Baltic peoples executed and deported by Soviet Russia

Last June 14, groups of immigrants from the Baltic states observed, in mourning and with prayer, a memorial day Baltic Genocide Day. June 14 marks the day when, in 1941, masses of the inhabitants of then three Baltic nations were deported from their countries by Soviet Russia under conditions which indicated death for many and for the others, exile, forced labour and physical and moral sufferings of every kind, every day of this existence.

It seems that it might be useful to recall to an all too heedless population here in our country the events which took place in these sad countries. They will serve to disclose the hideous face of Communism, the true face of Communism. For it is an unfortunate fact that many of our people have fallen under the influence of a certain school of thought which attempts to show Communism in a favorable light only. This school is made up of Leftists of various degrees of pinkness or redness who, in the press, over the air, in conferences, in descriptions of their voyages to Russia and China, strive to present Communism to us as something that is really quite acceptable, as having realised accomplishments superior to ours in many points, as being something with which we can effect an entente with much advantage to ourselves. The Baltic people and other victims of the iron hand of Moscow, who have been able to escape and come live in Canada, are the ones who are best able to set forth the "virtues" of living under a Communist regime.

Where are the Baltic countries? These are three countries of northern Europe, situated on the shores of the Baltic sea. They are: Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. The population is mainly rural, given to agriculture. The inhabitants of these three countries have never asked anything more than to live in peace, even with their great neighbour, Russia. Treaties of peace, non-agression and friendship were signed with Moscow, by Lithuania in 1926, by Latvia and Estonia in 1932. They had every reason to believe, then, that they would be allowed to live quietly.

But this was not to be. In June, 1940, Russia, which was not yet at war, delivered an ultimatum to the governments of the three Baltic countries. accusing them, falsely, of forming a military alliance against her. An army of 300,000 Russian soldiers invaded Lithuana on the 15th of June, 1940, and Latvia and Estonia on June 17. This was a terrible surprise for people who, only a few days previously, had heard Russia proclaim the right of all nations to their sovereignty and to the free expression of the will of their peoples.

This violation of territory, contrary to the treaties signed and to international law, took place when the democracies of the west were engaged in total war against the Nazis.

From this first year of occupation, onwards, Baltic citizens were put to death and others were deported to Siberia in great numbers.

In June of the year 1941, rumours, set on foot by the Russian occupation forces themselves, had it that the Russian soldiers were to be withdrawn. And, in fact, large numbers of military convoy trucks were to be marshalled in various parts of these countries. However, they were being grouped for some other reason than to evacuate Russian soldiers. The true reason was revealed on the terrible night of June 14, 1941 which has come to be commemorated as Baltic Genocide Day.

That night, and the following nights, Russian soldiers, obeying orders from the satanic Russian police under the command of Beria, began entering the homes of the people, breaking down the doors where refused entry. The unfortunate inhabitants were roused out of bed and ordered to follow the soldiers. They were given but fifteen minutes in which to pack some few possessions. Under the menace of machine guns, they were forced into the waiting trucks. Thousands of trucks, packed with people torn from their beds in the middle of the night, converged on the railway yards where were waiting freight cars. Here, families were broken up. Husbands were separated from their wives, children from their parents. Then they were packed into the freight cars until these were full to the point of cracking. Thus with only a small barred window for air, the doors locked, they set off for the unknown! During the trip, a large number of the prisoners, espacially among the old, died from lack of food and water. Those left found themselves ending up in slavery in the concentration camps of Siberia.

Apart from these massive deportations, the arrests and executions continued in the three occupied countries. So numerous were they that during the first year of occupation some 59,967 Estonians, 50,000 Lithuanians and 34,250 Latvians were killed, tortured to death or disappeared without trace. A total of more than 140,000 people were killed out of a population about equal to that of Ontario. Hundreds of thousands of others went to the slave camps of Russia. Others fled abroad into foreign countries to escape the chains of slavery.

The Russians, driven out of the Baltic states by the Germans during the second part of the war, returned there in 1944 to resume their program of genocide, oppression, exploitation, deportation, cultural degradation and political enslavement.

