Speech #930063776

Regrettably. a generation has grown to adulthood without knowing the blessing of freedom. democracy and justice. From 1944 to 1952. antiSoviet partisans struggled for freedom against the Soviet military occupation in protracted guerilla warfare with a loss of 50.000 Lithuanian lives. During the Stalin era. more than onesixth of the Lithuanian population was deported to Russia and Siberia. Not long ago a Lithuanian youth burned himself as a martyr in protest against the denial of the right of national selfdetermination. the denial of religious freedom. political freedom and the denial of human rights by the Soviet Union. The United States has never recognized the forceful annexation of Lithuania and the other Baltic States into the Soviet Union.