Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia hoped the end of communism meant the beginning of a wonderful life

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It seems incomprehensible. Less than three years after declaring independence from Moscow and igniting the breakup of the Soviet Union, Lithuanians voted their former communist leaders back into power. But the victory of the freshly named Democratic Labor Party does not presume a return to orthodox communism. It testifies instead to the disappointment of the great expectations in the three Baltic republics of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia that the end of Soviet rule would mean the beginning of a wonderful life.

But reality has betrayed expectations, and independence has provoked new conflicts. On a cold afternoon in Riga's Freedom Square, an old man holds a banner listing Russia's crimes against the tiny nation of Latvia: OCCUPATION, GENOCIDE, TERROR. A young Russian woman approaches him. She talks, he shouts. His words vent the suppressed anger of a life spent under Moscow's thumb. Russians, who make up nearly half the population, must go, he says, or Latvia's culture will perish. The young woman walks away crying. A Russian man born in Latvia and determined to stay tries to argue. "You can't blame all Russians," he says, his hands shaking. Then a Latvian woman, her body bent from age, leans into the crowd to answer. "Take your factories," she shouts, "take your tanks, take yourselves and leave!"

It is one measure of how much the world has changed that Russians, who were masters of the Baltic republics for 50 years, now complain bitterly of discrimination at the hands of the new governments. In Latvia and Estonia, where Russians make up sizable minorities, the debate over where and how to grant them citizenship rights has soured relations with Moscow and strained ties with Western nations that long supported Baltic resistance. The struggle for independence has been replaced by the more complex and often divisive task of building democratic states from the communist debris. In all three countries, the promise of a bright future that seemed so near has, in the past 12 months, been tempered by steep economic decline, social polarization and political bickering.

It was supposed to be better in the Baltics. No one doubted the difficulty of exchanging Soviet authoritarianism for market capitalism and democracy, but because of their European heritage and compact size, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia were expected to make the transition with greater speed and less hardship. Many Balts welcome an abundance of consumer goods and the establishment of national airlines as signs of their success. Estonia has even abolished the dual economy that split society between the elite few with access to Western currencies and the masses who could shop only with rubles. But consider:

-- Political infighting and discontent over a deteriorating economy catapulted Lithuania's former communist leaders back into office on promises of restoring order and slowing the painful process of reform. The government of President Vytautas Landsbergis, who courageously led the resistance to the bloody Soviet army crackdown in January 1990, was unable to translate the skills of revolt into running a country. Politics has shifted in the opposite direction in Estonia, where the nationalist Fatherland coalition has taken power with a pledge to "clean house" -- code words for removing all former communists from office.