Mr. Speaker. on June 14. 1941. a little over two decades ago. the Soviet Communists initiated a series of mass deportations from the Baltic States the cruelty of which has few parallels in history. The exact figures are unknown. but around 15.000 Latvian men. women. and children were forced into exile on that first night of June 14. About 5 percent of the total population of Estonia was deported during a period of 14 months. And. in a later wave of deportations. approximately 10 percent of Lithuanias population was driven to Siberia in a Soviet attempt to break down the resistance of Lithuanian farmers to the forcible collectivization of their land. But the treachery began earlier when. contrary to every assurance given the Baltic peoples in a vast array of treaties and international agreements with the Soviet Union. their territory was overrun by the Soviet army and they were incorporated into the Soviet Union as constituent republics. "Republics" is truly an ironic misnomer. for with incorporation into the Soviet Union came the end of constitutional government and guaranteed liberties which are to us in the free world inherent characteristics of a republic. "Republic" is a strange epithet for a country whose citizens are arrested without cause and forcibly driven to Siberian prison camps in the middle of the night. When we compare the Baltic constituent republics of today with the independent Baltic Republics of the decades between the two World Wars. we are stunned by the contrast.
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deported deportations