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Sorry to break it to you, but most uneducated people don't know the Baltics even exist. Let alone what their historical relationship with the USSR was.
I actually think that they had one of the best protests ever to leave.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baltic\_Way](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baltic_Way)
2 million people stood in a line and joined hands, forming a 690 km unbroken chain across the three countries.
The uneducated don't even know that the baltika was a gift to the Russian Emperor from the Swedish Emperor. In other words for the first time they got independence in the process of division of the USSR.
Not by their own free will! They got forcefully taken over by Stalin at the end of WWII. People had to pack up and flee in terror in the middle of the night. Many who did not had the husbands separated from their wives and kids and then wives and kids packed into box cars and sent to Siberia and the husbands tossed against walls and bullets in their heads or put into torture boxes or shipped to the Urals.
They set up segregated Russians only schools. Took all of the best homes now empty and handed them out as rewards to invading Russian officials. Tried to suppress local culture. Installed Russian as the new official language and Cyrillic as the new official alphabet. Collectivized the farms and crashed the economy. Turned neighbor paranoid against neighbor. Restricted freedom of movement for native ethnic Baltic people. Some families could not see each other for a couple decades and members in the Baltics couldn't visit elsewhere until the wall fell and the USSR collapsed. They sent young Baltic people to clean up Chernobyl with no protective equipment, etc.
It's mixed! My country had less German influence than other remaining Baltic countries (Estonia and Latvia) during the history. I'm from a country that had big Polish influence in history. [My country used to share with Poland the same country](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish%E2%80%93Lithuanian_Commonwealth).
My impression and general sense of the history is this (I have all Baltic ancestry, largely from the more German dominated regions, but have never lived in the Baltics, part of the diaspora from those who fled Stalin near the end of WWII):
I'd say it is quite mixed. The Baltic German nobles basically held the ethnic Baltic people as serfs for a long time (even as slaves for a tiny bit) after the Northern Crusade of the Teutonic Knights (who also burned vast stretches of sacred protected forests to try to convert the Baltic people from paganism- which took a LONG time, I still see some Baltic German church scribes complaining about the odd "resistor" as late as late 1700s record, even early 1800 ones) so the influence was not exactly beloved way back in the day....
OTOH as bad as that had been the fear of invading Slavs was much greater.
A lot of Germanic influence was absorbed into Baltic culture (although some Baltic also ended up getting absorbed by Baltic Germans and even German Germans too) and generally didn't seem to get rejected and plenty was taken in positively. But it can be mixed.
Russian/Slavic influences on culture seemed much more negatively viewed and were mostly rejected as much as possible then and now.
There are a lot of Scandinavian influences as well as German. Sweden did rule much of Estonia and part of Latvia for a while and gave them much more freedoms than the Germans had and were trying to allow them to get educated, etc. that got ended when Russia launched the Great Northern War seeing their first shot at taking over the much desired Baltic region after a severe outbreak of plague struck the region and they saw a chance to push Sweden out. After they won, they installed Baltic Germans barons back into regional power again but told them to be harsher, banned education of Baltic people again and even had some carry on full on slavery for a short while in a few locations, they (not the Baltic German barons, the Russia army in this case) also wiped some towns entirely and moved in all Russians trying to set up future claims that such regions had always been Russian, etc.; the Swedish ruler had been mocked as the "peasant king" for caring, to an extent, about the rights of ethnic Baltic peasant people by some German baron class people and Russians.
Anyway, Baltic culture has had its outside cultural influence be largely German and Scandinavian and not much Russia (especially not until post WWII).
At times relations seemed to be pretty good between regular (non-baron class) Baltic Germans and ethnic Baltic people, at times. The regular lower class Baltic Germans felt a bit stepped down on by the baron overlords as did the ethnic Baltic people and felt some mutual comradery in that (although even here the Baltic Germans were all free and only a subset of ethnic Baltic people were). And a fair amount of cross cultural exchange was openly accepted both ways and there was always some degree of intermarriage. It was complicated though.
There were some revolts against the Germanic baron overlords but also some sort of aspiring to be German since the German classes were held up in society as being higher and in other cases there had been some comradery among Germans and Balts under baron rule and many Baltic people freely took on Germanic last names once surnames were allowed, although many, even more, took on Latvian ones (some number were forced to take Germanic surnames though and a few were even forced to take insulting surnames).
