IN 1939, RIGHT BEFORE THE START OF World War II, Stalin and Hitler signed a mutual non-aggression pact and, in secret protocols, also agreed to divide Eastern Europe between them. Stalin got the Baltic Republics of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. He immediately began pressuring the three democratic republics to allow him to station Soviet troops on their soil, followed that with a series of ultimata designed to force these countries, outnumbered 100 to 1 to yield to his demands, and in quick order occupied the Baltic Republics.