They were colonised. During the soviet Union there was a rabid russification program. Back in like 2020 something like half of all cars in Latvia were on Russian plates. The anti communist sentiment is muddled with anti Russian sentiment. The baltics are a productive region, and during communism were having their wealth extracted to be used in the heartland to raise the living standards of less productive regions. Equity under communism was making them poorer. Communism doesn’t help everyone. Communism didn’t help the romanovs and it certainly didn’t help the baltics. Communism is an ideology that appeals to the worst off in society. As far as the union of Soviets go, the heartland and Kazakhstan gaining the most while Eastern Europe got royally screwed.
Oh and by the way fascism comes from the Italian fascismo meaning removed (as in the bundle of sticks made in to a broom) it symbolises that one might be weak but together they are strong. Fascism is national socialism with emphasis on nationality/race. It’s an evil ideology that the baltics as a rule reject in favour of Liberal capitalism.
Please stop using Fascism as short hand for late stage capitalism.
I’m from Poland, and my family suffered to help end communism over there. In my view, late stage communism and late stage capitalism have similar pitfalls, i.e., centralised control over the means of production, a small entrenched elite, and massive failure of price discovery (goods under communism vs wages under capitalism)
Early stage capitalism and early stage capitalism before all the horrible shit comes out are a comparatively nice creature. That’s why constant revolution is central to maintaining a decent life for the working classes. Any entrenched elite ends up being scum it doesn’t matter if what the economic system is.