From the Continent

TO THE Western reader or television viewer, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia seem confusingly alike. In fact, their similarities extend mostly to their externally imposed (i.e., by Russia) situation; culturally and ethnically, they are quite diverse.

What they have in common is that they were conquered or annexed by Russia in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, achieved their freedom as a result of the First World War, and were again annexed by their eastern neighbor in accordance with the Hitler—Stalin Pact. Also, their people are not Slavic and do not belong to the Eastern Church, and are therefore even more different from the Russians than from one another.

EK

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Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn

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TO THE Western reader or television viewer, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia seem confusingly alike. In fact, their similarities extend mostly to their externally imposed (i.e., by Russia) situation; culturally and ethnically, they are quite diverse.

What they have in common is that they were conquered or annexed by Russia in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, achieved their freedom as a result of the First World War, and were again annexed by their eastern neighbor in accordance with the Hitler—Stalin Pact. Also, their people are not Slavic and do not belong to the Eastern Church, and are therefore even more different from the Russians than from one another.