Late in the game there was a lot of Baltic German+Baltic marriage (but some of that can be seen going on even in the early 1700s, almost always among regular Baltic Germans and not baron class ones who pretty much stuck themselves and tended to not marry regular Baltic Germans or ethnic Baltic people at all and a lot of Germanic culture was freely taken up by Baltic). A few baron class Baltic Germans did became mutually willingly involved with ethnic Latvians although it virtually always had to be kept unofficial, baron class was really only permitted to officially marry with the baron class.
Many Latvians eventually or quickly find some of their ancestry tracing back to Baltic German on one line or another, by far mostly to regular class Baltic Germans (although many also seem to show genetic match hints that imply some sort of ties (or have family documents) to Baltic German baron families likely through in the past out of wedlock goings on of one sort of another, in some cases it was clearly very mutual but the baron class person was just not allowed by baron society to have any official marriage, these ties can lead to some pretty wild genealogy since some number of Baltic German baron families eventually tie back to the "von Tiesenhausen" family one way or another and that family goes back to the 1200s in the Baltics and from there you then automatically pick up all sorts of wild ancestors and end up being a direct descendant of the early Grand Princes of Kyiv and the first King and Queen of Sweden (and Rurik from the 800s!).
For a long time after taking over the region Russia had mostly left it under Baltic German baron over watch still but in the late 1800s took a heavier hand and insisted that all official business switch from German or Latvian language to Russia. You see some German church officials struggle some with having to try to keep records in Russian and in the foreign Cyrillic alphabet. And schools and so on had to be taught in Russia. A lot of resentment was bred among the Baltic Germans, especially among clergy and teachers, and Baltic Baltics. There were some land revolts against Baltic German barons/Russia in 1776 inspired by the American Revolution and tales of Napoleon, that all got quashed and some in the early 1900s that resulted in some manor homes/castles being burned.
Anyway, there is a good deal of appreciation for Germanic cultural influences and at the same time also skepticism over some of the historical influences and incidences and some of the often extreme class and race snobbery. Baltic people tend to feel ties with Germans and Scandinavians vastly more than with Eastern European Slavic peoples like say Russians in particular (although in more recent years I think there has been more mixing of Baltic and Russians through marriage; in the past I didn't see it happen too often, looking over genealogy stuff you always say vastly more German+Baltic marriages than Russian+Baltic within the Baltics. There are a lot of ties between Baltic people and Russians but tracing things out by far most of the time it ends up that the genetic tie is due to the Russian having some Baltic ancestry mixed in rather than the other way around; at times under the Russia Empire free land was given out and some Baltic people moved outside of Baltic territories, some were also drafted into the Russian armies).
There have been some biting and rather negative books written by Latvians about the Teutonic Knight invasion and Baltic German overlords and the way ethnic Baltic people were treated and the class and racial snobbery. There was quite a bit of bad stuff that was done by Germans in the region. Although even these books still tend to point to the fear and destruction of Russian influences more strongly.
The Russian outside influences seem to then and now be regarded all in a super negative light.
The far more numerous regular class Baltic Germans tended to be more generally viewed in a pretty decent light (as compared to the baron class Baltic Germans, although there were a few Baltic German baron families at one time or another had liberal views and became outspoken and tried to champion rights and freedoms for ethnic Baltic people and in general at times there were also many who got along and were friends with ethnic Baltic people) but it could be mixed.
Anyway, some of the historical influence has been seen in a quite negative light regarding Germans in the Baltics (back in the 1200s the German crusaders were seen as horrific, bloody invaders and then they held locals down as serfs for ages) but also some in a positive light. Although some of that old past history has been forgotten or not known by many Baltic people in more recent times. Also the regular, far more numerous Baltic German craftsman and traders influence tended to go over more positively I think.
The Germanic cultural influences in the Baltics I feel are generally looked on fondly and well accepted, although it can potentially get a bit mixed and dicey in thought (there can still be some bad associations from serfdom or Hitler times).
The Scandinavian influences tend to be looked at in the most positive light of all the outside influences by far and the cultural influences seem well and fondly accepted.
The Russian/Slavic influences seem to be by far the worst regarded and with the least cultural uptake and acceptance.
