THE VOICE OF INTERNATIONAL LITHUANIA
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A sad 70th anniversary
Thu, 22nd December, 2011 - (8) Comment
In June 1941, the first massive arrest and deportation of the Lithuanian population was perpetrated. A cargo of 17.500 people were crammed into cattle cars. Moscow’s instruction often required separation of men from their families: some 4.000 men were separated and transported to concentration camps in the Krasnoyarsk territory while 13.500 women, children and elderly people were transported mostly to Kazakhstan, the Altai Mountains territory, Russia’s republic of Komi, the Tomsk region, and the Arctic zone.
Category : Historical Lithuania
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Wed, 2nd November, 2011 - (2) Comment
Advent 1945:
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IN THE WORLD
“Across America, people crowd churches praying with gratitude for the peace in place, and reach out to wounded veterans, children who lost fathers, and neighbors who lost sons. Americans in big cities and small, participate in displays of the intrinsic love so indicative of the American spirit.” |
IN LITHUANIA
In 1944-45 Lithuanians were forced to realize that the bloody World War II had been replaced by a new war, the longest and bloodiest guerrilla war in modern European history, lasting from 1944 to at least 1953. |
Advent and Christmas of 1945 was over most of the world celebrated with a joy and delight almost never before seen. Young and old gathered in homes, on streets and in churches. An endless series of victory ceremonies took place in almost every corner of the world. With a deep sense of joy and gratitude all wanted each other warm, comfortable and relaxing Christmas holidays, knowing that the Nazi era was over and that the world now more than ever could look forward to a future of peace and prosperity. The war had finally released the grip, forgotten was the economic recession of the 1930s. Forgotten was also our Western World’s close friends and neighbours - the Baltic States.
On a small farm in northern Lithuania, in the outskirts of the village Šilagalis, Christmas 1945 is nearing. It is the 22nd of December, and the mother of the house feels very happy that her 21 year old son Povilas has finally come home to visit after having been away for many months.
Category : Featured black / Historical Lithuania
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Dates regarding the fall of Soviet communism
Tue, 1st November, 2011 - (1) Comment
11-13 January 1990 -- one-half of Vilnius’ 600,000 population
demonstrate for pro-independence, to ‘welcome’ visiting
Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev. Here with the local
communist party leader Algirdas Brazauskas.
By KR Slade
- 1980’s -- economic problems in the USSR; rise of ‘Solidarity’ in Poland
- 1985 -- Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev announces new Soviet policies of ‘glastnost’ (i.e., ‘political openness’) and ‘perestroika’ (i.e., ‘political and economic restructuring’)
- 3 June 1988 -- in Vilnius, the Lithuanian ‘Sajudis’ (i.e., ‘restructuring’) movement is founded; mostly artists; 17 of the 35 initial members were members of the Communist Party
- 22 October 1988 -- first Sajudis General Congress meets: first organised opposition to the Communist Party
- March-May 1989 -- Sajudis wins legislative seats in the USSR’s highest body of Soviet administration, the Congress of People's Deputies
- February 1989 -- Sąjudis declares Lithuanian ‘independence’, and that Lithuania had been forcibly annexed by the Soviet Union
- May 1989 -- Sajudis proclaims Lithuanian ‘sovereignty’; and declares that Lithuania's incorporation into the Soviet Union was illegal
- 23 August 1989 -- the “Baltic Way”: mass protest of two million people, linking hands in a ‘human chain’, of 650 kilometres: from Vilnius (Lithuania) to Riga (Latvia) to Tallinn (Estonia)
Category : Historical Lithuania
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Fri, 16th September, 2011 - (5) Comment
Remembering
Darius and Girenas
The American-Lithuanian pilots, Steponas Darius (1896-1933) and Stasys Girenas (1893-1933) attempted in the year 1933 to beat Charles Lindberg’s non-stop distance record across the Atlantic by flying from New York City to Kaunas, then the temporary capital of Lithuania.
Their plane, Lituanica, was an Bellanca CH-300 Pacemaker airplane. After successfully flying 6,411 km, it crashed, 650 km from its destination, Kaunas. Both pilots were killed.
Movie clip from the crash scene.
Category : Featured black / Historical Lithuania
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Tue, 9th August, 2011 - (1) Comment
Ruszkik, haza!
Russians, go home!
 Dénes Fejér |
The 1956 revolution in Hungary gave hope - but ended in disillusionment. This was what Dénes Fejér (78) told me when I met him here in the University Aula in his South-Hungarian hometown Szeged. Mr. Fejér was himself a 23-year old journalist, actively participating when the Hungarian uproar against the Soviet rulers started exactly here 55 years ago.
I asked him to confirm that the 1956 revolution in Hungary started here in the University Aula in the Szeged University, “Yes, this is correct,” he says. “55 years ago, on the 16th of October, 1956, students from our Szeged town founded the youth organisation MEFESZ (Hungarian Student Organisation). This event could be considered as the very first step of the revolution because in Hungary, at that time, after ten years of Communist post war regime, only state founded and supported organisations could be established in a legal way.” |
“The Szeged initiative could be seen as the first crack on a dam where water is about to pour through. Of course, you don’t immediately realise when you see a small stream of water; that what follows it is going to overwhelm you. The Communist leadership did not see right away what actually was about to happen, as they did not expect such a massive force appearing in just a few days.”
Dénes Fejér, who was 23 when the revolt started, stands here in the Aula that looks more or less the same as it did in 1956, demonstrating how things started evolving exactly here that October evening 55 years ago.
Hungarians gather around the head of the toppled
Stalin Monument in Budapest 1956.
