THE SUBMERGED BALTIC STATES
KALNINS, BRUNO
The Submerged Baltic States By Bruno Kalnins Scandinavian Correspondent of The New leader STOCKHOLM . . . After four years of Soviet occupation .the Baltic countries are completely...
...Some 446 of them sported Soviet mecjals and 266 proudly displayed government orders...
...About half of its members and officials are outsiders...
...According to the report of the credentials committee, 55 percent of the delegates were party and Soviet officials, 38 percent were workers and 7 percent were farmers...
...The national composition of this convention was significant...
...S'ews item...
...The Submerged Baltic States By Bruno Kalnins Scandinavian Correspondent of The New leader STOCKHOLM . . . After four years of Soviet occupation .the Baltic countries are completely separated from the outside world...
...The rate of transformation was criticized 3s being too slow...
...Counting both those who enjoy full membership and those who ere on probation, the party has 31,203 members...
...The fact that thus far only twelve percent of the cultivable soil has been included in kolkhozes was regarded as a proof of failure...
...The Latvian Social Democrats were attacked...
...A comparison between these figures and those from the Soviet republics brings to light a significant contrast...
...Since 1944 Latvia has been occupied by the Russians...
...THE MAKE-UP of the Latvian convention of the Communists is not without significance...
...During the last days of January the convention of the Communist Party of my own country, Latvia, was held with due solemnity and ceremony in Riga...
...THIS STAND-OFFISH ATTITUDE of the Baits in relation to Russian Communism was obvious in more than one occurrence during the sessions of the concention...
...For nine long years the party executive committee ran the organization from the top down...
...About half of the delegates, that is 53 percent, were Latvians- and 36 percent were Russians...
...Richard Armour...
...And it was openly acknowledged that national opposition had not been conquered...
...Suel) a brief insight intto Soviet realities is offered by the reports of the recent conventions of the Communist parties, which were held almost simultaneously in all of the satellite countries...
...Thus only one percent oj the population of the country belong to the ruliug party — the only party...
...The "nationalist spirit" was the subject of complaints...
...During this long period not a single party organization, so far as is known, protested against this flagrant disregard of the party's constitution...
...The final deed was the election of the party executive...
...According to the percentages revealed at the convention, only about 20,000 of these are Latvians...
...Moreover, those who are counted as workers are, for the most part, Stakhanovites or members who, as Communists, have won influential positions in their factories...
...It is, therefore, evident that the Communist Party is-no longer art organization of workers...
...Latvia has 2,000,000 inhabitants...
...The contrast shows how little success the Communists have had in their campaign among the people of the Baltic States...
...Atomic Energy Commission, meeting again after 9 months, is' as divided as ever...
...however, the official Russian reports yield a genuine Item—if the reader knows how to cull it out from the propagandists pretense...
...In the working organizations of the party the Russians are even more disproportionately represented...
...There is not even one Communist member of Parliament from the pre-occupation period: Of the 69 members, 26 are Russians...
...Not until the almighty Politburo in Moscow ordered conventions in all of the union republics did the Latvian Communists feel obliged to call one...
...The small figure representing the participation of farmers proves that in the Baltic States the Communists have made little impression among the country people...
...The facts attested by this convention report make it clear that the Communist dictatorship in the Baltic States lacks the support of the masses of the working people but is carried on by a small party under the control of the Soviet occupation authorities and with the help of the Russian police and army...
...Now and then...
...They, too, belong to the new ruling class...
...MISPLAClD ENERGY The U.N...
...THERE seems to have been Just a bit Of mistake in the matter of i fission...
...These figures reveal the fact that the Latvian Communist Party is no longer a party of Latvian Communists...
...The purpose, we thought, was to split The atom and not the Commission...
...Naturally most of the delegates.were loyal underlings of the Soviet regime...
...Georgia, which was conquered by USSR 30 years ago has 3,500,000 inhabitants and 116,000 members in the Communist Party...
...In this body there are today 4 members of the executive "committee of the supreme council of Soviet Latvia, 14 cabinet ministers, 15 high party officials, 22 local office holders and, in addition, the catspaws of the occupation forces—among them 3 Russian generals...
...Only 55 dated their party membership from the October Revolution of 1917 and only 61 entered the ranks during the revolutionary years of 1918 to 1920...
...In the Communist Party of Latvia this committee consists of 69 members, all of them taken from among the officials of the government and of the party...
...The war ended four years ago...
...Not less significant are the hitherto concealed figures in relation to the party membership...
...As a means of suppressing it, the collectivization of all farmland was suggested...
...In the re* ports one who knows how to read between the lines can discover many indications of the direction of Communist policy...
...It is a dictatorship over the people exercised by a foreign power...
...The Latvian Communists held their last convention before this recent one during December, 1940...
...It is controlled by bureaucrats, the upper class of this new political set-up...
...There is not a single representative of the trade unions of Latvia...
...In a telegram to "our great leader, our inspired teacher, our best friend and beloved father, J. Stalin," it was solemnly promised "to use all means to fight nationalism and to carry through tho program of collectivization with all possible speed...
...Of the 13 members of the Central Committee six are Russians, and of the five all-powerful party secretaries, 3 are from the Soviet Union...
...Old Communists were rare...
...What happened at the gatherings held in Estonia and Lithuania sufficiently resembled what took place in my homeland so that an account of one meeting may indicate the spirit and accomplishment of all...
Vol. 32 • March 1949 • No. 12
