The Baltic nations and Europe: Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania in the twentieth century
ENEstonia, Latvia and Lithuania lost their independence in 1940. For half a century the prospects of their regaining it looked remote. Even when, in 1989, they publicly commemorated the anniversary of the notorious Nazi-Soviet Pact (1939) few predicted that within two years the three republics would have recovered their statehood. Perestroika and Glasnost provide part of the explanation, but the drive to win freedom from Soviet control came exclusively from the Baltic peoples themselves. For the Baltic peoples such a daunting task was nothing new. Their struggle was sustained by their history. The Baltic 'reawakening' consciously echoed the national awakening of the nineteenth century; unlike the other Soviet nationalities the three republics drew on the achievements of twenty years of independent statehood between the First and Second World Wars; they took comfort too from the preservation of their national identities through fifty years of Soviet rule. Historians cannot help being struck by the extraordinary parallels between the present and past predicaments of the Baltic peoples. The independent Baltic states face challenges very similar to those their predecessors faced in the ruins of the tsarist empire. No understanding of the current situation in the Baltic republics is possible without a knowledge of their history. On this conviction is founded our decision to write the book and the form it has finally taken. In the first section we have attempted to convey something of the diversity of Baltic history from the middle ages to the end of the First World War. Such a perspective demonstrates the tenacity with which the Estonians, Latvians and Lithuanians have held on to their small corner of Europe. It also underlines the fact that throughout their history the Baltic peoples have had to share their lands with other races, some of whom dominated them for centuries.Without this background, no reader will appreciate the way in which national identities were forged and preserved even under the rule of others. In 1918 the collapse of Russia and Germany gave the Baltic peoples the opportunity to seize control oftheir own destinies. 'Seize' is the operative word. The mere collapse of the great European empires was not a sufficient condition for Baltic statehood. The work of state building lay ahead, under the most adverse conditions. The second section of our book is therefore devoted to the period of Baltic independence. We try to show first that the societies constructed in the Baltic republics, though not perfect, were as viable as almost any other- and more than many- in the interwar period. Unlike some, the Baltic republics were not brought down by internal collapse abut were destroyed by the actions of outsiders. The international environment after 1918 was of paramount importance for the independent Baltic republics. This justifies the large amount ofspace devoted to it in the book. The Baltic perspective on international relations between the wars is an unfamiliar one. The in sights to be gained from exploring it are all the more valuable. Import ant clues are provided to the way in which 'small states' have to operate in the international system. Although it is easy to assume that the lesser powers are merely passive members of the international community, closer examination of the Baltic reveals a more complex picture. It is more helpful to think of interaction between the Baltic states and the major European powers. The elimination even of a small state leaves the international system more vulnerable. It generates destabilising effects on the other members of the system, who are made more fearful by it. More unexpectedly, perhaps, the brutal treatment of weaker states has a habit of rebounding on the perpetrators.Nothing demonstrated the force of this argument more clearly than the extraordinary reverberations, in 1989, ofthe Nazi-Soviet pact of 1939. An unforgettable history lesson was dispensed by those citizens who joined hands to form a human chain stretching across the territories of the three Baltic republics on 23 August, the anniversary of the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact. Between the insecurities of the interwar period and the hopeful prospects of today lie some fifty of the bleakest years ever experienced by the Baltic peoples. In the third section of the book the focus is on sheer survival. The catastrophes of war and occupation by both the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany were followed by decades of sovietisation from which there seemed until recently to be no escape. This was not compensated by the modernisation pushed through under Soviet auspices, even though the Baltic republics were among the most prosperous in the Soviet Union. The problem was that Soviet-style economic growth wrought profound demographic, social and environmental damage in Baltic society. Pollution provided in the end a crucial stimulus to the political re-awakening ofthe Baltic republics. In the final section of the book we undertake the difficult task of analysing events since the mid-1980s. We have been impressed once again by the way in which history provides clues to the present day. In a real sense, however, this section can never be finished. At the time of writing (March 1994) the Baltic republics are engaged in the rebuilding of their societies and becoming recognised members of the international community. Meanwhile, the former Soviet Union has yet to escape from its deepening economic, social and political crises. [...] [p. 1-3].
