During the week of June 1421. Lithuania lost 34.260 souls to the remote areas of Siberia and the Arctic. The weeks total for the Baltic area was 59.860 deportees. What happened to these illfated people. Most of them died or went insane as a result of Soviet brutalities and inhuman living conditions. There were few survivors. but the testimony of some of these has documented one of historys most heinous crimes. It would be wrong to assume that these deportations are a thing of the past. to regard them as simply an excess of Stalinism. The mass deportation has continued throughout the postwar era to be an instrument of sovietization and coercion. The specific techniques have shifted from mass arrests and cattlecar shipments to the more subtle one of Job and housing controls which force segments of the population to move from one area to another. These methods may be less offensive. but the hardship and disruption which they cause the Baltic peoples have not been lessened.
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deportations deportation deportees