Baltic states bear scars of 1949 Soviet crackdown

[The Lawspeaker]

Baltic states bear scars of 1949 Soviet crackdown

The crackdown of March 25, 1949 is etched in the Baltic mind. Open discussion of it was banned in the Soviet era and Moscow has still not acknowledged it as a crime.

BaltoTallinn -- The Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania this week remember the tragedy that befell them 60 years ago, when communist security forces rounded up tens of thousands of people and deported them deep into the Soviet Union.

The crackdown of March 25, 1949 is etched in the Baltic mind. Open discussion of it was banned in the Soviet era and Moscow has still not acknowledged it as a crime.

Commemoration events are planned across the three nations Wednesday.
"My heart is broken every time I think of my mother, 31 at the time, who was arrested that night with four children aged two, five, six and nine, with me being the youngest, taken to the station, put in a cattle wagon full of other desperate people and deported to Siberia," Estonian Tiiu Teesalu, 62, told AFP.

In 1939 Moscow cut a deal with Nazi Germany allowing it to grab the small Baltic states -- which had won independence from Russia at the end of World War I -- and carve up Poland.

The Soviets invaded the Baltic trio in June 1940.
They immediately set out to crush opposition -- both real and imagined -- to Soviet rule by classing entire families "enemies of the people".

The oppression came to a head on June 14, 1941, as they deported some 10,000 Estonians, more than 15,000 Latvians and 16,000-18,000 Lithuanians.
The drive was cut short when the World War II Nazi-Soviet pact broke down and Germany invaded Soviet territory on June 22, 1941.

In 1944, Moscow ended the bloody Nazis occupation and Soviet forces and local collaborators resumed the oppression.
Almost 21,000 Estonians were seized in the 1949 sweep.

"As in 1941, people on the list included the relatives of the political and cultural elite of pre-war Estonia, whom Moscow considered a potential threat to the Soviet occupation," said Rein Purje of the Memento Estonia victims' association.

Purje, 67, was himself deported in 1941 -- as an unborn child, because his mother was just three months pregnant.

More than 42,000 people were deported from Latvia in 1949.

Some 29,000 people were deported from Lithuania, the largest Baltic state, which was hit by several mass operations. A total 118,000 Lithuanians were sent eastwards in 1945-1952.

"They went for two sorts of people: farmers and the families of those that they dubbed 'nationalists'," said Lithuanian historian Arunas Bubnys.

The deportees' farms were taken over -- forced collectivization was another reason for driving them out -- and their houses given to Soviet military families or other migrants from Russia sent in to tip the ethnic balance.

Many deportees died en route or in exile. The survivors were barred from returning until a Kremlin thaw after the 1953 death of Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin.

Those who were able to come back faced oppression across all spheres of life.
Teesalu, who returned in 1956, later applied to study history at university but was barred because of her deportee background.

"What happened 60 years ago is common knowledge in Latvia because there's not a single family without a link to the deportations," said lawmaker and former foreign minister Sandra Kalniete, 56, who was born in Siberia to parents who met in exile.
"Only after the fall of the Berlin Wall and Iron Curtain could all the crimes finally be revealed," she said.

Moscow's grip on the Baltic states only ended when the Soviet bloc crumbled in 1991. Since independence, relations have been rocky between Russia and the trio, which joined the European Union and NATO in 2004.

Discord has been stoked by conflicting interpretations of the past, notably Moscow's refusal to recognise its rule as occupation and the deportations as crimes against humanity.

"In Lithuania and Russia the deportations are seen completely differently," said Lithuanian historian and lawmaker Arvydas Anusaukas, 45.
"We are under an obligation to remember," he said.

For Teesalu, who has written four books about the tragedy: "A simple apology and admission that the Soviet occupation caused enormous suffering for the Baltic nations could take away most of that bitterness that many Baltic people still feel towards Russia."

Source: Expatica (25-03-09)

[Hors]

The oppression came to a head on June 14, 1941, as they deported some 10,000 Estonians, more than 15,000 Latvians and 16,000-18,000 Lithuanians.

Terrible, terrible figures! LOL

Especially taking into account that a lot of the deportees were Russians and other "aliens"...

[Lenny]

Dealing with raw numbers of single crackdowns sort of distorts the picture.

Here is the meta-narrative as I understand it (it is all documented with names and dates):

