Report on Latvia
KALNINS, BRUNO
De-Stalinization brings rapid change Report on Latvia By Bruno Kalnins De-Stalinization has brought significant changes in Latvia?changes typical of developments in all the Baltic States and, to...
...All, except for the Communists, agreed that there were many signs of strong opposition and of a desire for the restoration of national independence...
...1954, there have been no new arrests and no further convictions...
...Most of the Social Democratic leaders sentenced during the first period of Soviet occupation (1940-1941) succumbed to conditions in the camps, which until 1950 were completely inhuman...
...Latvians feel a little freer, although fear of the police has not disappeared altogether...
...and some are ill and unable to work...
...often they are compelled to go to town to buy bread...
...Last August, in fact, the leading Latvian Communist paper carried a venomous article asserting that these parcels did not come from Latvians abroad but were financed by the United Nations for propaganda purposes...
...The majority now live in Riga, Latvia's capital...
...Karl Ulmanis, a Conservative peasant politician who ruled Latvia as dictator from 1934 to 1940...
...Among other bourgeois politicians and writers who have been released and allowed to return to Latvia are J. Osins...
...However, the strength of the national opposition has increased considerably since the Stalin era...
...Their number is particularly high in the police force...
...De-Stalinization brings rapid change Report on Latvia By Bruno Kalnins De-Stalinization has brought significant changes in Latvia?changes typical of developments in all the Baltic States and, to some extent, in the non-Russian republics of the Soviet Union...
...Six Swedish correspondents who took part in this visit have since given their impressions of the oppressed country in the Swedish press...
...In others, some of the charges have been withdrawn and the sentences reduced...
...The Soviet regime, they feel, will gradually be liberalized, and, as its structure becomes less rigid, even spontaneous mass action may develop...
...The Latvian workers continue to be badly paid and exploited...
...There has been no change in the Soviet policy of colonial penetration and economic exploitation...
...Tremendous excitement was caused in Riga by the Swedish naval visit in August...
...Perhaps most important is the change in the position of political prisoners...
...On the other hand, most of those sentenced during the second Soviet occupation (1944 to date) survived the hardships of imprisonment and have now returned home...
...The Social Democratic paper Afton-Tidningen in Stockholm published an interview with the former leader of the Latvian Social Democratic party, Dr...
...At the meeting of the Central Committee of the Latvian CP last August, it was officially reported that the number of cows was 29,000 lower than a year before...
...Yet, even here the First Vice Premier and the Second Secretary of the Central Committee are Russians who came to Latvia only a short time ago...
...Special commissions were sent into the camps to review the sentences passed in the Stalin era by administrative decree...
...Some receive small pensions, which are wholly inadequate...
...National feeling is consequently strong in all strata of the population, and even some Communists feel aggrieved...
...It was characteristic of the people's mood that a rumor spread rapidly through Riga that the Swedish Navy had come "at the request of the United Nations" to free Latvia from Soviet rule...
...and J. Seja...
...De-Stalinization has deeply stirred younger members of the Latvian Communist party and the Communist \outh...
...Most of the released Social Democrats arc about 70 years old...
...Thus, a political prisoner serving, say, ten years would first have his sentence reduced to five years and then his remaining five years remitted under the amnesty...
...Work in the free labor movement during the period of Latvia's independence (1918-1940) was considered evidence of "anti-Soviet activities...
...Latvia is no longer a "prohibited zone" for foreigners...
...K. Lorencs, member of the party Executive...
...It included, for example, the Erfurt Program of the German Social Democratic party, written by Kautsky in 1891...
...all sentences were passed by purely administrative decision of the OSO...
...and J. Wilzins, former Consul in Vienna...
...Despite strict orders from Khrushchev, who appeared in person in Riga, the Latvian Government has failed to raise agriculture to the level reached during the period of national independence...
...Almost all had been sentenced for "anti-Soviet activities" and for "possessing anti-Soviet literature...
...In the kolkhozes, part of the land is not cultivated and many young people are moving to the cities...
...former Foreign Minister and onetime President of the League of Nations, were released in 1954 but must remain at Vladimir, about 100 miles east of Moscow...
...Contact with the outside world has improved, too...
...There is a great need for assistance from abroad...
...Fritz Menders, former Chairman of the Latvian Social Democratic party...
...Demands for political and national freedom and for better living conditions are being raised ever more insistently...
...died in 1952 in Sverdlovsk...
...The second type of case often fell under the amnesty of September 17, 1955, under which all prisoners serving sentences of five years or less were released...
...The release of political prisoners from Soviet concentration camps began in 1954...
...From Sweden alone, parcels of food, clothing and medicine to the value of $20,000 are sent to Latvia and Estonia every month...
