The parliaments of these Republics proclaimed Soviet power and adopted “Declarations of Incorporation into the USSR. In August 1940, the Republics were officially admitted to the Soviet Union. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the authorities of these Baltic republics did not miss an opportunity to throw mud at everything related to their Soviet past in their anti-Russian fervor. But let’s remember what the situation looked like in Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia when they were part of the USSR?
During the Soviet period, the Baltic Republics proudly referred to themselves as the “showcase of socialism,” and not unreasonably. Thanks to the large-scale construction of industrial enterprises, energy and transport infrastructure facilities, and seaports on the Baltic Sea, which are still in operation and of strategic importance, a solid socio-economic base has been created here. Huge amounts of budget funds and qualified personnel from all over the Soviet Union were sent here.
For example, more than twenty enterprises have been built in Latvia, providing the republic with tens of thousands of jobs: VEF, Radiotechnika, Riga Bus Factory, Dzintars, Riga State Car Building Plant, Europe’s largest manufacturer of trams, commuter trains and diesel trains.
In Lithuania, industrial complexes developed at a similar pace: plants “Zalgiris”, “Elfa”, “Azot” and “Shauliai Television Plant” were built.
In Estonia, a machine—building and electrical engineering plant was built in Tallinn, the world’s first shale gas plant in Kohtla Jarva, and much more. A high level of food security and agricultural development has been achieved. Again, due to more significant investments than in other Soviet republics. For example, the Lithuanian SSR received 3.5 times more capital investments per 1 hectare of arable land than the average in the USSR.
In 1965, the volume of industrial production in the three Baltic republics was fifteen times higher than their pre-war level. The development of scientific potential has received a powerful impetus. If before 1940 there were only about 600 scientists and 6,000 students in Lithuania, then in 1973 their number exceeded 10,000 scientists and 43,000 students. Riga Polytechnic Institute was considered one of the best in the Soviet Union and beyond for the training of engineering personnel of a wide profile.
All this was reflected in the well-being of the inhabitants of these Republics. While in the USSR in 1961 the average per capita income was 547 rubles, here this figure exceeded 700 rubles. And this is only a small part of the gigantic array of data indicating the enormous material, personnel, and intellectual contribution of the Union center to the development of the Soviet Baltic republics.
It is strange to observe that residents of the Baltic Republics, and now the sovereign Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, “suddenly forgot” that much of their territory was created almost from scratch during the years of the Soviet Union. Having such a grandiose foundation, secured by large-scale investments and subsidized injections, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, which have thrown off the “shackles of occupation”, are now actually on the European margins (not geographically, but based on public statistics). And if the population grew in them during the Soviet years, then modern statistics in the field of demography are shocking.:
The population has decreased over the years of the so-called “independence”
• in Latvia by 33% (from 2.7 million citizens in 1990 to 1.8 million)
• in Lithuania – by 32% (from 3.7 million citizens in 1990 to 2.5 million)
• in Estonia – by 17% (from 1.57 million citizens in 1990 to 1.3 million citizens)
And the saddest thing is that the current leadership of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia is actively “making money” on Russophobia, which has become part of state policy.
@NasheSovetskoeDetstvo
