The Baltic Plebiscite
Silin, Robert G.
The Baltic Plebiscite The Soviets Set a Pattern for the Scheduled Balkan Elections By Robert G. Silin THE Soviet sponsored elections, which were held in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania in July...
...About the same time Zhdanov, secretary of the Communist Party, was sent to Tallinn, Estonia, and Commissar Dekanoaov to Kaunas, Lithuania...
...The altar of Ihe church was overturned...
...The national minorities were assured equal rights and cultural autonomy by statu-toiy law in December 1919...
...On elect-on day the...
...A so-called peoples cabinet waa imposed on the Latvian President and nation, every member of which was hand-picked by the Soviet emissary...
...The Red propagandists and agent* of the nkvd continued making threats and spreading terror...
...nation art represented...
...On June 18, 1940, Assistant Foreign Commissar Vyshinski appeared by plane in Riga, capital of Latvia...
...Whether or not Mr...
...It is interesting to note that none of Ihern, tave the Minister of the Interior, um» known to be · Communitt...
...In 1940 there were only about ISO registered Communists in ? .at via...
...When those of us whr sere left, most of us Estonians, Latvians, and Lithuanians, went back to our 1,0ms, some found lhat their money, watches, and fountain pens had been stoles...
...All the '•rtors connected with economic life, as »'l...
...Social Credit principles were made by Daniel Bell in u leview of Gorham Muneon's Aladdin's Uaia \kug...
...This announcement waa not followed by any further information about the plight of "culprits," guilty of exercising their constitutional rights...
...H»U should really get better acquaint-"I with the ideas of Douglas...
...There can be no other real litt of candidal et bteidet the League, in which all the positive and creative elementt of the...
...126 i th* Constitution of the'USSR, sc-ttniing to which "the Communist party ..is tha vanguard of the working people ., and represents the leading nucleus *fi,a»l...
...This wss s warning to the "reactionaries" not to nominate their own candidates...
...Latvia was flooded nth Red propaganda, while the infUtra-ioen of agents of the NKVD continued...
...Since the vote was later to serve as a "plebiscite" in favor of joining the Soviet Union, it was essential to make it unanimous...
...Let us, therefore, be grateful to the Soviet Union and pledge to help to defend her frontiera against the enemy...
...The core of Douglas economics is thst since production is always necessarily a social effort, money should constitute a social credit, not a social debit, as it does Inda ? Money should reflect the facts of the economic system as a symbol of what that system really is or can lie made to he...
...On May 15, 1934, this Constitution was temporarily suspended by Ulmanis, in favor of a government on the pattern of the Doll-fuss regime in Austria—authoritarian but anti-Nazi—in order to safeguard the national independence in anticipation of the approaching world crisis...
...The outstanding achievement of the 1 aiiiin Constituent Assembly was the enactment of a radical agrarian reform in 1920...
...So long as we have a money economy, the Douglas test for avoiding communal stagnation, depression, bankruptcy, and col/apse is summed up in these worda: "The rale of flow of costs into prices must be equalled by the .rate of flow of money into the hands of final consumer...
...WeixationB of the working aesjf, both.social and state...
...The press, now completely under Communist control, explained in unison:1 "Attentive obuci reit will not fail to notice that the Working People's League compritet all the honett repre-tentative...
...Accurate conversion of real credit into financial terms covers the whole question of both the volume and velocity of money circulation in a free society...
...The power will be in the Ma***/ {he real representatives ef the fllt »ie these real representatives of people...
...Munion'i opinions are sound concerning ik« theoretical cyclical historical catas-iiopliism of Brooks Adam» is irrelevant lo Social Credit...
...Iks iron ring of subjugation, forged hy lysh'mski, was closing its grip and linking the soul of the nation...
...All quotations in this article are authentic translations from Latvian press reports of July 1940...
...All three Baltic republic* wer;: admitted ' int / the Soviet Union during th* August session of th* Moscow Supreme Soviet...
...They had defended their independence against both Orman and Russian troops...
...when, and where required...
...but the USSR, in return, pledged itself not to interfere in their political, economic and social affairs...
...Several Russians leaped through the windows and ran, and the American poldiers shot and wounded them...
...At 10 15 a. ss...
...Private properly was Kt yet abolished, but all banking «c-»unts were closed...
