On 23 August 1939, the heads of the institutions of foreign affairs of the Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) and Germany signed a non-aggression agreement which is also often referred to as the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact. The secret protocol annexed to the document determined the division of ter ritories or the so-called spheres of interest in Eastern Europe. According to the division, Latvia became part of the USSR "sphere of interest". Soon after that, Josef Stalin, the Soviet dictator, addressed "the Baltic issue", i. e., prepared for the incorporation of the inde pendent Baltic States. On 5 October 1939, the Soviet Union imposed the "mutual assistance" agreement on Latvia, which provided also for the establishment of bases of USSR armed forces in the territory of Latvia. Soon such bases were established in Liepāja, Ventspils, and several other places. On 16 June 1940, the Government of Latvia received an ultimatum from the USSR, whereby Vyacheslav Molotov, the People's Commissar of Foreign Affairs of the USSR, blamed Latvia for the breach of the mutual assistance agreement, and demanded that a new government be estab lished in Latvia and additional armed forces of the Soviet Union be allowed into Latvia. On 17 June 1940, the USSR Red Army occupied Latvia and the country lost its independence.
Immediately after the occupation of Latvia , the destruction of its sovereignty began . The soviet regime was introduced and enforced. On 21 July 1940, a false parliament - the so-called People's Saeima - was es tablished by way of an undemocratic non-alternative elec tion. It announced "soviet power" in Latvia and passed a decision, prepared already in advance in the Soviet Union, concerning the accession of the Latvian Soviet So cialist Republic (LSSR) to the USSR. The illegal in corporation of Latvia into the Soviet Union took place on 5 August 1940. On 25 August 1940, the People's Saeima adopted the Constitution of the LSSR, declar ing all citizens of the Republic of Latvia the citizens of the USSR. The Republic of Latvia Ministry of For eign Affairs and all diplomatic representative offices abroad were liquidated. Also other Latvian institutions were either liquidated or the soviet system was introduced into them. Thus Latvia was completely isolated from abroad and subject to the arbitrariness of the occupation power.
Following the instructions of the USSR, central party bodies, and governmental institutions, the con solidation of the soviet political regime was lead by the Latvian Communist Party (LCP) which in the autumn of 1940 became the local organisation of the All Union Communist (Bolshevik) Party (AUC(b)P) and changed its name to the Latvian Communist (Bolshevik) Party (LC(b)P). From the first days of occupation, it obedi ently complied with all decisions of the AUC(b)P Cen tral Committee. As regards politics, LCP set a task to completely liquidate the "bourgeois" state apparatus and establish soviet institutions everywhere; in the economy - to eliminate private property; but the key task of its ideological activities was to "'educate con scientious builders of socialism, increase political vigi lance, and fight the expressions of nationalism".
From the very beginnings of the occupation in Latvia, the slogans of "increasing of political vigi lance" and "unmasking of the enemies" were constantly disseminated. Already on 23 June 1940, Vilis Lācis, Minister of Interior of the puppet government which had been established with the authorisation of the oc cupants and led by Augusts Kirhenšteins, declared in his radio speech, "The most essential task to be ac complished by the Ministry of Interior is to weed out reactionary elements and people's enemies from the state apparatus completely and by all means."
On 12 July 1940, a law on fighting sabotage was passed, and on 13 July, Juris Pabērzs, the Minister of Justice of Augusts Kirhenšteins' government explained, "It has been ob served that, in relation to the implemented changes, detrimental, i.e. sabotage type actions have taken place in several areas in the country affecting public property and to the detriment of the interests of the people and the state. The Ministry of Interior points out that the government will not tolerate such actions and the persons at fault for detrimental or sabotage actions will be punished severely. For this purpose, a law on fighting sabotage has been passed, effective as of the day of its publishing.
In an extensive article "Saboteurs and Instigators Must Be Unmasked", Žanis Spure, secretary of the LCP Central Committee (CC), in his turn threatened, "LCP together with conscientious workers will expose saboteurs and eliminate all wrong doings which might be detrimental to the national economy." In his address, "Vigilance of the Class Must Be Enhanced", Jānis Kalnbērziņš, First Secretary of the LCP CC, remarked, "Speaking about the class vigi lance, it should be pointed out, any illusion that the enemies of soviet power are passive, has to be dispelled. In various ways they will try to fight against the soviet power, against the building of socialism, against a just division of the land. Masked, secretly standing behind unconscientious members of the nation, they will endeavour to sabotage manufacturing, destroy working discipline, and destroy workers' or ganisations from inside. This enemy will try to encourage people to liquidate pedigree cattle, not to har vest the crops, not to sow the crops; they will try to keep in disorder their private property, not even stopping short of terror acts and diversions. Therefore any illusion that the soviet power has no enemies in the territory of Latvia must be dispelled."
Already in the summer of 1940, the search, regis tration and arrest of the "people's enemies'' and other "alien class elements" began. In such a way, for in stance, lists of the officers of the Latvian Army and commanders of the Aizsargi (National Guards) were drawn up, and information on the former Aizsargi working in various institutions was collected. Already in June 1940, 20 persons were arrested, in July, 141 persons, and in August, 300 persons. Arrests contin ued also in the next months, especially when the re pressive institutions similar to those in the USSR had been established in Latvia.
Pursuant to Order No.001072 of the USSR Peo ple's Commissar of Interior issued on 30 August 1940, the LSSR People's Commissariat of the Interior was es tablished, and Alfons Noviks was appointed the LSSR People's Commissar of the Interior. Already in Septem ber 1940, the system of the LSSR state security institutions corresponding to the one in the Soviet Union was developed, and the officials of the repressive in stitutions were appointed. Pursuant to the USSR Supreme Soviet Presidium Decree issued on 3 February 1941, the USSR People's Commissariat of the Interior was split into two institutions the People's Commis sariat of Interior (PCI) and the People's Commissariat of State Security (PCSS). Lavrentiy Beria was appointed the People's Commissar of the Interior, and Vsevolod Merkulov of the People's Commissar of State Secu rity. In Latvia, A.Noviks was appointed the People's Commissar of the Interior, and Semyon Shustin, a former USSR state security service officer, became the People's Commissar of State Security. Within two months of the autumn of 1940, an underground prison was built at No. 37/39 Brīvības Street (now No. 61 Brīvības St.) in Riga. It became a place of torture for numerous people in Latvia. For many of them, their lives came to an end right there.
