Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1919-12-05
Bolshevlism On the Baltic
From the New York Times.

Allied today in dealing with the German
Baltic army of Won Der Goltz and Avaloff-
Bermondt was due largely to the fear of boil
shevism--either spreading from Russia through
the Baltic states or springing up spontaneously
in them. Now that the army which was to save
the Baltic for Germany is thoroughly beaten we
may expect to hear more talk OF this The out
cry will probably be great and most Of it will
come, directly or otherwise, from Germany.
The actual danger is very much less.
Mr.. Durantys dispatch published in yester-
days Times indicates something of the difficult
ties which the Let's will have, as the Esths
have had, with the "Balts"-the descendants of
the medieval military conquerors of the coun-
try. In Latvia these. are mainly German in
blood. with some Swedish and Danish elements;
in Esthona the Swedish racial element is much
stronger, but racial origin is not the decisive
characteristic. The Balts include considerable
percentage of the town population and prac-
tically all of the land'io'ding nobility; and,
whether German or swea,sh BY descent, prac-
tically all of them are German in conscious
ness. Numerically they from to 8 per
cent of the population in different parts of the
Baltic territories.
In Esthonia 80 per cent of the arabic land
and "a per cent of the forests belonged to 755
control of their own country they passed Sc
we're measures of appropriation which split up
most Of the estates. No doubt in some cases
this worked hardship; but the land barons had
had some centuries to make themselves loved,
and had succeeded, with few exceptions in
winning the bitter hatred of the populace. The
same thing is true in Latvia where the expro-
priatlon is still to come, and the fears of the
Ba1ts are consequently heightened by the un-
certainty of the situation. The unsuccessful
Russian revolution in 1905 provoked some peas
ant risings in the Baltic states, with the burning
of manor houses and massacres of mobiles, which
naturally were followed by still more severe
reprisas when imperial authority was re-estab-
lished 1t is apparent that the Balts are afraid
of something of the sort today now that the
German flibustering expedition, which received
at least moral support from the land-owning
son to hope that the responsible governments
now in control on the Baltic will prevent popu-
lar outbursts such as occurred in 1905.
All this however, is not bolshevism nor
anything like it. 1t is solution of the agrarian
problem such as is going on in Czechoslovakia
and Roumania and is about to occur in Jugo-
slavia-somewhat more extreme and attended
by harsher feeling since local conditions were
more oppressive; but it is not bolshevism. Latvia
and Esthonia have both fought off bolshevsm;
there is a good deal of socialism in both coun-
tries, but very little of it has any sympathy with
the state Of Lenin and Trotzky. In the winter
of 1880 the bolsheviki invaded the Baltic
states, with the frank declaration, published in
one of their official newspapers that "Lith-
uania, Latva and Esthonia lie across the route
to western Europe, and construct our revolution
This wall between the revolutionists of Russia
and Germany must be torn down. $50. The
control of the Baltic will also give soviet Rus
STA the opportunity to act upon the Scandina-
Wan states"
But much has changed in year. Spartacus
IS no longer an imminent danger in Germany,
and the bolshevist drive toward the Baltic has
been stopped. The Baltic states need peace,
even such a temporary half-peace as can be
made with soviet Russia. They hope to regain
their feet economically by acting as CONNER
cial Intermediates between soviet Russia and
western Europe, but the blockade is likely to
hinder this But they have the strongest posi-
bic interest in avoiding military alliance and in
preventing infltration; for bolshevst rule on the
Baltic will mean the end of nationalism, the
swallowing up of the newly liberated states in
Russian mass whose rulers arc no more sym
pathetic to the Let's and Esths than were the
Romanoffs. The new states have won their
liberty by fighting. and national sentiment
seems strong enough to keep bolshevisn out;
nor will the manners of Mr.. Litvinoff. who be-
HAYES to the Baltic negotiators as Hoffman,
behaved at Brest-Ltovsk, be likely to make
friends for his government.