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independence the international boundaries of estonia latvia and lithuania in 1935 as world war i came to a close lithuania declared independence and latvia formed a provisional government estonia had already obtained autonomy from russia after the 1917 february revolution and declared independence in february 1918 but was subsequently occupied by the german empire until november 1918 estonia fought a successful war of independence against soviet russia in 1918 1920 latvia and lithuania followed a similar process until the completion of the latvian war of independence and lithuanian wars of independence in 1920 according to the 1939 molotov 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 15 16 neutral countries germany and annexed countries soviet union and annexed countries neutral countries with military bases established by soviet union in october 1939 during the interwar period the three countries as well as finland and poland were sometimes collectively referred to as limitrophe 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 what georges clemenceau considered a strategic cordon sanitaire the entire territory from finland in the north to romania in the south between western and central europe and potential bolshevik territorial ambitions 17 18 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 in later assessments of kārlis ulmanis citation needed soviet and german occupations 1940 1991 edit see also state continuity of the baltic states german occupation of lithuania during world war ii german occupation of latvia during world war ii and german occupation of estonia during world war ii memorial plaque to the baltic victims of the soviets strasbourg main building of the european parliament in accordance with a secret protocol within the molotov ribbentrop pact of 1939 that divided europe into german and soviet spheres of influence the soviet army invaded eastern poland in september 1939 and the stalinist 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 and occupied the entire territory of estonia latvia and lithuania and installed new pro soviet puppet 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 the estonian ssr latvian ssr and lithuanian ssr the june 1940 soviet invasion of the baltics was immediately followed by mass repressions including arrests executions and mass deportations by the new soviet totalitarian regime 19 20 the stalinist central government in moscow attempted to sovietize 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 to gulags about 10 of the adult baltic population was deported or sent to labor camps 21 see june deportation soviet deportations from estonia sovietization of the baltic states the soviet occupation of the baltic countries was interrupted by nazi 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 the reichskommissariat ostland citation needed during the occupation the nazi authorities carried out ghettoisations and mass killings of the jewish populations in lithuania and latvia 22 over 190 000 lithuanian jews nearly 95 of lithuania s pre war jewish community and 66 000 latvian jews were murdered the german occupation lasted until late 1944 in courland until early 1945 when the countries were reoccupied by the red army and soviet rule was re established with the passive agreement of the united states and britain see yalta conference and potsdam agreement the forced collectivization of agriculture began in 1947 and was completed after the mass deportation in march 1949 see operation priboi private farms were confiscated and farmers were forced to join the collective farms in all three countries partisans known colloquially as the forest brothers latvian national partisans and lithuanian 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 under soviet occupation by the united states the united kingdom 23 canada the european parliament 24 nato and many other countries and international organizations 25 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 26 restoration of independence edit the baltic 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 of civil resistance against soviet rule known as the singing revolution began on 23 august 1989 the baltic way a two million strong human chain stretched for 600 km from tallinn to vilnius 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 27 this process contributed to the dissolution 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 28 21st century edit all three baltic countries are today liberal democracies with unicameral parliaments elected by popular vote for four year terms riigikogu in estonia saeima in latvia and seimas 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 the european union eu and members of the north atlantic treaty organization nato being the only post 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 following cold 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 29 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 the labor government of australia did recognize soviet dominion but this decision was reversed by the next australian parliament 30 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 31 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 regional cooperation edit baltic defence college serves as a centre of strategic and operational research and provides professional military education to intermediate and senior level officers and government officials 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 the council of the baltic sea states in 1992 and the eurofaculty in 1993 32 between 1994 and 2004 the bafta 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 the baltic assembly which includes 15 to 20 mps from each parliament was established to facilitate inter parliamentary cooperation the baltic council of ministers was established on 13 june 1994 to facilitate intergovernmental cooperation since 2003 there is coordination between the two organizations 33 compared with other regional groupings in europe such as the nordic council or visegrád group baltic cooperation is rather limited all three countries are also members of the new hanseatic league an informal group of northern eu states formed to advocate a common fiscal position economies edit see also list of regions of baltic states by gdp baltic regions by gdp per capita 2022 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 2004 all of them joined the european union new macroeconomic requirements have arisen for them the maastricht criteria became obligatory and later the stability 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 34 economic activity in the baltic states is highly concentrated in the metropolitan areas of the capital cities which account for a disproportionately large share of national gdp compared to other regions 35 all three countries are member states of the european union and the eurozone they are classified as high income economies by the world bank and maintain high human development index estonia latvia and lithuania are also members of the oecd 2 estonia adopted the euro currency in january 2011 latvia in january 2014 and lithuania in january 2015 36 downtown vilnius downtown tallinn energy security edit this section needs to be updated please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information february 2025 klaipėda lng terminal can supply gas for all three baltic countries 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 are european union climate and energy package including the climate and energy strategy 2020 that aims to reduce the greenhouse emissions to 20 increase the energy production from renewables for 20 in overall share and 20 energy efficiency development 37 in light of the russian invasion of ukraine in 2022 and russia s weaponization of energy supplies the baltic states were among the best equipped countries in central and eastern europe to deal with the energy crisis this was because ever since the early 1990s the baltic states were investing in alternative and non russian energy supply routes these included the development of the būtingė oil terminal electricity interconnections with sweden nordbalt finland estlink and poland litpol link the klaipėda lng terminal gas interconnection poland lithuania and the inčukalns underground gas storage facility all of these and other infrastructure projects allowed the baltic states to quickly shift away from russian energy supplies 38 in february 2025 the three baltic states disconnected from the ips ups electricity grid and successfully completed the synchronization with cesa 39 40 they now operate in island mode relying entirely on domestic electricity generation to balance their grids 41 the transition proceeded without outages but recent incidents involving underwater cable disruptions 42 43 44 have underscored regional energy infrastructure vulnerabilities 45 culture edit st olaf s church in tallinn estonia ethnic groups edit language branches in northern europe north germanic faroe islands iceland and scandinavia finnic finland estonia baltic latvia lithuania estonians are finnic people together with the nearby finns 46 the latvians and lithuanians linguistically and culturally related to each other are baltic indo european people in latvia exists a small community of finnic people related to the estonians composed of only 250 people known as livonians and they live in the so called livonian coast the peoples in the baltic states have together inhabited the eastern coast of the baltic 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 between l...