...Latvian people have expressed their will for close and inttpai-abl* bonds with the peoples of ths Soviet Union...
...They were, on the contrary, determined to enforce on tha Laetvian nation an assembly of pro-Soviet yes-men...
...But the wirepullers in the Soviet Legation were obviously not at all anxious to let the people choose candidate* of their own...
...XXII, page 13...
...We appreciate your courtesy in sending us a marked copy of your paper...
...In 1918 Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia legally seceded from Russia...
...That gets 'em, every time...
...There were erica of "We would rather die than go bock In Kussia The commandant read a list of 410 persons, who were panic-stricken As American officer ordered those whose names were read to go to one side of the . Im,, h and the reat of us to the other side...
...Lenin, Collected Work...
...On the first election day the following appeal was broadcast and published in sll papers: "In order that those who are still in doubt whether'to vote or not should have no reason to be ashamed of themtelvet, their fellow-citizens, fellow-workers, all the patriots of the Latvian republic, and of their personal documents [Passports are compulsory in Latvia] in which the teal of participation will be misting, overj/one it urged to the p*W...
...They have collected signatures among their fellow -eiliaena...
...Prime Minister A. Kirchensteins declared en July 6, 1940: "We are able to give foil thit ballot t» toon only thankt to the friendly support received from our mighty neighbor, Iii« iiovitt Union...
...The Red Anny is assistiva tie in the defense of our freedom and the preservation of mir state...
...After Hitler and Stalin had divided Poland beteween Russia" and Germany, Moscow imposed, in September and October 1939, the treaties "of mutual assistance" on Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania...
...Only one list of candidates has been approved for each district, namely the Working People's League...
...Vet, in spite ? <h :- and of tho Yalta agreement, Ciii "'pijl-iscite" in the Baltic apparently has set a precedent for olhiir "friendly neighbors of the Soviet Union...
...UnTIL the end nf the Finnish war Russia did not intervene much in the Raitie countries...
...The soldiers seized the Itussiana, beat them with the butls of theia.rifles, dragged (hem through the church and threw them brutally into the trucks...
...Each voter wa* instructed not to erase or to add candidates, nor to put empty snvsiepe* into the ballot-box, heca us* «hat would render hkv vote invalid, atahy-were provided with envelopes already sealed for them, ami »11 were closely watched The return* were supposedly ?7...
...How many times 1 have heard on* of our truck drivers lean out of his cab and address himself to a reckless driver who was crowding him, remarking with appropriate emphasis: "Move over, you raucous hulk of meretricious pomposity...
...Nobody moved, 'llie order was repested three times...
...itself even more clearly: -The tjitrnf and pretence of the Soviet lied trap on Latvian toil hat tuddenly unlinked tnch a ttrong and far-reaehintj rtidfttiouary movement among our nrtirti people that the mere thought of Atrviny to the condition* under Ihe timer regime beeomea ridiculous und tiUiik...
...But the Red planners were not satisfied...
...Certainly Douglas makes no such claim for himself concerning it, but it is accepted as a commonplace of the prevailing system...
...The expulsion of the Russians and I'krainians from Ihe church began...
...The principle of self-determination is also embodied in the Stalin Constitution of the USSR...
...alien sad liejaidatien ef this adventere...
...When Hitler set out to conquer the world, tha Baltic people* were three prosperous and peece-Ioving nation...
...Although the question if joining the Soviet Union was not raised, but rathsr hushed up during tha election campaign, the first step of the new Assembly was to ask for It...
...One old man had his ribs broken...
...hut that, la too simple...
...After the liquidation of this venture the Supreme Electoral Committee could announce: "The preliminary work for the elections has been completed...
...On July ?, the day following tha proclamation of the electoral law, a list of candidate* wa* sponsored by the newly - created "Working People's League...
...I The American State Department has subsequently ordered General Eisenhower lo end such forced repatriation of the Russians remaining in the American zone in Germany, or of nationals of Yugoslavia, the Baltic States, and Poland...
...Vol...
...The electoral law, proclaimed on July 6, 1940, provided, in addition to a free and universal ballot, that opposition groupa of at least a hundred voters could nominate their own candidates...
...The better the economic organization is managed, the greater the real credit of the community...
