Baltimaad Baltijas valstis Baltijos valstybės Baltic states
Capitals (and largest city)
Official languages		Estonian; Latvian; Lithuanian
Membership		Estonia  Latvia  Lithuania
2

The Baltic states (Estonian: Baltimaad, Latvian: Baltijas valstis, Lithuanian: Baltijos valstybės) is a region in Northern Europe which encompasses Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania by the most common definition. Estonians are descended from the Finnic peoples, sharing closely related languages and a common cultural ancestry. The Livonian people in Latvia are also Finnic peoples. The Latvians and Lithuanians, linguistically and culturally related to each other, are descended from the Balts, a different people and culture. The peoples comprising the Baltic states have together inhabited the eastern Baltic coast for millennia, although not always peacefully in ancient times, over which period their populations: Estonian, Latvian, 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 commonalities across and differences within them.

The term "Baltic republics" can sometimes refer in historic context to the Baltic republics of the Soviet Union. At the same time the three countries were considered under the Soviet occupation by the Western democracies: the USA ^[1], the UK.^[2] After the collapse of the Soviet Union the Baltic States' struggle for independence came to a conclusion, the sovereignties of the countries were restored in 1991. The last Russian troops withdrew from the Baltic States in August 1994.^[3]

Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania have been members of the European Union and NATO since 2004. Today the three countries are liberal democracies and their market economies have in recent years undergone rapid expansion.

Etymology and usage of the term

The term Baltic stems from the name of the Baltic Sea. The first to name it the Baltic Sea ("Mare Balticum") was eleventh century German chronicler Adam of Bremen. The origin of the name is speculative. It might be connected to the Germanic word belt, a name used for two of the Danish straits, the Belts, while others claim it to be derived from Latin balteus (belt).^[4] However it should be noted that the name of the Belts might be connected to Danish bælte, which also means belt. Furthermore Adam of Bremen himself compered the Sea with a belt stating that the Sea is named so because it stretches trough the land as a belt (Balticus, eo quod in modum baltei longo tractu per Scithicas regiones tendatur usque in Greciam). He might also have been influenced by name of legendary island mentioned in The Natural History by Pliny the Elder. Pliny mentions an island named Baltia (or Balcia) with reference to accounts of Pytheas and Xenophon. It is possible that Pliny refers to island named Basilia ("kingdom" or "royal") in On the Ocean by Pytheas. Baltia also might be derived from "belt" and means "near belt of sea (strait)". Meanwhile others have concluded that the name of the island originates from the Indo-European root *bhel meaning white, fair (note that 'baltas' means 'white' in today Lithuanian, while 'balts' means the same in modern Latvian language). The latter name could have influenced the Baltica myth because Baltic tribes lived on the shores of the Baltic Sea in ancient times and had contacts with the Mediterranean civilizations, being a well-known source of amber for ancient Greece and later for the Roman Empire. Yet another explanation is that, while derived from the afore mentioned root, the name of the sea is related to naming for various forms of water and related substances in several European languages, that might have been originally associated with colors found in swamps. Another explanation is that the name was related to swamp and originally meant "enclosed sea, bay" as opposed to open sea.^[5]

However in the Middle Ages the sea was known by variety of names, the name Baltic Sea started to dominate only after 16th century. Usage of Baltic and similar terms to denote the region east from the sea started only in 19th century. At first it was used to refer to Baltic governorates of Courland, Livonia and Estonia known also by German term Balticum as these lands were under German hegemony, Lithuania was usually excluded from this division. The Russian term "Прибалтика" (Pribaltika "Near Baltic") was used to refer to all of the lands bordering the Baltic sea's Eastern shore, a more narrow term "Прибалтйские страны" (Pribaltjjskie strany "Near Baltic states") used to refer to the governorates that appeared around 1859. The Latvian and Lithuanian term "Baltija" most likely originates from Russian and was first used in Latvia around 1868.^[5] In the 1920s the newly established countries of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania were referred to as the Baltic states, and during that period Finland was also often referred to as one of the Baltic states. After the Second world war Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia were incorporated into the USSR and were known as the Baltic Republics until all three countries regained their independence in 1991.^[6] Currently Baltic states are Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, sometimes the Russian Kaliningrad Oblast is included.

