on the fundamental legal principle of ex injuria jus non oritur, since the annexation of the Baltic states was held to be illegal. On the other hand, de facto interruption of statehood due to foreign occupation for a period of fifty years did indeed occur, giving a place to the legal principle of ex factis jus oritur, as well as irrevocable territory and demographic changes that make the Baltic case much more complex than mere restitutio in integrum (a restoration of—in this case—territorial integrity). Historical background The four countries on the Baltic Sea that were formerly parts of the Russian Empire – Finland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania – consolidated their borders and independence after the Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian independence wars following the end of World War I by 1920 (see Treaty of Tartu, Latvian-Soviet Riga Peace Treaty and Soviet-Lithuanian Treaty of 1920). The European Great Powers accorded de jure recognition of Estonia and Latvia on January 26, 1921 and Lithuania on December 20, 1922. The United States extended de jure recognition to all three states on July 28, 1922. All three Peace treaties between the respective Baltic states and Soviet Russia identically enshrined the right of self-determination and Russia renounced all previous rights and claims as final and permanent. This principle of self-determination reflected one of four key principles proclaimed by Lenin and Stalin on 15 November 1917 in the Declaration of the Soviet Government: "The right for Russia's peoples of free self-determination even unto separation and establishment of independent states." After the creation of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in 1922, the new union had by 6 July 1923 adopted all treaties entered into previously by Soviet Russia and the original peace treaties continued to be a basis for relations between the USSR and Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, respectively. In the subsequent decade, several bilateral and multilateral treaties and agreements regulating relations were entered into: Protocol to bring into force the Pact of Paris (to which all four parties were original signatories), signed in Moscow on February 9, 1929, renouncing war as an instrument of national policy bilateral Treaties of Non-Aggression signed with the respective Baltic states and the Soviet Union between 1926 and 1932 Conciliation conventions related to the Non-Aggression treaties Convention for the Definition of Aggression signed in London in July, 1933 This Convention for the Definition of Aggression, an initiative of the Soviet Government,