Estonia, Latvia and Lithuanian WWII

I am reading The Plague.   It is adult fiction and has a Roadesque flavor.   The three nations throughout their
history have been claimed by various powers.    Most recently, Germany and Soviet Union during World War II and Soviet Union until its collapse in late 80s.   The three are independent nations now.

The story is of three generations from 1940s until 1990s.    The family is split because of allegiances to Free Estonia, the Soviet Union and Germany.   Conditions are harsh-lack of food, fear of torture, regimentation, etc.    But the interesting thing I want to tell is that during Chernobyl the news in Estonia never acknowledged it but they take the Estonian young men and the Estonian crops to feed people in the SU and bring the contaminated food into Estonia.  Their phone calls were monitored; first they had to get a reservation to make a call, then their time was limited and the call could be cut off without notice.

Locate the three nations on a map and you will see why their geography is their history.