History

In the 13th century when Christianity and feudalism were effectively forced upon modern Estonia and Latvia by the invasion of the crusaders from the west (German Sword Brethren, Denmark) and the conversion of Lithuania's rulers from Paganism to Christianity. While in Latvia and most of Estonia Livonian Confederation was established, Lithuania established its own state as the Grand Duchy of Lithuania some time before 1252. It later was a major political power of the region.

After Livonian War in 16th century Confederation cased to exist and its lands were incoroporated into the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. In 1621 most of Duchy of Livonia was incorporated into Swedish empire. During the Great Northern War the Dominions of Sweden of Swedish Estonia and Swedish Livonia were conquered by Russiand then ceded by Sweden in the Treaty of Nystad in 1721.

Russian Empire gained control of most of present day Baltic states in the 18th century when the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was partitioned in three stages by Russian Empire, Kingdom of Prussia, and the Habsburg Monarchy, while western parts of Lithuania were incoroporated into Prussia.

Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania became sovereign nations in the aftermath of World War I. They declared independence in 1918, fought independence wars against German Freikorps and Bolshevist Russia, and were recognized as independent countries in 1920.

Following the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact pact of 1939, the Soviet Army entered eastern Poland as well as military bases in the Baltic states which were granted after USSR had threatened the three countries with military invasion. In June 1940, the Red Army occupied the whole territory of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, and installed new, pro-Soviet governments in all three countries. Following rigged elections, in which only pro-communist candidates were allowed to run, the newly "elected" parliaments of the three countries formally applied to "join" the USSR in August 1940 and were annexed into it as the Estonian SSR, the Latvian SSR, and the Lithuanian SSR.

The Soviet control of the Baltic states was interrupted by Nazi German invasion of the region in 1941. The German occupation lasted until late 1944 (in Courland, until early 1945), when the countries were re-occupied by the Red Army. In all three countries, Baltic partisans, known colloquially as the Forest Brothers, waged unsuccessful guerrilla warfare against the Soviet occupation for the next eight years in a bid to regain their nations' independence.

In the late 1980s massive demonstrations against the Soviet regime, known as the Singing revolution began. One of the most noted protests took place on August 23, 1989, when approximately two million people joined their hands to form a 600-kilometer human chain across the three countries in the event known as the Baltic Way.

The three Baltic nations re-declared their independence between 1990 and 1991, and their independence was recognized by the Soviet Union on September 6, 1991.

Language

Despite the three nations' similar history, their languages belong to two distinct language families. The Latvian and Lithuanian languages make up the group of Baltic languages which belongs to the Indo-European language family. The Estonian language, on the other hand, is not an Indo-European language and instead belongs to the Baltic-Finnic subgroup of the Finno-Ugric languages, sharing close ethnic and historical ties with the Finnish language and people.

Due to a long period of Germanic domination, starting in the Middle Ages, the German language also has an important role in Latvia and Estonia. Its role diminished greatly after World War II when the Baltic states were forcefully absorbed into the Soviet Union, but it remains one of three main foreign languages taught in schools (the other two being English and Russian). During the period of Soviet control, Russian became the most commonly studied foreign language at all levels of schooling, but knowledge of German remained fairly common among the older generations. The Soviet Union conducted a policy of russification by encouraging Russians and other Russian-speaking ethnic groups of USSR to settle in the Baltic Republics. According to Soviet law, the three local languages (Estonian, Latvian, Lithuanian) had the status of official languages in the three respective Republics and were used in schools and local administrative apparatus in parallel with Russian. However, as the Russian-speaking settlers from USSR formed an ever larger part of the population and typically were neither encouraged nor motivated to learn the local language, almost everybody had to learn Russian to some extent and use it whenever communicating with Russian-speakers in daily life. Today ethnic Russian immigrants from former USSR and their descendants make up a sizable minority in the Baltic states, particularly in Latvia (about one-third of the population) and Estonia (one-quarter of the population). After the Baltic states achieved independence in 1991, while German made a comeback as a language of study it was English that became the most commonly studied foreign language, and the role of Russian language in education fell sharply. The Baltic states have historically also been in the Swedish and Russian spheres of influence.

Culture

The peoples of the Baltic countries also belong to different Christian denominations. Believers in Estonia are mostly Lutheran; Latvia has strong Lutheran as well as Catholic communities; while Lithuania is principally Catholic. Moreover, Russian minorities in these countries are predominantly Orthodox.