Pursuant to a USSR Supreme Soviet Presidium Decree on 26 November 1940, legislative acts of the Rus sian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR), inter alia also the Criminal Code, took effect in the territory of Latvia. On the basis of the Decree, the repressive institutions pursuant to the RSFSR law had the power to punish Latvian citizens also for their activities performed prior to the occupation of Latvia, as it had a retroactive force, notwithstanding the stipulation of Article 20 of the Latvian and Russian Peace Agreement of 11 August 1920: "After the ratification of this agreement, the Russian Government shall liberate all Latvian citizens and optants of Latvian citizenship, but the Latvian Government shall liberate Russian citizens and optants of Russian citizenship, of both military and civil classes, from punishment for all political and disciplinary cases. In the event judgements in these cases have not yet been made, the litigation in the cases shall be termi nated." However, the Communist Party members and soviet civil servants, as well as managers of the Stalinist repressive institutions failed to comply with the concluded international agreements; merciless terror began against Latvian citizens who had been declared the citizens of the occupying country, the USSR, without their consent, and who had not been guilty of any crimes against their country, Latvia. For instance, on 18 January 1941, pursuant to the decision of the Baltic Special Military District Court Martial of 6 De cember 1940, Lieutenant Otto Cielēns, Information department, Latvian Army Headquarters was shot , and on 25 March 1941, Kārlis Goppers, retired General of the Latvian Army, who was accused of his activities during the Russian Civil War. Many other civil servants, military persons, employees of the police and court authorities of Latvia also were arrested, sentenced and executed at that time, but their only "crime" was a long-term loyal and honest service for their country and people.
When preparing and carrying out various repres sions, LC(b)P - the local organisation of the AUC(b)P -as well as LSSR authorities extensively used the state terror experience and expertise accrued in the USSR. To obtain comprehensive and complete information about various "people's enemies", as well as other "hostile elements", the USSR People's Commissariat of Interior (PCI), which carried out systematic mass repressions of a scale unprecedented in the world, used also archive materials widely for their purposes. At that time the archive system was transferred to the USSR PCI to be in charge of, and the number of "people's enemies" found according to the archive data was enormous. After the liquidation of Latvia's independence, the employees of the Archive De partment of the LSSR PCI also took over and promptly used the materials of the Ministry of War. The police, political parties, different institutions and organisa tions were also useful in supplementing the central files of the "counter-revolutionary and anti-soviet elements", which had been started already in 1939 by the Main Archives Administration of the USSR PCI. "The Instructions to the Departments of Secret Funds of State Archives of the Union, Republics, Areas and Regions for Registering the Persons about whom there are Discrediting Archive Materi als", approved by A. Svetlov, Vice Manager of the above Administration, provided for the ways and means for developing such person card indexes and lists of information on them. The following data had to be provided in the card index and list , the person's name and family name, father's name, place and date of birth, former place of work or profession, as well as the information discrediting the person. Information on people of 27 groups (categories) of "diverse politi cal shades" had to be recorded in the register. The first copy of the card index had to be transferred to the PCI Archives Department in the republic, the second one - to the PCI State Security Administration for "operative implementation of the agency", and the third one, to the USSR PCI Central Archives Admi nistration for supplementing the central card index.
On 23 November 1940 , the USSR PCI approved a special instruction in order to determine "counter-revo lutionary and anti-soviet elements" in the western ar eas of the Ukrainian SSR and Belorussian SSR, as well as in Moldavian SSR, Latvian SSR, Lithuanian SSR, Estonian SSR and Karelian-Finnish SSR. On 27 March 1941 , the USSR PCT Main Archives Administration issued Instruction No. 2/1325 addressed to the heads of PCI Archive Departments of the respective republics, providing for the ways and means for developing lists of information on the persons performing political investigation secretly, about whom information could be kept in the archives of the respective republics. (Surveys of the LSSR PCI and PCSS on the results of the registration of "counter-revolutionary and anti-soviet elements" have not been found in the archives; also the above card index has not been found.)
At that time also the Communist Party and soviet institutions in all cities, towns and rural areas in Latvia drew up lists of former owners of plants, factories and other companies, merchants, real estate owners, cash depositors, as well as other "exploiters" and "socially dangerous elements". For instance, in Bauska region in February 1941, an extensive list of "kulaks" and "profiteers", as well as a "list of persons employed as [former] Aizsargi at Bauska region Executive Committee, as well as members of other fascist organisations", was drawn up. Each family name bore a note -"'Aizsargs", "Jaunsargs", "Member of the Farmers' Union", "Member of the Women's National League", etc.
For the purpose of collecting "discrediting facts", also the documents drafted during the process of com pany and farm nationalisation and in the course of issuing USSR passports commenced in spring 1941, documents of financial departments, etc., as well as the reports of the PCI and PCSS secret agents were used.
Archive documents testify to the fact that deportation of Latvian inhabitants as part of the state ter ror carried out in the USSR had been envisaged simul taneously with the occupation of Latvia. It should be noted that in 1940 extensive deportation had already been carried out in the western areas of the USSR, deporting a lot of people of Polish nationality. In the spring of 1941, preparations for deportation began also in West Ukraine, West Belorussia, Moldavia, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia. On 14 May 1941, the AUC(b)P CC and the USSR Council of People's Commissars (CPC) made a decision No. 1299-526-ps "On Arresting Coun ter-revolutionary Organisations in Western Areas of the U(krainian)SSR' 5 . On 16 May 1941 , V.Merkulov, USSR People's Commissar of the State Security sent to the AUC(b)P Central Committee the draft decision of the AUC(b)P CC and USSR CPC prepared by the PCSS "On Measures to Be Taken to Eliminate Anti-soviet, Criminal and Socially Dangerous Elements in Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia."
The above document stipulated the following:
"Since in Limuania, Latvia and Estonia there is a considerable number of former members of various counter-revolutionary nationalistic parties, former policemen, gendarmes, landlords, factory owners, top level civil servants of the former governmental apparatus of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, and other persons who carry out destructive anti-soviet activities, and who are used by foreign intelligence services for spying, the AUC(b)P CC and USSR CPC
d e c i d e:
1. To allow the PCSS and PCI of the Lithuanian, Latvian and Estonian SSR to arrest with confiscation of property and deport the following persons for the term of five to eight years in camps, and after the sentence in camps has been served, of 20 years for settlement in remote areas of the USSR:
a) active members of counter-revolutionary par ties and members of anti-soviet nationalistic white guard organisations;
b) former guards, gendarmes, former leading po lice officers and prison officers, about whom there exist discrediting materials;
c) former rich landlords, factory owners and top level civil servants of the former governmental apparatus of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia;
d) former army and white army officers of Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, about whom there exist discrediting materials;
e) criminal elements who continue their criminal activities.