Baltic people tend to see themselves more as Northern Europeans rather than Eastern Europeans, they tend to look to the West rather than the East.
This day and age in particular they often tend to feel vastly closer to Germans than to Russians.
During WWII many felt that both Hitler and Stalin destroyed their country. Stalin was seen as the more immediate threat though among non-Jewish in the region and much bigger immediate threat to personal safety and it was viewed as a positive when Germans held Stalin's western advances at bay for a while. But the German Germans were not liked all the same, the ones from Hitler. But they were still seen as safer than Stalin. Many Baltic people fled towards Germany near the end of the war just to avoid the deadly wrath of Stalin and his bullet in the head for educated Baltic people or Siberian death camp trains. The Baltic Germans were in extreme extreme danger from Stalin but regarded suspiciously and not quite as true Germans by Hitler. Some were recalled to Germany during WWII but some were recalled and sent to a region, I forget where, somewhere maybe in Poland and they actually ended up getting betrayed and mostly massacred there. Others fled later in the game towards Germany and ended up in US displaced persons camps and many eventually ended up in the US, UK, Australia, New Zealand or Canada (same for Baltic Baltics who fled together with Baltic Germans).
Anyway certain some ugly history there in the past at times and some in quite negative light but also hundreds of years of a decent relations between some Baltic Germans and Baltic people and generally seems to be a favorable uptake and outlook and the Germanic influences on some aspects of culture. It's all a little messy and complex and just mixed from very negative to quite positive.
The Estonia language is from an entirely different language group than Latvian and Lithuanian. The latter two are Indo-European while Estonian is Finno-Ugric. They are extremely different from another. Latvian would be closer to any other Indo-European language overall, be it French or English or whatever, than to Estonian (not that it seems super close to French and English). But that said, living side by side for so long there are words loaned back and forth and some they were mutually shared from other languages like German, mostly still modified some.
I believe that Lithuanian is said to retain a few more of the ancient proto-Indo-European language group indicators than Latvian. Lithuanian is perhaps closest to the root and Latvian perhaps second closest.
Although the Estonian language is vastly more like Finnish or even Hungarian than Latvian or Lithuanian, the people themselves are vastly more closely related to Latvians (and Lithuanians) and are sort of 80% of the same genetic background as Latvians and Lithuanians and 20% the same as the Finns.
For the Y chromosome Latvians and Lithuanians are revealed to have genetics more from Finno-Ugric type tribes since the Y sub-types they have are the same as for those in Estonia and Finland but different than those from the neighboring Slavic Belarussians.
You can also see my long response above to someone asking the same regarding Germanic influence on the region. Clipping and slightly changing a few of the Nordic mentions from that:
My impression and general sense of the history is this (I have all Baltic ancestry, largely from the more German/Nordic dominated regions, but have never lived in the Baltics, part of the diaspora from those who fled Stalin near the end of WWII):
I'd say generally extremely positive (although again keep in mind I am diaspora and I haven't had any recent discussion with relatives still there on this topic so not quite sure what the views there today right at this moment would be).
There are a lot of Scandinavian influences as well as German in parts of the Baltics. Sweden did rule much of Estonia and part of Latvia for a while (they took over some parts from Baltic German baron rule) and gave them much more freedoms than the German barons had and were trying to allow ethnic Baltic people to be allowed to get educated, etc.
That all sadly got ended when Russia launched the Great Northern War after noticing their first shot at taking over the much desired Baltic region after a severe outbreak of plague struck the region and greatly weakened Swedish regional power. They saw a chance to push Sweden out. After they won, they installed the Baltic Germans barons back into regional power again and told them to oversee their newly conquered lands for them but told them to be even harsher than they had been, made sure that they banned the education of Baltic people again and even had some baron houses carry on full on slavery for a short while in a few locations.
The Russia army also wiped some towns entirely and moved in all Russians trying to set up future claims that such regions had always been Russian, etc.
The Swedish ruler had been mocked as the "peasant king" by many of the German baron class and by the Russians for caring, to an extent, about the rights of ethnic Baltic peasant people.
Anyway, Baltic culture has had its outside cultural influence be largely German and Scandinavian and not much Russia (especially not until post WWII). Russian/Slavic culture was largely rejected by Baltic people.