...But they learned quickly to listen to "the master'* voice," and soon they could not finish a single speech without eulogizing Stalin as a liberator...
...Forced Repatriation From MARY M. KISS...
...The organ I |h* Latvian Komsomol, Latvia Jaun-m (Latvian Youth), predicted a* early ' ..gtii will be the character of the new g0t)tr*ti* republic we ewe going to ere-00'WiUit ae the democracy which tsc-,*#«·*«¦ IM«, and the child of which tfttcitm...
...The rlergyman who attempted lo intervene in behalf of the despairing Russians was struck in Ihe face...
...His article impressed ma with its typical Teamster vernacular...
...While Ulmanis was icminally still president of the republic, ? wholesale dismissal of state officwls in in full swing...
...The Baltic Plebiscite The Soviets Set a Pattern for the Scheduled Balkan Elections By Robert G. Silin THE Soviet sponsored elections, which were held in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania in July 1940, and led to the immediate incorporation of these independent Baltic republics into the Soviet Union, have set the style tor future "democratic elections, free and unfettered" in the Soviet dominated Balkan countries and Poland...
...The reaction of the United States Government to these farcical "eMc'ions"' is nstled down in its non-recognition declaration of July 23, 1!M0, which abeu them as 'dev'uus processes" and 'prtdstory activities...
...AH poll* were destroyed upon the completion of the count Many voters, nevertheless obstructed ths vote by ab senteeism, especially in tha rural dia-triets...
...Bel...
...We live in a capitalistic economy and the social relations existing in our society are nol derived from the role of money - the banker as a social class does not domi-nsle society but from tha nature ol productive relations...
...Oar safety ergaaa have revealed thla political adveatar* and have, J net m time, turned them erer te the public prosecutor for invest...
...There waa a catch to it: The Supreme Soviet, which was to assemble in August at Moscow, waa scheduled to receive end to sccept graciously the applications of the Baltic republics to be admitted into the Soviet Union...
...We who have looked lo Ihe United Stales as our last hope of true liberation have been profoundly shocked by thin forced repatriation of Russians to whom Russia is a vast slave labor camp...
...The references to Brooks Adams are completely relevant, since the preoccupation with money led here lo the creation of a devil theory of history regarding the financier...
...Strangely enough, th* secretary of the Latvian Communist party, Kalnbersins, predicted on th* sve of the convocation of the newly elected Saeima: "The...
...Declarations of Latvian* Communists prove that the Baltic people never have a chance to express their free will and did not join the Soviet Union voluntarily...
...In 1938 about 80 percent of Latvia ? 238,000 farms were cultivated by the owners and their families without hired help...
...He must have been reading our magazine, too...
...The public prosecutor tailed to summon them before a court of justice, because their actions were legal They were, instead, quietly arrested and deported, and have not been heard of since...
...Everyone waa in tears, even those who were not to be repatriated...
...The Baltic peoples themselves, including meet of th* collaborationists, had no idea of the existence of such plot On the contrary, allusions to joining th* Soviet Union were discouraged by the Communist stage managers during the election campaign, and were branded a* ''inventions of the enemy of the people...
...Indeed, the idea was not original with Marx...
...But after Dunkirk they were suddenly accused by Molotov of conspiracy and aggressive arts against the Soviet Union...
...The rem-mits of the "plutocracy" spent their ast hours of freedom in hiding at home...
...This constitution provided for universal, equal, direct and secret vote...
...I Letters Social Credit Discussed From VICTOR URDALL To The Editor: SoMEWHAT misleading statement* regarding Major Douglas...
...That is the basis of the Douglas axiom that whatever is trhysieally possible is finanically possible...
...The provisional Latvian Government, formed on November 18, 1918, and headed by K. Ulmanis, called a Constituent Assembly on May 1, 1920, which adopted a democratic Constitution in 1922...
...Alt other list* have been rejected...
...The new democ :ltf will be a revolutionary democ tery if the people...
...Net That kind of demoe-,ttl ? biiriei forever...
...They fall victims of the unprovoked aggression of their powerful neighbors, Kussia and Germany, after the Naxi-Rolshevik treaty of August 1989, giving Hitler the grain light for his attack on Poland, had opened the gates for a world catastrophe...