...R. Dukurs, former Minister of Labor...
...most of the policemen in Riga do not even know the Latvian language...
...Almost all the Deputy Ministers in the 35-member Council of Ministers are Russians...
...In some cases, the sentences have been wholly remitted and the prisoners rehabilitated...
...A. Vezkalns and J. Vischna, Chairmen of the Latvian Trade Union Council...
...Indeed, all Social Democrats have by now been released, after serving terms of imprisonment ranging from five to fifteen years...
...Fourteen out of fifteen sentenced during that period died...
...former Chairman of the Latvian Liberal party: L. Ausejs...
...others have badly paid jobs, while yet others depend on support from friends and relatives...
...The Latvian people look upon de-Stalinization not as a maneuver but as the beginning of a real change...
...former Foreign Minister...
...His collaborator, General J. Balodis...
...Anti-Soviet literature," too, was a term with very wide application...
...Of the fifteen most prominent Social Democrats arrested in this period, only two died: E. Morics, General Secretary of the Latvian Trade Union Council, and T. Liven-tal, former Deputy Mayor of Riga...
...The Swedes were surrounded by crowds of people who openly complained of the political and national oppression they were suffering...
...Hatred of the Communist dictatorship is greatest among the workers and kolkhoz (collective farm) peasants...
...P. Ulpe, former Party Secretary...
...The free world, however, must bring constant pressure to bear to further this process of democratization...
...Only in the Government and the Bureau of the Party Central Committee have the Latvians a majority...
...Although they were thoroughly screened before leaving, one of them, an architect, decided not to return and was granted asylum in Sweden...
...Most of the released prisoners have returned home, but some have pledged themselves to work for some years as free laborers in the camps...
...and other prominent representatives of the Latvian Social Democratic movement...
...In some of the large camps like Vorkuta, Taishet and Karaganda, more than 80 per cent have been released, and some camps, like that at Novosibirsk, have been completely abandoned...
...Many have lost confidence in the Party ideology and have become critical...
...That is why they are breathing more freely and speaking more boldly...
...They believe that there has been a change in Russia and that a process of transformation has begun there which cannot be stopped...
...R. Bil-manis, K. Bumeisters, K. Eliass, H. Kaupins, E. Radzins and J. Rudzis, Social Democratic Members of Parliament...
...The Soviet police regime has become less severe lately: the MVD is no longer permitted to sentence citizens by administrative decree...
...The agricultural crisis has, if anything, become worse...
...Latvian industry works mainly for Russia, China and the Eastern European satellites...
...the special commission of the MVD...
...This was the first visit by a foreign navy since 1939, and the Latvian population warmly welcomed the thousand-odd Swedish sailors and officers as representatives of a free neighboring country...
...As a result, more than half the political prisoners in the labor camps of northern Russia, Siberia and Kazakhstan bad been released by September 1 of this year...
...There was no legal procedure in any of these cases...
...A number of foreign delegations and journalists visited the country in 1955 and 1956, and this summer four groups of Latvian tourists were able to visit Sweden...
...Most of them—there are altogether 1,450 kolkhozes—receive between three and four rubles a day and one kilogram of potatoes, corn or vegetables...
...There is a shortage of consumer goods, and light industry continues to lag behind heavy...
...Since BRUNO Kalnins, an old contributor, is the chairman of the Latvian Social Democratic Party-in-Exilc...
...Conservative Member of Parliament...
...Menders, who strongly opposed any restoration of the prewar Ulmanis dictatorship and any return to capitalist conditions but also courageously demanded the establishment of a democratic, independent Latvia...
...The kolkhoz peasants are very poor...
...Last summer, however, both were allowed to visit Latvia for a few weeks...
...Among Latvians who have been released are Dr...
...Most of the important positions in administration and economic life are occupied by Russians...
...Under these conditions, the influence wielded by the Latvian Government under V. Lacis and the Central Committee under J. Kalnberzins continues to be insignificant, despite de-Stalinization...
...Among them were F. Vesmanis, former President of the Latvian Parliament and Ambassador to London...
...Their social status has improved only to the extent that since last April they are no longer tied to a particular factory but may change their place of employment on two weeks' notice...
...In Riga, most of the inhabitants today are Russians, with the Latvians second-class citizens...
...Most of the 120,000 Latvian refugees dispersed throughout the world are now in correspondence with their relatives at home...
...The great majority of state officials are also Russians, and one usually has to speak Russian when dealing with the authorities...
...However, half of the Party's 60,000 members and half of its full-time officials are Russians...
...and V. Munters...
Vol. 39 • November 1956 • No. 46