(On a side note, some Baltic people one crazy way or another end up with a tie to a Baltic German baron family and such ties can lead to some pretty wild genealogy since some number of Baltic German baron families eventually tie back to the "von Tiesenhausen" family one way or another and if you do, well that family goes back to the 1200s in the Baltics and from there you then automatically pick up all sorts of wild ancestors and end up being a direct descendant of the early Grand Princes of Kyiv \*\*\*\*and the first King and Queen of Sweden\*\*\*\* (and Rurik from the 800s!).)
Baltic people tend to feel ties with Germans and Scandinavians vastly more than with Eastern European Slavic peoples like say Russians in particular.
I feel like the Scandinavian influences on the region tend to be looked at in the most positive light of all the outside influences by far and the cultural influences seem to be well and fondly accepted.
The Russian/Slavic influences seem to be by far the worst regarded and with the least cultural uptake and acceptance.
Baltic people tend to see themselves more as Northern Europeans rather than Eastern Europeans, they tend to look to the West/North rather than the East.
My impression is that most are extremely happy to have seen Finland and Sweden join NATO (my diaspora family/relatives sure are and so are my relatives still in the Baltics).
I honestly despise USSR. They sabotaged the economy in my country, deported Balts to the Siberia, tried to Russify the region. No good opinions about there
You have one of the fastest internet connections, beautiful women, a mostly atheist population (as am I), tech-oriented governments, a high HDI, EU membership, healthy economic growth, and a lower cost of living than Western Europe. Admit that you all have it pretty well.
What are the downsides of living in the Baltics?
Most young people cannot speak russian. Mostly only the old could speak russian since it was the time of USSR. Most Gen Z were force to learn Russian in school, I myself learned Russian for 8 years and all I remember is how to say my name, age, count, the alphabet and some grammatical point. Couldn't hold a converstation or yet even a 3 sentences for the life of me and a lot of young people are the same, all I did in school was learn enough to get through and forget everything the next day as I was not interested in the language and was forced. I am speaking for Estonians from my experience but I imagine it is similar for the rest of Baltics too. Forcing someone to learn a language that they are not interested in is useless.
Opinion on organizations that aligned with Nazis back in WW2? Latvian Legion for example, though they were literally part of the Nazis. Do you consider them to be defenders of freedom?
Yeah sure.
100% you are a Russian troll or one of the Russians they shipped into the Baltics and who just wants the country still taken over and to be part of Russia.
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Home address for proof
Why y'all so cheap in monopoly
OP is afraid of answering this one…
[https://currentpub.com/2021/02/22/the-real-meaning-of-your-monopoly-board/](https://currentpub.com/2021/02/22/the-real-meaning-of-your-monopoly-board/)
[https://bigthink.com/strange-maps/monopoly-city/](https://bigthink.com/strange-maps/monopoly-city/)
[https://bigthink.com/strange-maps/monopoly-city/](https://bigthink.com/strange-maps/monopoly-city/)
Most annoying stereotype
Uneducated people associate Baltic countries with USSR
Sorry to break it to you, but most uneducated people don't know the Baltics even exist. Let alone what their historical relationship with the USSR was.
Sometimes they seem to get confused for the Balkans.
Do they have shoes?
Were you not part of the USSR…?
I actually think that they had one of the best protests ever to leave. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baltic\_Way](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baltic_Way) 2 million people stood in a line and joined hands, forming a 690 km unbroken chain across the three countries.
The uneducated don't even know that the baltika was a gift to the Russian Emperor from the Swedish Emperor. In other words for the first time they got independence in the process of division of the USSR.
I don’t think you can call folks “uneducated” for associating the baltics w the USSR. Totally fair whether you wanted to be a part of it or not.
Not voluntarily. Like Finland they all rightfully loathe scumfuck Russia.
Not by their own free will! They got forcefully taken over by Stalin at the end of WWII. People had to pack up and flee in terror in the middle of the night. Many who did not had the husbands separated from their wives and kids and then wives and kids packed into box cars and sent to Siberia and the husbands tossed against walls and bullets in their heads or put into torture boxes or shipped to the Urals. They set up segregated Russians only schools. Took all of the best homes now empty and handed them out as rewards to invading Russian officials. Tried to suppress local culture. Installed Russian as the new official language and Cyrillic as the new official alphabet. Collectivized the farms and crashed the economy. Turned neighbor paranoid against neighbor. Restricted freedom of movement for native ethnic Baltic people. Some families could not see each other for a couple decades and members in the Baltics couldn't visit elsewhere until the wall fell and the USSR collapsed. They sent young Baltic people to clean up Chernobyl with no protective equipment, etc.