2. To allow the PCSS and PCI of the Lithuanian, Latvian and Estonian SSR to arrest with confiscation of property and to send for 20 years of settlement in remote areas of the USSR the fallowing persons:
a) Family members of the persons indicated in Item
I ("a", "b", "c", "d"), who live together with them or who are in their care at the moment of the arrest;
b) Families of members of counter-revolutionary nationalistic organisations, the (family) heads of whom have gone underground or are hiding from authorities;
c) Families of members of counter-revolutionary nationalistic organisations, the (family) heads of whom have been sentenced to death;
d) Persons repatriated from Germany, as well as Germans who have applied for repatriation to Germany, but have refused to leave the country, about whom there are materials testifying to their anti- soviet activities and who are under suspiction for having contacts with foreign intelligence services abroad.
3. To allow the PCI of the Lithuanian, Latvian and
Estonian SSR to deport according to administrative procedure prostitutes who have been previously registered with the former police institutions in Lithua nia, Latvia and Estonia and who continue to be en gaged in prostitution, to the northern regions of Kazakhstan for the term of five years.
4. Pursuant to this decision, to assign the review of the cases of the persons to be arrested and deported to the Special Meeting of the USSR PCI.
5. To assign the USSR PCSS and PCI to prepare a special instruction on the arrests and settlement of the persons mentioned herein, providing for the follow ing:
a) Organisation of a special camp, where the persons mentioned in Item I herein shall be sent immedi ately after their arrest from Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia;
b) After the arrested persons have been concentrated in the above camp, a decision of the Special Meeting shall be drawn up and executed;
c) After the arrest the persons mentioned in Item 2 herein shall be immediately sent to the place of settlement, executing their cases later at the Special Meeting of the USSR PCI;
d) Stipulate that the places of settlement shall be Omsk and Novosibirsk regions, Krasnoyarsk area, Aktyubinsk, Pavlodar, North Kazakhstan and Kust-
naya regions in Kazakhstan SSR.
6. To assign C(b)P CC and Councils of People's Commissariats (CPC) of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia to take over the supervision of the measures indicated herein from the USSR People's Commissariat of the Interior and the People's Commissariat of the State Security.
7. To assign Lithuanian, Latvian and Estonian C(b)P CC and CPC of Lithuanian, Latvian and Esto nian SSR to prepare and immediately implement meas ures to strengthen the party and soviet lower level institutions, radically improving the work of the party and Soviets.
8. To assign the USSR PCI and PCSS to assist PCI and PCSS authorities of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia in order [to enable them] to implement the meas ures stipulated herein, and for this purpose do the following:
a) To send comrade Merkulov, the USSR People's Commissar of State Security, comrade Serov, the USSR People's Deputy Commissar of Interior, and comrade Abakumov, the USSR People's Deputy Commissar of Interior, on a business mission to Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia;
b) To command 208 trainees of Lithuanian, Lat vian and Estonian nationality from the Higher School of the USSR People's Commissariat of State Security for engaging them in the operation and investiga tion;
c) For a certain time period during the prepara tion and implementation of the operation - to provide a blocking zone on the border of Lithuania and Belo russia, engaging a total of up to 400 border guards there.
9. Complete the arresting and deportation opera tion in Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia within three days.
At that time the directive of the USSR PCI "On Deportation of Socially Alien Elements from the Bal tic Republics, West Ukraine, West Belorussia and Moldavia" was also prepared, where 9 groups of per sons to be deported were indicated. The directive stipulated that it was based on the decision of the AUC(b)P CC and USSR PCP of 14 May 1941; how ever, the number of the decision was not indicated. Nor is there any documentary evidence to the fact that J. Stalin had signed the draft decision of the AUC(b)P CC and USSR PCP submitted by V. Merkulov 16 May 1941, and that the draft had become a decision. But documents testify to the fact that the preparation and implementation of the deportation action had been performed exactly in line with the tasks and instructions provided for by the above draft decision.
On 19 May 1941 V. Merkulov, the USSR People's Commissar of State Security sent Instruction No. 77 of the USSR PCSS "On Preparation and Implementa tion of the Operation to Eliminate Anti-soviet, Crimi nal and Socially Dangerous Elements in the Territory of the Republic'' to the Lithuanian SSR People's Commissariat of State Security. V. Merkulov recommended to prepare for the planned undertakings quickly, to register persons of certain categories, and to find discrediting materials about them. He indicated:
"For each person of this category registered by you, introduce a special file with initial data* and - if necessary - discrediting materials. At the same time register (..) persons living together with them and in their care at the moment of arrest (..). Carefully dis cuss the registration procedure with your subordinates, apply the experience accrued during similar opera tions in Belorussia, and inform us about the approximate minimum term when the preparation could be completed."
The same instructions applied to Latvia, as well.
The certification prepared by state security Lieu tenant Rudakov, head of the Third Division of the Fourth Department of the Third Administration of the USSR PCSS about the "anti-soviet and socially alien elements" registered by the PCSS of the Lithuanian SSR, Latvian SSR and Estonian SSR reads that by 26 May 1941, 15,000 such persons had been registered in Latvia.
In early June 1941, the staff of the LSSR PCSS central authorities, departments of districts, cities and towns, as well as the staff of the Baltic Special Military District institutions prepared the files of the persons to be arrested and deported. "Certification on Discrediting Materials and Documents Verifying them", prepared by the employees of the LSSR PCSS departments of districts, cities and towns and approved by the senior executives/top executives of the above Commissariat served as the main document of accusation of the arrested persons. Other arrest and deportation documents (orders, authorisations, etc.) were prepared as well.
Quite often, as stipulated by various USSR PCSS and USSR PCI directives, the basis for deportation was the already designate arrest of the head of the family. Lists of persons to be deported, as prepared in some regions, can be found in the holdings of the State Archives of Latvia (SAL). The list approved by Josifs Bunga, head of the LSSR PCSS Jelgava region department, on 13 June 1941 comprised family heads only," but the list of the persons to be deported from Liepaja region comprised all family members. 2 ' In the end, all deportation cases were executed in a uniform way, and all family members were listed there.
