The dismantled installations were repatriated to Russia and the site returned to Latvian control, with the last Russian soldier leaving Baltic soil in October 1999.

[23] Poland was to be partitioned in the event of its "political rearrangement"—the areas east of the Narev, Vistula and San Rivers going to the Soviet Union while Germany would occupy the west.

[23] Lithuania, adjacent to East Prussia, would be in the German sphere of influence, although a second secret protocol agreed in September 1939 assigned the majority of Lithuanian territory to the Soviet Union.

On 24 September, the Estonian foreign minister was given an ultimatum: The Soviets demanded a treaty of mutual assistance to establish military bases in Estonia.

In late May and early June 1940, the Baltic states were accused of military collaboration against the Soviet Union by holding meetings the previous winter.

In practice, the implementation of occupation policy was more complex; for administrative convenience the Baltic states were included with Belorussia in the Reichskommissariat Ostland.

Decrease in quality of life and service conditions, forceful indoctrination of Communist ideology, caused discontent of recently Sovietized military units.

The 7000-strong 22nd Estonian Territorial Rifle Corps got heavily beaten in the battles around Porkhov during the German invasion in summer 1941, as 2000 were killed or wounded in action, and 4500 surrendered.

On 22 June 1941 the Lithuanians overthrew Soviet rule two days before the Wehrmacht arrived in Kaunas, where the Germans then allowed a Provisional Government to function for over a month.

[49] The discovery of the Katyn massacre in 1943 and callous conduct towards the Warsaw uprising in 1944 had cast shadows on relations; nevertheless, all three victors still displayed solidarity at the Yalta conference in 1945.

[58] The deportees were allowed to return after Nikita Khrushchev's secret speech in 1956 denouncing the excesses of Stalinism, however many did not survive their years of exile in Siberia.

[64][65][66][better source needed] In Latvia’s case specifically, archival evidence proves that from 1946 to 1990, the USSR drew far more resources from Latvian territory than it spent on it, with over 18% of revenues net-transferred out of the republic.

Small successful protests encouraged key individuals and by the end of 1988 the reform wing had gained the decisive positions in the Baltic republics.

Their properties and personal belonging were confiscated and given to newly arrived colonists – economic migrants, Soviet military, NKVD personnel, as well as functionaries of the Communist Party.

[98] The special Latvian commission in 2016 calculated the economic damage of the occupation using a different methodology and estimated it at 185 billion euros (at the prices of that year).

[115][116][117] The Baltic states have repeatedly sought financial compensation from Russia for damages inflicted during the illegal occupation, both individually and collectively.

[130] However, this claim has been described by British army think tank CHACR as both "nefarious" and a "horrifying insult" — part of an intentional propaganda campaign to spread a myth of Baltic "incorporation".

Russia's stance is based upon the desire to avoid financial liability, since acknowledging the Soviet occupation would set the stage for future compensation claims from the Baltic states.

A report by an independent commission formed by the Latvian government in 2016 concluded that the criminal actions of the Soviet occupation had inflicted on Latvia alone constituted over €185 billion in economic damages.

[145] In 2011, Lithuania continued to seek reparations with foreign minister Audronius Azubalis labeled it "ridiculous to talk with Russia without resolving issues related to the occupation.

[156] It also states regarding those invasions that "[o]nly enemies of democracy or people who had lost their senses could describe those actions of the Soviet Government as aggression".

[157] In the reassessment of Soviet history during perestroika, the USSR condemned the 1939 secret protocol between itself and Germany that led to the invasion and occupations in the Baltic countries.

[124] Soviet-Russian historian Vilnis Sīpols [ru] argues that Stalin's ultimatums of 1940 were defensive measures taken against of the German threat and had no connection with the 'socialist revolutions' in the Baltic states.

[158] The arguments that the USSR had to annex the Baltic states in order to defend the security of those countries and to avoid German invasion into the three republics can also be found in the college textbook "The Modern History of Fatherland".

[160] According to the revisionist historian Oleg Platonov "from the point of view of the national interests of Russia, unification was historically just, as it returned to the composition of the state ancient Russian lands, albeit partially inhabited by other peoples".

The Molotov–Ribbentrop pact and protocols, including the dismemberment of Poland, merely redressed the tearing away from Russia of its historical territories by "anti-Russian revolution" and "foreign intervention".

He also contends that the annexation of the Baltic states had no military value in defence of possible German aggression, as it bolstered anti-Soviet public opinion in future allies Britain and the US and turned the native populations against the Soviet Union: the subsequent guerrilla movement in the Baltic states after the Second World War caused domestic problems for the Soviet Union.

[136] However, Russia's current official position directly contradicts its earlier rapprochement with Lithuania[163] as well as its signature of membership to the Council of Europe, where it agreed to the obligations and commitments including "iv.

[167] "The assertions about [the] 'occupation' by the Soviet Union and the related claims ignore all legal, historical and political realities, and are therefore utterly groundless".—Russian Foreign Ministry.

[170] Izvestia wrote in its 25 December 1918, issue: "Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania are directly on the road from Russia to Western Europe and therefore a hindrance to our revolutions...