Baltic states under Soviet rule (1944–91)

This Baltic states were under Soviet rule from the end of World War II in 1945, from sovietization onwards until independence was regained in 1991. The Baltic states were occupied and annexed, becoming the Soviet socialist republics of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. After the occupation by Nazi Germany, the USSR reoccupied the Baltic territories in 1944 and maintained control there until the Baltic states regained their independence nearly 50 years later in the aftermath of the Soviet coup of 1991.

Between 1945 and 1985, the Soviet Union carried out a process of sovietization which aimed to weaken the national identities of the Baltic peoples. An important factor in the attempt to achieve this was large-scale industrialisation then direct attacks on culture, religion and freedom of expression. For the Soviet authorities the elimination of opposition and the transformation of the economics went hand in hand. The Soviet used massive deportations to eliminate resistance to collectivisation and support for the partisans. The Baltic partisans resisted Soviet rule by armed struggle for a number of years. The Estonian Forest brothers, as they were known, enjoyed material support among the local population. The Soviets had already carried out deportations in 1940–41, but the deportations between 1944 and 1952 were much larger in number. In March 1949, the top Soviet authorities organised a mass deportation of 90,000 Baltic nationals, whom they labelled as enemies of the people, to inhospitable areas of the Soviet Union.

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