• 1940-1949, the Russian NKVD killed or caused the deaths of ~15% of Latvia and Estonia's populations (mostly young people) by the bullet or in the gulag.
• Another 10-12% of Latvians and Estonians fled for fear of their lives in face of the Soviet conquest from 1940 through late 1944; mostly to Sweden, lesser numbers to Germany and USA. These people's children usually married into the local populations and so were lost to the Estonian/Latvian nations.
• About 2% of the Latvian and Estonian populations died in the field during the war (nearly half of military-age Lat/Est men served in the German military to fight for their independence; some were present till the bitter end; for instance in the finals days of "Festung Breslau" in April 1945, one of the only regular units left facing off against the Red Army was the Estonian "Viking" Division [20th SS]...Similar to the fatalistic last stand of Nordland Div. at Berlin).
• Summing the above; nearly 30% of the Lat/Est populations were thus lost in ten years.
• But since it was mostly younger people to flee or be killed, we can say that probably 35-40% of their younger generation was lost. (This is the more valuable metric for this level of analysis since the younger generation represents the potential future births).
• From the late 1940s through the 1980s, Stalin and his successors began pouring in Soviet colonists to "russify" these countries; they wanted to make the eastern Baltic seacoast regions as Russian as the Moscow region. (They did this in the baltic-coastal region of Ostpreussen by simply expelling all the conquered people).
• Aggressive cultural russification was attempted, publishing in local languages was discouraged, all children were taught in Russian more than in their local language.
• The combination of cultural policy (cultural death was staring them in the face, and everyone at the time that thought communism-is-here-to-stay) and the on-the-street reality of their national-dispossession depressed the Lat/Est birthrates to the vicinity of 1.5 already by the 1960s, far below replacement.
• By 1990, all the cities (of over 100,000) in Estonia and Latvia were majority Russophone. Their nationalities only survived unmolested in the countryside.
• As a result of all of the above, there are fewer Latvians and Estonians today than there were in the year 1900. And they remain burdened by huge hostile foreign populations.

Some Russians have the nerve today to complain about "mistreatment" of the leftover Soviet colonists (the "mistreatment" is largely a lie); but only until a Latvian-Estonian secret police force actually kills 25 million young Russians, invades and annexes all of Russia, and floods every Russian city with nonRussian immigrants; can they begin to have any comparable experience.

[Hors]

Dealing with raw numbers of single crackdowns sort of distorts the picture.

Here is the meta-narrative as I understand it (it is all documented with names and dates):

Where? By whom? What's the source?

1940-1949, the Russian NKVD killed or caused the deaths of ~15% of Latvia and Estonia's populations (mostly young people) by the bullet or in the gulag.

Not even in their wildest wet fantasies Baltic national-morons claim such figures. It must be of the same BS source in Lenny's trash library which claims 100 0000 000 victims of Stalin.

[Hors]

The oppression came to a head on June 14, 1941, as they deported some 10,000 Estonians, more than 15,000 Latvians and 16,000-18,000 Lithuanians.

Terrible, terrible figures! LOL

Especially taking into account that a lot of the deportees were Russians and other "aliens"...

It turns out that the 10.000 figure of deported Estonians is greatly exaggregated. In fact, "honest" Estonian "historians" included in this number not even children who were born in Siberia in later years but also individuals who were scheduled for deportation but not deported actually. In fact, only 8000 Estonians were deported. But Estonian grandsons of Dr. Goebbels are desperate to inflate the figures. But even inflated figures look pathetic in the light of accusations of genocide and/or crimes against humanity, as the total population of Estonia was more than 1 100 000 back then!!!

Especially as, of course, there were a lot of "aliens" (i.e. Russians) among those 8000 "Estonians".

The NKVD operations were directed against criminal and subversive elements and were not based on the ethnic principle.

For example, here is the list of individuals executed in Estonia in 1940-1941.

http://www.historycommission.ee/temp...es/332-360.pdf

At least 30% of them have Russian names.


Laane, Arved (*1916) 2nd Lieutenant of Estonian army, commander
of artillery battery of the 42nd Rifle
Regiment of the 22nd Territorial Rifle Corps.
Received 5,000 kroons on 27 November for
purchasing forage. Never returned. Was
arrested in Tallinn in a restaurant. Charged
with deserting.

Maakar (Makarov), Jaan
1893)
1919–1920 Sergeant Major in the Russian
White Army, served in the commandatur of
a division. Was involved in arrests and executions
of communists.

Madisson, Evald (*1906) Secret co-worker of the NKVD, earlier secret
agent of Estonian Political Police. Kept his
past in secret and disinformed the NKVD
authorities.

Hдrms (Herms), Nikolai
(*1910)
In autumn 1940 was Head of the Secretariat
of the NKVD of the ESSR. Trade union
activist, in 1938 was exiled to Viljandi,
became secret agent of the Political Police.
Gave information about the workers’ organisations
“Idea” and “Ћгонёк”. From 1939 was
interpreter in the Soviet Legation in Tallinn,
gave information about members of
Estonian Parliament Neeme Ruus and
Maksim Unt, who were in contact with
Legation. Joined the ECP in 1940

Saarlaid, Vladimir
(*1922),
Birkenfeld, Elmar (*1922)
Attacked militiaman Voldemar Puun in
Kuressaare with the aim of robbing his
weapon, hitting his head with an axe, as a
result of which Puun later died.

and so on

But it all does not stop Estonian clowns from claiming that it was still a genocide because the so called Estonian "elite" (sic!) was wiped out.

Well, one may imagine the quality of the Estonian people if its elite consists of deserters, secret police agents, prison wards, criminals and prostitutes (the latter made up 7.5% of the deportees). LOL

So much for Estonians