Georgia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova and Azerbaijan consider their countries were occupied by the USSR.

Six post-Soviet countries now say they were occupied by the USSR

by PAUL A. GOBLE

Yesterday, Georgians marked the 94th anniversary of what Tbilisi calls “the battle of the Soviet Occupation” of that country in 1921, a self-definition that means six post-Soviet states now officially view the Soviet system as an occupation and one that marks an important milestone in their separation from Russia and possible future development.

Estonians, Latvians and Lithuanians and their supporters in the West always viewed Soviet power in the three as an illegal occupation. That was the source of both the West’s non-recognition policy and their efforts a quarter of a century ago that led to the restoration of their independence.

Moldovans also view their inclusion in the USSR as an occupation, with many of them arguing that they were the “fourth” victim of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact and should be viewed as such. And Azerbaijanis, official and unofficial alike, trace their current statehood back to the Democratic Republic of Azerbaijan that was occupied by Soviet forces early on.

Such self-identifications are important both because they underscore the commitment of these peoples not to allow that to happen again but also and perhaps even more because they open the way to the kind of developments economic and political that happened in Eastern Europe when the Soviet occupation of that region ended.

Indeed, many analysts there and in the West have suggested that one of the major reasons that Eastern Europe, including the three Baltic states, has been more successful in overcoming the communist past is precisely because its peoples viewed communism less as an integral part of their national lives than as a foreign occupation they were only too happy to throw off.

............

Read more: toinformistoinfluence.com