How Stalin Got the Baltic StatesDr. Vilnis V. Šveics, 1989

Facts are stubborn things.
—J. Stalin

There could be no greater error than to suppose that historical myths cannot be actually created by design, or that the crudity of such special pleading necessarily always militates against its effectiveness.
—G. Kennan

The search for historical truth

Our query requires answers to two questions:

(1) How did Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania become part of the Soviet Empire? This question is one of the "white spots" of history in the USSR and in other places as well, and has lately attracted considerable interest in the Baltic countries and among certain circles of Baltic exiles in the West.

The answer is simple: Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania were occupied by the Red Army in June 1940, and formally incorporated into the Soviet Union some six weeks later. Both the occupation and incorporation violated not only the rules of international law, but also valid treaties between the USSR and the Baltic countries and repeated official declarations of the Russian leadership.1 

(2) Which Western powers approved the occupation and incorporation—still in effect today—when and how? The answer to this question, too, is rather simple, though sometimes confounded by uninformed speculation or propagandistic distortion.

Many are the claims that the President, Prime Minister or Chancellor of one country or another had not approved of Stalin's subjugation of the Baltic States, rarely is solid proof presented that someone did indeed sanction it. Since no leading Allied Power ever actively challenged Soviet occupation and incorporation of the three small countries during or after the war, it would be logical to conclude, that Uncle Joe (the tender nickname given to Stalin by the 6 American and British leaders) had their approval. There is incontrovertible evidence, that that was indeed the case. Did Germany also consent to the incorporation of the Baltic countries into the Soviet Empire? Let us have a closer look at the facts.