Relevant events began regarding the Baltic states and the Soviet Union when, following Bolshevist Russia's conflict with the Baltic states—Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia—several peace treaties were signed with Russia and its successor, the Soviet Union. In the late 1920s and early 1930s, the Soviet Union and all three Baltic States further signed non-aggression treaties. The Soviet Union also confirmed that it would adhere to the Kellogg–Briand Pact with regard to its neighbors, including Estonia and Latvia, and entered into a convention defining "aggression" that included all three Baltic countries.
In 1939, the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany entered the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, which included secret protocols dividing eastern Europe into "spheres of influence", with Latvia and Estonia falling within the Soviets' sphere. A later amendment to the secret protocols placed Lithuania within the Soviets' sphere. In June 1940, the Soviet Union invaded the Baltic countries and annexed those countries as the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic, Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic and Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic. In 1941, as part of Operation Barbarossa, Germany invaded the Baltic countries, subsequently administered under Germany's Ostland until 1944. In 1944, the Soviet Union reoccupied the Baltic states from Nazi Germany.
The territories of Baltic states remained under Soviet control as Soviet Socialist Republics until 1991. A majority of Western world governments did not recognise the Soviet annexations of the Baltic states de jure, though some countries did recognize them de facto. In July 1989, following the dramatic events in East Germany, the Supreme Soviets of the Baltic countries stated their intention to restore full independence. In 1991, the Baltic countries reclaimed independence and restored their sovereignty upon the dissolution of the Soviet Union.
Russian Revolution and treaties affecting USSR–Baltic relations
Bolsheviks took power following the Russian Revolution of 1917. After the Baltic states proclaimed independence following the signing of the Armistice, Bolshevist Russia invaded at the end of 1918.http://web.ku.edu/~eceurope/communistnationssince1917/ch2.html at University of Kansas, retrieved January 23, 2008 Известия (Izvestia) published in its December 25, 1918 issue that "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." Bolshevist Russia, however, did not gain control of the Baltics and in 1920 concluded peace treaties with all three states.
Peace treaties Estonia, Treaty of Tartu on 2 February 1920League of Nations Treaty Series, Vol. XI, pp. 29–71. Lithuania, Soviet–Lithuanian Peace Treaty on 12 July 1920Recueil de traités conclus par la Lithuanie avec les pays étrangers, Vol. I, Kaunas, 1930, pp. 30-45. Latvia, Treaty of Riga on 11 August 1920League of Nations Treaty Series, 1920–21, No. 67, pp. 213–231.
In these treaties, Bolshevist Russia renounced "for eternity"the Peace Treaty with Estonia and Latvia, para. 2., Peace Treaty with Lithuania, para. 1. all sovereign rights over these three peoples and territories which formerly belonged to Russia. In 1922, the Russian SFSR, Ukraine SSR, Byelorussian SSR and Transcaucasian SFSR were officially merged as republics creating the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, or Soviet Union.Julian Towster. Political Power in the U.S.S.R., 1917-1947: The Theory and Structure of Government in the Soviet State Oxford Univ. Press, 1948. p. 106
Non-aggression treaties Subsequently, at the initiative of the Soviet Union,Prof. Dr. G. von Rauch "Die Baltischen Staaten und Sowjetrussland 1919-1939", Europa Archiv No. 17 (1954), p. 6865. additional non-aggression treaties were concluded with all three Baltic States: Lithuania, on September 28, 1926Recueil des traités conclus par la Lithuanie avec les pays étrangers, Vol. I, Kaunas, 1930, pp. 429–435. Latvia, on February 5, 1932League of Nations Treaty Series, 1934, No. 3408, pp. 123–125 and 127 Estonia, on May 4, 1932League of Nations Treaty Series, Vol. CXXXI, pp. 297–307.
The contracting parties undertook to refrain from acts of aggression against one another, and from any acts of violence directed against the territorial integrity and inviolability or the political independence of the other contracting party. Furthermore, they agreed to submit all disputes regardless of origin which could not be settled diplomatically to a formal conciliation in a joint committee.Arts. I and IV of the Non-Aggression Treaties with Latvia and Estonia, and Arts. III and V of the Non-Aggression Treaty with Lithuania.
Kellogg-Briand Pact and Litvinov's Pact On August 27, 1928, the Kellogg-Briand Pact renouncing war as an instrument of national policy was adopted by the United States, Germany, Belgium, France, Great Britain, India, Italy, Japan, Poland, and the Czechoslovak Republic. Following this adoption, the Soviet Union signed a protocol confirming adherence to the terms of the Pact with its neighbors: Estonia, Latvia, Poland, and Romania on February 9, 1929.League of Nations Treaty Series, 1929, No. 2028. (See also Litvinov's Pact). Lithuania declared its adherence to the pact and protocol soon thereafter, on April 5, 1929. In signing, the contracting parties agreed: to condemn war as a recourse to solving conflict and to renounce it as an instrument of policy, and that all conflicts and disputes be settled only by peaceful means.League of Nations Treaty Series, 1928, No. 2137.
