This post and the information it contains was hard to write about and hard to hear and if you want to skip it I’ll understand. However, their history has so shaped the Baltic countries that to understand the people you must have at least some information about their history.

From the 1921 until 1939 the Baltic States were free and independent nations. At the end of that period German Nazis marched through the Baltic States to attack Russia. The German Siege and occupation of the Baltic States lasted from 1941 to 1944.  As a result of Hitler’s “Final Solution,” in Latvia alone, over 90,000 lives (Jews and Gypsies) were lost in the Holocaust.  Lithuania and Estonia suffered similar atrocities.

Russia was able to push back the German aggressors, but both armies had left death and destruction in their wake. Near the end of WWII the Yalta Agreement left the Baltic countries under Stalinist Russia’s rule. Thus the Stalin lead Soviet occupation began its devastating forced “transformation to a socialist society.” Again these people were forced into a life they did not choose. Land and property were taken and became property of the government. Stalin said that religion was the, “Opiate of the masses,” and forced closing of the churches. Hundreds of churches were destroyed. People were told what to think and how to live. Free thought was not allowed. Coworkers, neighbors, and family members were encouraged to report any antigovernment comments or activity. Dissidents – and there were thousands of them – were deported or simply disappeared. Our Estonian guide talked about the Stalin occupation and described it as a, “controlled community.” She went on to say that the result was generations who were fearful, silent and distrusting.

With pressure from Pope John Paul II, Lech Walesa, and Ronald Regan, Mikhail Gorbachev began the political and social reform of the Communist Party which eventually brought about the dissolution of the Soviet Union. The Soviet flag was raised over the Kremlin on Christmas day 1985.  

In 1991 the Baltic States began one by one the push to regain their independence. Lithuania was the first to declare restoration of their independence and the rest followed. All three are again free nations and have become members of the European Union and members of NATO.  In visiting these countries, we saw the pride in newly regained independence, but the horrors of the past have left deep and lasting scars that will never be forgotten.

In Lithuania we visited the Victims of Genocide Museum. I knew about some of the atrocities of the Holocaust but being in a place where it occurred brought an awful new understanding.

In Latvia we went to the Holocaust Museum and then to the forest where thousands were murdered and buried in mass graves.

 

These apartments were built during the Stalin Regime. No individuality was allowed. A family had two rooms – the bedroom 11 sq. meters and a kitchen/bathroom 13 sq. meters.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I am writing about these things because they happened. They are a huge part of the history of the people we are visiting, and so their story is part of the experience. These things happened and I feel that the world needs to know and remember how precious and tenuous freedom can be.