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The Soviet Union (USSR) occupied most of the territory of the Baltic states in its 1944 Baltic Offensive during World War II. [1] The Red Army regained control over the three Baltic capitals and encircled retreating Wehrmacht and Latvian forces in the Courland Pocket where they held out until the final German surrender at the end of the war.
The Baltic States maintain that the occupations during the war and the Soviet occupation after it had significant demographic, social and economic consequences, causing huge damage in all spheres, including the damage to the environment. [92] [93] [94] All three countries suffered depopulation and repression. It is estimated that during the ...
The Baltic states regained independence in 1990–1991. In 1944–1945, World War II and the occupation by Nazi Germany ended. Then, re-occupation and annexation by the Soviet Union occurred, as the three countries became constituent "union republics" of the USSR: Estonian SSR , Latvian SSR and Lithuanian SSR .
Wartime collaboration occurred in every country occupied by Nazi Germany during the Second World War, including the Baltic states.The three Baltic republics of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, were occupied by the Soviet Union in the summer of 1940, and were later occupied by Germany in the summer of 1941 and then incorporated, together with parts of the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic of ...
In 1939, the British and French tried to arrange a "guarantee" of the Baltic states to the Soviet Union. The Baltic states would have preferred to remain neutral, but the only security systems on offer were German or Soviet. [27] In June 1939, Estonia and Latvia yielded to German pressure and signed non-aggression pacts. [28]
The Sovietization of the Baltic states is the sovietization of all spheres of life in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania when they were under control of the Soviet Union. The first period deals with the occupation from June 1940 to July 1941 , followed by the German occupation during World War II .
The Baltic states [a] or the Baltic countries is a geopolitical term encompassing Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. All three countries are members of NATO , the European Union , the Eurozone , Council of Europe , and the OECD .
The three Baltic countries, or the Baltic states – Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania – are held to have continued as independent states under international law [1] while under Soviet occupation from 1940 to 1991, as well as during the German occupation in 1941–1944/1945.