MARCH OF THE TITANS - A HISTORY OF THE WHITE RACE
CHAPTER 33 : CONTINUAL CONQUEST - THE BALTIC STATES
Part ii - Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Prussia
LITHUANIA
ANCIENT LITHUANIA
The region known as Lithuania was occupied by one of the Baltic Indo-European invading tribes before the year 2500 BC, as part of the great Indo-European invasions of that era. There they lived, largely peacefully, forming a typical early Nordic community having the advantage of the knowledge of iron working (a characteristic trait of the Indo-European peoples).
The first Roman reference to the Balts was made by Tacitus, the Roman historian of the 1st Century AD, who made mention of a peoples in the far north who traded in the semi precious mineral of amber, which was common in that region.
INVASIONS BY TEUTONIC KNIGHTS
As a result of their geographic remoteness, the Balts were never subject to the great tribulations of the Roman Empire - they only started to feature as a factor in European history with the arrival of the fanatic Christian Teutonic Knights in the region. The Teutonic Knights were sent by the Pope to Christianize - by violence - the pagan White tribes living along the Baltic coast.
FIRST KINGDOM - 1251 AD
A loose grouping of Lithuanian tribes was set up by a King Mindaugas in 1251, the date upon which the kingdom of Lithuania was formally created.
Almost immediately the largely pagan Lithuanians were attacked by the Teutonic Knights, bent on Christianizing all of north eastern Europe.
The Lithuanians rose to the challenge, and defeated the Teutonic Knights in a great battle in 1260.
EMPIRE : BALTIC TO BLACK SEA
Awakened from their peaceful existence by the sudden violent appearance of the Christians, the Lithuanians quickly harnessed their own dormant power and set about extending their territory. Through military conquest, a Lithuanian empire was created, which extended from the Baltic to the Black seas, reaching right across present day Russia, including Belarus and the Western Ukraine.
Lithuania was however numerically to small to hold on to these territories indefinitely - they were all retaken by a strengthened Russia by the time of the partition of Poland in 1772.
UNION WITH POLAND LEADS TO LOSS OF EMPIRE
The sudden and dramatic emergence of the Lithuanian Balts upon the region elevated their status: in 1386, the Lithuanian king, Jagiello, married Jadwiga, queen of Poland, and, after finally accepting Christianity, was crowned Wladyslaw II Jagiello, king of Poland and Lithuania.
The political union with Poland however proved to be Lithuania's undoing. The state was automatically dragged into the squabbling between Prussia, Russia and Austria over Polish territory, and as a result of the partition of Poland, Lithuania was included in Russia.
Despite being hopelessly out numbered, the Lithuanians staged popular nationalist rebellions against Russian rule in 1812, 1831, 1863, and 1905, all to no avail.
WORLD WAR ONE AND INDEPENDENCE
The German army occupied Lithuania during the First World War and at the end of that conflict nationalists seized the opportunity to declare Lithuanian independence, with Russia being too weak to resist.
WORLD WAR TWO
The outbreak of the Second World War saw Lithuania being invaded by the Soviet Union in June 1940 - another Soviet act of aggression which, like the Soviet invasion of Poland in 1939, was ignored by the British government in a gross display of hypocrisy. Lithuania was formally annexed into the Soviet Union that same year.
The German invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941, brought about an uprising in Lithuania against the Soviets. Facing what seemed like imminent total defeat at the hands of the Germans, the Soviets withdrew their occupation forces.
The invading German armies were welcomed as liberators and many Lithuanians joined the German armed forces in their anti-Communist war. Lithuanians served in almost all arms of the German war effort, in the Waffen SS in particular, fighting with honor and distinction on the Eastern Front against their long time foes, the Communists in the Soviet Union.
SOVIET RE-OCCUPATION - 10 % OF POPULATION DEPORTED
By mid 1944, the Soviet Union had re-occupied Lithuania and was pushing the Germans back towards the west. A new Soviet government was established in Lithuania - which exacted a terrible revenge upon the Lithuanians for having supported the Germans - at least 350,000 Lithuanians were deported to labor camps in Siberia as punishment.
When it is considered that the total Lithuanian population of the time was just over three million, the Soviet arrests and deportations to Siberia represented fully ten per cent of the entire population.
This outrage was one more blatant Communist atrocity perpetrated upon the Eastern European people which was sanctimoniously ignored by the West. Very few Lithuanians came back alive from Siberia.
In addition to the imprisonment of ten per cent of the native population, the Soviets also arranged for the mass settlement of ethnic Russians and Poles in Lithuania, creating a massive ethnic Russian presence in Lithuania.
Demonstration for the independence of Lithuania, Vilnius, 1990. Note the poster reminding of how many times the Soviets invaded Lithuania.
INDEPENDENCE - 1991
Lithuania had to wait until 1991 for the Soviet Union to collapse before independence could once again be achieved. In that year a democratic republic was established, the first time since 1940 that Lithuania had not been under foreign occupation.
