STOCKHOLM REPORT ANTI-SOVIET ACTIVITY IN WESTERN USSR

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80-00809A000600350528-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 22, 2011
• Sequence Number: 528
• Publication Date: October 19, 1950
• Content Type: REPORT

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CLASSIFICATION SECRETSECAET
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
INFORMATION FROM
FOREIGN DOCUMENTS OR RADIO BROADCASTS
COUNTRY USSR
SUBJECT Political - Disaffection, Russianization of
Baltic area
HOW
PUBLISHED Daily, weekly newspapers
WHERE
PUBLISHED Stockholm; Moscow; Riga; Tallin; Villnyus
DATE
PUBLISHED 10 Feb - 4 Aug 50
LANGUAGE Swedish; Latvian; Russian
A. S. C.. II AND SE. AS AMENDED. ITS TRANSMISSION OR THE REVELATION
OE ITS CONTENTS IN ANY MANNER TO AN UNAUTHORIZED PERSON IS PRO-
HISITED MY LAW. REPRODUCTION Of THIS SO AM IS PROHISI TED.
REPORT
CD NO.
DATE OF
DATE D!ST. /y Oct 1950
NO. OF PAGES 4
SUPPLEMENT TO
REPORT NO.
Reports of partisan and guerrilla activities and disaffection in
the USSR.' and particularly in the Baltic areas, continue to appear
regularly in anti-Soviet newspapers in Sweden. Information and ru-
mors a:?e usually credited either to refugees or members of opposition
movements who have just come from the USSR, At the same time, these
papers report that complete Russianization of the areas is being car-
ried out at present.
The Soviet press provides no direct evidence of partisan activi-
ties, but does give support to outside claims of disaffection and
Russianization of the Baltic areas.
For instance, none of the approximately 100 court cases described
in the Soviet press during the past year gave any
evidence of trials and sentencing of traitors or defectors. There
have been instances of party and government officials being relieved
of their posts on charges of bourgeois nationalism, particularly in
Western USSR. One exception to the lack of actual information on
disaffection was a reference in Sovetskaya Estoniya, 25 April 1950,
to the foiling of a plan to retain bourgeois nationalist personnel at
Tartu State University with the aim of ultimately restoring capital-
ism. This plan was carried out at the university in i940 - 1941 and
continued after the German occupation was brought to an end in 1944.
It is assumedRthat the Estonian purges in spring 1950 resulted in the
tive in Lithuania; Sovetskaya Litva, 23 April 1950, reported, for ex-
ample, that the Party organization of the Ministry of Education,
Lithuanian SSR, had relaxed its vigilance and allowed many foreign,
adventurous elements to penetrate official positions in the ministry.
A full-scale purge took place in early 1950 in the Karelo-Finnish SSR
to eliminate anti-Soviet and corrupt elements (Leninskoye Znamya,
15 February - 5 March 1950),
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Excerpts below from several anti-Soviet Stockholm newspapers are
much more specific a: to the type of bourgeois-nationalist activities
going on in the area, namely, partisan activities and the formation
of a liberation movement. It is impossible to check the accuracy of
these reports through overt sources, because of the above-mentioned
lack of specific information in the Soviet press. Rumors and reports
of this type are apt to be exaggerated in the many retellings before
they are finally published. There was no mention in the Soviet press,
for instance, of any recent destruction or rebuilding of the Riga-
Pskov railroad line. Reports of anti-Soviet feeling in the Baltic
area are also given below.
ANTI-SOVIET LITHUANIANS FORM LIBERATION COMMITTEE -- Morgon Tidangen, 22 Jun 50
Vatican sources report that all the non-Communist parties in Lithuania
have merged and formed a liberation committee. One-fifth of the population,
520,000 people, were reported to have been deported to Siberia during the 6
years of Soviet occupation.
This information is said to come from two Lithuanian refugees who came
to Rome, bringing with them many documents and other material showing how
severe the religious and political situation is for the Baltic peoples. For-
tifications are being built along the Lithuanian border, and a 10-kilometer
"death zone" has been established. The two refugees are the only survivors
of a group of 18, the other 16 of which were shot trying to cross the border.
PARTISANS ACTIVE IN BALTIC AREA -- Morgon Tidningen, 30 Jul 50
According to a report from Riga to an Estonian weekly periodical in
Stockholm, Estonian, Latvian, and Lithuanian partisans, the so-called
"Brothers of the Forest," recently carried out an attack on the Riga-Pskov
railroad line.
It is reported further that the Baltic partisans recently made a surprise
attack on an MVD "concentration point."
From what Morgon Tidningen has learned, the Soviet Army, even after 6
years, has not succeeded in clearing the Baltic forests of nationalist parti-
sans. Between 1944 and 1946, partisan activity was particularly strong, but
has become increasingly weaker of late. Now and then, however, reports are
heard of partisan activity, attacks on secret police camps, etc.
Partisan activity has been handicapped considerably in that the private
farms have been replaced by kolkhozes. Previously, private farmers sympa-
thetic to the partisans were able to provide them with food. That happens
rather seldom now, as the farmers, now kolkhoz workers, are considerably
worse off now so far as food for themselves and their families is concerned.
However, in spring 1949, the partisan ranks were reinforced considerably.
Many young men succeeded in evading deportation and chose to join the parti-
san groups in the forests.
