Word: baltics
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Since the collapse of the Soviet empire, about 24 million ethnic Russians have found themselves living in foreign countries, outside the boundaries of their historic homeland. The hundreds of thousands of Russian workers who flooded into the Baltic states of Estonia and Latvia after the 1940 Soviet annexation are viewed with suspicion now, as fifth columnists who are opposed to the nationalist aspirations of the new states. Many Russians have not helped matters any by refusing to learn local languages...
...Western leaders just how big a stake they have in the success of his leadership and reforms. Moscow without Yeltsin could decide to withdraw its support of sanctions in Yugoslavia and instead back the Serbs in their bloody campaign for territory. A new regime could decide to reannex the Baltic states, repair relations with Iraq or refuse to honor approval of the START 2 disarmament treaty. The specter of renewed confrontation with a conservative, nationalist Russia that might attempt to revive the ways of the Soviet empire -- forcing the U.S. to give up the defense savings it had meant...
...Bush administration reaped much criticism, including comments by Richard M. Nixon, for not responding quickly and effectively enough to the challenges facing Russia. Thirty-five other countries recognized the independence of the Baltic countries before Bush and Baker finally acted. State Department foot-dragging on providing economic aid has contributed to Russia's current financial woes. Economic uncertainties have made the threat of a nationalist coup to topple Yeltsin very real...
Despite their small size, the Baltic nations have loomed large as bellwethers in both the Soviet and the post-Soviet eras. Now the world looks to them for clues about the potential for reform in all the other former Soviet republics...
What the world sees is not always reassuring. The Lithuanian elections serve as a warning that there is a limit to the burdens people will endure for the sake of political and economic reform. But even though hardship and turmoil have plagued their first 12 months of freedom, the Baltic states sacrificed too much in the struggle for independence to forfeit their dreams of a better life. Few Balts, after all, would trade their nation's future -- however uncertain -- for its past...