THE PRISON OF PEOPLES

To the Editors of the Crimson:

The tragic fate of the Lithuanian seaman, Simas Kudirka, the persecution of the Jews in the Soviet Union, and the expulsion of Congressman James H. Schuer from the Soviet Union have shown thinking persons the real nature of Communism.

Nevertheless, our self-styled liberals have studiously avoided condemning the genocide committed by the Russian authorities in Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, the Ukraine, Georgia, Armenia and in other parts of the Soviet Union--the prison of non-Russian peoples. Those "liberals" are so indifferent about the totalitarian minority rule in Soviet Russia and the Russian puppet states in Eastern Europe that they speak of reduction of tensions in Eastern Europe without demanding that the causes of such tensions--colonialism, genocide and totalitarianism--should be removed.

Our leftist TV networks have never mentioned that in 1966 the Congress passed a resolution to urge the President of the United States to bring the force of world opinion at the UN on behalf of the restoration of the independence of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. This resolution also condemns the genocide committed by Soviet Russia in the Baltic States as follows:

The government of the Soviet Union, through a program of deportations and resettlement of peoples, continues in its efforts to change the ethnic character of the population in the Baltic States.

This resolution was also passed by the Senate after the senators received a flood of letters which exceeded the number of letters concerning all issues on foreign policy but the war in Vietnam. Therefore, self-respecting citizens of the Eastern European descent together with other concerned citizens should urge the Congress to establish Captive Nations' committees in both houses of the Congress to expose the Russian colonialism and the crimes against humanity committed by the Communists in Eastern Europe. Dr. Alexander V. Berkis   Professor of History   Longwood College