Although they appear similar, the Baltic countries of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia are about as different as any three randomly chosen countries in Europe would be. Latvia and Lithuania have similar, Indo-European languages, but their histories are far different – Lithuania was independent and allied with Poland; today it, like its neighboring Poland is largely Roman Catholic. Latvia was under German domination for centuries and is now primarily Lutheran, thanks to German influences. Estonia shares Latvia’s history because of their shared experiences, but its language is nothing like its southern neighbor’s. Estonian isn’t even Indo-European in origin. Needless to say, finding common ground among the three Baltic states would be very difficult.
Until the end of WWI, the territory that now comprises the Baltic countries, including Vilnius (called Wilno in Polish) were part of the Russian Empire. So was part of Poland, which was divided among the Russian, German and Austro-Hungarian empires. At the end of the war, these countries became independent and had to define borders for their new states. Vilnius, however could be defined as belonging to either Poland or Lithuania: The city itself was inhabited by Poles, but Lithuanian peasants lived in the surrounding areas. At the end of the war, the city was in Lithuanian hands; in October, 1920, Polish troops invaded the Lithuanian capital and annexed the region to Poland. The Lithuanians subsequently moved their capital to the city of Kaunas and remained bitter for years.
This annexation was a sore spot during the entire interwar period. Not only were relations between Lithuania and Poland weakened, but the other Baltic countries had a difficult time dealing with both countries simultaneously for fear of upsetting one or the other. Polish leader General Jozef Pilsudski’s vision of an East European federation, which would encompass Poland, Lithuania and Ukraine as a defense against their powerful neighbors, now had no hope of being implemented. During the 1930s, when Baltic leaders seriously tried to enact their own plan for cooperation, the Baltic Entente, they tried to avoid the issue by leaving Lithuania’s territorial disputes out of their treaty for 10 years after they signed it. But economic and cultural differences got in the way, and when Estonian-Latvian relations weakened because of them, both sides turned to Poland for the support their Baltic neighbors were now more reluctant to provide. Now, pro-Polish factions in these countries tried to put pressure on the Lithuanians to give into Polish demands. The Baltic Entente never became the strong defensive alliance its creators had hoped it to be, and when the Soviet Union invaded the three countries, they each stood isolated, knowing that any attempt to defend themselves would lead to the total destruction of their small countries.
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