LETTONIE - RUSSIE, Traités et documents de base

Tallin May 14, 1989 : Resolution on Stalinist Crimes

Resolution on Stalinist Crimes

In the 1920s an anti-popular totalitarian regime and merciless repressive policies were established in the USSR and a system of state terrorism was set up, the aftermath of which manifest themselves up to the present day.

After being annexed in the summer of 1940, the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania were seized by the totalitarian regime which launched a campaign of anti-humanist acts. The preplanned genocide of the peoples of the Baltic countries culminated in mass deportations and executions in these republics.

A great number of people were given long prison sentences and submitted to enormous suffering. The system of state terrorism directed against the local population affected hundreds of thousands of people representing all social groups, including old people and children.

The repressive policies of the USSR became the main reason of mass emigration from the Baltic countries which led to grave consequences for the economic, socio-cultural and demographic development of the peoples of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

Humanism and democracy are inconceivable without the legal assessment of Stalinist crimes and without calling to account those who are responsible for the crimes.

In the name of justice, the participants of the Baltic Assembly demand:

1. That the Supreme Soviet of the USSR recognise the Stalinist policies and system of state terrorism as genocide against the peoples of the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania and as crime against humanity.

2. That compensations and pensions to the victims of repressions be paid from the state budget of the USSR, in view of the fact that the reprisals were carried out under orders from Union bodies and the repressed worked beyond the borders of their republics.

3. That the initiators of the genocide as well as its immediate perpetrators be made public; that bodies immediately guilty of the organisation of the genocide, such as OGPU, GPU, NKVD and others, be declared criminal; that, relying on the obligation of the USSR to international law, an independent legal mechanism similar to the Nuremberg Tribunal be instituted to examine crimes against humanity.

Tallinn, May l4th, 1989

On behalf of the Council of Representatives of the Popular Front of Estonia
On behalf of the Duma of the Popular Front of Latvia
On behalf of the Seimas of the Lithuanian Reform Movement Sajudis

Source:
Baltic Assembly, Tallin, May 13-14, 1989, Popular Front of Estonia, Valgus Publishers 1989