THE FORGOTTEN REPUBLICS

A factual history of the ill-fated Baltic nations, which from their inception have served as a miserable mat on which the conquerors make their impress. The author describes the onslaught by Crusaders and Teutons; the Polish-Lithuanian relations; the more merciful occupation by the Swedes who opposed the selfish German landowners and lost to the Russian invaders; the latter-day squeeze between the Nazis and Communists in the hopeful but brief sun of self-governed statehood, the final overrun with the German-Russian pact and the Nazi defeat; leaving the ""protecting"" Communists to trample the luckless though plucky countries once again. The author mentions the literature of the nations, then closes with a call to bring these countries once again to the family of free nations by forcing Russia back to her own boundaries. A good book for a survey of the history of the Baltics for the interested general reader and students.