Mr. Speaker. we pause today to commemorate the 22d anniversary of the mass deportations from Lithuania. Latvia. and Estonia which occurred in June 1941. By so doing. we remind ourselves once again that we in the United States enjoy the blessings of liberties while many peoples are suffering the terrors of Communist oppression. It is fitting that we pause to pay homage to the freedomloving peoples of the Baltic States on the 22d anniversary of the martyrdom of thousands of Baltic citizens at the hands of Soviet troops. These outrages against humanity were the aftermath of the forced incorporation of the Baltic States into the Soviet Union 1 year earlier. To understand the full tragedy of the mass deportations of June 1941 one must recall the historical context in which they took place. Lithuania has been known to history since the year 1009. when a number of Eastern Europeai principalities joined together to form a state. The king of a united Lithuania was recognized in the 13th century. and shortly thereafter the boundaries of Lithuania extended into what is now the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic and the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic.
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deportations