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EESTI ELU reedel, 11. juunil 2021 — Friday, June 11, 2021
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English-language supplement to the Estonian weekly “EESTI ELU” Tartu College Publications Founding Chairman: Elmar Tampõld Editor: Laas Leivat 3 Madison Avenue, Toronto, ON M5R 2S2 T: 416-733-4550 • F: 416-733-0944 • E-mail: editor@eestielu.ca Digital: www.eestielu.ca
Deportations, the Russian version, the Estonian experience June 14 marks the 80th anni versary of the first Sovietorganized mass deportations from Estonia to the distant hinterlands of Russia. Be tween 10,000 and 11,000 citi zens were arrested and sent by cattle cars to concentration camps and exile. Of these, approximately one half didn’t survive, due either to execu tion or severe neglect. By the spring of 1942, of the 3,500 men who were placed into forced labour camps, only a few hundred had survived. The original NKVD list specified exactly 14,471 indi viduals. The actual number of deportees detained and sent did not meet the official quota. Russian historians have insisted that local Estonians were the creators of the list, while Estonian historians have identi fied the NKVD as managing the compiling of names. Survivors have indicated that for some victims it would take only the complaints of a hostile neighbour who informed the NKVD that the targeted family had listened to Finnish radio broadcasts or enjoyed a wealthy lifestyle. In general, designated for arrest and deportation were those identified as anti-Soviet: govern ment officials, political elite, the military, police, busi ness owners, individuals with relatives abroad, members of student organizations,represen tatives of foreign companies, clergymen, members of the Red Cross, etc. In all three Baltic states, the massive operation began on the night of June 13. Families with no expectation of what was about to occur were abruptly woken in the middle of the night, told to pack and placed onto trucks to be driven to 390 cattle cars located on rail sidings throughout Estonia. Of the over 10,000 people so deported, over 7,000 were women, children and the elderly. Accounts of survivors have described the inhuman cruelty of those carrying out the depor tations. Even pregnant women and the seriously ill were shoved into packed cattle cars, to suffer two weeks in brutal, unhygienic conditions.
Western historians have maintained that the Soviets, by these crimes against humanity and other acts of repression, intended to deprive the people of their spirit and memory of an independent, democratic state hood. But the only Russian narra tive stresses crucial self-defense needs of the Soviet Union, that deportations were unavoidable and not as harsh as depicted by the West. According to the Kremlin, during war time, the rear had to be secured, made safe from sabotage that could jeopardize the Soviet military effort. Those capable of being a real threat were men of 25–50 years of age, but who made up only one fifth of those deported. Nearly 80 percent of the depor tees were women, children, and the elderly – a group hardly likely to engage in damaging the Soviet war machine. The June 14 deportations, and the many that followed, were actions deliberately exe cuted to remove those societal groups that were expected to oppose the new totalitarian re gime. Communists feared ideo logical dissidence, and even more untrustworthy were those who might act accordingly. Some have asked why we dwell on something that happened three generations ago. We should be forward looking and let the past fade into a distant memory. But Estonia as a nation has been moulded by common experiences, victories as well as defeats, calamities as well as blessings. We can’t let others, especially hostile adversaries, write our history, the story that is our identity. Our true history helps us understand the origins of our morals and the responsibility we must take for our choices. Estonia is one of the many states neighbouring on Russia, the self-appointed and inter nationally-recognized successor to the Soviet Union, that refuses to bear any responsibility for the harm it caused in the r egion. Time will not exonerate Russia for the wrongs of the past. History remains with us. LAAS LEIVAT
Tragedy in the Baltics
A Commemoration 1941–2021 The truth must be told Canadians, with Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian roots, remember the unpunished war crimes against their peoples and nations. In this age of cyber and hybrid warfare, in which Canada and its allies are a tar get, the perpetrators of horren dous atrocities and their neo-Soviet successors are rewriting the historical narra tive, denying and falsifying the truth. Evidence hidden in archives is being closed to research. Historians and researchers are now threatened with severe criminal punish ment for delving into the past. The truth must be told. Beset by three invasions, the Baltic peoples endured unima ginable suffering. Neither Nazi Germany nor Soviet Russia had any benevolent plans for the re gion following the Hitler-Stalin alliance of 1939. Colonization and genocide were the order of the day. The Molotov-Ribben trop Pact defined the alliance between Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia, essentially divid ing up Europe into their own spheres of influence and allow ing the conquest of their neigh
bours. The result of this heinous pact led to World War Two. Today we mark 80 years of tragic memories for families who had to endure three brutal occupations of their native lands. Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, fighting off centuries of foreign invaders, established their independent states in 1918. Their struggle was for freedom, democracy and sur vival. Their story is not stuck in the past as a faint footnote, but a reminder that ethnic cleansing and mass murder must never again be repeated. Nevertheless, criminal aggression continues in so many parts of the world. We are witnessing repeated crimes against humanity in Syria, Crimea and continuing threats of attack against the Baltics. The first Russian invasion of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania took place in 1940. The year that followed was marked by a reign of terror, torture, murder of intelligentsia, community
leaders and military. This ethnic cleansing and Russification culminated in the first mass deportation on the night of June 13–14, 1941. Tens of thousands of Baltic families were suddenly rounded up, forced into cattle cars, and transported to the furthest reaches of Siberia. There was no mercy for women, children, the elderly, the infirm or even infants. Many died along the way from starvation, illness and mistreatment. Others would be executed at their final destinations. This horrifically crude attempt at genocide would continue into the 1950s with further arrests and deportations, especially March 25–28, 1949 when another 90,000 were taken and sent off to slave labour and concentration camps. Hardly a Baltic family was left untouched by the loss of loved ones, friends and neigh bours. We Remember!
