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Article 1 of 6

Situation plan created by and property of Castle Research Center Lithuanian Castles. All rights reserved

In 1944, the Soviet Union drove the army of Nazi Germany from the territory of Lithuania and occupied the country for a second time. Repressions against the citizens of our country began without delay. Members of the anti-Soviet armed resistance and underground anti-Soviet organisations, their supporters, farmers, teachers, intelligentsia; politicians, public servants, soldiers, and other officials of former independent Lithuania; and members of the Catholic clergy were arrested, imprisoned, exiled, sentenced to death, and subsequently executed. The convicts were judged by Military Tribunals of internal troops and an Extraordinary Meeting with the State Security Minister of the USSR. Pursuant to the 1926 Criminal Code Article 58 of RSFSR, they imposed penalties which included custody or the death sentence (by shooting). Indictments were based on torture or documents obtained illegally. Between 1944 and 1953, the Extraordinary Meeting convicted at least 11,932 people and the Military Tribunals – at least 22,080.

CONSEQUENCES OF THE TOTALITARIAN REGIME
IN LITHUANIA 1940–1953.

In 1939, the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany signed a secret agreement (the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact) for the division of Central and Eastern Europe. Lithuania fell under the sphere of influence of the Soviet Union, as a result, on 15 June 1940 Lithuania was occupied and subsequently annexed by the USSR. In order to carry out the sovietisation of the country, to break and destroy it, physical and spiritual destruction of the nation took place. The scheme was prepared by the top Communist Party officials of the Soviet Union and implemented by the repressive NKVD–MVD and NKGB–MGB structures and subordinate courts – Military Tribunals of the USSR NKVD troops and the non-judicial authority, the Extraordinary Meeting of the People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs of the USSR. These institutions carried out the instructions of Communist Party officials by surveilling, arresting, investigating, imprisoning, and killing “traitors of the motherland”. During the first Soviet occupation in 1940, 23,000 Lithuanian citizens were arrested, executed, or exiled.

From the end of June 1941, when the country was occupied by the military forces of Nazi Germany until 1944, nearly 30,000 Lithuanian citizens were arrested and deported to concentration camps, another 60,000 were taken for forced labour in Germany, and 240,000 were killed, approximately 200,000 of them Jews.

In 1944, the Soviet Union drove the army of Nazi Germany from the territory of Lithuania and occupied the country for a second time. Repressions against the citizens of our country began without delay. Members of the anti-Soviet armed resistance and underground anti-Soviet organisations, their supporters, farmers, teachers, intelligentsia; politicians, public servants, soldiers, and other officials of former independent Lithuania; and members of the Catholic clergy were arrested, imprisoned, exiled, sentenced to death, and subsequently executed. The convicts were judged by Military Tribunals of internal troops and an Extraordinary Meeting with the State Security Minister of the USSR. Pursuant to the 1926 Criminal Code Article 58 of RSFSR, they imposed penalties which included custody or the death sentence (by shooting). Indictments were based on torture or documents obtained illegally. Between 1944 and 1953, the Extraordinary Meeting convicted at least 11,932 people and the Military Tribunals – at least 22,080.

Between 1944 and 1953, around 186,000 people were arrested and imprisoned, of which 143,000 were imprisoned in GULAG camps, 118,000 – exiled, and nearly 21,000 members of the armed anti-Soviet resistance and their supporters perished.

Soviet Gulag camps

Editors note - The Gulag (Russian: ГУЛаг, tran. GULag) was the government agency that administered the main Soviet forced labor camp systems. GULag is the acronym for Chief Administration of Corrective Labor Camps and Colonies (Russian: Гла́вное управле́ние исправи́тельно-трудовы́х лагере́й и коло́ний, tran. Glavnoye upravlyeniye ispravityel'no-trudovih lagyeryey i koloniy) of the NKVD. It was officially created on April 25, 1930 and dissolved on January 13, 1960.

Prior to the collapse of the Soviet Union, the procedure for carrying out the most severe sentence – death by shooting – as well as the place of burial were classified as a state secret. In 1990, after the re-establishment of independence in Lithuania, it became known an appropriate burial place for the bodies of the executed convicts. General-Lieutenant Ivan Tkachenko, the person designated by the NKVD–NKGB for the Lithuanian SSR, had in 1944 selected the grounds of the former Tuskulėnai Manor as the site that complied with all the security requirements of the time. In this 1.3 ha territory near the city centre surrounded by a high brick and timber fence it was easy to safely hide the burial sites of the bodies. The MGB documents from 1952 specify that Tuskulėnai was selected “due to the impossibility of driving outside the city limits at night as the situation in the Lithuanian SSR was extremely tense”. There was still armed anti-Soviet resistance and therefore there was fear of clashes with freedom fighters while moving the corpses for burial. Another important circumstance was the experience of 1941 when, at the outset of the war between Germany and the USSR, retreating security agents did not have time and did not manage to conceal the execution sites. In summer and autumn 1941, graves of people executed in the NKVD internal prison were identified in Kaunas Petrašiūnai Cemetery.

