The Baltic nations's struggle.

THE THREE NATIONS tucked along the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea--Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania--share the melancholy distinction of being the first contries seized by the Soviet Union after the initial setting of boundaries following the consolidation of the Bolshevik regime in the early Twenties. On June 17, 1940, shortly after Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov had dismissed reports of a forthcoming Soviet annexation as lies spread by the "imperialists," Soviet troops marched into the three Baltic states. But this first Soviet occupation didn't last long. In June 1941, Hitler broke with his one-time ally, and Nazi troops invaded the Baltic nations, sending the Soviet armies reeling. In 1944, however, the Soviet troops came back, and they have been there ever since, although many Western countries, including the United States, refuse to this day to recognize the Soviet claim that the three Baltic states are part of the Soviet Union.

While many people are aware of the tragic fate of the Baltic nations, only a few have any clear idea of what they represent ethnically, historically, and culturally. Estonia, the northernmost and the smallest, is inhabited by a people closely related to the Finns, their northern neighbors (the two nations are separated only by the Gulf of Finland). The Estonian language belongs to the non-Indo-European Finno-Ugric family: While the Estonians are brothers of the Finns, they are also cousins of the Hungarians. Having been conquered in early times by the Teutonic Knights, the Estonians were given a Germanic culture; when the Knights accepted the Reformation, the Estonians followed suits.

Latvia, situated between Estonia and Lithuania, has more or less the same history as Estonia, but with important ethnic differences. Together with Lithuanian and Old Prussian, Latvian belongs to the Baltic group of Indo-European languages, a group nearer to ancient Sanskrit than to any other European language. the easternmost part of Latvia, called Latgallia, though genuinely Latvian, was originally part of Lithuania and thus part of the "Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth." Latgallia was Catholic and had a much higher birth rate than the rest of the country; in fact, Latgallians were principally responsible for Latvia's rate of population increase.

The case of Lithuania, the southernmost of the Baltic states, is perhaps even more complex. It is an historic nation that in the Middle Ages held power over an empire as large as France, one that stretched from the Baltic to the Black Sea. The Lithuanians were the last pagans left in Europe. In the fourteenth century, Grand Duke Gedimin invited Christian missionaries into the country, but he himself refused to convert. However, his grandson Jagiello was baptized in 1386 in Cracow and married the heiress of Poland, thus creating an empire as large as the Holy Roman Empire.

Though Poles and Lithuanians speak different languages, the two peoples became politically commingled. Nearly all of Poland's royal families are of Lithiuanian origin, as were such famous Poles as the poet Adam Mickiewicz and the warrior-statesman Josef Pilsudski. Yet, however beneficial the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was for both parties, Lithuanians feared that they were losing their national identity to the Poles. When the hour of liberation struck in 1918, Lithuanians opted for separation, with Vilnius as their capital. But the Poles took the city, which was heavily Polish, by force.

Though the Lithuanians were the last of the Baltic peoples to embrace Christianity, they eventually became the staunchest of Catholics. Their high birth rate forced many to emigrate (mostly to the United States).

For the Kremlin, the Baltic states are important on several counts, and it will cling to them as long as it can--until, that is, the Balts liberate themselves or are liberated. Like the citizens of the German "Democratic" Republic, the Baltic peoples are hardworking and technically skilled, two qualities not often found inside the Soviet Union. What's more, because of their georgraphic position and civilizations, the three states provide excellent "windows to the West."

TO BE SURE, the rulers of old Russia long dominated the Baltic nations--Czar Alexander III was the first Russian ruler who tried to "Russianize" the Balts--but the Leninists have been far more systematic and ruthless than their Czarist predecessors. They have relied on deportation of the native population (plus an occasional execution) and importation of Russians to increase the percentage of Russians inside the Baltic republics.

Estonia faces the most precarious demographic future, followed by Latvia. Lithuania has the brightest prospects, because of its high birth rate and its overwhelming loyalty to the Catholic Church. Whatever the tragic and superfluous tensions between the Poles and Lithuanians, the Polish Pope means a lot to the Lithuanians. Unlike some of his predecessors, John Paul II knows the ways of the Kremlin and also knows the plight of the Lithuanians--as well as their long record of resistance.

In 1924, shortly after the Baltic nations won their independence, historian H. W. V. Temperley wrote "that the epic of the Baltic nations' struggle for independence will rank high among the world's records of such performances." The Baltic nations are no longer independent, byt they are still struggling, almost 44 years after the first Soviet takeover. The epic of the Baltic nations is by no means ended.