Balts do not have mixed feelings about the Soviet occupation. We have undeniably negative feelings! Those who claim otherwise are usually foreigners living in our country who benefitted from immigrating during soviet times and also some native communists who also benefitted from this by exploiting power.

There are no mixed feelings about "soviet liberation", only negative!!!

The Baltic region is so criminally underrated. It's sad, because Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania have some of the weirdest, yet awesome cultures in Europe.

Cheers to Balts from Poland, especially to Lithuanians. Our common history marks a place in the world, old grudges need to stay in the past, but our legacy must live on.

Finally someone mentioned our lands... Peace and love from Latvia!

Lithuanians accepted catholicism not because of the influence from the german settlers, whose presence in Lithuania was scarce if not none (unlike in neighbouring Prussia), but because of the alliance and the personal union with the Kingdom of Poland. It makes an huge differance from 14th century politics point of view.

I always liked the Baltic’s. They’ve never really upset Italians or Greeks. Love to Baltic countries 🇱🇻 🇪🇪 🇱🇹

I visited my Lithuanian 'homelands' a few years ago along with Latvia and Estonia. The young kids thought I was nuts when I suggested how much potential I saw there. Loved the natural environment and medieval city centers. Like to go again. Riga and Kaunas in particular.

I went to high school in the 70s with many 1st gen Latvians. They all spoke fluent Latvian were very intelligent and many joined the military as interpreters as they hated the USSR.

I am Latvian and we still celebrate many pagan holidays to this day!

I don't know where you got the info about Germanic influences in Lithuania. Latvia is a different matter, of course, as it was conquered and settled by German monastic order, but Christianity in Lithuania wasn't either adopted from or influenced by the Germans in any way, the conversion happened due to Poland. And the same Poland influenced Lithuania far more than Germans ever did - and Germans weren't so easy to find in Lithuania. Most of the current Lithuanian lands hardly saw any German migration outside few cities (besides Klaipeda/Memel, but it's solely because it was part of Prussia before).

4:00 Teutonic Order was a independent state only allied with empire, not part of it. That's a false oversimplification 4:20 Lithuania became catholic due to Polish not German influence. 5:55 Lithuanian did not conquer Ruthenian land from local population, they pushed the Tatars out of Rus. So, Lithuanians fought mostly against Mongols not Slavs. The hostilities between Lithuania and Moscow started much later. 6:50 Courland was more of a German than Baltic state. It was somewhat a continuation of Livonian Order's rule in the region. Most of its higher class was German, German was also the official language of the duchy. What it more, it was never a vassal of Lithuania. The Inflants (Livonia) was under both Polish and Lithuanian administration, when Courland itself was a vassal of the Polish king. 7:20 I do not recall Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth ever being in a war with France. Quite the opposite, those nations had pretty warm relations, they even been in a union for a very short time. 8:50 As far as I know, reading extensively on the topic, Baltic People have very negative feelings about the Soviet Occupation.

I've been waiting for this! Thank you :) I'm a second-generation American with Lithuanian ancestry on my mother's side (German from my father's). The Lithuanian identity has been with me since childhood, yet I know very little about Lithuanian history and culture. I do remember my mother proudly saying that at one time Lithuania was the largest country in Europe, and that goes with what you reported in the video. I also remember on family trips to my mom's family home in Maine, where she grew up, there were several elders of the Lithuanian community still living there. I remember going on visits to some of these old folks, and my mom conversing with them in the Lithuanian language. Although it was my mother's first language, she never spoke it at home, so I never learned the language, not a single word. I think that's sad, but the drive in those days was for assimilation, I suppose.

Labas, Masaman! Ačiū for covering Lithuanians! I love your channel, and have been hoping for a video like this from you one day- my grandparents are from Lithuania 🇱🇹

Bunda jau Baltija! Atmuostas Baltija!

Big oof in the WWII thing. Baltics got their independance in 1918 and then in the 1940 were occupied by the Soviets. Then Germany came and liberated us from under the communists and then the USSR pushed the Germans back and retook the Baltic region. And there are no mixed feelings about the USSR, nobody wants it back. Even during the war, most Estonians atleast who decied to pick a side to fight on, chose the German side because nobody wants communist slavs to rule their country especially when they were the previous rulers.