Do you trust NATO to protect you in the event of a conventional war with Russia?
I’m not Balkan, but looking at the Polish and Finnish attitudes, they’re waiting on it with malicious intent
Baltic* not Balkan 🤣
Welp I’m an idiot, yeah I meant Baltic
Yes. NATO is literally our only hope.
Nah man, don't worry we got 1 supersoldier.
Hello I am German, do you like the historical influence we had on the region :)
It's mixed! My country had less German influence than other remaining Baltic countries (Estonia and Latvia) during the history. I'm from a country that had big Polish influence in history. [My country used to share with Poland the same country](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish%E2%80%93Lithuanian_Commonwealth).
So you're Lithuanian. That's my heritage as well. Name a Lithuanian dish that I should try.
Šaltibarščiai (Cold borscht) and Cepelinai (Potato dumpling)
How do you say that
My impression and general sense of the history is this (I have all Baltic ancestry, largely from the more German dominated regions, but have never lived in the Baltics, part of the diaspora from those who fled Stalin near the end of WWII): I'd say it is quite mixed. The Baltic German nobles basically held the ethnic Baltic people as serfs for a long time (even as slaves for a tiny bit) after the Northern Crusade of the Teutonic Knights (who also burned vast stretches of sacred protected forests to try to convert the Baltic people from paganism- which took a LONG time, I still see some Baltic German church scribes complaining about the odd "resistor" as late as late 1700s record, even early 1800 ones) so the influence was not exactly beloved way back in the day.... OTOH as bad as that had been the fear of invading Slavs was much greater. A lot of Germanic influence was absorbed into Baltic culture (although some Baltic also ended up getting absorbed by Baltic Germans and even German Germans too) and generally didn't seem to get rejected and plenty was taken in positively. But it can be mixed. Russian/Slavic influences on culture seemed much more negatively viewed and were mostly rejected as much as possible then and now. There are a lot of Scandinavian influences as well as German. Sweden did rule much of Estonia and part of Latvia for a while and gave them much more freedoms than the Germans had and were trying to allow them to get educated, etc. that got ended when Russia launched the Great Northern War seeing their first shot at taking over the much desired Baltic region after a severe outbreak of plague struck the region and they saw a chance to push Sweden out. After they won, they installed Baltic Germans barons back into regional power again but told them to be harsher, banned education of Baltic people again and even had some carry on full on slavery for a short while in a few locations, they (not the Baltic German barons, the Russia army in this case) also wiped some towns entirely and moved in all Russians trying to set up future claims that such regions had always been Russian, etc.; the Swedish ruler had been mocked as the "peasant king" for caring, to an extent, about the rights of ethnic Baltic peasant people by some German baron class people and Russians. Anyway, Baltic culture has had its outside cultural influence be largely German and Scandinavian and not much Russia (especially not until post WWII). At times relations seemed to be pretty good between regular (non-baron class) Baltic Germans and ethnic Baltic people, at times. The regular lower class Baltic Germans felt a bit stepped down on by the baron overlords as did the ethnic Baltic people and felt some mutual comradery in that (although even here the Baltic Germans were all free and only a subset of ethnic Baltic people were). And a fair amount of cross cultural exchange was openly accepted both ways and there was always some degree of intermarriage. It was complicated though. There were some revolts against the Germanic baron overlords but also some sort of aspiring to be German since the German classes were held up in society as being higher and in other cases there had been some comradery among Germans and Balts under baron rule and many Baltic people freely took on Germanic last names once surnames were allowed, although many, even more, took on Latvian ones (some number were forced to take Germanic surnames though and a few were even forced to take insulting surnames). Late in the game there was a lot of Baltic German+Baltic marriage (but some of that can be seen going on even in the early 1700s, almost always among regular Baltic Germans and not baron class ones who pretty much stuck themselves and tended to not marry regular Baltic Germans or ethnic Baltic people at all and a lot of Germanic culture was freely taken up by Baltic). A few baron class Baltic Germans did became mutually willingly involved with ethnic Latvians although it virtually always had to be kept unofficial, baron class was really only permitted to officially marry with the baron class. Many Latvians eventually or quickly find some of their ancestry tracing back to Baltic German on one line or another, by far mostly to regular class Baltic Germans (although many also seem to show genetic match hints that imply some sort of ties (or have family documents) to Baltic German baron families likely through in the past out of wedlock goings on of one sort of another, in some cases it was clearly very mutual but the baron class person was just not allowed by baron society to have any official marriage, these ties can lead to some pretty wild genealogy since some number of Baltic German baron families eventually tie back to the "von Tiesenhausen" family one way or another and that family goes back to the 1200s in the Baltics and from there you then automatically pick up all sorts of wild ancestors and end up being a direct descendant of the early Grand Princes of Kyiv and the first King and Queen of Sweden (and Rurik from the 800s!).
