In 1940. the Soviet Union occupied Lithuania by force. replacing the independent government by a puppet regime. Freedom of religion was one of the first freedoms to be crushed. Then on June 15. 1941. over 34.000 Lithuanians were packed off in cattle cars to scattered points in the Soviet Union. After World War II. these mass deportations resumed and continued at least until 1953. Against all these depredations. the Lithuanian people have kept alive the spirit of freedom. Lithuanians behind the bars of communism and persons of Lithuanian descent everywhere long to restore the freedom that the Declaration of Independence of 1918 gave the Lithuanian nation.
Keywords matched
deportations