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On June 14 Latvia is commemorating the victims of communist terror of 1941.

It is one the first, but unfortunately not the last of soviet crimes against humanity on the territory of Latvia.

Mass Deportation 14 June 1941

Instructions on how to carry out mass deportations were prepared in the autumn of 1939 for the newly-annexed regions of western Ukraine by the head of the Ukrainian SSR NKVD, General Ivan Serov. They were approved in Moscow and later used in the Baltic States as well. As the USSR Commissar for State Security, Serov signed the orders on 21 January 1941.

In the night between 13 and 14 June, about 15,500 Latvian residents—among them 2400 children younger than ten—were arrested without a court order to be deported to distant regions in the Soviet Union. Targeted were mainly families who had members in leading positions in state and local governments, economy and culture.

People to be deported were awakened in the night and given less than one hour to prepare for the journey. They were allowed to take with them only what they could carry, and everything left behind was confiscated by the state. The unfortunate were herded into already prepared cattle or freight railroad cars, in which they spent weeks and months. Many died on the way, especially infants, the sick, and the elderly. Men, totalling some 8250, were separated from their families, arrested, and sent to GULAG hard labour camps. Women and children were taken to so-called “administrative settlements” as family members of “enemies of the people”

No word of these events was mentioned in Latvia’s Soviet-censored newspapers. Loved ones had no way of knowing what had become of those deported. None of the institutions, including the militia, provided information or help. Scattered along the railroad tracks were farewell notes written by the deported to their families—few of them ever reached their intended recipients.

Link - Soviet mass deportations from Latvia