Acknowledgement of the Secret Protocol of the German–Soviet Non-aggression Pact and the Declaration of State Sovereignty by the Union Republics of the USSR
In June 1989, the First Congress of People's Deputies of the Soviet Union established the Commission for Historical and Legal Estimation of the Soviet–German Non-aggression Pact of 1939. In the commission, representatives from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania condemned the Soviet annexation of the Baltic States, prompting heated arguments regarding the invalidity of the related secret protocol of the pact with other members who continued to hold the traditional Soviet ideological view of the pact as something positive. The debate over the secret protocol had the further potential to extend to disputes over ‘recovery of lost territory’ amongst the Baltic States, Ukraine, Moldova, Belarus and Russia. This article analyses the arguments used by commission members, considering the interplay of national interests, how they balanced arguments between restoration of ‘state sovereignty’ and maintenance of borders, and how they finally compromised and concluded the commission's report.
National Minorities in Estonia
The Baltic republics are generally treated as one geographical and cultural region. The links between Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania in the cultural sphere are close. In the field of economy the cooperation is perhaps less obvious, but the Baltic is treated also by the Soviet Union as a single economic unit.
Estonia and the Estonians
A comprehensive survey of Estonian history, placing recent events into historical perspective. The author analyzes the country's post-communist transition, its strategic geopolitical location, and the role of ethnic Estonians in shaping the history of the area.