It claims, for example, that “the radical Soviet-style reforms of the day were applied with much more caution” in the Baltic States, without even referring to the Soviet repressions. VILNIUS – The Baltic states on Monday mark the 70th anniversary of mass Soviet deportations.The deportation operation, code-named Priboy (Coastal Surf), was launched on March 25, 1949, and around 95,000 residents of the Baltic states, including 32,000 from Lithuania, 42,000 from Latvia and 21,000 from Estonia, were deported in March-April of that year, with women and children making a major part of them.As the Baltic states mark this painful date, the Museum of Occuptions and Freedom Fights, situated in the former KGB building, in Vilnius is providing free admissions on Monday.And the Lithuanian Special Archives have created a virtual document exhibition which includes Soviet documents disclosing preparations of Soviet repressive structures for the deportation operation and its implementation, as well as documents and photos from deportees' cases.A march of deportation survivors will take place in the Latvian capital Riga at noon, and a commemoration will take place in Tallinn on Monday night when candles will be lit. A subscription to The Baltic Times is a cost-effective way of staying in touch with the latest Baltic news and views enabling you full access from anywhere with an Internet connection. Notably, the article itself was published in mid-June, when the Baltic States commemorate mass deportations of their population to Siberia. Ivan Serov coordinated the operation under the command of Lavrenti Beria. Notably, the article itself was published in mid-June, when the Baltic States commemorate mass deportations of … Fortunately, they are now being joined by others who have pledged themselves never to forget what Moscow did.Today the justice ministers of the three Baltic countries together with their counterparts from Poland and Ukraine issued a The five ministers pointed out that the Soviet Union by this act and others as well sought to deprive people of their spirit and memory of independent statehood. “By the spring of 1942,” “Many not sent to the camps but rather classified as “This year, as they did privately in Soviet times and publicly after the recovery of their independence, the peoples of these three countries are marking this day as a memorial to those who were expelled and died. “However, [even such] crimes against humanity cannot destroy spirits striving for freedom,” despite the continuing efforts of some to deny what happened.The five decried that “the official rhetoric of Russia remains what it has always been: the crimes are denied and the Soviet past and its leaders are praised to the skies.” Those who remember the deportations of June 1941 know just how wrong and even ill-intentioned such claims are.But perhaps the highlight of this day of memory was the visit of Crimean Tatar singer Day of remembrance of mass deportations of 1941 with The Lithuanian leader said that it was entirely appropriate that the Crimean Tatar singer who won the Eurovision contest with Jamala’s coming on that day, she said was “symbolic” of the fact that “soviet crimes will never be forgotten.”Article by: Johann Zajaczkowski ACT II – INSIGHT: RETAINING POWER BY ALL MEANS Avakov as beneficiary of the policy shift? For further information about the Soviet deportations from the Baltic states, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has this excellent summary produced by the Museum of the Occupation of Latvia. Seventy-five years ago today, when Stalin was Hitler’s ally, Moscow began the forcible deportation of tens of thousands of Estonians, Latvians and Lithuanians from their occupied lands to the interior of USSR from which The deportation from the three occupied Baltic countries of more than 40,000 people was the first mass action of its kind following Stalin’s Anschluss of those countries as a result of the secret protocols of the Earlier senior officials in the overthrown governments of the three were arrested and exiled, most to their deaths. Notably, the article itself was published in mid-June, when the Baltic states commemorate mass deportations of …