It was then that the Soviet Union imposed a wave of terror on the three Baltic peoples. Looking backward. czarist efforts at the "Russification" of the Baltics appear mild when compared to Stalins brutal techniques. On June 14. 1941. the wave of deportations reached its peak. continuing in Lithuania for 5 more nights. Fifteen thousand Latvian men. women. and children were rounded up by Soviet secret police A3866 during a single night and transported in cattle cars to the slave labor camps of Siberia. Thousands of Lithuanians and Estonians were similarly rounded up and deported under equally Inhuman conditions. The courageous Baltic peoples resisted these efforts. at times with their lives. but this reaction only resulted in plans for the total deportation of the Baltic peoples to northeast Russia and Siberia. On this 22d anniversary of the mass deportations from Lithuania. Latvia. and Estonia. the American people renew their vow to continue the ageold struggle for freedom. The hopes of the Baltic peopies are the hopes of the whole free world.
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deported deportations deportation