In all regions, towns and cities the so-called "operative troikas", who supervised the preparation and implementation of deportation, were established. For instance, the document prepared by Vorobiyov, state security Senior Lieutenant, head of the operative troika of Riga City Sarkanarmijas region "List of Per sons to Be Involved in the Operation and some Preliminary Information" stipulated that the following should be indicated: person's family name, name, father's name, "shade", case number, number of the deported under 16 years of age, number of the de ported over 16 years of age, the address, the person responsible for the operation, notes.- Subject to the above document, it was planned to arrest 154 persons from Sarkanarmijas region in Riga City, and to deport 126 persons under the age of 16, and 174 persons - over the age of 16. Some places in the column Notes" bear the following phrases: "Deported outside the bor ders of the LSSR", "The husband has been sentenced to death", in another place there is a remark: "Not found".
After all the registration documents had been executed, decisions on the arrests and deportation were approved. Decisions on the deportation of Latvian resi dents were approved by S. Shustin, LSSR People's Commissar of State Security, Jānis Cinis and A. Brezgins, Deputy Commissars, Zinoviy Krivitskiy, head of the First Special Department of the PCI, as well as other employees of the LSSR PCSS. All preparations and the implementation of the deportation were in material contradiction even with the effective law of that time. For instance , Article 99 of the LSSR Consti tution (Basic Law) enacted in August 1940 provided for the following: "The citizen of the Latvian SSR has been granted the person's inviolability. Nobody may be arrested otherwise than by a court decision or con sent of the prosecutor general.'' However, neither during the deportations nor other repressions the per son's inviolability was complied with.
Also various documents about the disposal of the property left behind by the deported persons had been prepared in a timely manner. "Measures to Be Taken to Organise the Disposal of the Deported Persons' Property", "Instruction on the Accounting for and Disposal of the Deported Persons' Property and House holds", draft "Decrees of the Latvian SSR Council of People's Commissars. To all Executive Commit tees of the Cities, Towns and Regions in the Latvian SSR", etc. It should be noted that the Commission of the disposal of the property left behind by de ported persons reported to the LC(b)P Central Com mittee, and Eduards Krūmiņš, head of the Soviet Commercial Department of the LC(b)P CC was appointed as its Chairman."
S. Shustin, the LSSR People's Commissar of State Security, requested the LSSR Council of the People's Commissars to provide 12 tons of petrol for 500 vehi cles to carry out "the government's assignment", which he immediately received.
Since no decision on deportation in Latvia issued by the AUC(b)P CC or the USSR Government has been found in the archives in Latvia to date, it may be considered that the criminal action was earned out according to the same scenario and applying the same methods as in the Ukraine, Belorussia and other areas in the USSR before that. The key document relevant to the above deportation was "The Action Plan for the Transfer, Settlement and Employment of the Special Contingent to Be Deported from Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, and Moldavian SSR", signed by state secu rity Senior Major V. Nasedkin, head of the Chief Ad ministration of the Camps, the USSR People's Com missariat of the Interior, and approved by L. Beria, USSR People's Commissar of the Interior on 14June 1941, providing for the place where each category of the deported should be sent. V. Nasedkin, in his report to state security captain Gercovsky, head of the First Special Department of the USSR PCI, recognised that deportation from West Ukraine, West Belorussia, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, and Moldavia had been carried out "pursuant to the directions of L. Beria, USSR Peo ple's Commissar of the Interior".
Deportation in Latvia, as well as in Lithuania and Estonia, started during the night of June 13 and continued to 14 June 1941, and was part of the extensive deportation action of the year 1941. In West Ukraine, deportation of people took place on 22 May, in Moldavia - during the night from 12 to 13 June, and in Belorussia - dur ing the night from 19 to 20 June.
During the deportation in 1941, various instruc tions issued by repression authorities were used. On 5 June 1941 the "Instruction for Chiefs of Trains when Attending the Specially Deported Persons" was issued. It differed very little from the "Instruction for the Transfer of the Deported Poles" issued in 1940. During the initial stage of the deportation, the "Instruction for Chiefs of Escorts when Accepting the Arrested Persons at the Points of Forming Trains in the LSSR" was used. During the second stage of the deportation, pursuant to the "Instruction to the Chiefs of Trains when Attending the Arrested Persons from the Baltics", the persons to be deported had to be divided into two groups, "A" and "B", at special locations, the so called "Collection Points". Group "A" was planned for the heads of the families (sometimes also for some of their family members), while group "B" included all other members of their families. Thus families were separated and relatives were sent to dif ferent places.
Shortly before the 14 June 1941 deportation, re gional and city departments of the Latvian SSR PCSS established special operational groups; their heads were appointed, the membership of the groups was appro ved, and the tasks of deportation were determined. The above groups performed arrests, and search and seizure of property at the places of residence of the per sons designated for deportation. They also took the arrested persons to the trains. The head of each operational group submitted a report to the head of the respective regional or city department of PCSS, indicating the persons deported, not found or left at home for some reason. Also, lists of property left behind by the deported were drawn up and authorisations on its dis posal were issued. In 1941 there were no decisions made on the confiscation of the property. Neverthe less, pursuant to various instructions, all most valu able assets were confiscated, seized and sold. Sometimes the reports indicated that various things had been taken to be delivered to the People's Commissariat of State Security.
Also members of the LC(b)P and the so called soviet activists participated in the deportation. For instance, on 13 June 1941, the meeting of the LC(b)P Tukums region, where Yevgeniy Beloglazov, the au thorised representative of the LC(b)P CC and LSSR CPC, as well as several Communist Party and soviet activists took part, discussed the issue on "Performing Operation to Eliminate Socially Alien Elements in Tukums Region, and Party Member Tasks". Yevgeniy Beloglazov, the authorised representative, gave a re port, and those present at the meeting decided:
" 1. To take note of the information, to act in compliance with it. 2. To perform the operation to eliminate socially alien elements from the region, the PCSS and PCI authorities shall mobilise the most active party and soviet members - 85 persons in total - and all members of the workers' guard for assistance (..). 3. The regional party committee shall survey the results after the operation has been completed (..)."On 17 June 1941, Krišjānis Treimanis, Secretary of LC(b)P Daugavpils City Committee, wrote in his information to the LC(b)P Central Committee that "204 persons from the party, Young Communist League and non-party activists were involved" in the operation. The best members and candidate members of the AUC(b)P, a total of 32 persons, were sent to work in the rural area. The city activists were invited to a meeting at 19.00 hours. In the meeting, the decision on the elimination of counter-revolutionary elements in the city was ex plained, and careful instruction on the activists' tasks in the operation took place. The activists welcomed the announcement on the "cleansing" of the city with great enthusiasm, and nobody showed cowardice or tried to avoid participation in the operation due to objective reasons (..)."
