More Russification of the post WW2 Baltic States

Since the Baltic were the first area of the SU to declare independence, I wonder what effect increased Russification of the Baltics would have on the SU long-term.

The Baltics lost a pretty large percentage of thier population OTL, assuming this is much higher due to increased Nazi oppression, Stalinist terror/deportations & increased Russian/non-Baltic settlement of these regions etc what do ya'all think would happen?
 

Chilperic

Banned
The borders might look different; the baltic states might be smaller than they are OTL when the Soviet Union collapses, and there would probably be a bigger re-unification movement among them...
 

Chilperic

Banned
Baltic_states_borders.jpg

For example, here were some OTL border changes... hope this helps :D
 
It dose help.:)

Though with a larger Ethnic Russian population Latvia & Estonia may end up as part of the Russian Federation. At one stage the ethnic Latvian population had fell to 62% of the total after the Soviet annexation, in Estonia the figure is more like 70% assuming those figures are much closer to the 50% mark it could cause the drive to secession in the Baltics to be much lower than OTL.

That could cause a more stable SU during the 80's or a bloody balkanisation if the SU falls as per OTL.


The situation in Lithuania is more complicated...
 
While it's likely that the impact would be rather minor, the OP underlines a very important idea; that these countries were the first to break away from the Soviet Union, triggering the collapse of dominoes.

If, ethnically, they have no reason to do so, they may abstain altogether. If Moscow realizes in time that the soviet era is over and attempts a transition into a Russian Federation before any of it's core states break away... they may just be able to have the basis to claim that all the SSRs are to be provinces of the Federation, with some guaranteed degrees of autonomy...

It would probably require a good deal of backroom haggling, but if it were to happen somehow, the RusFed would be a considerably larger player and since these areas were all soviet anyway, the world would not see this as a major change in status quo whatsoever.
 
The only thing I could see from more Russification of the Baltics would be not only a greater resistance to Russification, but even more determination to get out of the Soviet orbit.
 
The only thing I could see from more Russification of the Baltics would be not only a greater resistance to Russification, but even more determination to get out of the Soviet orbit.

There in fact was considerable resistance in the Baltic States against Soviet rule up until the mid-60’s so that wouldn’t change. My premise is the Baltic suffer more population loss due to Nazi oppression or mass deportations. Stalin was more than capable of deporting whole populations, and the three Baltic States had a small population of less than 4 million total before WW2.

A high degree of Russification took plance in the OTL, but if it were significantly increased it may leave the 'native' populations in the minority in Latvia or Estonia or leave them with too small a majority in Lithuania to make a successful break with Moscow without wholesale ethnic cleansing.
 
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