The Baltic States were independent countries from 1918 (the end of World War I) until 1940 (the beginning of World War II). That was when the Communist Soviet Union (today's Russia) seized them and made them republics of the Soviet Union.
Under Soviet rule, life in the Baltic Republics was harsh. The Soviet Union took advantage of their strategic location on the Baltic Sea by establishing naval bases in all three Baltic Republics. Tens of thousands of people were expelled from their homelands, nationalist symbols were removed from public view, and resistance, whether violent or nonviolent, was put down forcefully.
The breakup of the Communist Soviet Union brought independence back to the Baltic nations in 1991. This was part of the collapse of communism throughout Eastern Europe.
