Victims of Soviet Deportations commemorated in London
June 14th, 2015 the Baltic diaspora gathered at St. James's Church in London to pay tribute to the victims of the June 1941 Soviet Deportations to Siberia.
United Remembrance service to commemorate the deportees from Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia is an annual event organized by the Baltic Council in Great Britain.
This year the Baltic Remembrancealso included the Address by Bishop HlibLonchyna of the Ukrainian Catholic Church. The traditional candle lightening ceremony was followed by the performances of the UK Lithuanian, Latvian and Estonian choirs.
“Today we pay tribute to those who had to endure and perished during mass Soviet deportations. The deportations of the Baltic people to Siberia and to other remote parts of the USSR accounts to hundreds of thousands lives lost and ruined. The Mass deportations is a tragedy of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia and a prime example of the Red terror unleashed by Communists on occupied territories”, the Lithuanian Ambassador Asta Skaisgirytė said.
The UK Baltic community has commemorated the victims of Communist repression since their arrival in this country as refugees after the World War II. The commemorations have been held on or close to 14th June, this being the date of mass deportations of Estonians, Latvians and Lithuanians by the NKVD (precursor of the KGB) that began on 14th June 1941. Although the first deportations were in 1940, and hundreds of thousands were deported during the second Russian occupation, 14th June has remained the symbolic date on which all the victims are remembered.The deportees were subject to arrest, property confiscation and imprisonment in labour camps.
