Speaker. I wish to join with my colleagues in remembering the takeover of Lithuania by the Red Army on June 15. 1940. and call attention to the way this relatively small. but united country was absorbed by the Soviet Union in 1940. The aggression of the Soviet Union against Lithuania and the illegal process of annexation has meant that the Lithuanians have been denied the right of self -determination. the right to practice the religion of their choice. and the right to dissent and to emigrate. As an independent nation for more than 20 years. the Lithuanian people developed their own political. economic. and cultural life. they were constantly being threatened by the Red Army during this period. and on July 12. 1920. a peace treaty between Lithuania and Soviet Russia was signed in which the Soviet Government "recognizes without reservation the sovereign rights of the Lithuanian stateand voluntarily and for all time abandons all the sovereign rights of Russia over the Lithuanian people and their territory." Again in 1922. Lithuania became a member of the League of Nations and thereby was recognized as an independent state by the world.
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