Marcella Ostboe, age 14, of Biloxi, Miss., for her question:

WHERE ARE THE BALTIC STATES?

Baltic states include Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. There were independent countries from 1918 until 1940, when Russia seized them and absorbed them as so called Republics. They are located on the Baltic Sea between Poland and Finland.

At various times, before they became independent in 1918, the Baltic Stastes had been ruled by the Danes, Swedes, Poles, Germans and Russians. But Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania each kept its own language, literature and traditions.

The three countries were part of the Russian czar's empire before World War I. When the Russian Revolution of 1917 deposed the czar, the Baltic States demanded their independence. The Allied invasion of Russia aided the states' cause.

In 1939, Russia demanded and received military bases in the Baltic States. Then Russian forces occupied the three nations in 1940 and made them part of Russia.

German troops invaded the Baltic States in 1941 but were driven out by the Russians in 1944 and 1945. Since then, the region has been part of Russia.