Spectator's Journal/Latvia's Chautauqua Circuit
Kalnins, Ojars
SPECTATOR'S JOURNAL LATVIA'S CHAUTAUQUA CIRCUIT T he moment the Baltic States were swallowed up by the Soviets in 1940, an Iron Curtain of silence descended between occupied Latvia, Lithuania, and...
...But the article doesn't stop there...
...government officials in an "exercise in open diplomacy," i.e., an unprecedented series of uncensored debates with Soviet spokesmen on U.S.-Soviet relations...
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...Another article in the same issue, entitled "Flunkies," takes a more ominous tone, warning its Soviet Latvian readers against the growing threat posed by in-creasingly sophisticated "reactionary Latvian emigre" groups...
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...The article seems especially concerned about third generation Latvian-Americans who have "successfully integrated themselves into the American economic, social and political system, mastered the dynamics of this system and learned how to exploit it to serve their purposes...
...These groups, it explains, have become polished lobbyists and are "infiltrating major American organizations, trade unions and political parties...
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...The Chautauqua Conference has also produced a one-hour documentary on Soviet Latvian television, which according to a review in the December 24, 1986 Latvian Communist Party newspaper Cina (Struggle) "proves that we must talk to the Americans and even argue with them" in order to establish a "point of contact...
...government still accredits the diplomatic legations of independent Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia is also scathingly attacked...
...Of history they only know what their parents or grandparents tell them...
...The article returns repeatedly to President Reagan's stubborn refusal to recognize the "legality" of Soviet rule over Latvia and then drops a bombshell: "As the ringleaders of the U.S...
...Any Latvian who may have doubted the existence or effectiveness of Baltic organizations in the West has now had it confirmed, not only by the Latvian-Americans who attended the conference but by official Soviet spokesmen in the press, on television and radio: Baltic-American organizations are more powerful than ever, and U.S...
...This in itself is quite an admission by the Soviet-controlled Latvian press, since it provides the younger generation of Soviet-educated Latvians with confirmation of a U.S...
...NOW, every week receive a 32 page tabloid devoted to nationally-distributed newspaper 39 - columnists, with a conservative appeal...
...Although over 40 years have passed, by Ojars Kalnins the imperialists still ignore reality and refuse to recognize the status of the Baltic States...
...Most of them have ma column published in full...
...At the same time this article appeared, Latvian television broadcast film clips of the 1985 Baltic Peace and Freedom Cruise, anti-Soviet demonstrations in Helsinki, and other recent actions organized by free Baltic groups in the West, all dutifully accompanied by appropriate critical commentary...
...During a recent visit to Lithuania, Kojelis's father was asked by a local whether he was related to the "White House Kojelis...
...It complained of "the large number of documents touching on the Baltic Republics" issuing from the White House and federal agencies in recent years, singling out President Reagan's 1986 Baltic Freedom Day Proclamation as the worst of the lot, since it accuses the Soviet Union of human rights violations, genocide, and other abuses against the Latvian, Lithuanian, and Estonian people...
...neither Baits nor the Soviets expect the Marines to land on the shores of Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia in the near future...
...In the process they are providing the information-starved Latvians in occupied Latvia with surprisingly detailed Ojars Kalnins is public relations director of the American Latvian Association...
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...It is not difficult to imagine the comfort such news must provide to nationalists in Latvia who have worried about waning interest in their cause in the West...
...Despite symbolic gestures and strong words on behalf of Baltic freedom, the business of superpower relations must go on...
...In anticipation that the debates (which the Soviets agreed to televise in Latvia) would raise sensitive nationalist issues, the Soviets felt compelled to "explain them away" to the Latvian people beforehand...
...In the last few months, however, Soviet Latvian television, radio, and newspapers have been flooded with interviews, commentaries, and analyses, attempting to cool down some of the more nationalistic emotions stirred up by the conference...
...The presence of high-ranking U.S...
...Kojelis was the only Administration official to be refused entry into Latvia...
...The fact that the U.S...
...24 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR APRIL 1987 n September 15 the Chautauqua delegation arrived in Riga, Latvia, and the Soviets' worst fears were realized...
...flag crossed with the banned maroon and white flag of independent Latvia...
...T he reference to Latvians as Soviet "hostages" also appears in the November 12, 1986 Moscow-based Literaturnaya Gazeta...
...U ntil now...
...In the November 1986 issue of the Soviet Latvian Communist, a six-page overview of the conference devotes almost an entire page to the "Baltic question...
...Even more annoying to the Soviets was the presence of seven young Latvian-American activists in the Chautauqua delegation, who challenged Soviet rule in Latvia during the debates, mingled with local Latvians in the streets, and passed out pins depicting the U.S...
...State Department announced that it does not recognize Latvia's incorporation into the Soviet Union...
