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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. [24] After the Baltic states had restored their independence, integration with Western Europe became a major strategic goal. In 2002, the Baltic ...
The four countries on the Baltic Sea that were formerly parts of the Russian Empire – Finland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania – consolidated their borders and independence after the Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian independence wars following the end of World War I by 1920 (see Treaty of Tartu, Latvian-Soviet Riga Peace Treaty and Soviet-Lithuanian Treaty of 1920).
The Bolsheviks could not prevent the independence of the Baltic states, but the West had to be persuaded to accept it. By 1921 Lithuania, and by 1922 Estonia and Latvia, all obtained de jure international recognition. [6]
The three Baltic states – Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania – were re-occupied in 1944–1945 by the Soviet Union (USSR) following the German occupation. The Baltic states regained independence in 1990–1991. In 1944–1945, World War II and the occupation by Nazi Germany ended.
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. [20]
Territorial changes of the Baltic states refers to the redrawing of borders of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia after 1940. The three republics, formerly autonomous regions within the former Russian Empire and before that of former Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and as provinces of the Swedish Empire, gained independence in the aftermath of World War I and the Russian Revolution of 1917.
The Baltic states experienced territorial changes under Soviet rule. At the end of the 1980s, as the influence of the Soviet Union decreased, peaceful demonstrations known as the Singing Revolution in the Baltic states ultimately led to their independence.
Welles Declaration, July 23, 1940 The Baltic states today. The Welles Declaration was a diplomatic statement issued on July 23, 1940, by Sumner Welles, the acting US Secretary of State, condemning the June 1940 occupation by the Soviet army of the three Baltic countries – Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania – and refusing to diplomatically recognize their subsequent annexation into the Soviet ...