in the capital Riga) and Estonia (nearly one-quarter of the total population).[citation needed]
Because the three countries had been independent nations prior to theiroccupation by the Soviet Union, there was a strong feeling of national identity (often labeled "bourgeois nationalism" by theCommunist Party) and popular resentment towards the imposed Soviet rule in the three countries, in combination with Soviet cultural policy, which employed superficial multiculturalism (in order for the Soviet Union to appear as a multinational union based on the free will of its peoples) in limits allowed by the communist "internationalist" (but in effect pro-Russification) ideology and under tight control of the Communist Party (those of the Baltic nationals who crossed the line were called "bourgeois nationalists" and repressed). This let Estonians, Latvians and Lithuanians preserve a high degree of Europe-oriented national identity.[47] In Soviet times this made them appear as the "West" of the Soviet Union in the cultural and political sense, thus as close to emigration a Russian could get without leaving the USSR.
The languages of the three Baltic peoples belong to two distinct language families. TheLatvian andLithuanian languages belong to theIndo-Europeanlanguage family and are the only extant (widely recognized) members of theBaltic language group (or more specifically, Eastern Baltic subgroup of Baltic).Latgalian andSamogitian are considered either separate languages or dialects of Latvian and Lithuanian, respectively.
Apart from the indigenous languages, Low Saxon was the dominant language in Estonia and Latvia in academics, professional life, and upper society from the 13th century until World War I.Polish served a similar function in Lithuania. NumerousSwedish loanwords have made it into the Estonian language; it was under the Swedish rule that schools were established and education propagated in the 17th century. Swedish remains spoken in Estonia, particularly theEstonian Swedish dialect of theEstonian Swedes ofnorthern Estonia and the islands (though many fled to Sweden as the USSRinvaded andre-occupied Estonia in 1944). There is also significant proficiency in Finnish in Estonia owing to its linguistic relationship with Estonian and also widespread exposure to Finnish broadcasts during the Soviet era.
Russian was the most commonly studied foreign language at all levels of schooling during the period of Soviet rule in 1944–1991. Despite schooling available and administration conducted in local languages, Russian-speaking settlers were neither encouraged nor motivated to learn the official local languages, so knowledge of some Russian became a practical necessity in daily life in Russian-dominated urban areas. As a result, even to this day most of the three countries' middle age and senior population can understand and speak some Russian, especially people aged over 50 years who went to school during the Soviet rule.[citation needed] The question of assimilation, or integration, of the Russian-speaking immigrants is a major factor in current social and diplomatic affairs.[48]
Since the decline of Russian influence and integration into the European Union economy, English has become the most popular second language in the Baltic states. Although Russian is more widely spoken among older people the vast majority of young people are learning English instead with as many as 80 percent of young Lithuanians professing English proficiency, and similar trends in the other Baltic states.[49][50]
The Baltic States cover an area of 175,228 square kilometres (67,656 sq mi) (roughly twice the size ofmainland Portugal), with a population of 6,132,500 (2024).[51] Bordered by the Baltic Sea to the west and the north, they share borders with Russia, Belarus, and Poland. The Kaliningrad Oblast, formerly known as Königsberg in Germany, is landlocked between Lithuania and Poland and belongs to Russia.
The terrain of this region is relatively flat, punctuated by numerous lakes and ponds, particularly in the north, and hills in Lithuania.
^ The term "Balticum" is sometimes used to describe the region comprising the three states; see e.gThe Baltic Sea region: cultures, politics, societies. Uppsala: Baltic University Press. 2002. p. 32.ISBN978-91-973579-8-2.
^See, for instance, the position expressed byEuropean 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".European Parliament (13 January 1983)."Resolution on the situation in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania".Official Journal of the European Communities. C 42/78.
^See, for instance, the position expressed byEuropean 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".European Parliament (13 January 1983)."Resolution on the situation in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania".Official Journal of the European Communities. C 42/78.
^Kristensen, Gustav N. (2010).Born into a Dream : Eurofaculty and the Council of the Baltic Sea States. Berlin: BWV Berliner Wissenschafts-Verlag.ISBN978-3-8305-2548-6.OCLC721194688.
Clerc, Louis; Glover, Nikolas; Jordan, Paul, eds.Histories of Public Diplomacy and Nation Branding in the Nordic and Baltic Countries: Representing the Periphery (Leiden: Brill Nijhoff, 2015). 348 pp.ISBN978-90-04-30548-9. for an online book review seeonline review
Hiden, John; Patrick Salmon (1991).The Baltic Nations and Europe: Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania in the Twentieth Century. London: Longman.ISBN978-0-582-08246-5.
Hiden, John; Vahur Made; David J. Smith (2008).The Baltic Question during the Cold War. London: Routledge.ISBN978-0-415-56934-7.
Jacobsson, Bengt (2009).The European Union and the Baltic States: Changing forms of governance. London: Routledge.ISBN978-0-415-48276-9.
Kasekamp, Andres (2010).A History of the Baltic States. London: Palgrave Macmillan.ISBN978-0-230-01940-9.
Lane, Thomas; Artis Pabriks; Aldis Purs; David J. Smith (2013).The Baltic States: Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Routledge.ISBN978-1-136-48304-2.
Malowist, M. “The Economic and Social Development of the Baltic Countries from the Fifteenth to the Seventeenth Centuries.”Economic History Review 12#2 1959, pp. 177–189.online
Lehti, Marko; David J. Smith, eds. (2003).Post-Cold War Identity Politics – Northern and Baltic Experiences. London/Portland: Frank Cass Publishers.ISBN978-0-7146-8351-5.
Lieven, Anatol (1993).The Baltic Revolution: Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and the Path to Independence. New Haven: Yale University Press.ISBN978-0-300-05552-8.
Palmer, Alan.The Baltic: A new history of the region and its people (New York: Overlook Press, 2006; published in London with the title Northern shores: a history of the Baltic Sea and its peoples (John Murray, 2006))
Šleivyte, Janina (2010).Russia's European Agenda and the Baltic States. London: Routledge.ISBN978-0-415-55400-8.
Vilkauskaite, Dovile O. "From Empire to Independence: The Curious Case of the Baltic States 1917-1922." (thesis, University of Connecticut, 2013).online; Bibliography pp 70 – 75.
The Baltic Times, an independent weekly newspaper that covers the latest political, economic, business, and cultural events in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania
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