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www.lituanus.org |
Copyright
© 1956 Lithuanian
Student Association, Inc.
No.
2(7)
- June 1956
Editor of this issue: L. Sabaliūnas |
COMMUNISM
IN PRACTICE
* The -Report of the Select Committee on Communist aggression, House of Representatives, Eighty-Third Congress.
Following the Moscow ultimatum to Lithuania of midnight June 14—15, 1940, the abyss of anarchy yawned before Lithuania. The attitude of the Moscow functionaries in regard to the Lithuanian nation clearly indicated that they strove to demolish the internal order, destroy the unifying foundation, and to bring the nation to chaos.
To resist was almost unthinkable, since actually, besides the Council of Ministers, four other governments appeared on the scene:
(a)
The Central Committee of the Communist Party of Lithuania.
It terrorized the government official, forcing them to obey the
regulations not of the legal government but the demands of the Central
Committee; it set in motion through the press, radio, and mass meetings
a blindly destructive propaganda machine; it gave aid to the strikers
and organized the scum of the populace which they used in all types of
demonstrations to intimidate the peaceful inhabitants.
(b) The administration of the Bolshevik
Army of Occupation.
It not only set up its own regulations, for the most part
unenforceable, but it also threatened to take steps against those who
would sabotage the "rightful" demands of the Army. It took charge of
the Communist demonstrations, threatening to provide them with an armed
escort should the Lithuanian Government dare to forbid the populace the
right to express their sympathy for Moscow which freed this "populace"
from the "bloody" Fascist regime of Smetona. It immediately demanded
the liquidation of S a u 1 i a i (The Lithuanian Home Guard), and added
that should the Lithuanian Government contrive to delay the matter, the
administration itself would attend to it by force; furthermore, the
Government would be held accountable for any incidents which would
hinder the peaceful liquidation of S a u 1 i a i.
(c) The Moscow Legation in Lithuania.
It was not as brutal as the Military Government, but its manner was
most exasperating. It was always demanding the removal of this or that
official, indicating which resolutions the Council of Ministers should
adopt, designating the proper relations with foreign representatives
who should be recalled and representatives, and specifying those of our
just who should replace them. In the beginning all such demands were
presented through Paleckis (the puppet president), who presented them
to me supposedly in his own name, but when the Russian Legation
discovered that the demands which they presented through Paleckis were
being ignored, they began to apply directly to me supposedly with
suggestions only. Threats were not employed. And when, on several
occasions, I had had rather sharp conversations with Dekanozov the
Soviet Minister, Pozd-niakov, always arrived to apologize. It was
explained that Dekanozov is a Caucasian, a hot-blooded person who does
not always know how to control himself. But at the same time it was
also advised that in order to maintain good relations with the Moscow
Government it was absolutely necessary to take Dekanozov's opinion into
account since that opinion was not his own, but that of the Moscow
Government which would like to trust fully the Lithuanian Government,
and it should not be thought that the attitude of the present
administration is insincere or that it has secret aspirations, perhaps
even unfriendly ones,
We are the first victims of the Bolsheviks in Europe; we knew neither
their tactics, methods, nor final aims. Therefore, it is not surprising
that we thought that most of what took place occured without the
knowledge and approval of Moscow. If eminent diplomats of Western
Europe and America allowed themselves to be deceived they failed to
orientate themselves, then, God, Himself, therefore allowed us to be
deceived as well.