Through the nonaggression pacts between Nazi Germany and Communist Russia. the Soviet Union gained a sphere of influence over the Baltic area. Military arrests and mass persecutions followed. and Estonia was overrun. Tens of thousands of Estonians who resisted Soviet collectivism and fought in the underground for reestablishment of their beloved nation were deported. After the Nazi occupation during World War II. the Soviet Union again regained control of Estonia. Since that time. the fate of Estonia has been controlled from the Kremlin. The harsh and brutal repression of the Soviet regime has come to be a fact of life for the Estonian people. Excessive prison sentences and forced exiles have accompanied a Soviet effort to destroy the Estonian sense of nationalism. and those of us who enjoy freedom cannot help but sympathize with these brave people in their hopes to once again gain independence. The recent deportation of Nobel prizewinning author Alexander Solzhenitsyn by the Soviet Union Is another dramatic example of the repressive measures exployed by the communist regime. In the very work which ultimately led to his arrest by Soviet authorities. "The Gulag Archipelago. 19181956." Solzhenitsyn
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deported deportation