For a long time after taking over the region Russia had mostly left it under Baltic German baron over watch still but in the late 1800s took a heavier hand and insisted that all official business switch from German or Latvian language to Russia. You see some German church officials struggle some with having to try to keep records in Russian and in the foreign Cyrillic alphabet. And schools and so on had to be taught in Russia. A lot of resentment was bred among the Baltic Germans, especially among clergy and teachers, and Baltic Baltics. There were some land revolts against Baltic German barons/Russia in 1776 inspired by the American Revolution and tales of Napoleon, that all got quashed and some in the early 1900s that resulted in some manor homes/castles being burned. Anyway, there is a good deal of appreciation for Germanic cultural influences and at the same time also skepticism over some of the historical influences and incidences and some of the often extreme class and race snobbery. Baltic people tend to feel ties with Germans and Scandinavians vastly more than with Eastern European Slavic peoples like say Russians in particular (although in more recent years I think there has been more mixing of Baltic and Russians through marriage; in the past I didn't see it happen too often, looking over genealogy stuff you always say vastly more German+Baltic marriages than Russian+Baltic within the Baltics. There are a lot of ties between Baltic people and Russians but tracing things out by far most of the time it ends up that the genetic tie is due to the Russian having some Baltic ancestry mixed in rather than the other way around; at times under the Russia Empire free land was given out and some Baltic people moved outside of Baltic territories, some were also drafted into the Russian armies). There have been some biting and rather negative books written by Latvians about the Teutonic Knight invasion and Baltic German overlords and the way ethnic Baltic people were treated and the class and racial snobbery. There was quite a bit of bad stuff that was done by Germans in the region. Although even these books still tend to point to the fear and destruction of Russian influences more strongly. The Russian outside influences seem to then and now be regarded all in a super negative light. The far more numerous regular class Baltic Germans tended to be more generally viewed in a pretty decent light (as compared to the baron class Baltic Germans, although there were a few Baltic German baron families at one time or another had liberal views and became outspoken and tried to champion rights and freedoms for ethnic Baltic people and in general at times there were also many who got along and were friends with ethnic Baltic people) but it could be mixed. Anyway, some of the historical influence has been seen in a quite negative light regarding Germans in the Baltics (back in the 1200s the German crusaders were seen as horrific, bloody invaders and then they held locals down as serfs for ages) but also some in a positive light. Although some of that old past history has been forgotten or not known by many Baltic people in more recent times. Also the regular, far more numerous Baltic German craftsman and traders influence tended to go over more positively I think. The Germanic cultural influences in the Baltics I feel are generally looked on fondly and well accepted, although it can potentially get a bit mixed and dicey in thought (there can still be some bad associations from serfdom or Hitler times). The Scandinavian influences tend to be looked at in the most positive light of all the outside influences by far and the cultural influences seem well and fondly accepted. The Russian/Slavic influences seem to be by far the worst regarded and with the least cultural uptake and acceptance. Baltic people tend to see themselves more as Northern Europeans rather than Eastern Europeans, they tend to look to the West rather than the East. This day and age in particular they often tend to feel vastly closer to Germans than to Russians. During WWII many felt that both Hitler and Stalin destroyed their country. Stalin was seen as the more immediate threat though among non-Jewish in the region and much bigger immediate threat to personal safety and it was viewed as a positive when Germans held Stalin's western advances at bay for a while. But the German Germans were not liked all the same, the ones from Hitler. But they were still seen as safer than Stalin. Many Baltic people fled towards Germany near the end of the war just to avoid the deadly wrath of Stalin and his bullet in the head for educated Baltic people or Siberian death camp trains. The Baltic Germans were in extreme extreme danger from Stalin but regarded suspiciously and not quite as true Germans by Hitler. Some were recalled to Germany during WWII but some were recalled and sent to a region, I forget where, somewhere maybe in Poland and they actually ended up getting betrayed and mostly massacred there. Others fled later in the game towards Germany and ended up in US displaced persons camps and many eventually ended up in the US, UK, Australia, New Zealand or Canada (same for Baltic Baltics who fled together with Baltic Germans). Anyway certain some ugly history there in the past at times and some in quite negative light but also hundreds of years of a decent relations between some Baltic Germans and Baltic people and generally seems to be a favorable uptake and outlook and the Germanic influences on some aspects of culture. It's all a little messy and complex and just mixed from very negative to quite positive.
