Why did the three Baltic countries hate the USSR so much?Rational reasons.
The reasons for the collapse of the Soviet Union are varied, but there is one factor that cannot be ignored, and that is the intricate national question. Among them, the problem of the "three Baltic states" (Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia) is particularly prominent.
So why were these three countries so disgusted with the USSR?Next, I will give you a brief analysis based on the information I found.
Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia were historically independent states in the Baltic region, with Lithuania being particularly strong. However, by the 19th century, all three countries were annexed by Tsarist Russia.
In the 17th-18th centuries, Tsarist Russia began its expansion. However, the outbreak of the October Revolution in 1917 led to the establishment of Soviet power in the three Baltic states.
However, due to the intervention of foreign forces, Soviet Russia had to sign a peace treaty with the three countries in 1920, abandoning its claim to sovereignty. After that, the three Baltic states began bourgeois reforms in the political, economic, cultural, social and other fields.
In order to preserve ***, the Soviet Union created a large "buffer zone" on the border with the three countries. However, on June 14, 1940, the Soviet Union sent a statement to the three countries** demanding that they reorganize ** and allow the Soviet Union to increase its garrison.
Faced with the aggressiveness of the Soviet Union, the three Baltic states had to accept harsh conditions, including reorganization** and the restoration of the Soviet system. However, these efforts did not bring peace, but were rapidly occupied by Soviet forces in June and July.
In August, the three countries** announced their accession to the Soviet Union.
During the forcible occupation of the Baltic region by the Soviet Union, local national resistance groups sprung up and developed rapidly. In order to strengthen its control over the three Baltic states, the USSR took measures of repression and forced relocation.
Data show that in May 1941, the Soviet Union arrested 5,664 people in Lithuania and forcibly relocated 10,187 people;In Latvia, 5,625 people were arrested and 9,546 were forcibly relocated;In Estonia, 3,173 people were arrested and 5,978 were forcibly relocated.
In 1944-1946, the Soviet Union killed 13,502 people and arrested 15,528 people in Lithuania under the pretext of counterinsurgency;1,478 people were killed and 1,859 arrested in Latvia;381 people were killed and 2,070 arrested in Estonia.
Despite the fact that after a series of armed repressions, after entering the 50s, the large-scale anti-Soviet struggle in the territory of the three countries had disappeared, sporadic resistance continued.
At the Soviet military parade on Red Square in 1956, although the Soviet economy had improved significantly after World War II, it faced some difficulties in the process of "Sovietization reform" in the three Baltic countries.
According to the data, by the beginning of 1949, Lithuania had only 39 of peasant households voluntarily joined collective farms, compared to 5 in Estonia and Latvia8 and 8 .
In response to this situation, the Soviet authorities believed that in order to achieve effective "Sovietized reforms" here, it was necessary to first drive out the "reactionary elements". Thus, after 1949, about 25,500 Lithuanians, 39,000 Latvians and 22,000 Estonians were forcibly relocated to places as far away as Yakutsk and Irkutsk, where they were accused of being "kulaks, bandits and people engaged in illegal nationalist activities and their families."
Why was progress in the Baltic region slow in the reform of the Soviet collective farms?It turned out that the grassroots party organizations in the region were weak. Until the beginning of 1945, the number of party members in Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia was 3,536, 3,592 and 2,409, respectively.
In order to solve the problem of manpower shortage, party and government cadres from all over the country were sent to the region to assist in the local "Sovietization reform". Data show that by the beginning of 1947, the number of party members in Latvia was as high as 21,037, Lithuania 16,202, and Estonia 12,965.
However, as the number of party members increased, the contradictions between "foreign cadres" and "local cadres" began to appear.
Among the member states of the former Soviet Union, the Soviet Union created a unique position, the "second secretary", to strengthen the supervision and reporting of local leaders. The tasks of the Second Secretary consisted of paying attention to the cadre policy of the Union Republics, being a positive role model, interpreting Moscow's instructions and, if necessary, receiving complaints and grievances and reporting to Moscow.
In the case of Estonia, in 1944-1953, the Soviet Union sent 3 non-Estonians as second secretaries. However, after Beria introduced a new national policy, the USSR agreed to have an Estonian as second secretary.