The Soviets practised five forms of deportation. First were those who were considered to be enemies of the regime. They were destined to be liquidated and were sent to those concentration camps where the mortality was the highest. Secondly, the deportation of those who were considered unassimalable into the regime. Generally condemned to eight years of forced labour, they were transported to camps where the mortality was not so high. If they survived their term of imprisonment, they were released upon condition that they settled down in the vicinity of the camp and worked in the camp. Thirdly, there were the ordinary deportees most of these beings parents or near relatives of deportees of the first two classes. They were ordinarily transported to camps located as far as possible from their homes, usually in Siberia or central Asia, where they were put to work in factories or on farms. Fourthly the small group of professional men or workers skilled in a special craft. These were taken from their homes and sent to those parts where their skills were needed. The fifth class was made up of those falsely called voluntary deportees. These were obliged or forced to sign documents attesting that they were leaving of their own free wills. Their destination was generally Siberia, where they were obliged to report to the police on arrival. A refusal to sign or to leave meant that they would be deported to camps where life was more difficult, generally camps of the first two categories. Moscow tried to cover up its crime by pretending that the Baltic people really chose Communism. This was a lie. The governments which gave in to Moscow were governments imposed upon the people by Moscow. The Soviet regime governs there against the will of the people. It was established by force of Soviet arms. The Soviet regime has despoiled the Baltic peoples of their independence, of the sovereignty which belonged to them by right.

Culturally, the Baltic peoples have been subjected to a constant program of Sovietization. They have been forbidden to express any thought which is contrary to materialistic Communism or the theory of world revolution. Authors and artists have received orders to disseminate Communist propaganda. As for religion, church activity has been restricted, Catholic priests, Orthodox priests and Protestant ministers are often persecuted on the charge of having engaged in anti-Communist activity. The possibility of forming new priests or ministers is practically nil. Anti-religious propaganda has increased tremendously in response to orders coming from the Kremlin.

Those responsible for the many, and varied crimes committed against the Baltic peoples by the Soviets have not only not been punished but continue to occupy high posts in Soviet Russia and they represent Russia in international assemblies. The Baltic countries have been turned into Soviet military bases which can be used by the Russians for any sort of aggression upon Europe. Men of the Baltic states are forced to serve in the armed forces of Communist Russia. The opposition to Russia is strong, but the Baltic people have not the means of openly resisting the Soviet colonialism which has subjugated their country.

Since Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia have fallen victims to Soviet imperialism, a long list of other countries have met the same fate; East Germany, Poland, Hungary, Yugoslavia, Albania, Roumania and Bulgaria.

Moscow continues its pursuit of world power by all the means it can find, aiming at establishing a world empire governed by Communism and dominated by the Russians.

The free world today faces a dreadfully powerful adversary. Look at the maps of Europe, of Asia, of the entire world. More than a third of the globe's inhabitants obey the Communist dictates. Amongst another third the agents of Moscow are hard at work. And it so happens that in the countries which are called the West, the people are blind enough, or complaisant enough, or heedless enough of the values which must be carefully preserved, to allow complete freedom to Communist "parties", whose first allegiance is to Moscow, and which, in fact, constitute true fifth columns in our midst.

The only hope of the opressed Baltic peoples is that a victory of democracy will bring to them the freedom which has been written into the Atlantic Charter in these words: the right of all people to their liberty, to their own form of government, and to the free disposition of their own resources. These fine word, however, signify little when the authors of this very charter have made almost every concession demanded by Moscow, sacrificing to the demands of the conspirators of the Kremlin under the illusion that they would thus obtain the co-operation of the Bolshevist chiefs in creating an international order of justice and peace. We have all seen the results.

There is no co-operation possible between the Christian world and the world of Communist atheism no more than there can be co-operation between St. Michael and Lucifer. After having sacrificed a dozen European nations to Stalin in an attempt to win his cooperation, God Himself was finally sacrificed to Moscow at the founding of the United Nations. God had to be turned out of doors in order to respect the atheism of one member! Where can such an organization of "disunited" nations ever hope to end up?

And yet do we not find the same spirit rampant amongst us? Laicism blotting out the spiritual, God being chased from the schools, unions which formerly professed belief in the fatherhood of God now throwing off any allegiance to that same Father?

You cannot stop Communism by making concessions to it. Nor with exchange of visits between leaders. Nor by tossing flowers to Communists. Nor by a program of denigration against those whose denounce Communism and point out the danger from it.

Communism is infiltrating our people, spreading, while it hides its true visage. It goes under other names so that it might not startle us. It works through subtle and indirect propaganda. It plays with facts, emphasizing some, minimizing others in order to obtain just the result it wants. It works through the propagation of secularism and indifference to faith and religion.

Communism is a lie. It must be answered by the truth. It is atheistic. It must be opposed by a living religion. It is hatred. It must be met with charity and love.

For even if there were no Communism, is the Christian not obliged even then to live a life in the service of truth, a life of self-sanctification, a life of love and charity? This is the life which the men and women who work for the movement of the Union of Electors strive to lead. It is the weapon with which all true Crediters will meet the menace of Communism.