...Not surprisingly, the Soviets rejected the younger Kojelis's visa application when he, sought to participate in the Chautauqua Conference...
...support for the Baits, from the President on down, has never been stronger...
...Rather than ignore the increasingly active free Baltic groups in the West, they have begun openly to attack them...
...as nation's only hope") and a Wall Street Journal article describing Latvians as "hostages of the Soviet system" as examples of how the emigres have succeeded in influencing the American press...
...The State Department saw it differently...
...Much of it seems to be a direct result of the September 1986 Chautauqua Conference in Latvia, when over 270 American citizens joined a handful of present and former U.S...
...While the purpose of the article was to ridicule both, it provided Latvian readers with an amazing wealth of detail about the Baltic-American community's success in winning White House, State Department, and congressional support...
...Charter...
...W hat does all this mean...
...For those who know how to read between the lines—which includes just about everyone behind the Iron Curtain—it's been an information bonanza...
...Working closely with Latvian-American leaders, it decided to use the conference to give new life to the non-recognition policy by openly challenging Soviet rule at the scene of the crime, namely on the soil of occupied Latvia...
...Nevertheless, the trend in Soviet Latvian rhetoric which began before last summer's Chautauqua Conference, and continues today, is toward a full frontal assault on the Baltic freedom movement in the West...
...Those of us who work with Baltic organizations have been trying to convey this information to our countrymen for years...
...SPECTATOR'S JOURNAL LATVIA'S CHAUTAUQUA CIRCUIT T he moment the Baltic States were swallowed up by the Soviets in 1940, an Iron Curtain of silence descended between occupied Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia, and the West...
...Intentionally or not, the article put to rest any previous Soviet claims that the "Baltic issue" is dead in the West...
...While Latvian nationalism may be experiencing a spiritual resurgence, massive Russian immigration into the country has reduced the Latvian population to 53 percent...
...Since World War II the Soviets have taken great pains to convince the people of occupied Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia that the "free Baltic movement" is dead...
...Getting news in is another matter, and in one sense it's even more important...
...The Chautauqua Conference has subsequently become the hottest news story in Soviet-ruled Latvia...
...day's' nostalgia for our people's old and discarded times . . ." Employees of Latvian television have also been criticized publicly for repeatedly showing close-ups of the Latvian flag pins during the nightly broadcasts about the conference...
...The Soviet insistence that the conference take place in Latvia appeared to be a calculated attempt to undermine the longstanding U.S...
...While the Americans were present, news coverage was extensive but relatively mild in tone, chiding those American speakers who "spouted anti-Soviet propaganda," praising those who shared the Soviet dream of world peace, and generally endorsing the concept of the conference as a first step in improving U.S.- Soviet relations...
...Box 29 SA • Hampton, Iowa 50441 more than a political smokescreen designed to appease conservative public opinion in the United States...
...WILL*BUCKLEY*KILPATRICK*HARVEY*SOBRAN*KIRKPATRICK EVANS&NOVAK*RUSHER*HART*YODER*PODHORETZ*RABINOWITZ*LAMBRO *SHELTON*DE ORES,, ELLEY*WRIGHT-AOCHER*MAC NALLFATAYSKALT It's an ALL-STAR conservative cast...
...The review, however, criticizes the documentary for including too much on the "seven drummers" from America: "It really wasn't worth it to waste valuable minutes of film to promote `yester'While the Soviet Latvian press usually shies away from naming names, the article does mention Linas Kojelis, a 31-year-old American of Lithuanian descent who serves as Special Assistant to the President in the White House Public Liaison office...
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...In the last year the Soviet Lithuanian press has launched a vitriolic barrage of attacks at Kojelis, wh/o has become something of a folk hero in Lithuania...
...Of course, the authors assert, the "Soviet" Latvian, Lithuanian, and Estonian people want none of this...
...has made against the Soviet occupation of the Baltic States, citing examples such as "forced occupation," "oppression of the Baltic people," and violations of human rights and the right to self-determination...
...foreign policy which seeks to aggravate relations with the Soviet Union...
...As such, it gives this movement a markedly elevated stature in the eyes of the occupied Latvian people...
...In his opening address to the conference, the Special Adviser to the President on Soviet Affairs, Jack Matlock, announced, "The use of force and absence of freely given consent are the reasons the United States has never recognized and will never recognize the legality of the forcible incorporation of Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia into the Soviet Union...
...Jack Mat-lock's remarks in Latvia, although clearly annoying to the Soviets, weren't enough to prevent his recent approval as the next U.S...
...Remarkably, this statement, and the indignant Soviet response, was broadcast on Latvian television that same night, ensuring that over a million Latvians in the country knew what was taking place at the conference...
