Deportations from Latvia and Lithuania

Deportations from Latvia and Lithuania. Differences made by executive hands between Latvians and Lithuanians during deportation process. Traditionally Latvia and Lithuania are considered as the closest countries to each other not only because of language or location, but as well because of similar historical backgrounds, similar destiny. In the short 22-year period of independence, the people of Latvia and Lithuania had developed a sense of loyalty and love towards their new-born country, but the happiness was not doomed to longevity. Already on June 14, 1941 at three o'clock in the morning mass arrests and deportations began simultaneously in Lithuania and Latvia (Estonia as well). Following Moscow's orders, chekists from Byelorussia, Smolensk, Pskov, and other places were mobilized to execute this task. During the mass deportations of June 14th 1991 more than 18 000 people from Lithuania and approximately 16 000 from Latvia were deported. [Nollendorfs, Celle, Michele, Neiburgs and Staško 2005] At no time there were judgments ever passed nor someone were ever prosecuted. [Z. Kiaupa, A. Mäesalu, A. Pajur, G. Straube 1991] In my opinion taking people away from their fatherland against their will is the most dreaded instruments of terror. It was typical for the deportations of the late 30s and early 40s that men were arrested and sent to the Gulag labour camps, but the family members of the arrested were exiled to distant districts of Siberia or the Kazakh SSR. Deportation was a forbidden subject for history books, school texts and even popular literature and memoirs. Censorship on this topic was tight and the survivors wanted to forget what they experienced by hiding it, even from their closest family members. [Grinkevičiūtė 2006] Only during the late 1980s and early 1990s people started to talk openly what happened with them and their families and why did they were considered to be “anti-Soviet” elements, how they survived and who helped them. During the years 1941-1953, several hundred thousand people were deported "eternally" from Latvia and Lithuania, most of them women and children. Tens of thousands died from illnesses, starvation and unbearable work. Nevertheless, Lithuanians and Latvians were mostly deported to different regions and districts. The main goal of my research paper is to analyze memoirs and memories of deported, as well as available documents and find answer whether Lithuanians and Latvians were treated differently during deportation process and in the exile period.