Since regaining independence, Estonia has shown a strong desire to identify itself as Nordic, as expressed in a speech by former foreign minister and current president Toomas Hendrik Ilves entitled, "Estonia as a Nordic Country".^[7] Estonians consider themselves a Nordic people rather than Baltic, because of strong cultural, historical and linguistic ties with the Nordic countries.^[8][9]

During Soviet era the fact that the three Baltic states had been acquired by Soviet Union later than other territories (hence, e.g., the relatively higher living standard), strong feeling of national identity (often labeled "bourgeois nationalism" by Soviets) and popular resentment towards the imposed Soviet rule in the three countries, in combination with Soviet cultural policy, which employed superficial multiculturalism (in order for Soviet Union to appear as a multinational union based on free will of peoples) in limits allowed by the Communist "internationalist" (but in effect pro-Russification) ideology and under tight control of the Communist Party (those of the Baltic nationals who crossed the line were called "bourgeois nationalists" and repressed), let Estonians, Latvians and Lithuanians preserve a high degree of Europe-oriented national identity.^[10] In Soviet times this made them appear as the "West" of the Soviet Union in the cultural and political sense, thus as close to emigration a Russian could get without leaving the USSR.

Politics

All three countries are parliamentary democracies, which have unicameral parliaments that are elected by popular vote to serve four-year terms - Riigikogu of Estonia, Saeima of Latvia and Seimas of Lithuania. In Latvia and Estonia President is elected by parliament, Lithuania has semi-presidental system and the President is elected by popular vote.

Each of the three countries has declared itself to be the restoration of the sovereign nations which existed already in 1918–1940, emphasizing their contention that Soviet domination over the Baltic nations during the Cold War period had been an illegal occupation and annexation. The same legal interpretation is shared by the United States and other Western democracies who considered the forcible incorporation of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania into the Soviet Union illegal, and, at least formally, never consider the three Baltic countries to be constituent parts of the Soviet Union.

After the Baltic states had restored independence integration with Western Europe was chosen as the main strategic goal. In 2002 the Baltic nations applied to become members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the European Union (EU). Membership of NATO was duly achieved on March 29, 2004, and accession to the EU took place on May 1, 2004.

Currently governments of Baltic states cooperate in multiple ways. There is active cooperation among Presidents, parliament speakers, heads of government, and foreign ministers. On 8 November 1991 The Baltic Assembly was established for co-operation among parliaments. 15-20 MPs from each parliament represent their countries in the Assembly. For co-operation among governments Baltic Council of Ministers was established on 13 June 1994. Since 2003 Baltic Assembly is co-ordinated with the Baltic Council of Ministers.^[11]

Statistics

The largest cities by population Riga (725,578) Vilnius (540,318) Tallinn (396,193) Kaunas (361,274) Klaipėda (188,954) Šiauliai (125,883) Panevėžys (116,749) Daugavpils (110,265) Tartu (101,740) Liepāja (85,448)

The largest cities by population of native peoples Kaunas (335,624) Riga (312,858) Vilnius (312,303) Tallinn (216,996) Klaipėda (135,557) Šiauliai (120,263) Panevėžys (113,585) Tartu (81,550) Alytus (66,390) Marijampolė (44,555)

See also

• Balts, Baltic Germans and Baltic Russians
• Baltic region
• Baltia
• Scandinavia
• Baltic provinces
• United Baltic Duchy
• Occupation of Baltic states
• Baltic Way
• Baltic Tiger
• Baltic Entente

References and notes

Journals and book series

International peer-reviewed journals and book series dedicated to the Baltic region include:

• (book series)
• Journal of Baltic Studies, journal of the Association for the Advancement of Baltic Studies (AABS)
• Lituanus, journal dedicated to Lithuanian and Baltic art, history, language, literature and related cultural topics

External links

• Open directory
• The Holocaust in the Baltics
• The Baltic Sea Information Centre
• The Virtual Library on Baltic Cultural Studies
• GDP in the Baltic States and international comparison chart.
• Department of Slavic and Baltic Languages and Literatures at the University of Illinois in Chicago
• Statistical data based on 2000/2001 censuses

•  • [ e] Countries of the Baltic region
Baltic states	Estonia  Latvia  Lithuania
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