Sources give different data about the total number of the persons deported (arrested and administratively deported) on 14 June 1941. V. Merkulov, the USSR People's Commissar of State Security in the USSR PCSS Report No.2288/14 of 17 June 1941 to the AUC(b)P Central Committee, the USSR Council of the People's Commissars and the USSR People's Cormmissariat of Interior reported that 5625 persons were arrested, 9546 persons - deported, but 15 , 171 persons in total were repressed during the operation in Latvia. It was confirmed by Viktor Chebrikov , Chairman of the USSR State Security Committee (KGB) in the report "On Deportation of Some Categories of Citizens from the USSR Western Regions in the 40ies and 50ies" addressed to the Central Com mittee Politburo of the Communist Party of the So viet Union (CPSU) on 23 August 1988, indicating that the total number of the persons deported from Latvia in the year 1941 , deportation alone was 15 , 171 persons. The staff of the Republic of Latvia Minis try of Interior Rehabilitation Department of the Unjustifiably Repressed Citizens counted 14,194 de ported persons. Indulis Zālīte, Head of the Centre of Totalitarian Regime Consequences Documentation, Republic of Latvia Constitutional Protection Bureau, wrote that during the action of mass de portation of inhabitants on 14 June 1941, 14,428 per sons were forcibly deported from Latvia". The certification prepared by the LSSR Public Order Defence Ministry in 1962 stipulates that 16,563 persons had been deported in 1941.
According to the year 2001 data update at the State Archives of Latvia, 15,424 people were deported, of them 5259 persons were arrested in the 14 June 1941 action in Latvia.
In the State Archives of Latvia (SAL) one can find materials about the planned arrests or administrative deportation of 711 persons, but who are known as not having been deported, or that there had not been enough materials to confirm their arrest or administrative deportation. It should be noted that also after 15 June 1941 and after 22 June 1941 -the beginning of the war between Germany and the USSR - in par ticular, another 71 persons were arrested.
According to materials published earlier, the break down by nationality of the persons repressed on 14 June 1941 was as follows: Latvians 11,418, Jews - 1771, Russians - 742, Germans - 36, other nationali ties - 247. The breakdown of the persons arres ted on 14 June 1941 by their profession during the time of the Republic Latvia was as follows: merchants -616, policemen - 306, prison guards- 29. army offic ers - 166, deputies - 7, diplomats - 6, judges - 31, teachers-71, doctors-24, clergymen-7, students - 15, foresters -39, peasants - 1345, chiefs of pagasts (small rural areas) - 44, secretaries of pagasts - 13. The breakdown by nationality and profession is not completely accurate, since not all archive files contain such information.
Initially three types of repressions were planned for the inhabitants deported from Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and Moldavia on 14 June 1941: imprisonment in the camps set up for the Polish prisoners of war (POW); imprisonment in the labour camps; and settlement. However, when Germany attacked the Soviet Union, the arrested persons who had already been taken or were in transit to the POW camps, were transferred or re-addressed to the labour camps.
The repressive mechanism of the Stalinist totalitarian regime is best exemplified by the soviet prison and camp system which was started in Soviet Russia already during the Russian Civil War and finally accomplished in the Soviet Union in early 30ies. Gulag, the USSR PCI Chief Administration of Camps, which in February 1941 was renamed the USSR PCI Chief Administration of Labour Camps and Reformatories, became the symbol of the state terror. Labour camps were mainly established in the North of the USSR European part, Siberia and other remote areas. Prisoners in the camps were employed in various types of hard work, for instance, forestry operations, construc tion, and mining. In 1943, hard labour for the pe riod of 15 to 20 years was introduced, but in 1948 special camps for "particularly dangerous criminals" were also established. Gulag was liquidated only in 1960 pursuant to a USSR Supreme Soviet Presidium Decree. The Chief Administration of Prisons also operated under the USSR People's Commissariat of the Interior, supervising central, special and general prisons.
In early July 1941, most of the Latvian citizens arrested on 14 June 1941 were sent from the Yuhnov and other POW camps to Vyatka labour camp - Vyatlag, Norilsk labour camp - Norilylag (mostly army officers), North Urals labour camp - Sevurallag, Usolye labour camp - Usolylag, as well as other penalty service places. Persons arrested after 14 June 1941 were sent also to prison in Astrakhan.
Employees of the PCI investigation groups presented the decision on applying safety measures - ar rest - to the arrested persons already at their places of imprisonment (sometimes it was sanctioned also by a public prosecutor), and started ''investigation". After that, a document on the completion of the investigation was drafted. The persons were usually charged with crimes stipulated by Clause 58 of the RSFSR Criminal Code (mainly the so-called coun ter-revolutionary crimes during the period of Latvian independence, and "anti-Soviet propaganda" du ring the first year of soviet occupation). For instance, on 4 October 1941 in Vyatka labour camp the Crimi nal Court Panel of Kirov Regional Court permanent session in its preliminary session in the absence of public prosecutor reviewed the case of Antons Zvejnieks he was charged for participation in the or ganisation of Aizsargi and "slander of the soviet power" according to Clauses 58. and 58. of the RSFSR Criminal Code. At the session it was decided to transfer the case of A. Zvejnieks to the regional court at Vyatka labour camp. It had to be reviewed in a closed session in the absence of the defendant, his advocate and witnesses. In the indictments, the investigators recommended, in their view, the most appropriate sentence to be shot dead or imprisonment for a certain period of time. After that, the case was normally sent to the Special Meeting of the USSR PCI. Although the information is incomplete, more than 600 Latvian citizens arrested in June 1941 were sentenced to death during the time period from 1941 to 1944. The death penalty was carried out in prisons, not in camps. It should be noted that due to the inhu man conditions, many prisoners sentenced to death died already before their execution. Many prisoners in camps were sentenced to imprisonment for a time period from three to ten years.
