By means of devious tactics and interference with the domestic politics of a once sovereign state. the Soviet Union grievously violated Lithuanias national integrity. In July 1940. a rigged election produced a congress that requested the incorporation of Lithuania into the Soviet Union. Shortly thereafter. Moscow made the formal announcement. Its strategy of aggression had thereby met with success at the expense of Lithuanias sovereignty. The Lithuanian people were immediately subjected to extreme forms of oppression. In order to consolidate Soviet control and reduce antiSoviet agitation. some 30.000 members of the Lithuanian intelligentsia were deported to Siberia. In hasty retreat before advancing Germans. the Soviet troops executed 5.000 political prisoners. When the tide of the war turned against Germany.
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deported