Baltic States

Baltic States, independent republics of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, on the eastern coast of the Baltic Sea. The republics comprise the territory occupied by the Baltic Provinces and parts of various other Russian territories, including Vilnius and Kaunas.

Established in 1918, the Baltic states were incorporated into the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) in 1940, during World War II, and occupied by Germany in 1941. Recaptured by the USSR in 1944, they remained part of the Soviet Union until 1991. In 1990 the three Baltic countries formed the Baltic Council, and in 1995 they formed the Baltic Peacekeeping Battalion (Baltbat) to promote cooperation and security in the region.

By August 1994 Russia had withdrawn a large majority of the 100,000 Soviet troops that had been stationed in the Baltic states when the USSR collapsed in 1991. The Baltic states joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in April 2004 and became members of the European Union (EU) the following month.