All prisoners in camps were divided into three groups, "A", "B" and "C". Prisoners who could per form hard and medium hard work were included in the first group; those able to do only easy physical work - in the second one, and handicapped and ill persons unable to work - in the third one. Pursuant to the USSR People's Commissariat of the Interior, People's Commissariat of Justice and the USSR Public Prosecutors' Office Directive No. 467/18-71/117 of 23 October 1943, persons seriously ill were released from camps and sent to settlements (this directive was cancelled in May 1944).
The working and living conditions in the camps were extremely hard. Often there was neither light nor heating, no possibility to wash themselves, to wash and dry clothes in the barracks; the plank beds had no mattresses. People were forced to work until complete exhaustion, even up to 16 hours a day; moreover, the hard work was done in the most primitive way - by hands only. As the clothes were inappropriate for the bitter cold and the food portions were extremely small, more than 3400 prisoners died at their places of imprisonment.
With respect to the above, Ainārs Bambals, a his torian, wrote about the fates of the Latvian Army officers:
"Memories of the officers testify to the fact that of approximately 560 officers, instructors and sol diers in Norilsk, about 180 officers were sentenced to death by the Special Meeting in the winter of 1941/ 42 (..); of them, the sentence was executed for about 80 officers (..), for the others in summer and autumn of 1942 the sentence was substituted by imprisonment of 10-15 years in Norilsk camps.
The winter of the year 1941/42, which in Norilsk lasts from September till May, starvation, cold and diseases decimated the Latvian Army soldiers. In January and February 1942 there were days when up to 20 people per day died in the officers' big barracks."
The chief of the operative security section of the camp, the prosecutor of the camp and the chairman of the regional court session outside the court office (or an official of other repressive authority) drew up a document about the prisoners who were shot, indicating that they had been shot. A document certi fying death was issued about those who died. After the prisoner had been shot or had died, the manage ment of the camp prepared a certification on the fact that the prisoner had been shot or had died, and that investigation of the case was closed/terminated and the case was transferred to the archive. Sometimes it was indicated in the certification that a notification about the prisoner's death was sent to the public register offices of the area or region; normally such infor mation was not sent to the deceased person's rela tives who were in the settlement. It should be noted that the management of the Gulag camps and repres sive authorities not always submitted true informa tion about the shot or deceased persons. From 1955 until 1963, Order No.l08-ps of the USSR KGB was in force, stipulating that the shot person's family members should be informed that their relative had been sentenced to imprisonment of ten years m a camp without the right to correspond. The above document also stipulated that in case it was necessary, the fact of death should be registered with the public register offices and a certification should be issued, indicating the date of death within the range of 10 years from the day of the person's arrest, and some kind of disease should be mentioned as the cause of death. For instance, on 25 June 1951, Colonel Tikhonov, Chief of Department "A" of the Kirov Region Administration of the USSR State Security Ministry {SSM) and Mayor Okulov, Chief of the First Section of Department "A" in their report to Senior Lieutenant Golobachev, Chief of Department of SSM Krasnoyarsk area, Beryozovsk region indicated as follows: "Please notify Zelma Kalniņa, the deported in settlement that her husband Jānis Adolfs Kalniņš has been sentenced to 10 years' imprisonment in labour camp without the right to correspond and has been sent to a remote camp. His place of residence is not known." In fact J. A. Kal niņš was shot, and the USSR SSM Kirov Region Administration was well aware of that. On 25 March 1955, Senior Lieutenant Čeksteris, staff member of the LSSR Ministry of Interior wrote:
"In 1941 employees of the Latvian SSR PCSS ar rested Jānis Adolfs Kalniņš, born in 1903, for his mem bership in the military fascist organisation Aizsargi during the period of the Latvian bourgeois govern ment. Being a member and a commander of the above organisation, he cultivated hatred against communism and loyalty towards the fascist regime of the bour geois Latvia in his subordinates. He recruited new members for the organisation. From 1931 to 1943 he was a member of Zemnieku Savienība (Peasants' Union), a counter-revolutionary kulaks party.
Due to Jānis Adolfs Kalniņš' arrest, his parents -father Pēteris Kalniņš, born in 1874, and mother leva Kalniņa, born in 1876 - were deported from the Lat vian SSR, and currently they live in the Krutoyarsk grain sovhoz in Krasnoyarsk area, Berjozovsk re gion. The above J. A. Kalniņš was sentenced to death by the Criminal Court Panel of Kirov Regional Court permanent session at the PCI Vyatka labour camp on the basis of Clause 58 of the RSFSR Criminal Code. On 7 January 1942, the death sentence was executed.
As regards the persons deported on 14 June 1941, the difference between the Special Meeting, an out- of-court punishment institution, and court autho rities was relative and quite formal - they all were part of a single "technological process". The universal methods of repressions against "anti-Soviet ele ments" required also universal - formal criteria which were based on the information contained in question naires and forms prepared by the USSR PCI staff members. Repression was also based on strictly de fined criteria: social origins and social status, nationality, place of birth, place of service, place of employ ment, membership in non-governmental organisa tions, formal, i. e. officially recorded attitude towards a particular topical political issue, "contacts" abroad, etc.
It should be noted that after establishing the special camps of the USSR Ministry of the Interior in 1948, a number of the sentenced persons were transferred from camps of general type to the special ones, where the regime of imprisonment was even more severe, but work conditions much harder.
Pursuant to Order No. 00279/00108/79-ps issued by the USSR Ministry of Interior and the USSR Prosecutor General on 16 March 1948, and the USSR Min istry of the Interior Directive No. 25 of 25 March 1948, the persons who had served their sentence in camps were sent into settlement. Pursuant to the USSR Supreme Soviet Presidium Decree of 17 November 1951, the persons released from the camps were sent to settlement "forever", and the settled person had to sign a special document thereof. Instead of a passport, the settled person was issued an identity card, and twice a month he/she had to register with the respective regional department of the SSM.
On 1 September 1955, a settled person Yevgeniy Nikitin wrote to Sergey Kruglov, the USSR Ministry of the Interior:
"On 14 June 1941, I was arrested in Daugavpils city in the Latvian SSR and sent to a labour camp. But my family was sent to settlement in Krasnoyarsk area. The first time I was interrogated at the PCI Kirov Region Vyatka camp after half a year, and in March 1942 I was notified of the decision of the Special Meeting, pursuant to which I was imprisoned for 10 years.