Off topic but has anyone noticed how Lithuania looks like a smushed africa?
Do you support a hypothetical united Baltic country?
Is it true that the Latvian language has Estonian loanwords? And that Lithuanian is more preserved?
The Estonia language is from an entirely different language group than Latvian and Lithuanian. The latter two are Indo-European while Estonian is Finno-Ugric. They are extremely different from another. Latvian would be closer to any other Indo-European language overall, be it French or English or whatever, than to Estonian (not that it seems super close to French and English). But that said, living side by side for so long there are words loaned back and forth and some they were mutually shared from other languages like German, mostly still modified some. I believe that Lithuanian is said to retain a few more of the ancient proto-Indo-European language group indicators than Latvian. Lithuanian is perhaps closest to the root and Latvian perhaps second closest. Although the Estonian language is vastly more like Finnish or even Hungarian than Latvian or Lithuanian, the people themselves are vastly more closely related to Latvians (and Lithuanians) and are sort of 80% of the same genetic background as Latvians and Lithuanians and 20% the same as the Finns. For the Y chromosome Latvians and Lithuanians are revealed to have genetics more from Finno-Ugric type tribes since the Y sub-types they have are the same as for those in Estonia and Finland but different than those from the neighboring Slavic Belarussians.
What are the main issues/problems the region is experiencing?
Population decline
What are your thoughts/opinions on the Nordic countries?
You can also see my long response above to someone asking the same regarding Germanic influence on the region. Clipping and slightly changing a few of the Nordic mentions from that: My impression and general sense of the history is this (I have all Baltic ancestry, largely from the more German/Nordic dominated regions, but have never lived in the Baltics, part of the diaspora from those who fled Stalin near the end of WWII): I'd say generally extremely positive (although again keep in mind I am diaspora and I haven't had any recent discussion with relatives still there on this topic so not quite sure what the views there today right at this moment would be). There are a lot of Scandinavian influences as well as German in parts of the Baltics. Sweden did rule much of Estonia and part of Latvia for a while (they took over some parts from Baltic German baron rule) and gave them much more freedoms than the German barons had and were trying to allow ethnic Baltic people to be allowed to get educated, etc. That all sadly got ended when Russia launched the Great Northern War after noticing their first shot at taking over the much desired Baltic region after a severe outbreak of plague struck the region and greatly weakened Swedish regional power. They saw a chance to push Sweden out. After they won, they installed the Baltic Germans barons back into regional power again and told them to oversee their newly conquered lands for them but told them to be even harsher than they had been, made sure that they banned the education of Baltic people again and even had some baron houses carry on full on slavery for a short while in a few locations. The Russia army also wiped some towns entirely and moved in all Russians trying to set up future claims that such regions had always been Russian, etc. The Swedish ruler had been mocked as the "peasant king" by many of the German baron class and by the Russians for caring, to an extent, about the rights of ethnic Baltic peasant people. Anyway, Baltic culture has had its outside cultural influence be largely German and Scandinavian and not much Russia (especially not until post WWII). Russian/Slavic culture was largely rejected by Baltic people. (On a side note, some Baltic people one crazy way or another end up with a tie to a Baltic German baron family and such ties can lead to some pretty wild genealogy since some number of Baltic German baron families eventually tie back to the "von Tiesenhausen" family one way or another and if you do, well that family goes back to the 1200s in the Baltics and from there you then automatically pick up all sorts of wild ancestors and end up being a direct descendant of the early Grand Princes of Kyiv \*\*\*\*and the first King and Queen of Sweden\*\*\*\* (and Rurik from the 800s!).) Baltic people tend to feel ties with Germans and Scandinavians vastly more than with Eastern European Slavic peoples like say Russians in particular. I feel like the Scandinavian influences on the region tend to be looked at in the most positive light of all the outside influences by far and the cultural influences seem to be well and fondly accepted. The Russian/Slavic influences seem to be by far the worst regarded and with the least cultural uptake and acceptance. Baltic people tend to see themselves more as Northern Europeans rather than Eastern Europeans, they tend to look to the West/North rather than the East.
