What is Baltic states?
[[Image:Baltic states.svg|300px|thumb|right|A map showing the location of the three Baltic states]] The '''Baltic states''' are three [[country|countries]] in [[Northern Europe]] to the east of the [[Baltic Sea]] and the south of the [[Gulf of Finland]]. They are, from north to south, [[Estonia]], [[Latvia]] and [[Lithuania]]. The [[language]]s that are spoken in these countries are different: while [[Lithuanians]] and [[Latvians]] speak [[Baltic languages]] ([[Latvian language|Latvian]] and [[Lithuanian language|Lithuanian]]), [[Estonians]] speak an [[Uralic language]] ([[Estonian language|Estonian]]). By their [[culture]] and [[history]], the Baltic countries are close to the [[Nordic countries]]. The biggest difference in the history was that the Baltic countries incorporated to the [[Soviet Union]] in 1940 (during the [[Second World War]]), but not the Nordic countries (with the exception of [[Karelia]], a part of [[Finland]] which later joined the [[Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic|Russian SFSR]]). The three countries would become [[republics of the Soviet Union]] as the [[Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic|Estonian SSR]], [[Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic|Latvian SSR]], and [[Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic|Lithuanian SSR]]. All three Baltic states had their freedom back in 1991, when the Soviet Union [[Dissolution of the Soviet Union|came to an end]]. However, the states all consider the Soviet occupation to be illegal, which has been supported by the [[United States]], [[European Union]], and [[United Nations]]. Today, the Baltic countries are some of the richest and most advanced countries which were part of the Soviet Union. They became members of the [[European Union]] and [[NATO]] in 2004, joined the [[Schengen Area]] in 2007, and became part of the [[eurozone]] by 2015. [[Baltic paganism|Paganism]] was the [[religion]] of Baltic people before most of them took [[Christianity]] during the [[Middle Ages]]. Baltic paganism never died out and some people are still [[pagan]]s. {