The Baltic Germans (, or Baltendeutsche) were mostly ethnically German inhabitants of the eastern shores of the Baltic Sea, in what today form the countries of Estonia and Latvia. Lithuania, another Baltic state, followed a completely different historical path and some of its cities were home to a small German trading class, but never a German noble or ruling class. The Baltic German population never made up more than 10% of the total. They formed the social, commercial, political and cultural elite in that region for several centuries. Some of them also took high positions in the military and civilian life of the Russian Empire, particularly in Saint Petersburg.