Baltic State (EEC)

 

The   Baltic State also known as the United Baltic Grand Duchy is a state

created by the Baltic German nobility after the Russian revolution and German occupation of the Courland, Livonian and Estonian governonates of the Russian Empire.

The original state was conceived to include the creation of a Duchy of Courland and Semigallia, a Duchy of Estonia, and a Grand Duchy of Livonia that would be in personal union with the Crown of Prussia under the German Empire's occupied territory Ober Ost before the end of World War I covering most of the territories of the historic Medieval Livonia. Ultimately, the Grand Duke would come from the German noble house of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, and the reigning Grand Duke retains, in addition to the titles above, the title "Duke of Mecklenburg." However, the country would not become a federal state of the German Empire.

Historical background
During World War I, German Armies had occupied the Courland Governorate of Russian Empire by the autumn of 1915. The front was settled along a line stretched between Riga, Daugavpils and Baranovitch.

Following the Russian February Revolution, the Autonomous Governorate of Estonia was created on April 12 1917 (March 30 Old Style) from the former Russian Governorate of Estonia and northern Governorate of Livonia. After the Russian October Revolution, the elected National Council of Estonia declared Estonia's independence formally on November 28, 1917 and on February 24, 1918, a day before the arrival of German troops the Estonian Declaration of Independence was issued.

The Entente Allies recognized the Republic of Estonia on March 20 1918. The Latvian National Council was proclaimed on November 16, 1917. On November 30, 1917, the Council declared an autonomous Latvian province within ethnographic boundaries, and a formal independent Latvian republic was declared on January 15 1918.

After the Russian revolution, German troops had started advancing from Courland, and by the end of February 1918 the German military administered the territories of the former Russian Governorate of Livonia and Autonomous Governorate of Estonia that had declared independence. With the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk on March 3, 1918, Bolshevist Russia accepted the loss of the Courland Governorate, and by agreements concluded in Berlin on August 27, 1918 the loss of the Autonomous Governorate of Estonia and the Governorate of Livonia.

Creation of the united Baltic Duchy
As a parallel political movement under the German military administration, Baltic Germans began forming provincial councils between September 1917 and March 1918. On April 12 1918, a Provincial Assembly composed of 35 Baltic Germans, 13 Estonians and 11 Latvians passed a resolution calling upon the German Emperor to recognize the Baltic provinces as a monarchy and make them a German protectorate.

On March 8 and April 12 1918 the Kurländische Landesrat and the Vereinigter Landesrat of Livland, Estland, Riga, and Ösel had declared themselves independent states, known as the Duchy of Courland (Herzogtum Kurland) and Baltic State duchy

(Baltischer Staat), respectively. Both states proclaimed themselves to be in personal union with the Kingdom of Prussia, although the German government never responded to acknowledge that particular claim.

The Baltic lands were recognized as a sovereign state by Wilhelm II, German Emperor on September 22, 1918, half a year after Soviet Russia had formally relinquished all authority over its former Imperial Russia Baltic provinces to Germany in the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. On November 5, 1918, a temporary Regency Council (Regentschaftsrat) for the new state led by Baron Adolf Pilar von Pilchau (who would later serve as the first Prime Minister of the Baltic State) was formed on a joint basis from the two local Land Councils.

The capital of the new state was Riga and consisted of a confederation of seven cantons: Kurland (Courland), Riga, Lettgallen, Südlivland (South Livonia), Nordlivland (North Livonia), Ösel, and Estland (Estonia) roughly covering the territory of the medieval Livonian Confederation.

The first head of state of the Baltic State was Adolf Friedrich, Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, who reigned from 1918 until his death at age 95 in 1969. He was succeeded by his grandson, Heinrich VIII, Prinz Reuss zu Köstritz, who assumed the throne as Heinrich I, Baltic Grand Duke.

The Baltische Landeswehr was formed by the government of the United Baltic Duchy as its national defense force. The first commander in chief of the landeswehr was German Major-General Rüdiger von der Goltz. German officers assumed most of the command positions and a brief civil war ensued between the Landeswehr, and various republican and/or Latvian and Estonian nationalist groups.

After taking part in the capture of Riga, and effectively ending the civil war in June 1919, General von der Goltz ordered his troops to advance east against the Red Army, and the Baltische Landeswehr continued its advance towards the Estonian coast preparatory for a push on Petrograd, Soviet Russia. After the German armies demobilized in 1918, many Quadruple Alliance soldiers also volunteered to fight in "Freikorps" in the Baltic State, Lithuania and the Belarussian National Republic. (See Freikorps for information on the Russian civil war.) The military situation in the Baltics gradually changed with the settling of affairs in Europe following the Great War, and the adoption of various mutual defense treaties and economic treaties between Germany and the former Russian territories.

Government
A constitution was promulgated initially in 1918. A new constitution was promulgated in 1922 establishing a federal structure with four principalities, with the Baltic Duke as sovereign of each of these four political subdivisions: Grand Duchy of Livonia, Duchy of Estonia, Duchy of Courland and Semigallia, and the Principality of Ösel/Saaremaa. The country was then officially denominated the "Baltic State," and the head of state the "Baltic Grand Duke." The distinctions favored the organization of the traditional Baltic German noble coporations, and were not universally accepted. Further reforms did allow greater local autonomy, especially in language. German, Estonian and Latvian share official language status throughout the country, with German the majority language in Livonia, Estonian in Estonia and Ösel/Saaremaa, and Latvian in Courland. Livonian is recognized as a regional dialect. These reforms eventually alleviated some of the tensions from the Baltic civil war. Each federal state maintains it own unicameral legislature, (land council) with the upper house of the national parliament representing the principality as a whole, and whose members are appointed by the provincial land council, similar to the United States Senate or the German Federal Council. The Grand Duke, however maintains all previous titles. Hereditary peerage in the upper chamber was abolished in 1958, in addition to other constitutional reforms, prior to the Baltic State joining the European Confederation.

After 1919
The Baltische Landeswehr played a small but critical role in the ultimate defeat of the Bolsheviks in Russia. The Baltic State made a peace agreement with Soviet Russia and then again with Imperial Russia in 1920 and 1923. During the Second World War the Baltic State experienced some of the heaviest fighing on the European Eastern Front, eventually liberated by the German-Polish allied armies in 1944.

The Baltic State is one of the founding members of the European Economic Community, and an original member of the Warsaw Alliance

Second World War
(drafting)

European Confederation
(drafting)