SSSR intrigos Baltijos šalyse (1920-1940)

Abstract

The article exposes the enourmous pressure that Baltic countries have endured by the Soviet Union during the years between the two wars. The Soviet Union meddled in the internal affairs of the three independent countries. It supported political parties and movements well disposed towards the Soviet Union and did everything to ruin forces which did not tolerate its political orientation. Actions were in three directions. First, communist party members in the countries, financed and instructed by Moscow, disturbed social and public order. Another target was ’bourgeois’ political parties and their leading members, towards which the tactics of ’support or ruin’ was applied. Finally, according to the plans prepared for the sovietization of the Baltic States, the Soviet Union won that part of the intelligensia which was dissatisfied with the autocratic regimes and supported leftwing ideas. It was these supporters that induced the formation of ’democratic’ governments in 1940. By this clever move the Soviet Union was able to disguise the occupation and annexation of the Baltic States.