...Understandably, the people of the occupied Baltic states are desperate for information from the West, especially regarding activities undertaken on their behalf by free Baltic organizations and Western governments...
...The author also quotes a Washington Times headline ("Latvians hail U.S...
...In the last four decades, several new generations of Balts have come of age under the strict censorship of Soviet rule, knowing little if anything about their national histories or the ongoing campaign for Baltic freedom taking place in the West...
...In defense of this charge the article lays out the Soviet version of Latvia's "voluntary" incorporation into the Soviet Union on July 21, 1940 and then indignantly states, "Within two days the U.S...
...Moscow may also truly believe its own propaganda line that Washington's "Baltic policy" is nothing Call TOLL-FREE or Return Coupon 800-558-1244 In Iowa and Alaska Call Collect 515-456,2585 Published by Chronicle Publications, a 110 year old independent newspaper company...
...For some unfathomable reason, during the past several months the Soviet press in Latvia has decided to let the cat out of the bag...
...Although it hasn't been easy, reports from tourists, letters, and the occasional defector, when combined with official Soviet reports, do allow us to assemble a good picture of what is happening under the Soviet occupation...
...During a radio interview, one staffer ingeniously explained, "We just wanted to show our viewers how the Americans were dressed...
...Throughout the week of debates, the "Baltic question" kept popping up, prompting one Soviet spokesman to remark in exasperation, "It turns out we are discovering a regional conflict right here...
...Their open espousal of Latvian nationalism was met with delight by the locals, who dubbed them "the seven little drummers" in honor of a traditional Latvian folk song of the same name...
...To back this claim, it describes how Reagan personally meets each June with Baltic-American leaders in the White House to commemorate Baltic Freedom Day...
...policy toward the Baltic States and the efforts of the Baltic-American community to keep that policy alive...
...bases its charges on the principles stated in the U.N...
...Matlock's statement is written off as a perfunctory gesture by a bureaucrat on behalf of an "aging dogma...
...Thanks to this unprecedented pre-Chautauqua media blitz, many Latvians learned of these events for the first time...
...While Soviet criticism of Western Baits is not new, the fact that it is being presented to the occupied Latvian people with such frequency and in such revealing detail is remarkable...
...Many of the Latvian Communist Party members in the preselected audience at the Chautauqua Conference privately expressed support to the Latvian-American delegates...
...According to Soviet propagandists, Baltic emigr6 organizations are both ineffective and insignificant, and support for the "liberation" of the Baltic States is virtually nonexistent...
...With the Latvian birth rate among the lowest in the Soviet Union, Latvians, unlike the rapidly multiplying Asiatic peoples in the south, do not pose a foreseeable threat to Russian rule...
...News from the West comes from tourists, or what they can occasionally cull from heavily jammed Voice of America and Radio Free Europe broadcasts...
...It even reveals that the U.S...
...policy which may have been largely unknown to them...
...Ambassador to the Soviet Union...
...On the other hand, this rash of "openness" could be a result of Soviet confidence vis-a-vis the long-term stability of the Baltic States...
...It proceeds to inform its readers, in detail, of all the charges the U.S...
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...policy which refuses to recognize the legality of the Soviet annexation of Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania...
...The authors attribute this to an "unrealistic" U.S...
...officials on Latvian soil, the Soviets figured, would put the "Baltic question" to rest once and for all...
...only Issues Enjoy also, a witty selection from acclaimed cartoonists...
...As an example of this the article describes how Latvian-Americans infiltrated the Chautauqua delegation and that "beginning in Washington, D.C., and continuing on the plane, passed out provocative literature and pins featuring crossed American and bourgeois Latvian flags...
...In an attack on Voice of America, a Lithuanian writer (writing, ironically, in Russian) quotes this description from VOA coverage of the Chautauqua Conference and then criticizes the 1986 Baltic Freedom Day proclamation, asking, "Who gave Washington the right to interfere in the affairs of our peoples...
...Great reading, a handy reference...
...The presence of the seven Latvian-Americans is described as a last ditch attempt by "reactionary emigres" to salvage a hopeless cause...
...A lengthy, highlypolemical article in the August 1986 Latvian-language Soviet Latvian Communist launched a broad attack on US...
...Free Baltic organizations have been fighting to get news out—and in—ever since...
...We never expected to get this kind of assistance from the Soviets' own propaganda machine...
...Some attribute it to a "fifth column" of Latvian nationalists in the media and even in Party ranks...
...Understandably, Washington would like to promote the Baltic States as part of their sphere of influence in hopes of 'liberating' the Baltic people...
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...reports about the activities and influence of these groups...
...anti-Soviet Baltic emigr6 groups have boasted, it is indeed true that they have never had greater support or better relations with the White House than at the present...
Vol. 20 • April 1987 • No. 4