However, in the 70s of the 20th century, the USSR again restored the power to appoint a second secretary, which consolidated the effective control of the three Baltic states.
Stalin's control is unmatched!2) Evolution of national policy 1) A brief period of moderate letting go After the death of Stalin, there were some changes in national policy in the USSR.
In May 1953, Beria, then chairman of the NKVD, submitted a report on the situation in Lithuania. In his report, he stated that the long-term struggle against the Lithuanian nationalist underground has not been satisfactory.
He believed that the reason was the lack of Lithuanian party and government cadres at all levels of Lithuania, so he put forward proposals such as making Lithuanians the chairman of the security committee and setting up special anti-rebel personnel and police schools for Lithuanians in order to mend and improve relations with the localities.
In this report, Beria also placed special emphasis on the issue of national languages. He pointed out that another reason for the rift between ** and the localities was that official correspondence was conducted in Russian, which had a great negative impact on the local rural population and the Lithuanian intelligentsia, who had ties to the underground nationalists.
Beria (1899-1953), one of the key executors of Stalin's purges, was arrested on June 26, 1953, and executed after interrogation on December 24, 1953.
This report of Beria was highly valued by the Soviet Union. In May 1953, the Soviet Union adopted the Resolution on the Situation in Lithuania and proposed a number of remedial measures.
Among them, "training and promoting ethnic cadres" was identified as the "main task";The practice of "deputy posts such as the second secretary of the district party committee and the city party committee cannot be elected from among Lithuanians" was abolished;It provides for "a shift to the Lithuanian language in the correspondence of official correspondence and to the Polish language in areas where the Polish population is the majority".
Subsequently, when drafting resolutions on Latvia and Estonia, the Soviet Union basically referred to the relevant initiatives proposed in the Resolution on the Situation in Lithuania.
Regrettably, with Beria's imprisonment (in July of the same year), the "new approach" he advocated was completely discarded as "harmful behavior".
From 1953 to 1988, the flag of the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic, symbolizing the further deterioration of relations with the localities. After Khrushchev came to power, the USSR became more cautious and conservative in its national policy.
In 1959, when the CPSU learned that the two republics of Latvia and Azerbaijan had adopted a resolution "requiring all citizens of the republic to learn Xi their own language", it characterized it as a "nationalist error" and forced them to revoke the resolution.
This event led to the removal from office of the first secretaries of the communist *** of Latvia and Azerbaijan. The Soviet authorities had always advocated the idea that "there was an unbreakable friendship between the peoples of the Soviet Union" and that "there was no national question in the Soviet Union", so ethnic conflicts were once characterized as "hooliganism", "manifestations" or "mass riots".
One might ask why the Soviet Union managed to cover up the national questionIn fact, the reason is not complicated, ** the strict control of the locality effectively inhibits the desire of the local to expand its power.
In August 1965, the first secretary of Ukraine, Sherest, put forward a proposal to "give Ukraine the right to sign ** agreements in the international community". According to the then Constitution of the USSR, there seemed to be no problem with his proposal.
However, ** still characterized this proposal as a "manifestation of serious Ukrainian nationalism" and harshly criticized Serest. In 1972, Shjerest was dismissed.
Summary: What Ukrainians have always been confused about is "Who am I?"."In general, thanks to a strong control mechanism, the CPSU ** has an important position in the political, security, diplomatic and economic affairs of the union republics.
However, if this control mechanism is weakened, the "power desire" of the union republics will definitely swell sharply, and the whole country may even fall into danger.
Obviously, this ** was ultimately confirmed by cruel historical facts.
During the Gorbachev era, St. Sophia's Church in Kiev, Ukraine, became an important symbol of the struggle for economic and political rights in the three Baltic states. His policy reforms sparked a "national movement" in the three countries, which was open and fierce and demanded more rights and freedoms.
The independence movements of the three Baltic states reached a new climax in November 1988. Lithuania was the first to put forward the demand for more sovereignty and economic independence, a proposal that received a positive response from Estonia and Latvia.
Estonia adopted the Declaration on the Sovereignty of Estonia, which declares the legal primacy of the highest authorities and institutions of Estonia. Similar declarations and laws have been adopted in Lithuania and Latvia, respectively.
