The Baltic states after the collapse of the Soviet Union: appendix

Raun, Toivo U. (2001) The Baltic states after the collapse of the Soviet Union: appendix. Hungarian Studies, 15 (1). pp. 163-165. ISSN 0236-6568

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Abstract

Two population tables, which were to have accompanied my article in the pre- vious issue of Hungarian Studies (14/2 [2000], 275–284), were inadvertently omitted. They are published here as an appendix to that text. Tables 1 and 2 provide an overview of the evolution of the ethnic composition of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania since the interwar era. They indicate a notable divergence in demographic trends in Lithuania in comparison with the other two Baltic states. Despite suffering the same kinds of population losses in World War II and under Stalinism as the Estonians and Latvians, the Lithuanians displayed a strong demographic dynamism, based on higher birth rates, and maintained a re- markably stable share of the total population of their country. On the other hand, demographic growth in Estonia and Latvia had already slowed considerably by the interwar period, and the native population in those two countries was much less able to withstand the disasters of the 1940s. It is striking that in 1989 there were fewer Estonians in Estonia and Latvians in Latvia than in the 1930s. It is also noteworthy that the number of ethnic Russians in Latvia throughout the Soviet era was more than double the combined corresponding figure for Estonia and Lithua- nia, a phenomenon that reflected Riga's attractiveness and size as the one true metropolis in the Baltic states.

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