This monograph, published in 1941, details the Stalinist version of the history of Soviet-Baltic/Finnish relations. Based on its concluding section, it was apparently published while the Soviets still occupied the Baltic States. The Soviets accuse the Baltic States and Finland as the originators of all strife, accusing them of forming places d’armes for the purpose of “anti-Soviet attacks, expeditions, political combinations, alliances and coalitions—all directed against the Soviet Union.”
As Dawisha and Parrott write in Russia and the New States of Eurasia: The Politics of Upheaval:
… the consolidation of Stalin’s dictatorship produced especially egregious omissions and falsifications in accounts of the fate of various nationalities repressed during the period of Communist rule.
For now, official Russia increasingly views aspersions cast on the Soviet Union as attacks on itself, per President Medvedev’s establishment of the “Presidential Commission of the Russian Federation to Counter Attempts to Falsify History to the Detriment of Russia’s Interests” (комиссия при президенте Российской Федерации по противодействию попыткам фальсификации истории в ущерб интересам России) created to “defend Russia against falsifiers of history and those who would deny Soviet contribution to the victory in World War II.” One of the core tenets of that position is that the Soviet Union was a victim only in World War II—including its victimization at the hands of Finland, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania—never the naked aggressor. After half a century of Soviet occupation, two decades after the collapse of the Soviet Union, this historical monograph is essential reading for anyone interested in the Stalinist account of Baltic relations and how that account continues to frame Russia’s official position.
- ABOUT
- Booklet Cover
- INTRODUCTION
- SOVIET FOREIGN POLICY IN RELATION TO THE BALTIC STATES, 1917-1920.
- THE FOREIGN POLICY OF THE U.S.S.R. and POLITICAL RELATIONS WITH THE BALTIC STATES, 1920-1927
- Finland
- Estonia
- Latvia
- Lithuania
- THE FOREIGN POLICY OF THE U.S.S.R. AND HER RELATIONS WITH THE BALTIC COUNTRIES IN THE PERIOD, 1927-1933, The Moscow Protocol.
- The Lapuan Movement in Finland.
- The “Aisargs” in Latvia and the “Veterans” in Estonia.
- The Treaties of Non-Aggression and Neutrality Between the U.S.S.R. and the Baltic States.
- The Foreign Policy of the U.S.S.R. and Her Relations With the Baltic States in the Period 1933-1939.
- The Eastern Pact.
- The Peace Initiative of the U.S.S.R. in 1934.
- The Anglo-French-Soviet Negotiations of 1939 and the Position of the Baltic States.
- The U.S.S.R. and the Baltic Countries in 1939-1940.
- Conclusion