American-Lithuanian Ruta Sepetys is a very successful book author, and also a writer for VilNews. Her new book, Between Shades of Gray, about a Lithuanian family deported to Siberia in 1941 is now becoming a world bestseller. The book is being published in over twenty countries around the world, including Lithuania. For more information please visit: www.betweenshadesofgray.com

Here is Ruta’s own story, written exclusively for VilNews:

”The crimes of Hitler and the Nazi’s are well known, but many are unaware that Joseph Stalin killed over twenty million people during his reign of terror. Yet amongst the older generation in Lithuania, Stalin’s words still hang like a cold shadow – “Death is the solution to all problems,” said Stalin. “No man–no problem.”

In 1939, the Soviet Union occupied the Baltic States of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia. Shortly thereafter, the Kremlin drafted lists of people considered anti‐Soviet who would be murdered, sent to prison, or deported into slavery in Siberia. Doctors, lawyers, teachers, military servicemen, business owners, musicians, artists, and even librarians were all considered anti‐Soviet and were added to the growing list of wholesale extermination. The first deportations took place on June 14, 1941. But outside of the Baltics, few knew what was occurring and Stalin’s rampage remained shrouded in silence.”

To read more, go to  Section 10 – HISTORICAL LITHUANIA