This is the translation of a certificate dated 23 June 1952 by Lieutenant-Colonel Pavel Grishin, head of the Lithuanian SSR MGB Division, about the reasons why the grounds of the former Tuskulėnai Manor were selected in 1944 for burying the bodies of people executed in the Lithuanian SSR NKGB–MGB internal prison between 1944 and 1947. The place name Tuskulėnai is not mentioned in the certificate.

This is the translation of a letter dated 19 February 1952 from Lieutenant-Colonel Pavel Grishin, head of the Lithuanian SSR MGB Division, to Major-General Arkady Gertsovsky, head of the USSR MGB Division A, regarding the opportunity to destroy the remains of the bodies on the grounds of Tuskulėnai Manor using chemical products.

Photo property of the Lithuanian Special Archives. All rights reserved.

Lieutenant-Colonel Pavel Grishin

People executed in the NKGB–MGB internal prison and participants of the anti-Soviet underground movement tortured or killed during NKVD counterinsurgency operations in Vilnius and its environs, were buried within the grounds of Tuskulėnai until the late spring of 1947 when the death penalty was abolished in the USSR. At the beginning of 1950, the Presidium of the Supreme Council of the USSR passed the decree “On the employment of the death penalty for traitors of the motherland, spies, and saboteurs-subversives”, as a result of which the death penalty, pursuant to the 1926 Criminal Code Article 58 of RSFSR, was re-instated and the execution resumed. Most were carried out in the same NKGB–MGB internal prison as before and continued until 1961. Executions continued after 1961 but they were not carried out pursuant to the 1926 Criminal Code Article 58 of RSFSR. You would need to look at each and every individual execution that took place after 1961 to determine on what basis they were carried out.

Today, the burial sites of those executed after the re-instatement of the death penalty,
still remain a secret.

Tuskulėnai is the only known location where the bodies of those executed in Vilnius NKGB–MGB internal prison were buried, and therefore it has become one of the symbols commemorating the victims of the Soviet terror.

MGB – rus. МГБ, Министерство государственной безопасности – Lith. Valstybės saugumo ministerija – Ministry of State Security [of the USSR]

MVD – rus. МВД, Министерство внутренних дел – Lith. Vidaus reikalų ministerija – Ministry of Internal Affairs [of the USSR]

NKGB – rus. НКГБ, Народный Комиссариат Государственной Безопасности – Lith. Valstybės saugumo liaudies komisariatas – People’s Commissariat for Internal Affairs [of the USSR]

NKVD – rus. НКВД, Народный комиссариат внутренних дел – Lith. Vidaus reikalų liaudies komisariatas – People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs [of the USSR]

Lithuanian SSR – Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic

RSFSR – the Russian Soviet Federal Socialist Republic

USSR – Union of Soviet Socialist Republics

Bronius Eiva was a Lithuanian partisan leader. He was arrested 8 September 1944. He is one of the many that between 28 September 1944 and 16 April 1947 that were executed in the NKGB–MGB internal prison in Vilnius and then buried in the mass graves at Tuskulėnai.

This is a translation of excerpts from the letter of farewell Bronius Eiva wrote to his wife, dated September 1944, written from the prison of Ukmergės People’s Commissariat for Internal Affairs, where severely wounded, he was being investigated after his arrest on 8 September 1944.

“This is my last letter. I shall die and you shall live. Please raise our precious daughter Rūtelė-Regina, and when she grows up please tell her I loved her…I lay wounded in the right leg. But it is not the pain that bothers me most, it is the sorrow for you…Please find out when I was shot or hanged and where they bury me. Dig me up and take me to Šeta cemetery.”

