The recension gives an evaluation of the N. Angermann’s and K. Brüggemann‘s book “History of the Baltic Lands”. Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania are usually mentioned comprehensively, implying that these countries have a lot in common both in culture and in history. However, the German authors were able to find fundamental differences between them. For example they noted that the Germans made a much greater contribution to the culture of Estonia than Latvia. However, in this sense, Estonians are more grateful to the Swedes than to the Germans. The great reduction of Charles XI is not quite correctly represented. It was a violent action, which undermined the economy of many landowner farms. Nothing is said in the book that on August 18, 1916, when Nicholas I approved the Regulation of the Council of Ministers on the prohibition of the German language in all educational institutions of Russia. This Provision, in particular, put in a catastrophic position the oldest university of the empire in Tartu. As for the revolutionary events, this topic also shows the authors’ weak knowledge of the Scandinavian materials. In the book dedicated to the history of the Baltic States, they highlighted their dissimilar historical fates from deep antiquity to the present day. In this case, about the choice that was made at the end of the twentieth century by these former Soviet republics tells the title of the final chapter: “Back to Europe”.