Ivan Serov. Deputy Commissar of State Security. Issued an infamous order setting forth the "procedure for carrying out the deportation of antiSoviet elements from Lithuania. Latvia. and Estonia." The technique which he perfected in the Baltic Republics was later repeated following the Hungarian revolt of 1956. The magnitude of the Soviet terror is difficult for us to imagine living as we do In the secure confines of the United States. Perhaps some inkling of the immense dislocation and individual suffering can be gleaned from the bare figures of Soviet deportation. In the Republic of Estonia alone. during the period from 1940 to 1941. 5.451 men and 525 women were arrested and taken to the Soviet zone. Another 1.741 men and 209 women were arrested and executed. Still another 5.102 were expelled from Estonia. and 33.304 were drafted into the Soviet Army. It is estimated by the Estonian Information Center in Stockholm that during the 194041 period 60.000 Estonians were lost through deportation and execution. The pattern of repression was repeated in Latvia and Lithuania. In Latvia on the single night of June 14. 1941. 15.000 Latviansincluding women and childrenwere rounded up and deported to labor camps in northeast Russia and Siberia. During the year of Soviet occupation in 1940 some 34.000 Latvians were killed. arrested. or deported. In Lithuania the beginning of the Soviet occupation was the start of a purge of the enemies of the people. On June 24. 1940. the Lithuanian Cormmunist Party announced that "enemies of the people must get out of the adm:nistration and the army." Shortly afi.er this shrill proclamation the Red ter.or began. During the interim between the first Soviet occupation and the Nazi occupation some 45.000 LithuaniarLs were killed. An equal number were arrested. deported. or managed to escape. On this day of June 15 it is well that we pause and remember the great loss and suffering endured by the people of the Baltic Republics. and look forward to the day when Lithuanians. Latvians. and Estonians will once more en. oy individual liberty under just government. The Baltic Peoples and Their Deportation by the Soviets
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