Guilty of this crime is the communist regime. Its executors were the members of state security apparatus and their supporters.
 Many died on the way, especially infants, the sick, and the elderly.  Men, totalling some 8250, were separated from their families, arrested, and sent to GULAG hard labour camps.  Women and children were taken to so-called "administrative settlements" as family members of "enemies of the people".
No word of these events was mentioned in Latvia's Soviet-censored newspapers.
Only a small part of those deported in 1941 later returned to Latvia.