Latvia and Lithuania are brothers yes some times we fight and get in argues but we are brothers and we will stand strong with one another ! And Estonia is like our younger brother that was adopted but still is part of the family :)

Lithuania for me; I've met several wonderful lithuanians and have begun learning the language as well. It's fascinating!

8:41 We were already occupied before the Germans came, our countries were forced ultimatums by the Soviet regime as well as mass deportations of our intelligentsia to Siberia, not sure about the other countries, but a shady "election" took place in Latvia which made us part of the USSR. When the Germans came it was a relief for our countries, my grand father passed down a story of Germans coming in and giving candies to children while the Soviets went about and looted people.

Peace for all Estonians, Latvians and Lithuanians people :)

Im proud of my Lithuanian origin :)

As a "Latvian Australian", I am somewhat biased. The Baltic states are beautiful - I have visited them all and studied in Riga for a brief period. Perhaps consider doing a video of the German expansion into Latvia. Bishop Albertus in Riga, then the Sword Brothers and their collapse, followed by the Teutonic order. The Baltic Germans stayed there until their expulsion at the end of WW2 and no longer exist as a racial grouping. That might also be interesting. Thank you for this video - it was well done.

Ok video, but seriously you could make better research. Lithuania was christianized, not because of german settlers and german influence but because of marriage betwen king (yes king not queen) of poland Jadwiga and grand prince of lithuania Jogaila (Jagiello), actually there was another earlier attempt to christianize lithuania but it was short period (kingdom of lithuania, reign of mindagauas (mendog)). Teutonic crusaders were not sent by pope but invited by polish prince konrad to help him with baltic prussian raids. And france dont have anything to do with fall of polish-lithuanian commonwealth (well maybe that shitty electional king could count as anything close to agression from france to polish lithuanian commonwealth) . And there is interesting thing, there are actually people today that try to revitalize baltic prussian language (and they even have some results, atleast in polish part of former prussia i heard, anyone know about simillar attempts in kaliningrad and lithuanian part?). Im sorry for my english grammar and interpunction but im just too lazy to fix that (and im not native speaker anyway).

So fascinating, as usual! The results of that survey are gonna be high!

At last! Great job!

I just took the survey, I was extremely impressed by how many options you made available to choose from. Good job.

Really good videos! One of the best channels!! Thanks Mason!

I've visited all three countries and I cannot recommend them enough. Interesting on so many levels and the people are awesome

I never thought you would make video about this. It is dream come true. Greetings from Latvia.

Good exposure but a lot of stuff was very simplified or wasn't elaborated on to show a wider or fuller picture, which may lead to people being misinformed. But I get it, short video.

Im doing a little research on Latvia ... i im sketchy on which video to pic and then i spot your video ,its ur channel even better , and plus the title is envitingThnx brother for your hard work and research ,love and dedication ... Expertise...

Thank you very much. I always find you very entertaining and more very informative

I am proud to say I’ve participated in your census for this year Masaman!

Merry Christmas to the awesome Balts / Estonians / Liths / Courlanders / Latvians / Letts !

Very informative. Thanks!

Good video massaman Much needed attention

Baltic Gang roll up

Thank You! It was really good! Only one fact wasn't mentioned how Baltic countries were fighting against all occupants in period of WWII and even more than 10 years post WWII. Thank You again and greetings from Lithuania!

Great video! I find myself binge watching your stuff all of the time(especially while playing Civilization). Thank you for the education!

To be honest, all the talk about empire it is not the Balts but only Lithuanian.

Speaking of Balts, I think you should at least mention the Eastern Balts. In particular, East Galindians used to live in the region where Moscow is now located.

Thank you for the video!! I requested a video on the Baltic states a while back. Let me pretend my request work, even though you might have made the video anyway.

Great vlogs, keep up the good work!

Thank you SO much for this video, very cool

No mixed feelings about Soviet. In our eyes no better than Nazy Germany.

I'm half polish, quarter german and a quarter lithuanian. Folks met in back of the yards, chicago. My grandpa, if I'm not mistaken, was "forced" (I'm not sure of the details) to fight with the nazis in ww2 with a patch denoting his lithuanian ethnicity. Had a piece of russian grenade shrapnel in his leg! My pa just made a good patch of kugelis.

