Evening star., 1947-02-12
Letters to The Star
Latvian Minister Is Not So
Amused at Ivan Ivanovich

=
To the Editor OF The Star:
Eddie Giln,ore's report from Moscow
entitled: Russians Have Liquidated
Pessimism' is indeed too good to be true.
What a boy is good old Ivan Ivanovich!
Over endless cups Of tea. out of the
"sinmering samoyar.' he is dreaming:
OF the future arms limitation, demobili-
zation and even the control of atomic
weapons. Otherwise the 'blueprints to
his happiness the five-year plan, will
not be realized. But to be sure, the
party and government are whipping up
his spirits everywhere" states E. c., and
giving definite promises for the
future"
The Russians, says E. G., generally
are agreeing with what the Russian
government-controlled press and radio
tell them. THE Russian mood further
continues E. c., "in early 1947 is gen.
orally good Among other thins his
government radio has told Ivan that
friendly governments exist on all far
flung Russian frontiers and particularly
in Poland. To that I cannot agree,
because the government in Poland is
much more than friendly-it is sub
servient
According to E. G., the Russian in
general also is happy that the Baltic
countries are back again with Russia"
and, may I add, almost half of their
population in Siberia. Why should the
Russians, such nice people, suffer alone?
Ivan has been told over the radio that
the Baltic States were part of the
Russian Empire before its collapse in
1917, and that they were reabsorbed By
the Soviet Union in 1910 after plebi-
scites, whose results-horribile dictu-
have not been recognized by the United
States. So evidently the capitalists are
plotting something. Why this unfriend-
illness about such trifles?
Cliche on Plebiscitess
What astonishes me is that Mr..
Gilmore has adopted in his article the
notorious Bolshevik cliche about the
alleged Baltic plebiscites. His letter is
most amusing without such distortions;
it reads like the story about the So
called "Potemkin. villages" in which
samoVars also are to be found, but made
of wood.
The truth about the Baltic States
is that in 1917 they seeded from Boil
shevik Russia, but not from czarist
Russia.
After almost two years of struggle
the Baltic States signed peace treaties
with Soviet Russia based on the Bol-
shevik-accepted principle of self-deter-
mination of peoples, even to the point
of total separation from Russia. On
November Is, 1917, the Bolshevik gov
ernment issued special decree to that
effect signed by Lenin and Stain.
In the Baltic peace treaties the Soviet
government denounced the treaties by
which czarist Russia had annexed the
Baltic States after the partitioning of
Poland in company with Prussia and
Australia black-eagle countries. In
1920 Soviet Russia recognized the inde-
pendence of the Baltic States quite
voluntarily and forever. But in 1910, in
company with Hitler, Soviet Russia
again partitioned Poland and forcibly
annexed the Baltic States under dis
guise of decision of puppet parlia-
ments elected under the sponsorship
of the Bolshevik party and the whip of
overwhelming Red army forces (the
vanguard OF the Socialist revolution)
and the Bolshevik secret police acting
as election marshals.
Agreement" on Controls.
The United States Government was
fully informed about this fraud and
on July %, 1910, condemned these
elections as devious processes" and
predatory activities" under which
the political independence and ter
ritorial integrity of the Baltic States
deliberately was annihilated.
According to Mr.. Gilmore, Ivan Iyano-
vicil is waiting for general acceptance of
the status quo created by the Soviet Army
in 1945, and the faith in the United
Nations as the panacea for that is strong
with Ivan (read his bosses, the Boil
sheViks). If the U. S. S. R. could get
agreement" on controls, etc., then
Soviet Russia would have material and
manpower and the consumer have
more >. radios!
DIR. ALFRED BILMANIS,
Iatvian Minister