Acknowledgement of the Secret Protocol of the German–Soviet Non-aggression Pact and the Declaration of State Sovereignty by the Union Republics of the USSR

Abstract

In June 1989, the First Congress of People's Deputies of the Soviet Union established the Commission for Historical and Legal Estimation of the Soviet–German Non-aggression Pact of 1939. In the commission, representatives from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania condemned the Soviet annexation of the Baltic States, prompting heated arguments regarding the invalidity of the related secret protocol of the pact with other members who continued to hold the traditional Soviet ideological view of the pact as something positive. The debate over the secret protocol had the further potential to extend to disputes over ‘recovery of lost territory’ amongst the Baltic States, Ukraine, Moldova, Belarus and Russia. This article analyses the arguments used by commission members, considering the interplay of national interests, how they balanced arguments between restoration of ‘state sovereignty’ and maintenance of borders, and how they finally compromised and concluded the commission's report.

Notes

¹ Russian name: Komissiya S”ezda Narodnykh Deputatov SSSR po Politicheskoi Otsenke Sovetsko–Germanskogo Dogovora o Nenapadenii ot 1939 goda.

² Author's interview with K. Motieka, vice president of the Republic of Lithuania (1990–1992), Vilnius, 10 June 2006. See also Lietuvos valstybes naujasis archyvas (hereafter LVNA) f. 32, Ap. 1, B. 93.

³ The formation of the Estonian Popular Front in April 1988 was followed by the establishment of similar organisations in Lithuania (Lietuvos Persitvarkymo Sajūdis—June 1988) and Latvia (Latvijas Tautas Fronte—October 1988).

⁴Sęjūdžio žinios, 23 August 1988.

⁵Lithuanian Way, 1, 1990, pp. 25, 26.

⁶Sovetskaya Estoniya, 22 April 1989.

⁷ Author's interview with Marju Lauristin, the deputy speaker of the Estonian parliament (1990–1992), Tallinn, 10 June 2006.

⁸ GARF, op. 2, d. 123, l. 37.

⁹ GARF, op. 2, d. 123, l. 37.

¹⁰ GARF, op. 2, d. 123, ll. 38, 42.

¹¹Atgimimas, 18–25 August 1989.

¹² GARF, op. 2, d. 124, ll. 199–201.

¹³ GARF, op. 2, d. 124, l. 200.

¹⁴ GARF, op. 2, d. 124, l. 201.

¹⁵ As a consequence of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, in which Finland was allocated to the Soviet sphere of interest, Stalin demanded territories on the Karelian Isthmus, the Islands of the Gulf of Finland and a military base near Helsinki. The Finns refused these demands and the Red Army invaded Finland in November 1939, triggering the Soviet–Finnish ‘Winter War’ (Jakobson 1984, pp. 95–154). Parts of Finnish Karelia were later annexed by the USSR in March 1940 following the end of the Winter War, and again in 1944 following Finland's defeat in the subsequent three-year ‘Continuation War’.

¹⁶ GARF, op. 2, d. 124, l. 209.

¹⁷ GARF, op. 2, d. 124, l. 209.

¹⁸ GARF, op. 2, d. 126, l. 17.

¹⁹ GARF, op. 2, d. 126, l. 18.

²⁰ GARF, op. 2, d. 126, l. 28.

²¹ GARF, op. 2, d. 126, l. 40.

²² GARF, op. 2, d. 126, l. 56.

²³ GARF, op. 2, d. 126, l. 88.

²⁴ GARF, op. 2, d. 126, l. 92.

²⁵ GARF, op. 2, d. 126, ll. 93–94.

²⁶ Yakovlev used the term of ‘specialist’, GARF, d. 126, l. 105.

²⁷ GARF, op. 2, d. 126, ll. 105–110.

²⁸ GARF, op. 2, d. 126, ll. 110–113.

²⁹ GARF, op. 2, d. 126, l. 113.

³⁰ GARF, op. 2, d. 127, l. 197.

³¹ GARF, op. 2, d. 127, l. 191.

³² GARF, op. 2, d. 127, l. 198.

³³ LVNA, d. 32, ap. 1, b. 81.

³⁴Pravda, 18 August 1989.

³⁵ GARF, op. 2, d. 127, ll. 155–56.

³⁶ GARF, op. 2, d. 127, l. 159.

³⁷ GARF, op. 2, d. 127, l. 185.

³⁸ GARF, op. 2, d. 127, l. 186.

³⁹ GARF, op. 2, d. 127, ll. 190–191.

⁴⁰ This was a meeting at which representatives of The Popular Front of Estonia, The Popular Front of Latvia and Są jūdis assembled in Tallinn and expressed their determination to strengthen mutual cooperation between the Republic of Estonia, the Republic of Latvia and the Republic of Lithuania.

⁴¹Sovetskaya Litva, 27 September 1989.

⁴²Dzvanas Nr.1, August 1989.

⁴³ LVNA, d. 32, ap. 1, b. 81.

⁴⁴ GARF, op. 2, d. 126, l. 25.

⁴⁵Atgimimas, 18–25 August 1989.

⁴⁶ LVNA, d. 32, ap. 1, b. 81; Sovetskaya Estoniya, 23 August 1989.

⁴⁷ I have so far argued this problem only in Japanese (Sato 2007, pp. 101–130).

⁴⁸Sovetskaya Estoniya, 11 October 1989.

⁴⁹ LVNA, d. 32, ap. 1, b. 80.

⁵⁰Sovetskaya Latviya, 30 July 1989.

⁵¹Sovetskaya Latviya, 15 November 1989.

⁵² LVNA, d. 32, ap. 1, b. 63.

⁵³Sovetskaya Moldova, 28 July 1989.

⁵⁴ LVNA, d. 32, ap. 1, b. 81.

⁵⁵ GARF, op. 2, d. 126, ll. 114–116.

⁵⁶ Author's interview with Kazimieras Motieka, the vice president of the Republic of Lithuania (1990–1992), Vilnius, 10 June 2006.

⁵⁷ LVNA, d. 32, ap. 1, b. 75.

⁵⁸Literatura şi Arta, 10 August 1989, 9 November 1989.

⁵⁹ LVNA, d. 32, ap. 1, b. 101.

⁶⁰ GARF, op. 2, d. 126, l. 114.

⁶¹Sovetskaya Moldova, 8 June 1991, 2 July 1991.

⁶²Sovetskaya Moldova, 2 July 1991.

⁶³ This claim derived mainly from an argument (frequently dismissed as groundless and unscientific) by numerous Belarusian scholars and politicians that Vilnius (formerly capital of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania) is the ancient capital of Belarus and that the Grand Duchy of Lithuania was essentially a Belarusian state whose majority population and state language were Belarusian. See ‘Legacy of Medieval Lithuania’, available at: http://viduramziu.istorija.net/etno/index-en.htm, accessed 1 August 2012; ‘List of Belarusian position’, available at: http://viduramziu.istorija.net/etno/straipsniai-en.htm, accessed 1 August 2012.

⁶⁴ GARF, op. 2, d. 126, l. 94.

⁶⁵ GARF, op. 2, d. 126, l. 138.

⁶⁶Pravda Ukrainy, 15 August 1989.

⁶⁷ GARF, op. 2, d. 127, ll. 201, 202.

⁶⁸Sovetskaya Latviya, 23 August 1989.

⁶⁹ Interview with Pravda, 19 August 1989.

⁷⁰ GARF, op. 2, d. 126, l. 125.

⁷¹Sovetskaya Litva, 28 December 1989.