In 1917, the Russian Empire collapsed, and the Baltic peoples saw their chance. Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania declared independence, then spent thenext few years fighting to keep it. They faced Soviet Russia, German forces, bands of mercenaries, and chaos. Against all odds, they won.
By 1920, Moscow had signed peace treaties recognizing them as free countries. But their freedom was short-lived. In the 1930s, democracy crumbled across all three states. Economic turmoil, party infighting, and extremist movements pushed Estonia toward collapse.
In 1934, Prime Minister Konstantin Päts carried out a self-coup, suspended parliament, and ruled by decree. Latvia followed that same year. Kārlis Ulmanis seized power, outlawed political parties, and dissolved parliament, calling his dictatorship a harmonious national state. Lithuania had already fallen earlier.
In 1926, a military coup brought Antanas Smetona to power, and he spent thenext years silencing opposition, expanding censorship, and sidelining parliament. By the late 1930s, all three Baltic states were authoritarian. They looked strong on paper, but they were politically fragileand isolated. Then camethe Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact.
Officially, it was a non-aggression treaty between Germany and the Soviet Union. Secretly, it divided Eastern Europe into spheres of influence, which really meant future occupation zones. In 1939, Moscow forced Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania into so-called mutual assistance treaties. They allowed Soviet troops and military bases on their soil.
Officially, they remained independent. In reality, Stalin held a gun to their heads. In June 1940, while Germany was overrunning Western Europe, Stalin moved. He issued ultimatums, demanding more troops and the replacement of Baltic governments, accusing them of anti-Soviet activities.
Surrounded by the Red Army and abandoned by the outside world, the Baltic leaders had no choice. They gave in. The Red Army occupied the entire region. What followed was a carefully staged farce.
Moscow organized elections under NKVD supervision, allowing only pro-Soviet candidates to run. The newly formed parliaments then voluntarily requested incorporation into the Soviet Union. In August 1940, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania were formally annexed as Soviet republics. The Kremlin called this legal.
It was annexation by force, wrapped in paperwork. Sovietization began immediately. States were dismantled, political parties banned, economies nationalized. Censorship was imposed.
Religion came under pressure, and schools were reshaped. Then camethe terror. On the night of June 13th to 14th, 1941, the NKVD launched mass deportations across the Baltics. Tens of thousands of politicians, officers, intellectuals, business owners, and entire families were dragged from their homes.
Men were separated and sent to Gulag labor camps or executed. Women and children were shipped to remote settlements in Siberia and Kazakhstan. Hunger, disease, and brutal climate killed thousands. So why didn’t the Baltic people resist in 1940 the way they did twodecades earlier, when they had fought off the Red Army and won?
The situations were completely different. In 1918-20, the Red Army was fighting a civil war at home, stretched thin across multiple fronts. The Baltic states weren’t alone. German troops and Freikorps units were still in the region fighting Bolsheviks.
Britain sent naval support, weapons, and advisers. Poland was at war with Soviet Russia, pinning down more Red divisions. There was a power vacuum. Empires had collapsed, borders were unclear, and no single power could impose its will.
The Baltic peoples were fighting for survival, and volunteers poured in. It was a national liberation struggle with everything to win. In 1940, none of that existed. Germany and the USSR were temporary partners.
Poland was occupied. The Western powers couldn’t intervene. The Baltics faced an industrialized superpower with millions of troops and overwhelming equipment. They stood completely alone.
But perhaps most importantly, the method of takeover was different. In 1918-20, the Red Army invaded openly, so it could be fought openly. In 1940, Stalin used ultimatums, legal cover, and staged elections. Soviet troops were already stationed inside the countries before the occupation happened.
By the time it became clear what was happening, effective resistance was nearly impossible. The Baltic leadership was cautious. Authoritarian rule had suppressed public participation for years, so mass mobilization was slow. People feared that resistance would bring far more destruction.
They had homes, families, livelihoods to lose now. They did not unite against Moscow, even though they had common interests. A Baltic Entente did exist, signed in 1934 as a treaty of good understanding and cooperation. But it was never a military alliance.
It had no economic integration, no common enemy, and no real teeth. When the Poles seized Vilnius from Lithuania in 1938, it further poisoned relations and undermined unity. As World War II approached, the Baltics clung to neutrality, unprepared for the storm. But resistance did come eventually.
After the Soviets reoccupied the region atthe end of World War II, armed resistance continued, not from the streets but from the forests. Guerrilla fighters, known as the Forest Brothers, waged a quiet war against Soviet rule well into the 1950s. And inLithuania, when Germany invaded inJune1941, thousands rose up during the June Uprising, a mass revolt against Soviet occupiers. It happened alongside Operation Barbarossa, andthousands died.
It is one of the most overlooked chapters of World War II, but it happened. And it proves thatthe Baltic peoples never accepted what was done to them in1940. They just needed a moment when resistance could actually matter.
