Baltic States

Baltic States, independent republics of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, on the eastern coast of the Baltic Sea. The republics comprise the territory occupied by the Baltic Provinces and parts of various other territories formerly within Russia, including Vilnius and Kaunas. Established in 1918, the Baltic states were incorporated into the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) in 1940, during World War II, and occupied by Germany in 1941. Recaptured by the USSR in 1944, they remained part of it until 1991.