TUSKULĖNAI MASS GRAVES

Starting in autumn 1944, death penalties passed by Military Tribunals of the USSR and the Extraordinary Meeting were carried out in the NKGB–MGB internal prison in Vilnius (now – Gedimino pr. 40 / Aukų g. 2A). Between 28 September 1944 and 16 April 1947, the death penalty was carried out on 767 people; 613 of them were sentenced under Articles 58(I)(a) and 58(I)(b) ‘For treason’ of the 1926 Criminal Code of the RSFSR (Статья 58 Уголовного Кодекса РСФСР/вариант 1926 года). Under these articles, people were charged for actions which sabotage the military power of the USSR, its independence as a country, and sanctity of its territory.

In 1944, the death penalty was carried out on 45 convicts

In 1945 – on 479 convicts

In 1946 – on 185 convicts

In 1947 – on 58 convicts.

The largest number of executions, 45 people, was carried out on 21 March 1945. After the executions, the bodies were secretly buried within the grounds of Tuskulėnai Manor.

The convicts included;

Participants of the anti-Soviet movement

Participants of the uprising of 23 June 1941

Fighters of the Polish Armia Krajowa

People charged with war crimes

People who served in civil or military structures of Nazi Germany

Deserters from the Red Army

People charged with criminal offences

The death penalty was carried out on people of fifteen different nationalities, the majority being Lithuanians and included among others Russians, Poles, Germans, Belarusians, Latvians, Ukrainians, Jews, etc.

The territory of the Tuskulėnai Manor served as a secret mass grave until 26 May 1947 when, following the order of the Presidium of the Supreme Council of the USSR, the death penalty was abolished and replaced with 25 years imprisonment at a penitentiary establishment (work camps). On 12 January 1950, the Presidium of the Supreme Council of the USSR passed a decree re-instating the death penalty.

Between October 1950 and July 1952, 182 people sentenced to death were executed at Vilnius NKGB–MGB internal prison. Their place of burial is still not known.

During the time of the Soviet occupation, the territory of the former Tuskulėnai Manor was vigilantly watched over by NKGB–MGB–KGB officials. Until the early fifties, the territory was fenced and guarded. In 1990, after the re-establishment of independence in Lithuania, the archives became accessible and witnesses could tell their stories, as a result of which the secret of this location was revealed. At the beginning of 1994, the State Security Department of the Republic of Lithuania identified a mass grave within the grounds of Tuskulėnai Manor of people sentenced to death by Soviet repressive structures. An archaeological investigation was conducted and bodies were exhumed. Forty-five graves with 724 bodies were found.

Forensic medicine experts identified that 666 victims had gunshot wounds. 506 of them were killed with one shot to the head, 111 – two shots, 31 – three shots, 13 – four shots, 4 – five shots and 1 – six shots

The skulls of 239 victims had signs of gunshot wounds and other forms of physical violence. 122 of these had marks inflicted by a blunt instrument, 112 – had signs of cuts and stabbing and 5 – had signs of deep cuts

In 2004, after the remains of the bodies exhumed were transferred to the chapel-columbarium, the place was officially opened to public on All Soul’s Day, November 2.

KGB – rus. КГБ, Комитет Государственной Безопасности – Lith. Valstybės saugumo komitetas – Committee for State Security [of the USSR]

MGB – rus. МГБ, Министерство государственной безопасности – Lith. Valstybės saugumo ministerija – Ministry of State Security [of the USSR]

NKGB – rus. НКГБ, Народный Комиссариат Государственной Безопасности – Lith. Valstybės saugumo liaudies komisariatas – People’s Commissariat for Internal Affairs [of the USSR]

RSFSR – the Russian Soviet Federal Socialist Republic

USSR – Union of Soviet Socialist Republics

Scheme of archeological research 

The situation plan of the archaeological excavations of the Tuskulėnai Manor between 1994 and 1996 and in 2003. (Created by the Castle Research Centre Lithuanian Castles)  

Situaition plan created by and property of Castle Research Center Lithuanian Castles. All rights reserved

Note - The Lithuanian word “PERKASOS” is TRENCHES

Look for the next article

Part 2 of 6

The “PROCESS”

EXECUTIONS BETWEEN 1944 AND 1947 

Dear readers

WE NEED YOUR HELP

Dear VilNews readers, we need your help. As we have said, the victims that were executed in the NKGB–MGB internal prison in between 28 September 1944 and 16 April 1947 were buried in secret mass graves in the territory of the Tuskulėnai Manor. These victims have been found, their bodies recovered, given the dignified burial they never received and their souls have been blessed by a Holy person of the religion the worshipped.

26 May 1947, following the order of the Presidium of the Supreme Council of the USSR, the death penalty was abolished.

On 12 January 1950, the Presidium of the Supreme Council of the USSR passed a decree re-instating the death penalty. Between October 1950 and July 1952, 182 people sentenced to death were executed at Vilnius NKGB–MGB internal prison.

