Which is the largest of the Baltic States by land area?
Background of the occupation of the Baltic states Baltic areas as autonomous Duchies administered by Baltic German nobility via the Treaty of Nystad in 1721 and Courland in 1795. In 1914, World War I broke out and by 1915 German armies had occupied Lithuania and Courland incorporating the areas into Ober Ost. As the Russian Empire began to collapse, independence movements sprung up on many regions. After the 1917 October Revolution in Russia, Baltic political leaders attempted to establish the independent states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania; however, German control continued throughout the area until early 1918. Later in 1918, the area was drawn into the Russian Civil
Occupation of the Baltic states more complex; for administrative convenience the Baltic states were included with Belorussia in the Reichskommissariat Ostland. The area was ruled by Hinrich Lohse who was obsessed with bureaucratic regulations. The Baltic area was the only eastern region intended to become a full province of the Third Reich. Nazi racial attitudes to the Baltic people differed between Nazi authorities. In practice, racial policies were directed not against the majority of Balts but rather against the Jews. Large numbers of Jews were living in the major cities, notably in Vilnius, Kaunas and Riga. The German mobile killing units slaughtered hundreds of thousands