The Baltic republics of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania were the first to insist on traveling their own national path, and have since linked their fate to Europe as members of the European Union and NATO. Others soon followed.
波罗的海诸国爱沙尼亚、拉脱维亚、立陶宛率先坚持走自己的国家路线，并加入了欧盟和北约，从此将他们的命运与欧洲联系起来。其它国家很快纷纷效仿，到1991年12月，苏联帝国烟消云散。