Their place of burial is still not known. 

After July 1952 to 1961 executions continued pursuant to the 1926 Criminal Code Article 58 of RSFSR.

The burial place of these victims is still unknown. 

The 1926 Criminal Code Article 58 of RSFSR was terminated in 1961 but executions continued.

The burial place of these victims is still unknown 

Dear readers we would like to find where these people are buried, recover their bodies, give them the dignified burial they never received and have them blessed by a Holy person of the Religion they worshipped.

This is where we need your help. The NKVD and NKGB–MGB officers that oversaw these executions are now all dead. What ever records and documents which still exist are most likely locked away in a vault somewhere in the Russian Federation and it would seem highly unlikely that anyone in the Russian Federation would be kind enough allow access to these documents and records so that we could find out the location of the burial sites or simply tell us where these people are buried.

We know that there are people out there that know the location of some of these burial sites. Maybe it is a person that processed the documents, maybe it is some one that was just a rank and file soldier that was ordered to drive the truck that transported the bodies or was ordered to dig the trenches for the graves, maybe it is a colleague of one of these people or maybe it is the bartender that heard some of these people talk of it one night. The possibilities are endless.

Maybe none of these people with first hand knowledge of the burial sites are still alive. In that case we are sure that there are people out there with second hand or even third hand information. To have first hand knowledge of these executions would weigh very heavily on any civilized person’s heart and it is very possible that after carrying this weight inside them for many years they finally felt the need to free themselves from this burden they carried inside and told some one.

If you have any information at all, any information of any kind – Please tell us.

It is not important to us how you know, who it was, what they did or who told you.

None of this is important.

The only thing that is important is that we find where the executed people are buried.

This is all we care about.

What we want to do is best explained in the words from Bronius Eiva’s farewell letter he wrote to his wife while waiting his execution while in the prison of Ukmergės Peoples Commissariat for Internal Affairs.

“Please find out when I was shot or hanged and where they bury me.
Dig me up and take me to Šeta cemetary.”

This is all we want to do – Find where they are buried, dig them up and then give them a proper burial but we can only do this with your help.

All information will be kept strictly confidential

We are not concerned with who or what

We are only concerned with where these people are buried

If you have any information of any kind please contact:
The Memorial Complex of Tuskulenai Peace Park
Žirmūnų Gatvė 1F,
LT-09239, Vilnius
Lithuania

Telephone: +370 5 275 1223
E-mail. tuskulenai@genocid.lt

You can also contact me at vkvilnius-tuskulenai@yahoo.com
We sincerely thank you for your help.

Su pagarbe
Vincas Karnila

Situation plan created by and property of Castle Research Center Lithuanian Castles.
All rights reserved

Between 28 September 1944 and 16 April 1947, the death penalty was carried out on 767 people in the NKGB–MGB internal prison in Vilnius. It took forty seven years and the restitution of Lithuania’s freedom to finally find the secret location where the Soviets had buried the victims.

INTRODUCTION

The Genocide and Resistance Research Centre of Lithuania is a state institution which investigates all manifestations of genocide and crimes against humanity, the persecution during the Soviet and Nazi occupations and the armed and peaceful resistance to the occupations. It also gives juridical evaluations of the perpetrators of the reprisals and genocide, and immortalizes the memory of the freedom fighters and genocide victims.

The objectives of the centre are to establish historical truth and justice; to investigate the physical and spiritual genocide of Lithuanians carried out by the occupying regimes between 1939 and 1990, and the resistance to the regimes; to immortalize the memory of the freedom fighters and the genocide victims; and to initiate the juridical evaluation of the aftermath of the occupying regimes. The centre also researches into the policy of the occupying regime in the Vilnius district from 1920 to 1939 and the processes of resistance to it.

The Museum of Genocide Victims (often referred to as the KGB prison or KGB museum) is a part of The Memorial Department of the Genocide and Resistance Research Centre of Lithuania and is located at Aukų gatvė 2A in Vilnius. It is located in the former KGB headquarters where plans for deportations and the arrests of peaceful inhabitants, the persecution of opponents and the suppression of the resistance were devised and carried out by Soviet institutions between 1940 and 1991. The main area of the museum is located in the area where the prisoners were detained, tortured and executed.