Nice video! To me as a Latvian living in Latvia it seems pretty much bang on in terms of the general impression conveyed. Some new facts for me as well. Thanks!

God I love this video! Thank you so much for an informative video!

Poland-Lithuania is like the Highschool Jock, that was the captain of the school's rugby/football team. After school/uni/collage working a retail job in his 40's as he had no real skills other than playing football.

Guys, show some respect. The dude uploaded this from Starbucks wifi.

Thank you for the video, It's nice to get some recognition.

Best channel of its kinds. dense but everything I want

First of all, Lithuanian is a very old language. It is related to Sanskrit (a classical language of India) Latin and Ancient Greek. It is the oldest surviving Indo-European language, which has preserved the most phonetical and morphological aspects of the proto-language which many other European languages come from. It is very important to the field of Indo-European language studies, which carries out research on the origin, development, similarities and differences of Indo-European languages. Scientists of different nationalities in this field use Lithuanian as their language of communication at their conferences!

there are no mixed feelings, we hate the soviets, only some old people still like the "stable" feeling of ussr

Great video

Already in the first two minutes, I gotta suggest an edit, Mason. Samogitian has serious merits to be considered its own Baltic language. Keep up the good work, bro. You're solid on most things that matter and constantly growing. I admire your dedication and your work!

Is the census video coming? Those are some of the best

For a video talking about the Balts, having the Commonwealth in a thumbnail is a weird choice.

Awesome video! Love it !

Nice link in the description

Very interesting and once again very well researched and therefore accurate. Thanks Masaman. 👍

Lithuanian language - around 5,000 years old Slavic Language - over 3000 years So how is Baltic language slavic?

Howdy Masaman. Love your stuff. Anyway, you should do an episode on Midlanders and Okies for no particular reason.

Participated in the census my good sir!

Lithuanians are good at basketball.

This is awesome thank you. My DNA results recently came in and said I was 3% Baltic. Iv been trying to learn everything I can on my ancestry. Thank you for having this here for me to get introduced into my past

Great video! If you can, a video on Cape Coloureds would be great!!!

Was excited when I saw this in my feed after a week of no videos from Mason

❤️ from Lithuania:)

In the definition of "Northern Europe", the following countries are included: Estonia. Latvia. Lithuania. Denmark. Finland. Iceland. Norway. Sweden. Northern Europe - Wikipedia Northern Europe - Wikipedia

Hey, really like your videos; I’ve been following your channel for quite some time now. May I ask what is your major? Greetings from Nancy in France 🇫🇷

Hi masaman ive been whatching your videos for a while and its awesome to see you making a video about us :D (im a latvian) This was most;y a simple history lesson but i guess most people wouldnt know it and hence your video, but i would love to see you talking about some of the crazy origin theories of us balts (like us maybe being the thracians). I think its really unfair to group us together with the slavis mostly because of how similar the slavic languages are.I mean they can almost sort of understand each other while for latvians slavic languages sound about as alien(or as similar) as german.

Good job Mas. That suggestion of a neo-paganist revival in Eastern Europe for your next video is a good idea. Thanks as always 👏👏👏

My DNA test says i have some Baltic heritage. Thanks Manson for the lesson. ..be blessed

Nice video

WOW!!! THE BEST EXPLICATION!!!

Thanks for yet another great video! I find the northern two Baltic states interesting with regards to their religion, simply because protestantism is rare in Eastern Europe. However, linguistically I find Lithuania the most interesting because Lithuanian is said to be the closest living language to the original proto-Indo-European.

I have a HUGE respect for the Baltic countries, not the least for their "singing revolution" and they gained independence again, but also for their legacy and you always keep your fingers crossed for the "underdog". I have visited all these countries briefly in 1998, just a few years after their independence, and after interacting and speaking with them and (not to pat my own back) trained parts of their new naval forces I respect them and wish their nations the best. I need to travel back and see what has happened in the past two decades. In general I also love to see the multitude of ethnicity Europe have and be back on the map, I think it is a shame that Königsberg and the rest of what was East Prussia is gone today, I rather see it back in the proper hands again. As a matter of fact I think Nöteborg and Nyens (St. Petersburg) should be back in Swedish hands too , but we'll never see that happen again.