...implies that Douglas is shallow ,!>d ?unson ia deeper, because the latter "eoliiiiej that the wealth of a country he in as raw materials, knowledge, and Ml rather than merely in its money, kll als» says that Douglas ignores so-organization and relations...
...The only quest ion Social Credit asks is, What is the most effective feeh-nique in producing and delivering goods and services...
...This announcement ranted great ·«.....tematom...
...In 1920 peace treaties were signed with Germany and the Soviet Union...
...An anti-sabotage decree was Issued on the eve of election day, providing for capital punishment tor trason and sabotage, which was defined as "shunning to fulfiill one's citizen's duties with the intent of injuring the interests of state and society...
...HIGH OCTANI OAS FROM LESTER M. HUNT International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffeur*, Warehou.trmm and Hellte it of America To the Editor: YoiIR article of August SI on Mr...
...Our boys certainly get syllabic mileage...
...k* ellkial organ of the Latvian Com-.•aiit uarty, Cina (Struggle), ex-psmtd...
...The Latvian Prime Minister, as well as his Estonian and Lithuanian colleagues, were at that time obviously ignorant of Moscow's intention to absoi b the Baltic countries, for their declarations strongly imply that Stalin must have renewed to them his promises to preserve some measure of independence...
...The root fal lacy of Douglas is the implicit assumption of a vulgar under-consumptionist theory, namely that lack of money, is the cause of depression...
...officer for merry...
...Probably they did not know that they had been selected to play the part of pro-Soviet Quislings...
...Shots were fired lo frighten them into obedience...
...Saluting 1he restoration of Art...
...Women fainted...
...Thus the votera were compelled to vote for th* on* ticket sponsored by the Communist party, or I else.' » * · ¦# The means by which the "victory" of "Soviet democracy" was assured are as simple ss they sre brutal, immoral and illegal...
...Tohin was referred to me...
...Despite the lip-service of Major Douglas to the "real credit" of the community, he proposes to solve the complex problems of modern capitalism— monopoly, cartelization, price rigidities, resistance to technological change, our increasing productivity and Ihe problem of who shall receive the benefits, ami filially the role of accumulation of rap ital and the stagnation of investment as producing crises—by manipulating the money mechanism alone...
...On June 15 and IK, the Baltic countries, with a combined population of 6,000,000, were served with an ultimatum and immediately occupied by overwhelming Red forces...
...Tfte Baltic Plebiscite I« kad arrived from Moscow after the 1^ occupation, knew better...
...Urdall, as an orthodox economic heretic, says we live in a "money economy...
...Tbe Russisns were not given time to collect their meager possessions, but pus'.ed into the trucks and driven off...
...Bearing in mind that the participation in Soviet elections is the "sacred duty" of every citizen, absentees thus were threatened with severest punishment...
...as with what might be called the w*l m;,nit 0f H society, are summed up h this Douglas formula: Tbe Heal Credit of a community is '** ability to produce and deliver goods •sd services,., as...
...We might even call it high miaue gas...
...None of them was of any political importance...
...But whatever the puppet ministers believed, the leading Latvian Communist* "If a email or weak nation b net accorded tha right to decide the fees* of ita political existence by a free vote—implying the complete withdrawal ef th* treepa ef the inrer-' prorating er merely strong nation— then the incorporation ie an annexation, i.e., an arbitrary apprepriatiaa of a foreign country, an act of violence . . (V...
...Most of them had belonged to various democratic groups or were affiliated with the "Association of Latvian-Soviet Friendship...
...That capitalism in its orthodox form must expand or die is clearly understood and stated by Douglas, as it was by Marx...
...About 1,33· estates of 375 aerea and more, comprising 50 percent of all arable land and held by a email number of noblea of German origin, were divided into small hold inga ef 55 acres and leas and distributed to workers and farmhands...
...1 tried, sketch ily, in my review to show thst the paradox of capitalism crisis lies in the nature of production...
...The way in which this venture wa* immediately liquidated is reflected in th* following announcement of the Communist-controlled press: "Some representatives of the clsss of wealthy citizens, calling themselves I «? win democrats, have started to organize their own list of randidates, in spite of the fact that all really democratic citizens have already joined the Working People'* Le*gue...
...1*45, aiost of Ihe displaead peraota* ia th* DP Cam* at Kenpten, Allg?u [in Bavaria I, were gathered as saujai in rharch...
