The Geopolitics of the Baltic States

Abstract

IT HAS BEEN SAID1 that fundamental Baltic problem is the struggle for dominance, latent or active, between Russia and Germany. fate of three small nations, hemmed about in corner between two great nations, seems realistically summarized in this sentence. But up to 1914 history of Baltic provinces had never been faced with a clear-cut Russo-German alternative. second world war decided issue.2 Historically, throughout sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Baltic provinces were a battleground over which Poland, Sweden and Russia contended; a good deal of what is called dominium maris Baltici hinged on possession of these small but strategically located territories. Only after conquest of Livland from Poland could Gustavus Adolphus enter upon his great historical career. And it was only with conquest of Baltic provinces that Russia, under Peter Great, was opened up to West and became a European power.3 same can be said of problems of Lithuania. Geopolitical Aspects. Living along south-eastern shores of life of Baltic peoples has been linked up with that sea, with Vistula and Daugava (Dvina), with trade routes going up these rivers and continuing south-eastward down Dniester and Dnieper. In fact, it was this broad ribbon stretching from Baltic to Black Sea, limited by Vistula and Dniester in West, Daugava and Dnieper with its tributaries in East, that made up Lithuanian-Polish Kingdom of sixteenth century. Baltic States thus form northern outlet for Ukraine and for Asia beyond, linking them up with Baltic Sea, Scandinavian countries, Britain, wide open oceans. Like Flanders, Baltic States lie at crossroads.4 Although Baltic region is economically coastal outlet for landlocked Russia, it is deprived of its hinterland because it is, culturally, outpost of Western Europe, which received its religion and civilization 1 S. H. Thomson in a review of W. F. Reddaway, Problems of Baltic, Journal of Central European Affairs, I (1941), p. 112. 2 Hans Rothfels, The Baltic Provinces: Some Historic Aspects and Perspectives, Journal of Central European Affairs, IV (July, 1944), pp. 117-46. 3ibid., p. 117. 4 F. W. Pick, The Three Baltic Nations, Journal of Central European Affairs, IV (January, 1944), pp. 416-40.