Ah. How fantastic indeed it is that we should be so concerned about a quarrel in a faraway country between people of whom we know nothing. Historical quotations aside, the import is: pay a little now to help Ukraine defend itself, or be prepared to pay a hell of a lot more down the road, in blood and treasure, when appeasement once again turns out to be a losing strategy. As for the Balts, I’m sorry that we’re such a nuisance, but we honestly don’t accept being relegated to Russia’s “sphere of influence,” or whatever 19th-century concepts you’re operating under. We have a great deal more direct experience with Russian imperialism than you ever will, and the “finer arts of diplomacy” are rarely of much use here. But we’re trying! I promise! Of course many Balts (and others in northern and eastern Europe) sided with the invading Germans against the Russians, partly for historical associations, but also, as my mother put it, Balts were pretty certain that the Nazis would eventually lose the war, while the Russians would always be there. (Also, Estonia, at least, had a minuscule Jewish population in 1940, so that particular horror of Nazism was not as evident there [though the few thousand Jews who lived in Estonia were of course killed, some at the hands of ethnic Estonians in the employ of the Nazis, including one of my mother’s classmates]. In this regard, I can’t speak for Latvia or especially Lithuania, which had far more substantial Jewish populations.) You’re right: history is complicated. However, when it comes to appeasing dictators, the answer is simple: Don’t do it!
