Good morning everyone,
Every year, on 14 June, the Remembrance Day for the Victims of the Communist Genocide, we pay tribute to more than 15,400 Latvians who were forcibly, against the law, deported to Russia by the occupation power of the Soviet Union.
We honour the memory and speak about people who were just like us, who were displaced from their homes by force, their freedom taken, future nullified, lives and faith irreversibly broken.
And only in late 1980s were survivors of deportations finally allowed to openly share their painful experience. That is also when historians began studying repressions carried out by totalitarian Soviet regime more closely. Forbidden and suppressed truth about the history of these events had finally come out and historical justice could be restored.
These studies helped us get a better grasp of our past and talk about victims of Stalin’s persecutions.
This story had to be told by you, people who hold these memories, who returned to Latvia after years in exile and imprisonment, to testify about the age of Communism tainted by ideology and implicate its bloody crimes.
Your voices and stories have become even more important today as Russia wages war against Ukraine. Russia pillages and kills Ukrainian civilians, hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians are deported far away from their homes. Deportations happen as we speak.
It is inhumane, unlawful and criminal.
Events in Ukraine have reopened our past wounds. Today’s generations are much more aware of what happened in 1940s when Latvia was occupied and re-occupied, and how terror and legal vacuum was used to transform Latvian society by force.
This understanding creates a deeper sense of community with past generations and awareness about the roots of our nation. It also gives us energy and strength, knowledge that we can defend our land and state as bravely as Ukrainians can.
Ilmārs Knaģis, who unfortunately passed a couple several years ago, also a ‘Child of Siberia’, once tried to define how patriotism works in his generation. ‘My father fought for many years. World War I trenches were still fresh. History books told stories of our War for Independence. We were the children of the victors. Latvia was independent for two decades. It was all fresh in our minds. We knew our history and this knowledge gave us reassurance in our loyalty.’
Historic narratives based on scientific facts are important for our awareness as a nation. They are a part of our national identity.
Today we are witnessing Russia’s grotesque attempts to rewrite and fake history. Just recently it banned the ‘Memorial’, one of the first independent human rights organisations in Russia who was also involved in investigating and documenting Stalin’s crimes.
Historical revisionism and lies must be stopped. We can stop them by being more vocal about the real history. We should not let Soviet crimes against Latvian people and state be forgotten, and modern Russia is Soviet Union’s legal successor. A sense of impunity will only encourage the aggressor to commit new crimes as we can see in the case of Ukraine.
We need to call things what they are. That way we and our allies around the world will understand the whole complexity and scale of 20th-century events the way we, Latvia, and other European countries controlled by Soviet Union have experienced them.
We must ensure that our children develop and maintain personal bond with our past and events that took place long before they were born.
I want to thank the foundation ‘Children of Siberia’ and express my deepest gratitude to Ms Geka for doing so much to uncover the real truth and restore justice. The collection of memories that you have created is unparalleled. It tells the story of great suffering and also perseverance, dedication and resistance against foreign power.
Totalitarian Soviet regime cannot break people’s spirit!
Thank you. ‘Children of Siberia’, for all your efforts in building bridges between the past and present day in our nation and state’s life.
