The article is devoted to the study of rhetoric on the "Baltic question" in the pages of the Russian press during the World War I. The authors outline the range of the most relevant topics, identify positions and analyze the arguments of publicists about the necessity for unification of the Baltic state policy with the course of internal provinces. It is shown that the discussion of this problems included a complex of socio-political and economic subjects, in particular, the agricultural issue, the situation in the education system, the position of the Russian language, the preservation of the privileges of the German nobility. At the same time, the issues of German colonization and the plight of the Estonian and Latvian population have become topical.