Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania
- Three countries with different languages, diverse histories and distinct cultural identities but with much in common.
- Ex-Soviet states but huge strides have been made in political and economic development – and building restoration.
- The emphasis of the tour is more on history, politics and general culture than on art and architecture.
Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania: the regaining of independence in 1991 by these three states was a happy outcome of the demise of the Soviet Union. Of all the fragments of that former super-power, the Baltic States are perhaps the countries with the brightest future and the least clouded present.
Though geographical proximity leads the countries to be conventionally thought of together as a single entity, the degree of difference between them is surprisingly great in terms of ethnicity, language, historical development and religion.
The Estonians are of Finno-Ugric origin and their language has nothing in common with their Latvian or Russian neighbours. Lithuanian history has for much of the post-mediaeval era been linked with Catholic Poland, whereas Estonia and Latvia were early recipients of Protestantism.
Tallinn (Estonia) and Riga (Latvia) are basically Nordic cities, having been citadels of the Teutonic Knights, members of the Hanseatic League and subject to Danish and Swedish rule, whereas Vilnius (Lithuania), with its Polish past and heritage of Jewish culture, is a distinctly Central European city.
In the eighteenth century these states succumbed to the bear-hug of the Russian Empire – and only after the First World War did they achieve full independence again. In 1940, with the annexation by the Soviet Union, they once more fell under Russian rule. Sovietization and massive Russian immigration followed.
Between 1941 and 1944 they had the additional suffering of the German Occupation. Yet the Baltic States were always among the most prosperous and liberal of the Soviet republics, and among the most independent-minded.
Surprise ranks high among the responses of the visitor now – surprise that there is so much of interest and beauty to see, and surprise that the Iron Curtain was indeed so opaque a veil that most of us in the West could remain so ignorant of these countries and their heritage; surprise, perhaps, that on the whole the region functions with adequate efficiency and sophistication.