IMMIGRATION - LITTLE MIXING
Like Poland, Lithuania has never encouraged immigration from anywhere in the world, and as a result has an extremely high degree of racial homogeneity, its population being dominated by Nordic or Dinaric sub-racial types.
LATVIA
ANCIENT LATVIA
Like its neighbor, Lithuania, the territory of Latvia was also occupied by Indo-European Balts and the time of the great Indo-European invasions of the last three millennium BC. Living in relative obscurity, the Letts were only made mention of during the 9th Century AD. The territory retained its independence until the mid 1200s, when it was occupied by the Teutonic Knights, Poles and Russians in quick succession.
TEUTONIC KNIGHTS - CONVERT POPULATION
The Teutonic Knights were the first to appear: by fire and sword they tried to convert the very pagan Nordic tribes in the area early in the 13th Century, and from 1237 to 1561 Latvia was incorporated into Livonia, the property of the Teutonic Knights.
At this stage the total Latvian population was probably not more than 800,000, and as such they were not in a position to offer effective resistance to their numerically superior neighbors.
FOREIGN OCCUPATION
The break up of the Teutonic state of Livonia in 1561, led to the territory of Latvia being divided up amongst Poland, Sweden and into one small independent duchy. The Swedish possession, which included the city Riga, was lost shortly afterwards to the expanding Russian state. Finally, as a result of the partition of Poland, Russia ended up controlling all of Latvia from the late 18th Century onwards.
INDEPENDENCE - 1918
Although the Russians ruled Latvia for more than a century, the Latvians maintained their ethnic identity. When the Russian rulers were prostrate after the First World War and the Communist Revolution, the Latvian nationalists struck at last - in 1918, Latvia proclaimed itself an independent republic.
However, Communist Russian troops invaded to suppress the uprising. Western Allied troops were rushed to the region in 1920, and expelled the Communists, forcing the Soviet government to formally accept Latvian independence.
12% OF LATVIANS VOLUNTEER FOR HITLER AGAINST THE SOVIET UNION
Latvian independence was however only to last 20 years: in 1940, the Soviet Union simply invaded the small country, with the West once again ignoring the blatant Soviet military aggression whilst simultaneously declaring war on Nazi Germany for invading Poland.
As a result, the 1941 invasion of the Soviet Union by the Germans, was largely welcomed by the Latvians as a war of liberation. Many joined the German armed forces to fight the Communists. In total, some 148,000 Latvians - or just over 12 percent of the entire population - volunteered for active duty in the Nazi war effort, either in the Waffen SS or as labor or auxiliary units. When the territory was reoccupied by the Soviets in 1944, the Latvian anti-Communists were viciously persecuted and many thousands detained.
A unit of the 15th Latvian SS Division marching in the city of Riga, summer 1943. Their Latvian arm flashes can be seen on their right hand sleeves. Huge numbers of Latvians volunteered for the German war effort against the Soviet Union - eventually some 148,000 Latvian men and women volunteered for all kinds of services, from military units to labor to auxiliary police units. This amounted to just over 12 percent of the entire Latvian population - the most any nation can spare in times of war. Some of the Latvian SS men fought on against the Communists as partisans until the 1950s.
Although some former Latvian SS men fought on as guerrillas until the 1950s, resistance was never to take on any serious form again.
With the Latvian population being so small in 1944 - just over one million - the Soviet policy of resettling ethnic Russians in Latvia had a great effect: in 1997 at least 34 per cent of the country's population of 2,5 million, were ethnic Russians.
IMMIGRATION
Apart from the influx of ethnic Russians, Latvia has not experienced any other great population shifts, and as a result retains a high degree of its original racial homogeneity amongst its population.
ESTONIA
ANCIENT ESTONIA
Estonia had been occupied by a collection of Baltic Indo-European tribes, known as the Ests, in the centuries before the first millennium BC, where they lived in obscurity and comparatively tiny numbers.
The Roman historian Tacitus was the first to make mention of them during the 1st Century AD. However, the Ests remained in obscurity until a Danish invasion of 1219.
DANISH OCCUPATION
The Danes occupied the Ests' homeland until 1345, when, after a series of uprisings by the Ests, the Danes sold the land to the Teutonic Knights, who were always keen to get their hands and swords onto new batches of Odin worshipping pagans.
The Teutonic Knights, in alliance with a grouping of German city states known as the Hanseatic Alliance, dominated Estonia until 1561, when the order was dissolved.
Estonia was then placed under the protection of the Swedish king, while the southern part of Estonia was occupied by Poland. In 1721, Sweden gave up Estonia and handed the territory over to the expanding Russian state.
INDEPENDENCE AFTER 700 YEARS OF OCCUPATION
In what must be a world record for patience and endurance, the Estonians waited until the collapse of Russia following the First World War and the Communist Revolution at the end of the war, to declare itself independent - this after 700 years of foreign rule.
The Communists immediately tried to invade, but were fought to a standstill by the Ests - a peace treaty in 1920, officially recognized the independence of Estonia.