Excellent cover, my guy.

10:51 cheeky :D. Also greetings from 🇱🇻!

Thank you for doing this video. My dna test came back 70% Lithuanians.

Actually, Baltic countries are Northern, not Eastern Europe. Northern Europe is the general term for the geographical region in Europe that is approximately north of the southern coast of the Baltic Sea. Nations usually included within this region are Denmark, Estonia, the Faroe Islands, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway and Sweden.

Fascinating video Masaman! Recently my Ancestry DNA has been updated and somewhat to my surprise, it turns out that I have more Baltic than Germanic on my dad's side of the family. I've also recently found that my ancestors came from Tilsit which is now Sovetsk in Kaliningrad Oblast, so this is all very illuminating.

Thanks 😊

Lithuanian language is one of the least changed "most conservative" languages of the Indo-european group. So much so that all the core words like "son", "daughter", "honey", etc are 90% matching sanskrit. There is a lithuanian phrase that was also used in sanskrit and latin - "god gave teeth, god will provide bread" and the similarities of actual words and the structure of the sentence are insane, the fact that lithuanian is a living language and it is so similar to oldest known extinct proto-languages from 3000 years ago is mind blowing. We are an old old nation with old language and they've been trying to exterminate us and our language for the last few centuries, but here we are - still kicking arse. Obviously we had little to do with romans and even less with India, but the fact that the languages were so similar begs the question where was the common proto-culture situated on the continent. It has been said that our language is a gem to linguists studying proto-indoeuropean. Don't quote me on this but I've read somewhere that Old Prussian was even closer to Sanskrit than Lithuanian is. We dont want to end up like Prussians did. Thanks to EU and thanks to NATO our chances of surviving are quite good (for now). Having said all this, i.e. Serbian (slavic) also seems to have some amazingly similar words to the ones that crop up in sanskrit (yet not necessarily related to baltic), and some that crop up in persian(!) - I could not say for sure which words were from the same origin and which ones were borrowed later, so the whole picture is clearly much bigger and much more complex.

Actually the Soviets invaded the Baltic states and Ukraine first before ww2........

Mas, it'd be awesome if you compared, once the census is done, your census with the actual world census :D

Hey Masaman, what is your ethnic background? Keep up the good work!

Dude I really like your videos, but if other topics are also as badly researched as old Prussians and christianisation of Lithuania then I don't think we'll get along any longer :C

Your thumbnail shows the *Polish-Lithuanian* Commonwealth, not *Baltic* Commonwealth! After watching this video I have the impression that the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth belonged to the Baltic States (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania), but thats wrong! It belonged to Poland and Lithuania, so this picture (11:08) is misleading... as it shows the Baltic States as origin of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.

@Masaman I took the census for your channel. I saw that 4% identified politically with "Other" and that got me really thinking. Is there any chance we could get to read the other responses at some point in the future?

Wow this guy makes anthropology seems really interesting

We used to be the biggest country in Europe for about 4 centuries 😅👍🏼 also Lithuania was the last Pagan country in Europe!!! 🤨✊🏻 anyway thanks @masaman I will do you survey too to increase Lithuanian representation!! 🤗🏀

I'm about 90% Lithuanian according to DNA, but my ancestors left that area probably about 400 years ago. They became citizens of Russia, but didn't want to fight for the Czar, so joined the pacifist group, Doukhobors. They lived insulated in their own villages and mostly just married among themselves. About the year 1900, half of them moved to Canada where my immediate family now lives.

Can you do a video on the current total of the worlds population in 2019?

Dude, I love the vid and all very cool but the census dont seem to work for me cant actually check the spaces

im Estonian :D cool video! these days a lot of Estonians are going to Finland. Hopefully Russia doesn't occupy our land again. If it does we should just move to Finland and intergrate there. I live in Canada myself but I do wish the best to the people living in the country. I worry what the future may bring...

Refuse to sign the UN migration pact.

You should do a video discussing the disputes involving Hungarian being either Turkic or Uralic.This fight has lasted for a long time and is still going on.

I appreciate the fact of you doing a video about the Baltics... but it has so many mistakes, I don't even know where to begin.