Statement
by the Latvian Underground Central Council

In June 1940 Latvia was occupied by the armed forces of the U.S.S.R. This act implied a violation of the treaties which the U.S.S.R. had concluded with the Latvian Republic in 1920, 1932, 1933 and 1939. In these treaties the U.S.S.R. had renounced voluntarily and for ever all rights of sovereignty over the Latvian people and territory, pledged itself not to resort to aggression against the Latvian Republic and not to interfere in its internal affairs, and solemnly promised to submit all eventual disputes to arbitration. Completely disregarding these promises, in June 1940, the government of the U.S.S.R. brutally interfered in Latvia's internal affairs by officially demanding a reorganization of the Latvian government and by occupying the entire territory of the Latvian Republic.

A new Latvian government, headed by Mr. Kirchensteins, was set up, in violation of the Latvian Constitution, by Mr. Vishinsky, the representative of the government of the U.S.S.R. The new Cabinet included persons who were not Latvian citizens, Deputy Ministers Valeskains and Blaus. The President of the Republic was replaced by Mr. Kirchensteins, the President of the Cabinet, who had been appointed to his position by the occupying power. The Latvian Constitution provides that the Deputy of the President of the Republic is the President of the Saeima, Parliament, and not the President of the Cabinet. Consequently, the aforesaid substitution was an illegal act. Both the President of the Republic and the Cabinet of Ministers were appointed by the occupying power; consequently they were created illegally, and hence had no right whatever to act as the supreme organs of the Latvian Republic.

The Parliamentary elections on July 14th and 15th, 1940, were illegal because they were carried out according to the election law which the Kirchensteins government passed, thereby violating the Constitution of the Latvian Republic. In addition, only one single list of candidates, selected by the occupying power, was admitted, all other lists being arbitrarily rejected; and thus the voters were deprived of the opportunity of voting according to their opinions. Moreover, the Kirchensteins Cabinet had declared that it would defend the independence of Latvia. The voters were never told that the new Saeima was going to adopt a decision in the question of adhesion to the Soviet Union. They have in no way given a mandate to vote for the extinction of the independence of the Latvian Republic. The voters were compelled to march from their respective places of employment in serried ranks to the ballot boxes. It was said that reprisals would be taken against persons who should not have in their passports the stamp attesting that they had participated in the poll. The vote was, in fact, open, a circumstance which had a terrorizing effect on the voters. The results of balloting were falsified in many constituencies by giving figures which were several times higher than the number of votes, actually cast in the ballot boxes. Finally, the elections were carried out under pressure brought to bear upon the voters by a foreign military occupation, thus depriving there of any liberty of action. On the poll-day all major points were occupied by Soviet troops. Everywhere the voters met with the sight of Soviet tanks and machine-guns.

The Saeima which was elected on July 14th and 15th, 1940 is unconstitutional and illegal. It had no right or mandate to make decisions in the name of the sovereign Latvian people. Moreover, the decision which this body of usurpers took on July 20th, 1940 with regard to Latvia's adhesion to the Soviet Union is legally ineffective also on the ground that the Latvian Constitution provides that a decision concerning any change in the status of Latvia as an independent sovereign republic must be decided by a referendum to the people. Such a decision made by the Saeima and referred to the plebiscite must have the approving vote of at least 50 per cent of Latvian citizens having the right of suffrage. The unconstitutional Saeima of 1940 did not refer its aforesaid decision to the vote of the people. The decision concerning Latvia's adhesion to the Soviet Union has, therefore, not become valid.

Latvia's incorporation in the U.S.S.R. is a flagrant breach of the provisions of international law. Latvia's independence is acknowledged de jure by all countries of the world and Latvia is a member of the League of Nations. The action taken by the U.S.S.R. against the Latvian Republic involves a brutal violation of the Covenant of the League of Nations and the Kellogg Pact. In the Atlantic Charter the leading powers have said that all nations, great and small, shall have the right to decide for themselves how they want to live and that territorial changes shall not take place without their freely expressed consent.

According to international law the Latvian Republic has not lost its sovereignty nor the U.S.S.R. acquired this sovereignty by the fact of the occupation of Latvia by the U.S.S.R. No country has recognized de jure Latvia’s incorporation in the U.S.S.R., except Germany. Latvia was occupied by armed forces and the occupying power could not have other rights than those stipulated in the Hague Convention of 1907.

In June, 1941 the U.S.S.R. occupation was ousted by a German invasion of Latvia, as a consequence of which German occupation authorities were established in Latvia. According to international law the military occupation of Latvia has not given Germany any rights, of sovereignty over the Latvian people and territory.

The so-called “Local Self-Administration” set up by the German occupying power and headed by General Dankers and Professor Primanis, is an organ of the German occupying power. It has no right to speak in the name of the Latvian people. It is as unconstitutional and illegal a body as the Kirchensteins government which was set up by the Russian occupying power.

During the German occupation Latvian citizens have been compulsorily mobilized for service in the German Army or the German Labour Service and for work in German war industries, or deported beyond the Latvian frontiers. These measures were decreed by the German occupying power and they all constitute a brutal violation of the provisions of international law, and particularly of the Hague Convention of 1907. They have been taken against the will of the Latvian people and they are merely acts of German arbitrariness.

In burning indignation the Latvian people denounce the reprisals which the German occupying power is taking in Latvia. 5,000 Latvian citizens are languishing in concentration camps and prisons to which they have been sent without court or trial. German police officials apply torture as a method of examination. About 10,000 Latvians have been shot during the two dire years of German occupation and there is no end yet to the executions. Wholesale murders of Latvian citizens of Jewish race have also taken place. In September 1943 the German occupation authorities evicted more than 10,000 farmers in the Dundaga region in Northern Kurzeme. The persons concerned were robbed of all they had: land, houses and movable property. In the same month the Germans deported to Germany several thousands of people from Latgale, as politically unreliable. The Germans did not pay any attention to family ties—children were separated from their parents and wives from their husbands.

The Latvian people unanimously reject German intentions to incorporate Latvia in Germany and fight against the German oppressors. Our people firmly and steadfastly stand for the independent and democratic Latvian Republic which existed for 22 years, and legally has not ceased to exist either under the Russian or German occupation.

The Latvian people are firmly convinced that this war will be won by the United Nations under the leadership of the U. S. A. and Great Britain. It is their hope that the U. S. A. and Great Britain will apply also to Latvia the high principles of the Atlantic Charter which the Latvian people unreservedly support.

Riga, February 1944.

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