On 19 June 1951 after I had served my sentence, I was released from arrest in Igarka town, and I was told that pursuant to a decision of the same Special Meeting I was a deported settled person, without indicating the term of the settlement.
In both the first and the second case of repres sions there was no real investigation in my accusation, nobody apart from myself was interrogated, and I was not given an opportunity to defend myself. Dur ing my interrogation (in a rude way. it should be noted) the investigator in reply to my defense told me that I would have more opportunity to defend myself in court; however, there were no court pro ceedings, and the settlement is as a continuation of the penalty, although nothing whatsoever was said about settlement in the original decision of the Special Meeting (..)."
Part of those released from imprisonment were arrested again and sent into settlement in 1949 and 1950.
Deportation settlement as a type of punishment was cancelled in 1956, but the Latvian citizens arrested in 1941 and sent to deportation settlement were not released. In the same year, pursuant to the USSR Supreme Soviet Presidium Decree of 10 March 1956 and Directive No. 35-ps/0066/00124 of the USSR Prosecutor General, the USSR Ministry of Interior and the USSR Council of Ministers KGB of 19 March 1956, they were released from the deportation settle ment without cancelling their criminal record and were assigned relatively more free status of specially settled persons. The persons, whose families already were in the special settlement, were sent there.
At the beginning of June 1941, pursuant to the directive instructions of the PCI, the USSR PCSS and other repressive authorities, the employees of the LSSR PCSS regional and town departments pre pared decisions also on deportation of the family members of the shot or arrested persons.
Both arrests and administrative deportation of fam ily members took place simultaneously - on 14 June 1941, on the basis of the instruction issued by Ivan Serov, the USSR Deputy People's Commissar of State Security, stipulating the whole "procedure of the operation" in great detail. 51 It also said that "the operation - arrest for deportation of both the family members and the head of the family - had to be carried out simultaneously, not informing them of their further separation." Pursuant to the "Action Plan for the Transfer, Settlement and Employment of the Special Contingent to Be Deported from the Lithuanian, Latvian, Estonian, and Moldavian SSR" prepared by the USSR PCI Gulag, it was planned to settle the persons deported from Latvia mostly in Krasnoyarsk area (6850 persons). Part of the deported ones were taken also to Novosibirsk region and others. There were also some heads of families among the deported, who were later arrested.
Currently the following data are available to the authors of this book - on 14 June 1941, a total of 10,161 persons were deported administratively from Latvia.
On 14 June 1941, members of the LSSR PCSS operational groups, having received deportation documents in advance, arrived at farmsteads or city / town apartments, arrested the people indicated in the above documents and took them to the collection, points and train "loading" stations. In separate cases some people to be deported were not found, and the head of the operational group informed the chief of the Latvian SSR PCSS town or regional department about it in his report. Sometimes the seriously ill persons were left at home, but there were cases when, a relative, although not listed as a person to he deported, volunteered to accompany the sick person, then this relative was also included in the category of the administratively deported persons.
The USSR began to use the special settlement al ready in the 30's, deporting kulaks and their families. For that purpose, special labour villages were set up in remote areas in the USSR. Later the deported Crimean Tatars, as well as Kalmikhs and the repressed persons of other nationalities were sent there. Documents testify that in the beginning the heads of the USSR re pressive authorities were not sure in which category of the deported and settled persons the Latvian citi zens repressed on 14 June 1941 should be included. Thus, for instance, on 22 August 1941, Deputy Head of the PCI Novosibirsk Region Administration in his report to Vasiliy Chernishev, the USSR Deputy People's Commissar of Interior recommended to de termine the same regime for the persons deported from Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Moldavia and Belorussia as provided for by the USSR CPC decision of 29 December 1939 on the special villages and em ployment of the deported Poles. On 3 September 1941, V. Chernishev, the USSR Deputy People's Com missar of Interior, indicated that the persons depor ted administratively from the above republics, as well as the Ukraine, could not be equated to the specially settled persons, and therefore the USSR PCP deci sion No. 2122/617-ps was not applicable to them. To the deported persons the status of persons deported into settlement was applied.
At the place of settlement, the deported person at first was told that he/she was deported for a period of 20 years without the right to leave the permanent place of residence, and that he/she had to register periodically with the special commandant's office.
The deported persons were settled mostly in Abana, Achinsk, Bogotol, Boguchani. Dzerzhinsk, Irbeisk, Kansk, Kozulia, Partizansk, Taseyevo and other dis tricts in Krasnoyarsk area, and in the Novosibirsk region - in Kargasok, Parabel, as well as other districts (on 13 August 1944 the above districts in Novosibirsk region were included in the newly established Tomsk region). In Krasnoyarsk area, the settled persons had to work at the local sovhozs (state farms), as well as in manufacturing and forestry enterprises, and in Novo sibirsk region in manufacturing as well as enterpri ses of other industries. The deported persons in Kazakhstan were employed in agriculture. In later years, many deported persons were sent to work also in various other places, in the winter of 1941/42 a great many of them were sent to far north of Siberia -Igarka, Dudinka, etc.
Passports were not issued to the deported persons. The local staff of the PCI took away and destroyed the passports of those persons who had them. Special cer tificates meant for this category of settled persons were issued instead.
The living conditions of the deported persons were extremely hard. In the autumn and winter of 1941, many of them had to live in crowded summer barracks, dugouts and other premises totally unfit for living. It was worst for old and sick people, as well as for children and those deported persons who had not worked hard physical labour before. Many became ill and there were also many cases of death. It can be said that the deported persons to a great extent were aban doned to fate. On 27 November 1941, V. Nasedkin, head of the USSR PCI Gulag, mentioned that in his report to V. Chernishev, the USSR Deputy People's Commissar of Interior. He stated that "nobody in the PCI apparatus takes care of the deported settled persons and nobody is responsible for the state they are in. Also the department of Gulag's Labour Settlement and Special Settlement has no responsibility for the persons in deportation settlement, although the above department took part in the operation of their deportation.
The above testifies to the fact that the deportation of 14 June 1941 was carried out in great haste, without thinking of what would happen to the deported persons later - the main thing was to take the "undesirable elements" away from their native places.
