This volume analyzes the effects of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact of 1939 on the Baltic States and Eastern Europe. This Nazi-Soviet non-aggression treaty catapulted into worldwide consciousness this summer as a 370-mile human Freedom chain denied its legitimacy. Stretching across Baltic nation-states, the chain's human links proclaimed the password Freedom. Secret protocols contained in this Treaty led to fifty years of Soviet occupation. In the atmosphere of glasnost and peristroika, Estonians, Latvians, and Lithuanians now demand restoration of their human and national rights and decolonization. While the news media focuses upon these events, this volume details the historical causes of the Treaty, its contemporary consequences, and its present day challenge.

With the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, Hitler's Germany and Stalin's Russia put aside their ideological difference and practiced expedient politics. Eastern Europe and the Baltic States were partitioned into German and Russian spheres of influence. This fifty year old pact continues to effect the Baltic States. It focuses our attention sharply on the consequences of secret deals made without regard to national and human rights. On the frontline of Soviet defense, the Baltic challenge to the Soviet Union has worldwide implications. After decades of denying their existence, the Soviet Union in August, 1989, finally admitted that the secret protocols of 1939 were an historical fact. However, they continued to deny that the protocols had any bearing on the incorporation of the Baltic States into the Soviet Union. As of this writing, it seems evident that notwithstanding the era of glasnost, the Soviet government still lacks the determination to state the truth: that the incorporation of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania was an act of aggression, carried out against the will of sovereign peoples.

Contenu

Preface From Community of Power to Disintegration of World Order The Division of Eastern Europe into Spheres of Influence Repercussions of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact The Nazi Calamity in the Baltic States Breaches of International Treaty Obligations Diplomacy That Failed The Struggle for National Survival Religious Oppression The Demand for Repeal of the Secret Protocols Attempts to Restore Sovereignty Present Soviet Views on the Secret Protocols of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact of 1939 Present-Day Germany and the Secret Protocols Nonrecognition of the Incorporation of the Baltic States Conclusions Appendix Bibliography Conclusions Index