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The unique case of the Baltic States as EU and NATO members is discussed in this chapter. The implications of Russia’s compatriot policies in Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania are assessed, particularly how these policies are evolving beyond soft power tools toward passportization and information warfare. The chapter evaluates the successes and failures of Russia’s policies and the likelihood of future conflict by drawing on past and current developments and comparisons with the conflicts in eastern Ukraine, Georgia, Moldova, and beyond.

The study focuses on the behavior of mortality rates of fourteen countries in Eastern and Central Europe during the transition period. Mortality rates differ from country to country: the Czech Republic has the most improved life expectancy rate while Russia and the Baltic States having the highest mortality rates and hence lower life expectancy. Different factors are considered by the study which affects the mortality rates of these countries. However, the study also considers the increased mortality rates in these countries as either a continuation of the unhealthy lifestyle under the USSR or an effect of other events like the World War II or the famine in the early 1920's that affected the USSR. Numerous factors are also cited by the study. The study finally proposes solutions to this unexplainable rise in the mortality rates of these countries.

This chapter examines the escalation of violence across the former Russian Empire as the First World War drew to a close, analysing the origins and early operations of the anti-Bolshevik Volunteer Army (and that force's relations with the Don and Kuban Cossacks), the victory of Rightist forces in the Finnish Civil War, the emergence of the Baltic States, and the impact of Austro-German (and Ottoman) intervention in Ukraine and Transcaucasia. The chapter then shifts its focus to the opposition to Soviet rule that was raised by non-Bolshevik socialists in eastern Russia and elsewhere (the Democratic Counter-Revolution) in alliance with a peculiar outlier of the Allied intervention in Russia — the Czechoslovak Legion. It concludes with an account of the origins of the Red Army, noting the impact upon that process of events on the Volga Front in 1918 and the innovative solutions that the Red command introduced — especially the deployment of voenspetsy (former tsarist officers) and the ire this practise raised among Leftist elements of the Bolshevik party (and, during the so-called “Tsaritsyn Affair”, J.V. Stalin), as well as Trotsky's efforts to overcome problems of the recruitment and desertion of Red troops and officers.

During the 19th and 20th centuries, Latvia — as well as its neighbouring countries of Estonia and Lithuania forming the Baltic States — enjoyed a remarkable healthcare system resulting in a life expectancy of ten years longer than that of Russia’s. It’s life expectancy even exceeded the life expectancies of Italy, Germany and Austria. When Latvia was politically independent, its life expectancy further increased by two years. However, events like World War II, repression against civil population, collapse of the USSR, the persistent mismanagement of the USSR and the subsequent transition from command economy to market economy strongly influenced the population of Latvia. The chapter particularly studies the factors affecting the mortality rate of Latvia during the transition period which shall base its findings from statistical data.