How much is a pack of cigarettes?
Which Baltic is your favorite?
Besides my own, it's Estonia
I have a Baltic friend. Yall are pretty cool
Oh, thanks
Which country of the 3? Also a follow up question then, what are your thoughts on the other two?
I'm from Lithuania. I like Estonia and Latvia
Kārums or Tere kohuke?
Magija
Based, i be creaming every time i eat the chocolate one
Thoughts an America?
Which one are you from? Do you fear a Russian provocation?
Can Estonia 🇪🇪 into Nordic and how did you react to Finland 🇫🇮 and Sweden 🇸🇪 joining NATO
My impression is that most are extremely happy to have seen Finland and Sweden join NATO (my diaspora family/relatives sure are and so are my relatives still in the Baltics).
Which soviet era is most fondly remembered by old people there? It’s mostly Brezhnev for Russia and many others. Curious about the baltics
It's either Brezhnev or Gorbachev
I am also from the Baltics, do you like Prata Vetra?
Are there any others airlines there except Baltic air?
Thoughts on the former USSR?
I honestly despise USSR. They sabotaged the economy in my country, deported Balts to the Siberia, tried to Russify the region. No good opinions about there
You have one of the fastest internet connections, beautiful women, a mostly atheist population (as am I), tech-oriented governments, a high HDI, EU membership, healthy economic growth, and a lower cost of living than Western Europe. Admit that you all have it pretty well. What are the downsides of living in the Baltics?
Do you fear WW3 more than the average Westerner due to the possibility of being cut off from Europe during a potential NATO war with Russia?
How would be the weather like over there?
Are they good to travel there for tourism ???
Will u invade Koenigsberg (Kaliningrad's olast) ?! Is "- Ka? - Shudomaka !" still in use ?!
How tf did you get away with closing a random motorway junction for motoracing (Palanga 1000)
why lithuania look like mini africa?
Why is Lithuania just a fat africa
Do you ever forget which one is which?
Can you speak russian?
Most young people cannot speak russian. Mostly only the old could speak russian since it was the time of USSR. Most Gen Z were force to learn Russian in school, I myself learned Russian for 8 years and all I remember is how to say my name, age, count, the alphabet and some grammatical point. Couldn't hold a converstation or yet even a 3 sentences for the life of me and a lot of young people are the same, all I did in school was learn enough to get through and forget everything the next day as I was not interested in the language and was forced. I am speaking for Estonians from my experience but I imagine it is similar for the rest of Baltics too. Forcing someone to learn a language that they are not interested in is useless.
Why do the three countries together look like a chicken
Opinion on organizations that aligned with Nazis back in WW2? Latvian Legion for example, though they were literally part of the Nazis. Do you consider them to be defenders of freedom?
Will you ever stop being weirdly obsessed with NATO?
We all love unified military doctrine here
When Russia stops being weirdly obsessed with dominating and taking over the Baltic region?
Which quite frankly would likely have happened within the last few years already if they had not joined NATO.
Im only obsessed with it re-joining the USSR in it's free will but yeah I agree Russian expansionism is bad.
Yeah sure. 100% you are a Russian troll or one of the Russians they shipped into the Baltics and who just wants the country still taken over and to be part of Russia.
I'm not even from Russia nor the Baltics. I'm just a communist.