Editing Colonization (section)

==== Baltic states ====
[[File:Nyet, nyet, Soviet (11).jpg|thumb|A protest sign from the 1980s calling on the United Nations to abolish Soviet colonialism in the Baltic states]]

Large numbers of ethnic Russians and other [[Russian speakers]] were settled in the three Baltic countries – Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia – after their [[Occupation of the Baltic states|reoccupation in 1944]], while local languages, religion and customs were suppressed.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Vardys |first=Vytas Stanley |title=Soviet Colonialism in the Baltic States: A Note on the Nature of Modern Colonialism |url=https://www.lituanus.org/1964/64_2_01_Vardys.html |journal=[[Lituanus]] |volume=10 |issue=2 |date=Summer 1964 |issn=0024-5089 |access-date=2021-01-22 |archive-date=2021-11-09 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211109162257/https://www.lituanus.org/1964/64_2_01_Vardys.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> David Chioni Moore classified it as a "reverse-cultural colonization", where the colonized perceived the colonizers as culturally inferior.<ref>{{cite web |author=David Chioni Moore |title=Is the Post- in Postcolonial the Post- in Post-Soviet? Toward a Global Postcolonial Critique |url=http://monumenttotransformation.org/atlas-of-transformation/html/p/postcolonial-post-soviet/is-the-post-in-postcolonial-the-post-in-post-soviet-toward-a-global-postcolonial-critique-david-chioni-moore.html |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |accessdate=26 January 2021 |date=23 October 2020}}</ref> Colonization of the three Baltic countries was closely tied to mass executions, [[Population transfer in the Soviet Union#Post-war expulsion and deportation|deportations]] and [[repression in the Soviet Union|repression]] of the native population. During both Soviet occupations ([[Soviet occupation of the Baltic states (1940)|1940–1941]]; [[Soviet re-occupation of the Baltic states (1944)|1944–1991]]) a combined 605,000 inhabitants of the three countries were either killed or deported (135,000 Estonians, 170,000 Latvians and 320,000 Lithuanians), while their properties and personal belongings, along with ones who fled the country, were confiscated and given to the arriving colonists – [[Soviet military]] and [[NKVD]] personnel, as well as functionaries of the [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union|Communist Party]] and [[economic migrant]]s from [[kolkhoz]]es.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Abene |first1=Aija |last2=Prikulis |first2=Juris |url=https://okupacijaszaudejumi.lv/content/files/DAMAGE%20CAUSED%20BY%20THE%20%20BALTIC%20STATES.pdf#page=21 |title=Damage caused by the Soviet Union in the Baltic States: International conference materials |publisher= E-forma |date=2017 |location=[[Riga]] |isbn=978-9934-8363-1-2 |pages=20–21|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230317121932/https://okupacijaszaudejumi.lv/content/files/DAMAGE%20CAUSED%20BY%20THE%20%20BALTIC%20STATES.pdf|archive-date=17 March 2023|url-status=live}}</ref>

The most dramatic case was Latvia, where the amount of ethnic Russians swelled from 168,300 (8.8%) in 1935 to 905,500 (34%) in 1989, whereas the proportion of ethnic Latvians fell from 77% in 1935 to 52% in 1989.<ref>{{cite book |last=Grenoble |first=Lenore A. |author-link=Lenore Grenoble |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WUeWBwAAQBAJ&pg=PA102 |title=Language Policy in the Soviet Union |publisher=[[Kluwer Academic Publishers]] |date=2003 |location=[[Dordrecht]] |isbn=1-4020-1298-5 |pages=102–103}}</ref> Baltic states also faced intense [[economic exploitation]], with [[Latvian SSR]], for example, transferring 15.961 billion rubles (or 18.8% percent of its total revenue of 85 billion rubles) more to the USSR budget from 1946 to 1990 than it received back. And of the money transferred back, a disproportionate amount was spent on the region's [[militarization]] and funding of repressive institutions, especially in the [[Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic#Stalinism re-imposed, 1945–1953|early years of the occupation]].<ref>{{cite web |last=Krūmiņš |first=Gatis |title=The Investments of the USSR Occupying Power in the Baltic Economies – Myths and Reality |url=https://va.lv/sites/default/files/lv_psrs_norekini2016_final_eng_final.pdf |publisher=[[Vidzeme University of Applied Sciences]] |pages=18–19 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220408080253/https://va.lv/sites/default/files/lv_psrs_norekini2016_final_eng_final.pdf |archive-date=8 April 2022}}</ref> It has been calculated by a Latvian state-funded commission that the Soviet occupation cost the [[economy of Latvia]] a total of 185 billion euros.<ref>{{cite web |title=Soviet occupation cost Latvian economy €185 billion, says research |url=https://eng.lsm.lv/article/society/society/soviet-occupation-cost-latvian-economy-185-billion-says-research.a178769/ |publisher=[[Public Broadcasting of Latvia]] |agency=[[LETA]] |accessdate=23 October 2020 |date=18 April 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine |title=Damage to Latvian economy during soviet rule estimated at EUR 185 bln |url=http://www.baltic-course.com/eng/analytics/?doc=119625 |magazine=[[The Baltic Course]] |accessdate=23 October 2020 |date=19 April 2015}}</ref>

Conversely, [[Marxian economics|Marxian economist]] and [[World-systems theory|world-systems analyst]] [[Samir Amin]] asserts that, in contrast to colonialism, capital transfer in the USSR was used to develop poorer regions in the South and East with the wealthiest regions like [[Western Russia]], Ukraine, and the Baltic Republics being the main source of capital.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Amin |first1=Samir |title=Russia and the Long Transition from Capitalism to Socialism |date=Jul 2016 |publisher=NYU Press |isbn=9781583676035 |pages=27–29 |url=https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=nn-tCwAAQBAJ&hl=en&pg=GBS.PA29.w.1.2.31 |quote=The Soviet government did much more: it established a system to transfer capital from the rich regions of the Union (western Russia, Ukraine, Belorussia, later the Baltic countries) to the developing regions of the east and south. |access-date=24 February 2021}}</ref> Estonian researcher [[Epp Annus]] acknowledges that the Soviet rule in the Baltic states did not possess every single characteristic of traditional colonialism since the Baltic states were already modern industrial European [[nation state]]s with an established sense of [[national identity]] and cultural self-confidence prior to their Soviet invasion in 1940 and proposed that the initial Soviet occupation developed into a colonial rule gradually, as the local resistance turned into a hybrid coexistence with the Soviet power. The Soviet colonial rule never managed to fully establish itself and began rapidly disintegrating during ''[[perestroika]]'', but after the restoration of independence, the Baltic states similarly had to deal with problems of a characteristically colonial nature, such as [[pollution]], [[economic collapse]] and demographic tensions.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Annus |first=Epp |authorlink=Epp Annus |title=The Problem of Soviet Colonialism in the Baltics |journal=[[Journal of Baltic Studies]] |volume=42 |issue=1 |date=March 2012 |pages=21–45 |issn=0162-9778 |doi=10.1080/01629778.2011.628551|s2cid=143682036 }}</ref>