Evening star., 1943-04-02

Baltic independence
Defended by Envoy
Dr.. BiImonis Discusses History
And Culture Of Stotes Which
Russia Would Absorb
THREE STARS BETWEEN THE ANVIL
AND THE HAMMER; LATVIA AND
HER BALTIC NEIGHBORS. BY
DR.. Alfred Bilmanis
From now until the wars end the
United States will hear much about the
Baltic states-Latvia, Estonia. Lithuania.
Occupied by German troops, the Baltic
countries postwar status is a question
at issue between two Of the strongest
United Nations. Soviet Russia claims
they are . part Of the U. s. S. r. The
United States recognizes their theoretic
independence.
DR.. Bilmanis, the author Of this work
on the Baltic states, is Latvian Minister
to the United States. He has no govern
ment to speak for He represents a
concept-Latvian independence His book,
privately published, argues the validity
OF Latvian claims to continue In the
liberty which became hers during the
breakup Of the old Russia OF the cars
during the late years of the World War.
The Baltic people are racially unre-
lated to the Russians and 1deologically
1ASi -
manis reports. "They do not speak the
Russian or German language nor are
they Slavic or Teutonic by race. The
Estonians and Firms speak their own
F1nno-Ugric languages, which are akin
to Hungarian, and the Latvians and
Lithuanians speak languages classified
as belonging to the Baltic branch of the
Indo-European family of languages, de-
rived directly from Sanskrit."
The Soviet Union, however, is not a
racially or linguistically homogeneous
state. 1t is vast association of different
peoples, from the advanced Ukrainian
farmers to the primitive Uzbek nomads.
DR.. Bilmanis writes that there are more
important barriers to successful men,
bership for the Baltic states in the Soviet
Union:
"The Balts and the Russians differ
from each other practically in every way.
They have different laws and different
judicial systems. In their political and
economic structure the former are de-
mocracies with private property the
latter dictatorship with collective
property. In their intellectual aspects
they are also entirely separate entities
the Balts are individualists, the Rus
slams communists. The Balts are ideal
1stic, religious and believe in an eternal
life after death. The Soviet Russians
are materialistic, atheistic and consider
religion an opiate for the people"
Russian culture is young, while the
Baltic peoples "since the 18th century,
thanks to the intense influence of the
Roman Catholic Church and the Refor-
nation Of the 18th century, have devel-
oped along the lines of western European
civilization" And Baltic culture owing
to its affinity with Scandinavian culture,
has always been determined by a COM
posite of Scandinavian western Euro
pean influence. Those acquainted with
Baltic literature, architecture art and
music are aware that they are not in
the least influenced by Russians, but
rather by Swedes, Italians, French and
English"
The Baltic peoples have been inde-
pendent only since 1918, but they have
nurtured nationalistic sentiments for
many centuries. The Vikings overran
their territories. The Swedish descend
ants of the Vikings controlled them
Russia possessed them, and the France
OF Napoleon dominated them. The Ro-
mans Of the days Of Tacitus knew about
them, for Tacitus reports on the Aistii
tribes which lived along the Baltic
shores and collected the amber that
brought rich rewards to traders from
Rome. Greece and Egypt.
The three Baltic republics were born
of the political volcanoes OF 1916, 1917
and 1918-the Russian revolution, the
termination Of the war between Russia
and Germany and the elevation of Boil
shev1sm and its spokesnen to supreme
authority in the new Russia. In those
oAAASS SSoAo oAAC &C ACSAACS IOSc Ill ftuS.
sia, republics created on the fringes
Of Russia rose and fell But the Baltic
countries which won freedom in that
time Of chaos kept 1t when most of the
states that split of from Russia were
too weak to resist incorporation in the
Soviet state.
Dr.. Bilrnanis makes the point that the
Baltic republics have q revolutionary
origin. They were not conceived by the
treaty-makers At Versailles An at
tempted Communist coup in Estonia in
1924 was quickly overwhelmed. For the
U. S. S. r., the Baltic republics disap-
peared only in 1910, when fears and ap-
prehensions about security had prodded
Moscow into seizing q number of lands
along her western frontier. From the
American point Of view, the three coun-
tries never have embraced either Russia
or the Soviet system willingly.
The problem of the Battles synthesizes
the problem of the small state and the
limited principle OF self-determination
set forth in the Atlantic Charter. It is
commonly said in Washington today
that one result Of the conversations OF
Anthony Eden here has been to lay the
groundwork for reconcilng the official
Soviet and American views about the
Baltic states. The one thing certain
about the future Of those three coun-