In order to further divide the powers of the ** and union republics, official USSR formed a commission on the initiative of the three Baltic states and discussed the idea of signing a "new alliance treaty".
At a time when the situation in the USSR was gradually becoming chaotic, the three Baltic states began to act. In May 1989, the First People's Congress of the USSR was held in Moscow.
At this meeting, the representatives of the three Baltic states put forward a proposal for the "introduction of the republican system of economic accounting" and jointly developed the "draft of economic independence of the republic".
However, the representatives of the three countries did not call for "political independence". The reason is that the majority of the Baltic inhabitants believed that the USSR was politically strong and that the country should remain united.
Although the nationalists of the three countries repeatedly declared the accession of the Baltic states to the Soviet Union illegal, they put forward the condition of "making it legitimate"—transforming the Soviet Union from a center above the union republics into a federation of sovereign republics.
In fact, if the CPSU seizes this opportunity, it is very likely to nip in the bud the "national crisis" that is breeding. Regrettably, the CPSU** did not respond effectively to the rights issues raised at the local level, nor did it conduct an in-depth analysis of the undercurrent of nationalist ideology and a policy of suppression.
In the face of indifference and perfunctory attitude, the nationalist sentiments of the peoples of the three Baltic countries were thoroughly aroused. Over time, their demands escalated to "secession from the Soviet Union."
Gorbachev: Not a big problem!In the March 1989 elections to the Lithuanian People's Congress, the nationalist organization "Sayudis" successfully won 34 seats, effectively taking control of state power and becoming the core force promoting Lithuania's independence.
At the same time, Latvia's "human ** line" also rose rapidly, attracting 230,000 people in a short period of time, and what is even more interesting is that the Communists accounted for about 30 of the total number of members
The Baltic Way"The movement was launched on August 23, 1989, by:"Sayutis"The organization was initiated with the aim of promoting political reform in the three countries. The hundreds of kilometers of the "Baltic People Chain" connect the capitals of the three countries, with the active participation of more than a fifth of the inhabitants.
The CPSU reacted violently to this movement and accused the leaders of the three countries of failing to put the reform process on a normal track. The official reaction further provoked the anger of local residents.
However, the CPSU ** did not recognize the situation and still hoped that the leaders of the three countries would be able to solve this problem. On September 13, 1989, Gorbachev met with the leaders of the three countries in the hope that they would be able to put an end to this extreme act.
However, Gorbachev's appeal was not answered, but was instead seen as a laughing stock.
On December 20, 1989, at the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of Lithuania, Gorbachev and Yeltsin jointly promoted the "Decision on the Independence of the Communist Party of Lithuania from the CPSU".
At the meeting, 855 votes were cast in favor of this decision, while 160 votes were against. After the congress, there was a sharp drop in the number of members of the Communist Party of Lithuania from 200,000 to 550 thousand.
In 1990, the Lithuanian Communist Party announced its reorganization, and the number of members of the party fell further to 330,000 people. In October of the same year, the Communist Party of Lithuania changed its name to the "Labor Democratic Party" and took the initiative to terminate its direct leadership relationship with the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
However, the crisis of the CPSU ** did not end with this. In the Lithuanian elections in February 1990, "Sayutis" won 96 of the 141 seats in the Supreme Soviet.
In March of the same year, in elections held in Latvia and Estonia, pro-independence forces both won more than half of the seats. Since then, the control mechanism of the CPSU over the three Baltic states has completely collapsed.
4) In conclusion, the reasons for the independence of the three Baltic states are varied. However, a series of erroneous decisions of the CPSU undoubtedly played a role in fueling the fire.
Since Stalin annexed the three Baltic states by force, the Soviet Union has established a strong control mechanism over the member states, which not only ensures the smooth implementation of relevant policies, but also curbs the rise of nationalist sentiment.
However, to ensure the smooth operation of this control mechanism, two important prerequisites are for the two sides to maintain stable and good relations, and second, local rights should be properly protected.
It is a pity that the CPSU ** never realized the necessity and urgency of this issue. The CPSU either ignored or suppressed the pleas of a number of union republics for reforming the Union, repeatedly giving up opportunities that could have improved and maintained relations between the parties.
Over time, with the complete collapse of the control mechanism of the CPSU over the three Baltic states, the Soviet Union finally went to an irretrievable abyss.