...veter ? had to assemble at their e*V»>ui place* to be led to the poll* in crowd...
...to pay those costs...
...The Baltic countries had to grant Kussia military bases nn their territories, which were to be occupied by a fixed number of Soviet tropps...
...trnckloads of American soldier* arrived...
...The record f the Baltic elections assumes special importance in view of the approaching elect ions in the satellite atates of Central and Eastern Europe, dries* prevented by th* United Stales and liniem, these elections will follow the pattern estsbliahed in Ihe Bsllir slates...
...We are and lviii remain free, for we believe in the promises of Matin, the highest authority of Ihe Ho ? iet Union...
...of all clattrt of the population...
...Together and hand-in-hand ols Ihe USSR, utilizing her rich ex-urieace in fettering revolutionary move-mtt and in creating a nodaliet ttale, ? *HK thape our livet and the future tithe working people...
...Declarations about the preservation of Latvia's independence, however, prevailed at first in the public speeches of the members of the Cabinet (as is true today of Poles in Warsaw...
...recognizes both the phy-"fsl ami imponderable elements in an •fornir system -such elements as, for '•«inple, the common cultural inhei it-*el derived from all past activities of •"nkiiul, Real credit includes all pns-J'Me social relatione insofar as they af-*T' 'he e. onomjc efforts of a community...
...Stalin gave his personal word of honor to Latvia's Foreign Minister, V. Munters, who negotiated the treaty for I at\i...
...General Dasflor, announced, ta Ihe congregation that the American soldiers had come to despatch to th* ' MSR all those ia the camp who were living withia ita borders before I93H...
...As soon,a* the rharch service ended the chief of the camp...
...They established their headquarters in th* Soviet legations, and immediately started the Sov iet ization and the incorporation of the Baltic countries into the Soviet Union...
...But nothing could influence the count, which was predetermined...
...6 of the democratic Constitution of 1922, which provides for universal elections, and proclaiming June 14 and 15 election days...
...Sovietization of Latvia started as MS as the Red forces were in full con ml of the country...
...cent in favor of the League But it must be borne ia mind that tha vote, for all practical purposes, was compulsory, that there wss no chance to vote for an opposition party, and that the returns were never checked by any impartial committee...
...The elections in Lithuania and Estonia were in every respect id*n*.:cal with the election procedure in Latvia: The same dale for election day, Identical declarations and campaign ilogans, and th* same resu'ts, if course...
...toon they were to vanish in the pi icon rampa of the Siberian wilderness...
...By converting a majority of landless workers into landowner*, it rendered < ommuniat activity ineffective, 'the number of persons occupied in industry never exceeded 13 percent ef the population...
...Old men fell on their knees and begged in Ihe name of Chriet and humanity to be permitted to stay in Ihe ramp, declaring lhat deportation lo Russie meant slavery or death for ihern...
...We feel honored that one of our truck drivers is a contributor and expresses himself so eloquently...
...We find a clue in Art...
...Ilidall makes are discussed...
...formula holds good for all times lai plama...
...Once again 1 salute the freedom and independence of the Latvian republic...
...Secretary, Lithuanian American Information Center To the Editor: We hare received the following eye-wittiest report ef the way in which American soldiers hove rounded up Hussions foi repatriation: On Aagait 12...
...Social Credit does not necessarily favor either public or private ownership of the means of production and physical distribution...
...Weeping mothers with babies in their arms pleaded wilh Ihe America...
...This statement has a mathematical validity which transcends both Marxism and ordinary liberalism...
...The agrarian reform did away, once and forever, with the power of the landed nobility ef Latvia...
...The American officer left the church with the soldiers, but returned in about fifteen minutes with a larger delarhment...
...Reply From DANIEL BELL l' nirertity of Chicago To the Kditii, . TlIEKE is little I can say here other than lefer the interested reader to Ihe original review where the points Mr...
...People took each other by the banda, determined not to leave...
...Yet some patriots, defying all attempts of intimidation and insisting upon their constitutional rights, had decided to run a list of candidates of their own...
...The Editors...
...Russia recognized their independence in accordance with a Soviet decree, recognizing the right ef self-determination and of secession fur all peoples of the former Russian Empire...
Vol. 28 • October 1945 • No. 43
