A joint resolution to designate June 14, 1984, as "Baltic Freedom Day".
PL 98-318 (S.J.Res.296), enacted 06/15/1984

98 STAT. 244 
PUBLIC LAW 98-318—JUNE 15, 1984 
Public Law 98-318 
98th Congress 
Joint Resolution 
June 15, 1984 
TQ designate June 14,1984, as "Baltic Freedom Day", f 
[S.J. Res. 296] 
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 distinctively 
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 political 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 national self-determination, human 
rights, and religious freedom, and opposed to oppression and 
imperialism; 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, including those in 
Africa and Asia, to determine their fates and 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 
PUBLIC LAW 98-318—JUNE 15, 1984 
98 STAT. 245 
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 
1984, the anniversary of the mass deportation of Baltic peoples from 
their homelands in 1941, be designated "Baltic Freedom Day" as a 
S3nnbol of the solidarity of the American people with the aspirations 
of the enslaved 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 15, 1984. 
,, 
'•If 
^fiifia 
1 •' 
' 
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY—S.J. Res. 296: 
CONGRESSIONAL RECORD, Vol. 130 (1984): 
June 8, considered and passed Senate. 
June 11, considered and passed House.