THE BALTIC STATES AFTER THE COLLAPSE OF THE SOVIET UNION
THE BALTIC STATES AFTER THE COLLAPSE OF THE SOVIET UNION
Author(s): Toivo U. RaunSubject(s): Regional Geography, Economic policy, Government/Political systems, International relations/trade, Electoral systems, Politics and society, Transformation Period (1990 - 2010), Post-Communist Transformation
Published by: Akadémiai Kiadó
Keywords: Baltic states; Soviet Union; Political history; Economic system; Political system; Transformation;
Summary/Abstract: At first glance it may appear that Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania belong in a separate post-communist transitional category from the pace-setting former people's republics of East Central Europe such as Hungary, Poland, and the Czech Republic. As union republics of the USSR, the Baltic states were fully integrated into the Soviet political and economic system with virtually no opportunity for exercising autonomy in policymaking. Moscow's centralized control was evident in all phases of life, especially in the social policy of promoting massive in-migration of non-Balts that resulted in sweeping changes in ethnic composition during the decades of Soviet rule. Nevertheless, it is striking that the political and economic transition in the Baltic states during the 1990s most closely paralleled that of the Visegrád countries rather than that of other former Soviet republics. Historically, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania had experienced Central European, especially German and Polish, political and cultural hegemony, and they constituted the most Westernized and modernized parts of the USSR.
- Issue Year: 14/2000
- Issue No: 2
- Page Range: 275-283
- Page Count: 10
- Language: English
- Content File-PDF