[en] Variations in life expectancy in the Baltic countries are instructive as they tell us about the possible links between geopolitical upheavals in an outlying region of the Russian Empire, and later of the USSR, and the progress of the health transition. Well ahead of Russia at the time of their first independence, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania paid a heavy price when they were forcibly integrated into the USSR. It was only from 1995, after regaining independence and then entering the European Union, that these countries were able to implement policies that produced a sustained increase in life expectancy and a convergence towards western European standards.