The Story of Walk – United by the Soviets, Divided by Freedom

deepbaltic.com

15 pointssmcl2 comments

> In fact, the stream doesn’t neatly slice the town into two equal parts: it meanders through the city, giving a wide berth to the actual centre. As a result, Estonia got a significantly better deal [...]

Kind of nice to hear that some countries have managed to set down borders without violence, even if the results wasn't satisfactory. I can imagine it would have been easy for Latvians to keep this an open issue until Soviet occupation rendered the point moot.

Absolutely. I also liked the way in some cases the inhabitants saw the border as a sort of political nuisance that got in the way of things getting done - e.g. dispatching ambulances to pick up ill people and take them to the nearest hospital, instead of simply the nearest hospital in whichever country they were located at the time.

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