While the Museum of Genocide Victims at Aukų gatvė 2A is actually well known of around the world and is often a planned destination for people visiting Vilnius, many are not aware of the other part of the museum. Inside the museum at Aukų gatvė 2A is a room that was labelled as the “kitchen” on the Soviet’s floor plan diagram – Its actual purpose was an execution chamber. In this room more than 1,000 people were executed. The other part of the Museum of Genocide Victims which many do not know about is the site of the mass graves in which many of the victims that were executed in the KGB prison were buried. This is the Memorial Complex of the Tuskulėnai Peace Park which is located at Žirmūnų gatvė 1F in Vilnius. Here is also located the museum exposition "The Secrets of Tuskulenai Manor" located at Žirmūnų gatvė 1N.

Starting in autumn 1944, death penalties passed by Military Tribunals of the USSR and the Extraordinary Meeting were carried out in the NKGB–MGB internal prison in Vilnius, now Gedimino pr. 40 / Aukų g. 2A. Between 28 September 1944 and 16 April 1947, the death penalty was carried out on 767 people. The territory of the Tuskulėnai Manor served as a secret mass grave until 26 May 1947. This area of the mass graves is now the Memorial Complex of the Tuskulėnai Peace Park. The park and the museum exposition "The Secrets of Tuskulenai Manor" are a part of the Museum of Genocide Victims.

This story about the Memorial Complex of the Tuskulėnai Peace Park all started on a warm sunny beautiful Lithuanian spring day. My intentions were to go to Tuskulėnai, take a few photos, get some information and then go home and write a story. Once I arrived and started to walk the grounds my immediate impression was how beautiful the park is. Since it was during the warmer months I greatly admired the finely manicured lawns, colorful flower gardens and made note of the many shady areas under the majestic trees. I also imagined what a spectacular site this place must be in autumn with all the trees sporting their colorful foliage. Using my imagination a little bit more I pictured how magical it must be in winter to walk here at night with a foot of shimmering snow on the ground. But as I walked more and started to get the details on what happened here during the Soviet occupation I soon felt my emotions peak as I felt the overpowering somber energy that exudes from this solemn site. It was then I realized that a few photos and a bit of information would by no means honor and give justice to the souls of the people that suffered and died and now are interned here as their final resting place.  

So what I thought would be a story I could complete in two or three days turned into three months of research, meetings, visits to various government offices, telephone conversations and emails back and forth. While much of the text for this article was prepared by the expert staff of the Tuskulėnai Memorial Complex, there are so many other government offices, organizations and people that are involved with the Tuskulėnai Memorial Complex and the information for this article. What took all the time to prepare this article was getting all the information together. I must give credit to where credit is due. In effect I only acted as the person that put all this together so that it could be published for you our readers. The real work and all the credit for this article goes to the dedicated professional staff of the Tuskulėnai Memorial Complex and all the other government offices, organizations and people that have done all the research and work to tell the story of what happened here and give a dignified final resting place for the victims.

The next time you are in Vilnius I would highly recommend that you visit the Memorial Complex of the Tuskulėnai Peace Park at Žirmūnų gatvė 1F and the museum exposition "The Secrets of Tuskulenai Manor” at Žirmūnų gatvė 1N. The personel at both museums highly recommend and I strongly agree that you first visit the Museum of Genocide Victims and then the Memorial Complex of the Tuskulėnai Peace Park and the museum exposition "The Secrets of Tuskulenai Manor" to get a clearer and more complete view of the Soviet’s process of the arrest to the ultimate execution of prisoners during this time period. It is very easy to get to using public transport. If you want to drive there it is easy to find and there is plenty of free parking. It is also a very pleasant walk along the Neris River from Cathedral Square. Here you will begin to feel the emotion that exudes from this very special place. The staff of the Tuskulėnai Memorial Complex are absolutely great. They are not only extremely knowledgeable they are also very warm and friendly. They are a pleasure to talk with and they will provide you with much information. Most importantly, while you are there you can pay your respects to the hundreds of souls that lost their lives in such a tragic and brutal manner and are interned here in their final resting place.

It is my hope that this information we share with you will provide some insight as to the tragic events that were taking place at the KGB prison and Tuskulėnai during the Soviet occupation of Lithuania. I hope that it will also give you some idea as to all the diligent effort that so many people have put in and are still putting in to honor the victims and try to bring some closure for their families and relatives.

My greatest hope is that this story will bring out the information that still to this day is unknown 
Where are the people that were executed after 1950 buried?

Look for the first part of our six part story which will be out in a few days

CONSEQUENCES OF THE TOTALITARIAN REGIME

IN LITHUANIA 1940–1953

Su pagarbe
Vincas Karnila
Associate editor