Speech #840009454

Commemoration of this 37th anniversary of Lithuanian independence ought to remind all the free world of one important fact. and that is the brutal character of world communism. and in particular of the Soviet Russian regime. Destruction of Lithuanian independence in June 1940 was by itself an act criminal enough for the world to long remember. But certainly one of the most brutal aspects of Soviet activity in Lithuaniaone which the world will never forgetwas the wellcalculated. methodical plan of deportation of Lithuanians from their native land to distant parts of the Soviet Empire. Deportations from Lithuania and her sister Baltic States. Latvia and Estonia. did not come about until after the Soviet occupation in June 1940. However. this diabolical scheme for destroying all antiCommunist Baltic peoples was devised in October 1939. perhaps even before. and at a time when all three Baltic States had concluded pacts of mutual assistance with Moscow. These pacts. far from being "mutual." were imposed upon the Baltic States and opened the door for Soviet domination in the Baltic region. On October 11. 1939. immediately after the pacts were concluded. the Soviet secret police. the NKVD. issued the notorious order No. 001223 which set forth detailed instructions for the arrest and deportation of all "antiSoviet and antisocial elements" in the Baltic States. Thus. it is clear beyond a shadow of a doubt that long before Lithuania was forcibly annexed to the Soviet Union an order had already been issued which was designed not only to destroy Lithuanian independence but to destroy as well the Lithuanian people. Soviet infidelity with regard to the mutual assistance pact Is further underscored by the fact that order No. 001223 was officially given and remained in effect at the same time the Soviet Government promised to respect the territorial integrity and national independence of Lithuania. In May 1941 preparations were made by the Peoples Commissariat for State Security of the Lithuanian S. S. R. for the deportation of all the "hostile and criminal and socially dangerous element." Between June 14 and June 21. 1941. 34.260 persons were deported to distant areas in Siberia and the Arctic. Since the second Soviet occupation in 1944. there have been several waves of deportations from Lithuania. In 1948 and 1949 about 10 percent of the Lithuanian population was deported by the Soviets to Siberia in an effort to break the resistance of the Lithuanian farmers against forcible collectivization of their land. Such is the brutal character of the Soviet regime. Lithuania .has felt the full force of this Soviet brutality and the Lithuanian people have undergone indescribable hardships in their efforts to retain their dignity and identity as a people.