The Baltic Appeal to the United Nations and the Cold War Struggle over Self-Determination

Abstract In 1966, Baltic activists in the USA established an organization that started lobbying the United Nations to spread anti-colonial self-determination from Africa and Asia to Europe, particularly to Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, annexed by the Soviet Union. For five years, the Baltic Appeal to the United Nations (BATUN) tried to persuade UN member states that the Soviet Baltic republics should be decolonized. While it is known that the global South was critical of US narratives about “Red Colonialism,” and also sceptical of Soviet efforts to use the decolonial moment for its own advantage, the story of BATUN throws light on the views of postcolonial nations on the Cold War struggle over self-determination.