Soviet occupation of the Baltic states (1940)

Soviet occupation of the Baltic states (1940)
	Part of World War II, the occupation of the Baltic states and military occupations by the Soviet Union
	; Soviet troops in Riga, Latvia (1940)
Date	15 June – 6 August 1940
Location	Baltic states (Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania)
Result	Soviet victory Soviet troops militarily occupy the Baltic states; Baltic governments deposed; Rigged elections produce communist governments under Soviet control, which request admission to the USSR; Baltic states annexed de facto as republics of the Soviet Union, not widely recognized by the outside world; Beginning of partisan resistance to Soviet rule;
Belligerents
Estonia Latvia Lithuania	Soviet Union Estonian Communist Party Latvian Communist Party Lithuanian Communist Party; Diplomatic support:; Germany
Commanders and leaders
Konstantin Päts Jüri Uluots Nikolai Reek Johan Laidoner Kārlis Ulmanis Krišjānis Berķis Jānis Balodis Antanas Smetona Antanas Merkys	Joseph Stalin Vyacheslav Molotov Semyon Timoshenko Aleksandr Loktionov Andrey Vyshinsky Johannes Vares Karl Säre Augusts Kirhenšteins Jānis Kalnbērziņš Justas Paleckis Antanas Sniečkus

The Soviet occupation of the Baltic states covers the period from the Soviet–Baltic mutual assistance pacts in 1939, to their invasion and annexation in 1940, to the mass deportations of 1941.

In September and October 1939 the Soviet government compelled the much smaller Baltic states to conclude mutual assistance pacts which gave the Soviets the right to establish military bases there. Following invasion by the Red Army in the summer of 1940, Soviet authorities compelled the Baltic governments to resign. The presidents of Estonia and Latvia were imprisoned and later died in Siberia. Under Soviet supervision, new puppet communist governments and fellow travelers arranged rigged elections with falsified results. Shortly thereafter, the newly elected "people's assemblies" passed resolutions requesting admission into the Soviet Union. In June 1941 the new Soviet governments carried out mass deportations of "enemies of the people". Consequently, at first many Balts greeted the Germans as liberators when they occupied the area a week later.