With this confirmation of adherence to these protocols (while not yet having ratified the Pact) and associated filings of instruments of adherence to the Pact, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and the USSR (listed as Russia) became signatories to the Kellogg-Briand Pact itself the day it came into effect, on July 24, 1929.Kellogg-Briand Pact at Yale University
The Convention for the Definition of Aggression On July 3, 1933, for the first time in history, aggression was defined in a binding treaty signed at the Soviet Embassy in London by the USSR and among others, Baltic countries."Aggression Defined". Time. July 17, 1933.League of Nations Treaty Series, 1934, No. 3391. Article II defines forms of aggression "There shall be recognized as an aggressor that State which shall be the first to have committed one of the following actions: First—a declaration of war on another State. Second—invasion by armed forces of the territory of another State even without a declaration of war. Third—attack by its land, sea or air forces, even without declaration of war upon the territory, on the vessels or flying machines of another State. Fourth—a naval blockade of coasts or ports of another State. Fifth—support accorded armed bands which are organized on its territory and which shall have invaded the territory of another State; or refusal, in spite of the demand of the invaded State, to take on its own territory all steps in its power to deprive the bandits aforesaid of all aid or protection."
The Convention for the Definition of Aggression Article II then states that "no political, military, economic or other considerations may serve as an excuse or justification for the aggression referred to in Article II." And while the annex to Article III lists conceivable reasons for intervention in a neighboring state, it also stipulates that "the High Contracting Parties further agree to recognize that the present convention "can never legitimate any violations of International Law that may be implied in the circumstances comprised in the above list."
Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact and 1939 ultimatum
On August 24, 1939, the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany signed the Molotov–Ribbentrop pact, which contained a secret protocol dividing the states of Northern and Eastern Europe into German and Soviet "spheres of influence".Text of the Nazi–Soviet Non-Aggression Pact, executed August 23, 1939 Finland, Estonia and Latvia were assigned to the Soviet sphere. Lithuania would be in the German sphere of influence, although a second secret protocol agreed in September 1939 assigned majority of Lithuania to the USSR.Christie, Kenneth, Historical Injustice and Democratic Transition in Eastern Asia and Northern Europe: Ghosts at the Table of Democracy, RoutledgeCurzon, 2002,
Bowing to Soviet pressure, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania were given no choice but to sign a so-called Pact of defence and mutual assistance which permitted the Soviet Union to station troops in them.Wettig, Gerhard, Stalin and the Cold War in Europe, Rowman & Littlefield, Landham, Md, 2008, , page 20-21 These pacts affirmed the sovereign rights of the Baltic states. For example, the Pact of Mutual Assistance with Latvia (signed on October 5, 1939)League of Nations Treaties Series No. 4656/39, pp. 385-387. declares: "The enforcement of the present Pact may in no way impair the sovereign rights of the Contracting Parties, more especially with regard to their political structure, economic and social systems, and military measures."
1940 Soviet invasions and annexations
In mid-June 1940, when international attention was focused on the German invasion of France, Soviet NKVD troops raided border posts in Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia.Senn, Alfred Erich, Lithuania 1940 : revolution from above, Amsterdam, New York, Rodopi, 2007 State administrations were liquidated and replaced by Soviet cadres, Elections were held with single pro-Soviet candidates listed for many positions, with resulting peoples assemblies immediately requested admission into the USSR, which was granted by the Soviet Union.
1941–1944 German invasions and occupations
Germany invaded and occupied the territories of Baltic states in 1941 during Operation Barbarossa. At the beginning the Lithuanians, Latvians and Estonians hoped that the Germans would reestablish Baltic independence. Such political hopes soon evaporated and Baltic cooperation became less forthright or ceased altogether.Baltic states German occupation at Encyclopædia Britannica From 1941 to 1944, following Operation Barbarossa, the Baltic countries were a part of Germany's Ostland.
In September 1941, the Soviet Union joined the Atlantic CharterB. Meissner, Die Sowjetunion, die Baltischen Staaten und das Volkerrecht, 1956, pp. 119-120 which affirmed, among other things, the "desire to see no territorial changes that do not accord with the freely expressed wishes of the peoples concerned" and to "respect the rights of all peoples to choose the form of government under which they will live; and they wish to see sovereign rights and self-government restored to those who have been forcibly deprived of them. ..."Louis L. Snyder, Fifty Major Documents of the Twentieth Century, 1955, p. 92.
1944 Soviet invasions and occupations
The Soviet Union reoccupied the Baltic states as part of the Baltic Offensive in 1944. In 1945, the Soviet Union signed the Yalta Declaration declaring for the reestablishment of order in Europe according to the principle of the Atlantic Charter "the right of all peoples to choose the form of government under which they will live, the restoration of sovereign rights and self-government to those peoples who have been forcibly deprived of them by the aggressor nations." The Yalta declaration further states that "to foster the conditions in which the liberated peoples may exercise these rights, the three governments will join ... among others to facilitate where necessary the holding of free elections."Foreign Relations of the United States, The Conference at Malta and Yalta, Washington, 1955, p. 977.