The Baltics - Tallinn & Riga

Flags of the Soviet Socialist Republics & USSR, Estonian Song Festival Grounds - Tallinn

Each of the three Baltic countries fought a war of independence and civil war in the aftermath of World War I and Russia's 1917 Bolshevik Revolution. The result was much like the outcome of similar struggles in Finland (see page 2.09) - the "Whites" defeated the "Reds," and each of the three countries emerged as an independent state with a parliamentary form of government, based on popular elections, and a non-communist, market-based economy. They were recognized as sovereign nations in 1920. 

Although their parliamentary political systems faltered in the 1930's, the Baltic nations remained independent until the beginning of the Second World War. From that point, their fates were decided by the armies of their powerful neighbors - the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany.

The Soviet Union occupied the Baltics, early in the war, as part of the infamous "Molotov-Ribbentrop Non-Aggression Pact" that divided control of eastern Europe between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. The Baltic nations were incorporated into the Soviet Union as "Soviet Socialist Republics." 

Hitler repudiated the non-aggression pact in 1941 and invaded the Soviet Union. The Baltics were quickly overrun and occupied by the German army. Soviet forces eventually drove out the Germans and re-occupied the Baltic states. After that, the Baltics remained part of the USSR for almost five decades. So, at the time of my visit in 1969, each of the Baltic countries was a Soviet Socialist Republic within the Soviet Union.

The photo above shows the flags of the fifteen Soviet Socialist Republics, with the national flag of the USSR to the right. The flags of the republics are all based on the national flag - solid red with a gold star and hammer and sickle emblem in the upper left-hand corner - with stripes or other variations added to distinguish the flags from each other.

Flag of the USSR

(Source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Flag_of_the_Soviet_Union.png)

                                                                                                                              

Flag of the Estonian SSR

(Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Flag_of_Estonian_SSR.svg)

The closest flag in the photo above, in the left foreground, is that of the Russian SFSR. The next flag to the right is that of the Ukrainian SSR. The flags of the Baltic republics, counting left to right, are 8th (Lithuania - green and white stripe along bottom of flag), 10th (Latvia - wavy blue and white stripes along bottom) and 15th/last (Estonia - also wavy blue and white stripes, but with a red stripe along the bottom).