October 10, 1998

Supporting the Baltic people of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania,
and condemning the Nazi-Soviet Pact of Non-Aggression of August 23, 1939.

105th CONGRESS
2d Session
H. CON. RES. 320
CONCURRENT RESOLUTION

Whereas on February 16, 1918, February 24, 1918, and November 18, 1918, Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia, declared, respectively, their independence and became democratic, peace-loving states with membership in the League of Nations and diplomatic representation in the United States;

Whereas on August 23, 1939, emissaries of Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin, Nazi German Foreign Minister Ribbentrop and Soviet Foreign Minister Molotov, signed an agreement known as the Nazi-Soviet Pact of Non-Aggression which contained secret protocols that illegally divided Eastern Europe into spheres of influence with Estonia, Latvia, and part of Poland going to the Soviet Union and Lithuania and Poland going to Nazi Germany;

Whereas the Soviet Army fulfilled the Nazi-Soviet Pact of Non-Aggression by illegally invading Lithuania on June 15, 1940, and invading both Latvia and Estonia on June 17, 1940;

Whereas this illegal and forcible occupation was never recognized by the United States and successive United States Administrations maintained continuous diplomatic relations with these countries throughout the Soviet period, never once considering them to be "Soviet Republics";

Whereas the Baltic peoples valiantly re-established their independence through peaceful means and the United States recognized their independent governments in 1991; and

Whereas Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia have achieved commendable success in the eight years since they re-established independence, including full democracy, significant economic reforms, and civilian control of a new military based on Western standards: Now, therefore, be it

Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring), That, in observance of the 59th anniversary of the Nazi-Soviet Pact of Non-Aggression, the Congress--

1. reaffirms the United States policy of the non-recognition of the occupation by the Soviet Union of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia subsequent to the Nazi-Soviet Pact of Non-Aggression, which for the 50 years after the signing of such Pact was a commendable bipartisan policy that refused to legally recognize the Soviet occupation of these countries;
2. urges Russia, in the spirit of democracy, to renounce the Nazi-Soviet Pact of Non-Aggression and its secret supplemental protocols, as illegal;
3. welcomes and supports the signing of the United States-Baltic Charter by the United States, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia that reiterates the strong historical kinship between the peoples of these countries; and
4. calls on the President and Secretary of State to work to ensure that Russia understands that the Nazi-Soviet Pact of Non-Aggression should be considered illegal and null and void.

Passed the House of Representatives October 10, 1998.