Estonia/ Latvia/ Lithuania

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The occupation of Baltic Republics generally refers to the occupation of the Baltic states (Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania) by the Soviet Union, then Nazi Germany, and then Soviets again during World War II, and to the Soviet presence in the Baltics from 1945 until the re-establishment of their independence. Russia continues to maintain the Soviet Union liberated the Baltic states.

History of the occupation

Before the beginning of World War II Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union signed an ostensible non-aggression treaty known as the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. In the secret appendix of the pact, Germany and the Soviet Union divided up Eastern Europe into spheres of influence: in Northern Europe, Finland, Estonia, Latvia (and, according to a later adjustment, Lithuania) were designated as falling in the Soviet zone. Poland was to be partitioned in the event of its "political re-arrangement."

After the occupation and partition of Poland, the Soviet Union started pressuring Finland, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania to accept territorial changes and Soviet bases on their soil. Eventually all states except Finland signed pacts of "defence and mutual assistance", which permitted the Soviet Union to station troops on their soil. After moving Red Army units into the Baltic states, the Soviet Union tried to occupy Finland by force in the Winter War of 1940, but had to settle for annexing Finnish Karelia and renting an isolated base in Hanko at the southwestern cape of Mainland Finland.

The spring of 1940 saw the German occupation of Denmark and Norway as well as a blitz through the Low Countries to France. The direct Soviet aggression against the Baltic countries occurred on 14-17 June 1940 when the world’s attention was focused on the military actions in Western Europe where Paris fell to the Germans on 14 June. Accusing Estonia of forming a conspiracy together with Latvia and Lithuania against the Soviet Union, the latter presented an ultimatum, demanding new concessions which included allowing more troops to enter the three countries. In the conditions of international isolation, the governments surrendered without offering any military resistance, and within a few days, the countries were invaded and occupied by several hundred thousand soldiers of the Red Army. A few days later days, led by Stalin’s close associates, the local communist supporters and those brought in from Russia, formally forced the Baltic governments to resign and proclaimed new "people's governments" in the three occupied countries. In the following month, parliamentary "elections" were conducted by local communists loyal to the Soviet Union and all non-communist candidates were disqualified. Outright fraud was also used in some voting places, to hide the fact that parts of the population were boycotting the rigged elections. The result was that all three Baltic states had communist majorities in their parliaments, and in August these three parliaments unanimously "appealed" to the Soviet government to become parts of the Soviet Union. The appeals were satisfied and the three republics were formally annexed into the Soviet Union.

Read more at Wikipedia.org