I recently traveled to three Baltic nations and St.Petersburg.
In Lithuania, I paid a visit to the site of what used to be a consulate in which Chiune Sugahara (often better known as Oskar Schindler of Japan) worked and learned a great deal about the tragedies of those Jews who escaped from Poland.

I was not able to visit this time, but I heard that KGB museum has become a new historic site, and it is showing the cruelty of the Soviet Union. In Latvia, I visited the Occupational Museum and I saw the pictures of atrocities committed by the Soviet Union.
Also in Estonia, I saw a pamphlet appealing the brutality of the Soviet Union. These were the days that made me think of the tragedies of those small state nations toyed by the more owerful ones, and therefore how strong the demand for independence was.

In the Estonia-Russia border area, it had become a problem in time of independence, because the population of Russians in this area surpassed ninety percent. The area was one of the industrialized parts of Estonia, but once it gained its independence, many Russians have returned home and the place was abandoned. When I looked through the train windows, factories and apartments appeared deserted. It is a tragedy resulted from the self-determination of the Estonians.

Here, I would like to review the history of these three nations in brief. They have altogether, gained their independence from the Soviet Union after World War 1 in 1920.
After the non-aggression pact between Germany and the Soviet Union was signed in 1939, the three nations were determined under the Russian control. The Soviet Union forcefully demanded mutual assistance agreement with these countries. On top of all this, the Soviet Union invaded them on the grounds that they violated the agreement, oppressed all three nations and annexed all of them in the end. In 1941, fifty to sixty thousand high-ranked government officials of these Baltic nations were arrested and sent to Siberia. In 1942 Germany invaded and these nations turned into a battlefield. Again in 1949, tens to hundreds of thousands were arrested as "the enemy of people" and sent to Siberia. The population of these countries were: Lithuania: 3.7 million, Latvia: 2.5 million, and Estonia: 1.5 million.

Out of the three, Lithuania was the only country to have its own government before World War 1. It was the largest country in Eastern Europe from the fourteenth to fifteenth centuries. Poland occupied Lithuania in the sixteenth century, and it has become a part of Russia since the late eighteenth century. Riga, the capital of Latvia, and Tallinn, the capital of Estonia were both created by the Hauseatic League, a group of German knights, transferred under the Swedish rule in the seventeenth century, and again transferred under the control of Peter the Great in the eighteenth century. The difference between the two nations of Latvia and Estonia is race: Estonia is an Asian country, just like Finland.

It was surprising to look at the houses of Estonia, who had been under foreign rules for a long period of time. They were bigger and more gorgeous than any houses in other countries. Houses of serfs equate to those of wealthy farmers in Japan. Looking at these houses, a foreign rule does not necessarily mean unfortunate.
In the pamphlet from St.Petersburg, it said: "For Russians, it was ordinary to live with other races and peoples, and in reality, Russians lived with other races and peoples during the peacetime. This fact is one of the Russians characteristics; generosity and respect toward others, and ability to understand what is different and to give it an insight. We bred a characteristic that we take in what is necessary yet we still protect our identity; we enrich ourselves from other and we still remain ourselves. Because of what Fyodor Dostoevsky called: 'Global Sensibility,' we were able to build a vast and multi-racial nation of Russia." Certainly, the great political stability must have made it possible for Russia to greatly expand from the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries.
Stalin, the symbol of the evil, is of Georgian minority. Lenin systemically admitted equal rights to many different ethnic groups. Therefore Stalin was able to gain the premier seat.

All things considered, the tragedies of the Baltic nations were incurred not because they were governed by another racial group of Russians, but because of communism, a political system which does not allow existence of any critical group.
As seen in Kosovo, and East Timor, because of self-determination, there are new races victimized by a form of racism. With the advancement of communication and trade, the world is becoming a smaller place and now it is an era when other races must co-exist. What is politically demanded is to stabilize living standard, eliminate discrimination, and to grant any individual with an opportunity of self-actualization. It is merely an illusion to think that it is good to have a leader who is of the same race; this has clearly been established, with the tragedies seen under the communist rule. It is perhaps a solution to surrender the illusion of those wishing to establish an independence because they are currently under a control by other races, but to have them seek a way to collaborate to establish a society where people can happily live together.