Freeway - The Baltic States

The Baltic States

What is the history of the Baltic States?
That question will be answered in this article. The Baltic countries have been connected very much with Russia through the history and Russia plays an important role in these countries nowadays too.
The Baltic countries are Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Starting with Estonia, it is the smallest of the three countries. It is also the country with the fewest inhabitants, there are 1.46 million inhabitants there. They declared themselves self-governed for the first time in 1918 along with Lithuania and Latvia. Estonia is a republic with the residence in Tallinn. It is the ”richest” of the countries, if you look at GNP per capita, with a GNP per capita on 2 860 US-dollars. It is rather poor if you compare with Sweden or Great Britain but rather rich if you compare with for example Ethiopia or India. You should not trust this information too much though. There are many things that speak against GNP. I am not going to get more in to it now. But it is important that you know this when you read this article.

All republics

Latvia has 2 270 US-dollars in GNP per capita and Lithuania 1 900 US-dollars. Latvia is in the middle of the countries when it is about the most things. GNP - as I said, size, inhabitants – 2.47 million, and even place on the map. Lithuania is the biggest of the three countries, but there are seven Lithuanias in one Sweden. Lithuania has most inhabitants, 3.71 million. Both Latvia and Lithuania are republics, just as Estonia, with the residences in Riga and Vilnius respectively.

”Russian” history

Soviet and Hitler’s Germany signed a pact on the 23rd of August 1939 that said that the three states should become parts of the Soviet Union. In June the year after the Red Army of Soviet occupied them.
The Soviet Union ruled them for 50 years until 1990 when Lithuania once again declared itself as self-governed and Latvia and Estonia declared a transitional period for getting themselves self-governed. When the communistic coup failed in 1991 the Baltic States rose again as self-governed states. They also got the admission from the rest of the world that year.
Even though the Soviet Union, Russia nowadays, doesn’t rule the countries any longer it has great importance for the economies in the Baltic States. They do a lot of export- and import trading with each other.
In these days Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania are attempting to get membership in the European Union. They think that it would be a great success for their countries to get into it. Now they also have stable economies, that is growing, and political atmosphere.