I think of when it all began. on that fateful night of June 14. 1941. a night engraved on the memory of Im sure many that are here today. when Soviet troops forced more than 50.000 Baltic men. women. and children. kicking and screaming. into railroad cattle cars. and sent them off to an uncertain fate in far off and inhospitable Siberia. During the next 10 years. as the Soviets eliminated more than 600.000 Baltic citizens. fully 10 percent of the total population of those nations. we saw the beginning of the Soviets goal: to create a Lithuania cast in the image of the Soviet Union. Critical in achieving this goal. was the wiping out of all vestiges of Lithuanian independence. religion. and culture. At first. as Ive already mentioned. the Soviets used deportations and outright murder to achieve their goal. The method later changed to an intense Russification campaign. Churches were closed.
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deportations