A joint resolution designating "Baltic Freedom Day".
PL 97-196 (S.J.Res.201), enacted 06/18/1982

PUBLIC LAW 97-196—JUNE 18, 1982 
96 STAT. 117 
Public Law 97-196 
97th Congress 
Joint Resolution 
Designatmg "Baltic Freedom Day". 
Whereas the people of the Baltic Republics of Lithuania, Latvia, and 
Estonia have cherished the principles of religious and political 
freedom and independence; and 
Whereas the Baltic Republics have existed as independent, sover-
eign nations, belonging to and fully recognized by the League of 
Nations; and 
Whereas the people of the Baltic Republics have individual and 
separate cultures, national traditions and languages, distinctly 
foreign to those of Russia; and 
Whereas the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (U.S.S.R.) in 1940 
did illegally seize and occupy the Baltic Republics and by force 
incorporate them against their national will and contrary to their 
desire for independence and sovereignty into the U.S.S.R.; and 
Whereas the U.S.S.R. since 1940 has systematically removed native 
Baltic peoples from their homelands by deporting them to Siberia 
and caused great masses of Russians to relocate in the Republics, 
thus threatening the Baltic cultures with extinction; and 
Whereas the U.S.S.R. has imposed upon the captive people of the 
Baltic Republics an oppressive poUtical system which has 
destroyed every vestige of democracy, civil liberties, and religious 
freedom; and 
Whereas the people of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia find them-
selves today subjugated by the U.S.S.R., locked into a union they 
deplore, denied basic human rights, and persecuted for daring to 
protest; and 
Whereas the United States stands as a champion of liberty, dedi-
cated to the principles of democracy, human rights, and religious 
freedom, and opposed to oppression; and 
Whereas the United States, as a member of the United Nations, has 
repeatedly voted with a majority of that international body to 
uphold the right of other countries of the world to determine their 
fates £ind be free of foreign domination; and 
Whereas the U.S.S.R. has steadfastly refused to return to the people 
of the Baltic States the right to exist as independent republics 
separate and apart from the U.S.S.R. or permit a return of 
personal, political, and religious freedoms: Now, therefore, be it 
Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United 
States of America in Congress assembled, That the Congress of the 
United States recognizes the continuing desire and the right of the 
people of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia for freedom and independ-
ence from the domination of the U.S.S.R. and deplores the refusal of 
the U.S.S.R. to recognize the sovereignty of the Baltic Republics and 
to yield to their rightful demands for independence from foreign 
domination and oppression and that the fourteenth day of June 
1982, the anniversary of the mass deportation of Baltic peoples from 
their homelands in 1941, be designated "Baltic Freedom Day" as a 
June 18, 1982 
[S.J. Res. 201] 
Baltic Freedom 
Day. 
96 STAT. 118 
PUBLIC LAW 97-196—JUNE 18, 1982 
symbol of the solidarity of the American people with the aspirations 
of the captive Baltic people and that the President of the United 
States be authorized and requested to issue a proclamation for the 
observance of Baltic Freedom Day with appropriate ceremonies and 
activities. 
Approved June 18, 1982. 
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY—S.J. Res. 201: 
CONGRESSIONAL RECORD, Vol. 128 (1982): 
June 9, considered and passed Senate. 
June 14, considered and passed House.