Latvju Vards, 2 Mar 50
Der Ta esspiegel, a German newspaper, reports that two Latvian parti-
sans arrived in West Berlin in the last few days. Considering the accuracy
in the spelling of place names and the description of the men themselves, it
appears that this is not just one of the usual sensational reports published
in the German press.
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The partisans in Latvia are equipped with arms of the former German Kurzemes
(Kurland) Army, Special MVD units for combating the partisans are located in
Riga, Daugavpils, and several small cities of Latvia. The partisans recently at-
tacked a fairly large MVD camp in Lilaste. All "Chekists" (secret police members)
were killed and their quarters burned down. The attacking partisans were under
the command of a colonel of the former Latvian Army.
Together with the Estonians, the Latvian partisans operated successfully on
the Pliskava (Pskov) railroad line before Christmas of last year. There is said
to be very strict discipline among the partisans and they are equipped not only
with rifles, machine guns, and hand grenades, but also heavier types of guns,
antitank guns, and radio transmitters.
Svenska Dagbladet, 11 Jun 50
The conference of the Estonian National Council held in Stockholm on
11 June reported that at present fo-eieg patrols along the Estonian border pre-
vent any large-scale attempts to flee the country. Estonian partisans are still
active in the forests in the East. To cut these partisan bands into smaller
units and thus destroy 'them more easily, the Russians have established an extra
patrol border across Estonia running from east to west. Many patrol vessels
have been equipped with radar,
LATVIANS SHOW ANTI-SOVIET FEELING -- Latvju Vards, 27 Jul 50
It is known that during recent weeks many people in Latvia, both young and
old, who have been following the Korean conflict and hoping for new international
developments which would bring freedom to the Baltic countries, have been unable
to restrain themselves and have expressed their opinions publicly, both in
places of employment and in boys" camps and schools. A number of patriotic Lat-
vians have also tried to support the partisans, who have been experiencing mate-
rial difficulties since the organization of kolkhozes. As a result of all this,
there have been new arrests and deportations, as well as violent encounters with
partisans even in the open. In many cases, Russians have been joining the ranks
of the partisans.
In addition to evidence in the Soviet press of Great Russian chau-
vinism, in general, and the at least partial staffing with Russians of
party and government organizations in the non-Russian republics of the
USSR, the territorial-administrative setups in both Latvia and Lithu-
ania have recently undergone radical changes (Vedomosti Verkhovnogo
Soveta SSSR, 10 Feb 50, and Sovetskaya Litva, 5 Jul 50 . The uyezds
and volost's, which were formerly typical of the Western USSR, were
reorganized into oblasts and rayons to conform with the territorial-
administrative organization of the rest of the country. Estonia is
now the only remaining republic of the USSR to retain uyezds and vol-
ost's, and it is likely that these also will soon be converted. Rus-
sian is taught in all primary schools in the area, and there is evi-
dence of the increasing importance of Russian language and culture in
place of national (Sovetskaya Estoniya, 10 May 50; Sovetskaya Latviya,
14 May 50).
The following are but a few of the reports of Russianization of the
Baltic area which have appeared recently in anti-Soviet Stockholm news-
papers.
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It was reported at the conference of the Estonian National Council, held
in Stockholm on 11 June, that a fairly accurate list of the new ministers in
Estonia has been compiled since the latest purges there. Practically all the
names on it are Russian. The same is also true of the leadership of the Es-
tonian Communist Party, which now has only three Estonian members, the rest
being Russian.
It is estimated that at present only 700,000-800,000 Estonians remain of
the original population of 1,200,000. Of the 400,000-500,000 missing; 60,000
have fled abroad. The rest have been deported by the Russians.
In early 1950, Latvia was atively, like Russian, into
oblasts, rayons, and kolkhoze Lithuania suffered the same
fate in July, being divided into four oblasts A few months ago, the Pechora
district and the eastern part of the city of Narva were detached from Estonia
and incorporated into the RSFSR.
Moscow has now decided to rename the streets in the Baltic cities, as
the Nazis did in 1941 ?- 1944, The Soviets began with Riga, where on 18 July
about 200 streets and squares were "sovietized," Freedom Street in Riga,
which the Nazis called Adolf Hitler Street, has now been named Lenin Street by
the Russians. Further examples are Suvorov Street'(previously Kr, Barona),
Karl Marx Street (Gertrud), Fr. Engels Street (Saulen), Sevastopol' Street
(Jesuskirchen), Belinskiy Street (Bergen), Michurin Street (Tomson), etc.
Even Aspasia Boulevard, which during the "capitalist" period in Latvia was
named after the Latvian revolutionary authoress Aspasia, the sister-in-law of
the Latvian Peters Stutjka, the Soviet Commissar of Justice who died in Mos-
cow, has been renamed Soviet Boulevard,
Furthermore, the Baltic names of the kolkhozes in the Baltic countries
are being changed to Russian ones,
Svenska Dagbladet, 4 Aug 50
Vatican City, 3 August -- The Vatican reports that Catholics in Lithu-
ania, every time they wish to attend church services, are now obliged to pro-
cure a ticket.costing over 8 kronor bout 1,55 dollar] from the authorities.
Church services may be held only during the morning hours, churches may not
be closer than 7 kilometers to each other, collections for the restoration of
the churches are forbidden, and special permission is required to sing hymns
and cantatas.
50X1-HUM
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