The Baltic States - Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia - have regained their independence in 1991. During their 50- year period of incorporation into the USSR great ethnodemographic changes have taken place. The percentage of members of the titular nations diminished significantly in relation to the total population. And a de crease in the use of Latvian, Lithuanian and Estonian, as well as asymmetric bilingualism, were observed. All three states adopted Language Laws in 1988 which determined that the respective titular languages were to be the only official state languages. Nowadays the related changes in the language hierarchies are slowly taking place; the new state languages. are stepby- step replacing the Russian language, which previously mcovered all important sociolinguistic functions. The main goal of language policy in the Baltic states is to create a linguistically normalized society, where the titular languages function as the real state languages, and where loyal minorities live within a legal framework of cultural autonomy. This article analyzes the concept of collective linguistic rights for mthe Russian-speaking population, as well as the individual's linguistic human rights in the Baltic states, against their political, ethnodemographic, and psychological background.