Word: baltic
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...Baltic states also demand more say in military affairs. The Estonian government has petitioned Moscow to put more Estonians in the republic's interior-ministry forces and border guards. There have been calls to restore the tradition of local military units like the Sixteenth Lithuanian Rifle Division, and more radical proposals to create a zone of peace in the Baltics. Says Latvian Popular Front leader Dainis Ivans: "We should decide ourselves how many military bases we need on our territory and move step by step toward making Latvia a military-free zone...
...independence between the two World Wars waves again above Tallinn's Toompea Castle. Latvia has hoisted its traditional crimson-and-white banner above Riga Castle. In Lithuania the historic yellow- green-and-red tricolor flutters once more from Gediminas Tower in Vilnius. A report from each of the Baltic republics...
...popular saying in this northern Baltic state puts it: Think nine times and speak on the tenth. Estonia's major contribution to the Baltic reform movement has primarily been new ideas, whether blueprints for popular-front movements or drafts of laws regulating economic "cost accounting" at the local level. But when Estonians do speak, they get a hearing. Last November the Estonian supreme soviet passed amendments to the local constitution, investing ultimate legal authority with the republic rather than with Moscow. That act of defiance brought on a finger-wagging lecture from Gorbachev. But the tiny Baltic state held...
...other Baltic states jest that being Latvian is "not a nationality but a profession," a reflection of the peculiar position of an ethnic group whose cultural survival has long been threatened. In 1935 Latvians made up 76% of the population in their homeland. By 1979 their numbers had dwindled to 53.7%. During the same period, the total of ethnic Russians in Latvia climbed from 11% to 32.8%. Thus, Latvian national aims have to be advanced through the art of compromise. At a time when Lithuanian and Estonian parliamentarians were debating whether to turn down Moscow's election-reform laws last...
Moscow would not even need to resort to tanks and troops to dampen the Baltic enthusiasm for secession. It could exert pressure just by slapping an embargo on fuel and raw-material shipments. Yet there are numerous way stations of sovereignty on the road to independence. Some Baltic economic thinkers believe, for example, that the region could turn into a clearinghouse between East and West, where Estonians, Latvians and Lithuanians could serve as go-betweens for Westerners eager to open up the Soviet market. "The Baltic states may not be as exotic as Hong Kong, but they make a good...