SOVIET INVASION - SUPPORT FOR GERMAN WAR EFFORT
In 1940, Soviet Russia made a clean sweep of the three Baltic states, occupying Estonia in a quick military invasion that drew no response from the West.
The invasion of the Soviet Union by Nazi Germany in 1941, was welcomed by the Estonians. Many enthusiastically joined with the German armed forces and Waffen SS, fighting fiercely against the Soviets.
Estonians volunteers in the German Luftwaffe receive decorations, 1943. Note the Estonian arm flash on the right hand uniform sleeve. Many Estonians welcomed the German invasion of their common hated enemy, the Communist Soviet Union, and volunteered for all arms of the German war effort.
MASS EXODUS TO SWEDEN AND GERMANY
The defeat of the Germans saw the Soviets re-enter Estonia in 1944. More than 60,000 Estonians fled to Sweden and Germany out of fear for reprisals, a fear which turned out to be well justified. The Estonian population at the time was less than 800,000, and the literally overnight exodus of over ten per cent of the population severely weakened the state.
The country was then reincorporated into the Soviet Union, and remained a satellite until the fall of that super power in 1991.
INDEPENDENCE - 1991
Seizing advantage of the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Estonia declared itself independent once again, being granted that status in the same year. The former Soviet Union was in far too much turmoil to object to the independence of the Baltic states, and Estonia settled down to a period of relative peace for the first time since 1219.
IMMIGRATION - MASS INFLUX OF RUSSIANS
As was the case with all the Baltic states, the Soviets realized that the key to changing the society in any territory is to change the population make-up. A huge ethnic Russian resettlement program was launched by the Soviet Union, which was dramatically successful.
In 1995, years after the fall of the Soviet Union, the ethnic Russian element of Estonia stood at 38 per cent of the entire population, compared to only 8,5 per cent before the Soviet occupation of 1944. This influx of Russians has caused major political problems within Estonia and are at the top of political agendas in that country.
Apart from the massive ethnic Russian settlement, no other racial sea change occurred in Estonia's history - as a result the country retains a high degree of racial homogeneity, with Nordic types dominating.
PRUSSIA
ANCIENT PRUSSIA
The German state which became known as Prussia originated on the Baltic coast, in the north of present day Poland. Occupied by waves of Indo-European Balts in the great Indo-European invasions, these tribes called themselves the Prussi, or the Borussi, from where the region was to eventually take its name.
The Prussi were closely related to the Lithuanians, and evidence of the contact between these two groupings is widespread, with the Prussi acting as go-betweens with the Baltic tribes to the north and the Celts of Western Europe in the lucrative trade in the semi-precious amber.
CHRISTIANITY FAILS
The Prussi were first exposed to Christianity by the Saxons, a Germanic people from southern Germany who had been converted by sword to Christianity by the Frankish King Charlemagne.
However, the Saxons did not bring the message of the Christian bible by fire and sword, trying instead to peacefully persuade the Prussi of the error of their Odinist worshipping ways.
The Prussi had no time for the new religion. The Saxon attempt to convert them ended when the Bohemian bishop and saint, Adalbert, was killed by a group of local Prussi while on a missionary tour in 997 AD. The Christians then gave up and the Prussi were left to their pagan ways for another two hundred years.
THE TEUTONIC KNIGHTS AND INFLUX OF DUTCH AND GERMANS
It was only with the arrival of the Teutonic Knights in the middle of the 13th Century, who brought the Christian message with the sword, that the new religion took hold amongst the Prussi.
The Teutonic Knights not only Christianized the Prussi, but also imported more established Christians, Dutch and Germans, to settle amongst the Prussi and police their transition to Christianity.
By the end of the 13th Century, the region had been completely subdued - and had its already massively Nordic sub-racial make-up boosted by the arrival of significant numbers of Dutch and Germans, themselves descendants of earlier Indo-European invasions.
Prussia was then ruled as a fiefdom of the Teutonic Knights until 1410, when a combined Lithuanian and Polish army defeated the Teutonic Knights. The western part of Prussia was ceded to Poland (becoming known as Polish Royal Prussia) and the Eastern part held by the Teutonic Knights as a Polish fiefdom.
THE HOUSE OF HOHENZOLLERN - INDEPENDENT STATE 1660 AD
Eastern Prussia slowly became more secular until the last grand master of the Teutonic Knights, Albert of Hohenzollern, who was a Protestant Lutheran, declared himself Duke of Prussia in 1525.
Finally East Prussia was declared an independent state in 1660, after a conflict with Poland.
The full story of Prussia's dominance in the history of Germany is told in a later chapter- suffice to say here that the kings of Prussia were later to become the kings of Germany as that state came to be the leading German power.
East Prussia retained its territory until the end of the First World War, when it was physically cut off from the rest of Germany by the creation of an artificial strip of land given to Poland., with the Prussian city of Danzig being placed under Polish control. A dispute over this land led to the German-Polish conflict of 1939 and then to the outbreak of the Second World War.
At the end of the Second World War, millions of Prussians were expelled and the state of Prussia ceased to exist, with most of it being absorbed into present day Poland.
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