 In 1918 the Russian Bolsheviks ceded the Baltic areas to Germany under the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk.The Imperial German government established occupation governments in Estonia and Latvia and granted independence to a puppet government in Lithuania on March 25, 1918.The German Ober Ost occupation authorities under command of Prince Leopold of Bavaria favored the Baltic Germans, who had been the dominant social, economic, and political class in Courland, Livonia, and Estonia since the 13th century.