Other events in Baltic States

The victims of the 1949 Communist political repressions and deportations remembered in Latvia on March 25 with a traditional procession and a flower-laying ceremony at the Freedom Monument in the Riga center as well as other commemorative events, informs LETA.

At 10 a.m. on Sunday, a commemorative event was organized at Skirotava train station where the Soviet authorities loaded people, including women and children, into cattle cars to be sent to Siberia.

Latvian President Raimonds Vejonis delivered a speech at the Freedom Monument. Later he hosted a reception for the representatives of the Latvian Association of the Politically Repressed Persons in the presidential residence, the Riga Castle.

A number of commemorative concerts were also organized.

On March 25, 2018, Latvia marks 69 years since the second-stage of Soviet mass deportations took place on March 25, 1949. Historians call the 1949 deportations to Siberia one of the most tragic days in the modern history of Latvia.

From March 25 to March 29, 1949, over 43,000 innocent people were deported to Siberia, including some 10,000 children, as well as young people, mothers with infants, old and sick, even dying people.

Many of the deportees died on their way to the exile destination, others spent long and difficult years in the northern regions of Russia, fighting for their and their children's survival in inhumane conditions. Those, who managed to return back home after years of exile, had strongly suffered morally and physically and had lost their property. Furthermore, the Soviet regime treated them with suspicion, making it difficult to obtain a relevant education and even to choose profession and place of residence.

The March 25, 1949, deportations concerned around 2.28 percent of all residents of Latvia. Altogether, 9,000 families were included in the list of deportees, which was drawn up on March 17, 1949.