Atcerieties Baltijas valstis! [Remember the Baltic States!]
- Title:
- Atcerieties Baltijas valstis! [Remember the Baltic States!]
- Alternate Title:
- [Remember the Baltic States!]
- Collection:
- Persuasive Maps: PJ Mode Collection
- Creator:
- J. D. [Deksna, Jana]
- Date:
- 1951
- Posted Date:
- 2024-04-25
- ID Number:
- 2565.01
- File Name:
- PJM_2565_01.jpg
- Style/Period:
- 1940 - 1959
- Subject:
- Communism & Cold War
Pictorial
Satirical - Measurement:
- 19 x 15 on page 26 x 18 (centimeters, height x width)
- Notes:
- This map on the cover of a Latvian emigre publication is entitled "Remember the Balkan States!" It shows a towering, ruthless Soviet soldier with a whip, driving the huddled people of the Balkans into a hellish Soviet Union behind the Iron Curtain. It is a powerful depiction of the repeated and extensive deportations engineered by the Russians during the Cold War in order to subjugate the Baltic.
In 1940, at the start of World War II, the Russian Army seized the then-independent Baltic States and incorporated them into the Soviet Union. They were successfully captured by the Germans in 1941 and retaken by the Russians at the end of the War. The Soviet Union faced serious problems after the war in all three of the Baltic States. Throughout the postwar period, large groups of partisan guerillas, colloquially referred to as the Forest Brothers, operated successfully in parts of the region. Many Balkan farmers not only aided the partisans, but resisted the collectivisation ordered by Stalin.
In response, in addition to local prison camps, the Russians adopted an aggressive and harsh series of deportations. When the Russians captured or identified a partisan, or designated an uncooperative farmer, he and his entire family were deported. It has been estimated that more than 200,000 Balkan people (9 percent of the population) were deported to isolated, remote areas of Siberia and the Eastern Soviet Union. Some 50 percent of the deportees were women, and 20 percent were children. Černoušek 2020. Note that the map shows many of those deported holding the hands of young children.
This map is by a Latvian artist, Jana (Janis/Janin) Deksna, whose initials are shown at the top left. It appeared on the cover of the first issue of "Musu Domas" [Our Thoughts], "Illustrated Monthly for Free Latvians," a journal that contained political articles and caricatures in Latvian, along with commentary on the cultural, artistic, and socio-economic life of Latvians abroad. It was published in Toronto by Alberts Kalnins, an emigre Latvian lawyer and journalist. Only four issues of Musu Domas are known.
Cornell University Library is pleased to present this digital collection of Persuasive Maps, the originals of which have been collected and described by the private collector PJ Mode. The descriptive information in the “Collector’s Notes” has been supplied by Mr. Mode and does not necessarily reflect the views of Cornell University. - Source:
- Kalninš, Alberts, editor. Mūsu Domas [Our Thoughts], vol. I, no. 1 (February 1951). Toronto: self-published, 1951.
- Format:
- Image
- Rights:
- For important information about copyright and use, see http://persuasivemaps.library.cornell.edu/copyright.