In the coming years, the extremely hard conditions for the deported persons did not change. On 4 March 1946, Colonel M. Kuznetsov, head of the USSR Ministry of Interior Department of Special Settlements, wrote about the bad conditions the deported persons from the Ukraine and the Baltics were living in the Molotov region in the first quarter of 1945: 399 families of 897 still resided in places unsuitable for living, but of the 5274 deported persons, 182 people or 3.45% died during that period.
Altogether, more than 1400 people deported from Latvia on 14 June 1941 died while in various special settlement places in Siberia.
The haste affected the registration of the settled persons. In June 1941, soon after the action of deportation, V, Nasedkin, head of the USSR PCI Gulag in his report to Gertsovsky, head of the First Special Department of the USSR PCI wrote as follows: "V. Cher nishev, the USSR Deputy People's Commissar of Interior, has issued an instruction to the People's Commissariat of Interior and PCI authorities at the places of settlement that pursuant to Order No. 0143 of the USSR PCI issued on 1 June 1939 and until a special instruction to ensure the accounting for and arrival for registration of the above special contingent. (..) Please take measures to prepare regulations on the accounting for and procedure of the registration of the persons settled in deportation." In his turn, on 22 August 1941 state security Lieutenant A. Vorobiyev, Deputy Head of the PCI Novosibirsk Region Administration wrote to V. Chernishev, the USSR Deputy People's Commissar of Interior in his report:
"In June and July 1941 in the territory of Novosibirsk region 19,362 persons were deported from the Latvian, Lithuanian, Estonian, Moldavian and Belorussian SSR - the deported into settlement who had been sentenced to 20 years in deportation settlement by the PCI "troikas". They have been settled in 14 northern regions of the area, for the most part - in the labour settlement villages of the former kulaks, de ported in 1930-1935. These are managed by the commandant's offices of the labour settlement. Small numbers of them have been settled in the places of residence of local population.
Pursuant to the USSR PCI Order No. 0143 of year 1939, the administrative management of the persons settled in deportation has been assigned as a task to the local institutions of the PCI.
However, the management of the said contingent has encountered the following difficulties: a considerable part of the deported have been settled in places within a distance of up to 300 km from the regional centre. Due to the long distance, persons who have to register with the regional departments of the PCI two to three times a month, physically will not be able to fulfil the provisions of the above order. For the same reason , the administrative observation and operative management of the contingent at their places of settlement and permanent employment is extremely difficult.
Therefore, to make the regime stricter at the places of employment of the settled persons and to enable operative full management of them, due to the time of war I consider it necessary:
1. To apply the regime stipulated by the regulation
on special villages and employment of osadniks as approved by Decision No. 2122-617-ps of Ihe USSR CPCof29 December 1939.
2. To transfer the persons settled in deportation under the administrative management of the employ ment settlement commandant offices, and with re spect to the above, to reorganise the regional and village commandant offices into mixed type (ones), in the future referring to them as the commandant offices of labour settlement and deportation settlement.
Initially the deported persons were accounted for and supervised by the USSR PCI Gulag Labour Set tlement and Special Settlement department, but since the summer of 1946 they were subordinates of the First Special Department of the USSR Ministry of the Interior Area and Regional Administrations. Also the youths, who had reached the age of 16, were registered as the specially settled persons. Pursuant to the Instruction of the USSR SSM of 1950, the inhabitants deported from the Baltics, Moldavia, the Ukraine and Belorussia in 1941, were transferred in charge of the SSM area and regional authorities. Beginning in 1948, the deported persons had to sign a commitment that on the basis of the USSR Supreme Presidium De cree of 26 November 1948, had been deported to set tlements '"forever".
At the places of settlement, the deported persons had to arrive at the special commandant offices and register there on definite days; for failure to arrive there a penalty could be inflicted: for instance, the deported person T. Ūbele had to pay a fine of 25 roubles for failure to register on 3 February 1952.
The living conditions of the settled persons did not improve until the end of the deportation. For instance, when inspecting the living conditions of the deported Berta Lapina, the commission of Krasnoyarsk area Nizhniyingasha region Aleksandrovka vil lage council indicated in the protocol of inspection that B. Lapiņa "is no longer able to provide for her own existence, since she lives alone, has no profes sion and is not able to do physical work due to her old age; she has neither cattle, nor any private prop erty."
Many persons tried to escape from the settlement places. Pursuant to Part 11 of Clause 82 of the RSFSR Criminal Code, an All Union search of them was an nounced, as well as lists of the fugitives were drawn up and sent to various USSR State Security Ministry and USSR Ministry of the Interior institutions. The captured persons received various kinds of punishment: for example, on 14 July 1949, the open court session of People's Court of the First Department of Krasnoyarsk area Dzerzhinsk region reviewed the cases of Zinaida Zaiceva, Ksenija Timermane and Broņislava Šnepa, deported on 14 June 1941, on the escape and sentenced them to two years at a labour camp. Quite often the fugitives - mostly women who had returned to Latvia without the authorisation of the authorities - were arrested, and their cases were transferred for review at the Special Meeting, or they were arrested and sent back through transfer prisons to their previ ous places of settlement. The Special Meeting usually sentenced the fugitives to three years at labour camps, with later transfer to their previous places of settlement.
In 1946, following the pleadings of deported children's relatives who had remained in Latvia, the LSSR Ministry of Education organised the transfer of children - orphans and semi-orphans from their places of settlement in Siberia to Latvia. In 1946, they managed to bring back more than 1300 children who then were brought up by the families of their relatives or in orphanages in Latvia. Nevertheless, many of the children in later years were arrested again and taken back to their previous places of settlement.
State security Colonel Jānis Vēvers, the LSSR Deputy People's Commissar of State Security, was against the return of the deported persons in Latvia. In his report of 10 July 1945 to State Security Commis sar Gertsovsky, head of "A" Department of the USSR PCSS, he also suggested "to make a decision" on the issue of the persons who had managed to escape deportation for some reason in 1941. Gertsovsky re plied that such persons could be deported only pursu ant to a decision of the Special Meting of the USSR PCI.
In the 40ies, the requests of the deported persons to review the cases of their repression were usually re jected. Similarly, the requests of the relatives, who had remained in their homeland, for allowing their adult relatives deported on 14 June 1941 to return to Latvia were rejected.
Nevertheless, in early 50's - after the death of J. Stalin in 1953 in particular - the conditions of the persons imprisoned m camps and settlements gradually started to improve.
Continuation >>