Text: Aage Myhre
aage.myhre@VilNews.com
Category : Featured black / Historical Lithuania
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Why do so few know about Lithuania’s Soviet resistance after WWII?
Mon, 8th August, 2011 - (3) Comment
Back cover of Laima Vince’s book
“Forest Brothers: The Account Of An Anti-Soviet Freedom Fighter - Juozas Lukša.”
I have travelled in several former Warsaw Pact countries. In Hungary I met a person who participated in their 1956 uproar. In Slovakia and the Czech Republic I talked to people about their ‘Prague Spring’ of 1968. The people I talked to were rightfully proud of the uproars their countries performed against the mighty USSR, but when I asked them about the revolts that took place here in Lithuania and the other two Baltic states during the period of 1944-53, they all lacked concrete answers and knowledge. “We simply didn’t know,” they told me...
And they are not alone. I believe very few in the entire world have ever heard about the guerrilla war that took place here in the very centre of Europe after World War II, even if the number of victims in fact can be compared to the Vietnam War (1960-75).
It has been estimated that the losses of the Lithuanian partisan war’ amounted to 70,000 Soviet soldiers and 22,000 Lithuanian ‘Forest Brothers’, making this war one of the longest and bloodiest guerrilla wars in the history of the world.
For comparison, the United States lost 58,000 soldiers in Vietnam.
The outcome of this uneven war became an extremely sad and gruesome chapter in Lithuania’s history. Some 132,000 individuals were captured and deported to the Arctic areas of Siberia, 70% of them children and women, and more than 50,000 of these fine people died under the extremely harsh conditions up north, never able to return to their homeland alive.
During the same period, another 200,000 people were thrown into prisons. Over 150,000 of them were sent to the Gulags, the USSR’s concentration camps. These mass deportations continued until the death of Josef Stalin in 1953, but many prisoners remained in the camps also during the time of Nikita Khrushchev.
In a book by Anatol Marchenko published in Germany in 1973, he tells about his experiences from Soviet prisons and concentration camps in the early 1960s. One of his stories is about three Lithuanian prisoners who tried to escape from the convoy in a forest. Two of them were quickly caught, then shot many times in the legs, then ordered to get up which they could not do, then kicked and trampled by guards, then bitten and torn up by police dogs and only then stabbed to death with bayonets. All this with witty remarks by the officer, of the kind; "Now, free Lithuania, crawl, you'll get your independence straight off!"
I suggest you to read the books of Laima Vince (Forest Brothers: The Account Of An Anti-Soviet Freedom Fighter -Juozas Lukša), Ruta Sepetys (Between shades of gray) and Antanas Sileika (Underground).
Have a look at their web pages:
LAIMA VINCE – http://www.laimavince.com/forestbrothers.html
RUTA SEPETYS – http://www.betweenshadesofgray.com/
ANTANAS SILEIKA – http://antanassileika.ca/
Aage Myhre, Editor-in-Chief
aage.myhre@VilNews.com
Category : Featured / Historical Lithuania
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Sun, 31st July, 2011 - (1) Comment
Chronicle of Lithuania
in a global perspective
Lithuania is a country that cannot be understood if you don’t know at least
something about its exceptional past and its extraordinary global ties – with
Italy, India, South Africa, Israel, Poland, Belarus, Ukraine, Crimea/Turkey,
Sweden, Germany, Russia, Australia and America
LITHUANIA - IN A GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE
A chronicle of historic and contemporary Lithuania and her relations to the world
I have, over the years since I first came to Lithuania from my native Norway in 1990, often wondered why authorities or other institutions here haven’t published a chronicle describing the many ties and touching points this amazing country has to the rest of the world throughout historical and modern times.
Because Lithuania is a country that cannot be understood if you don’t know at least something about its exceptional past and its extraordinary ties with Italy, India, South Africa, Israel, Poland, Belarus, Ukraine, Crimea/Turkey, Sweden, Germany, Russia, Australia and America.
This was why I some years ago put together my own electronic ‘Chronicle of Lithuania in a global perspective’. that I often have used for presentations to guests and others with some interest in this little country that once was a ‘superpower’ of world class and for hundreds of years a thriving cradle for co-existence between people from many nations, cultures and religions. Or, as the British historian Norman Davies puts it: “Lithuania was a haven of tolerance”. Davies was not the only one who took notice of this. Erasmus of Rotterdam (1466 – 1536) is quoted as stating; “I congratulate this nation [Lithuania] which now, in sciences, jurisprudence, morals, and religion, and in all that separates us from barbarism, is so flourishing that it can rival the first and most glorious of nations.”
I know that foreign embassies and international companies, as well as many individuals, for many years have been using my ‘chronicle’ when they try to describe Lithuania to people and institutions in other countries, and I also urge you, dear readers, to pass on a link to this 'chronicle' to all your friends and acquaintances. That’s how we together can make Lithuania better known and understood for people around the globe...
Please keep in mind, however, that this is my personal collection of articles and impressions, not in chronological order, hence it might very well be that a historian would have chosen other articles and put together the information in a completely different manner. Nevertheless; have a good read. I believe afterwards you will agree with me that Lithuania is a truly amazing and far too little known spot on the world map!
Aage Myhre, Editor-in-Chief
aage.myhre@VilNews.com
Category : Featured black / Historical Lithuania
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6 July 1253 – the day Lithuania’s only king was crowned
Wed, 6th July, 2011 - (0) Comment
Coronation of King Mindaugas (Adomas Varnas, 1952 m.)
6 July is Lithuania’s State Day and a national holiday. On this day, Lithuanians honour the coronation of Mindaugas, who became the first and only king of a unified Lithuania in 1253.
By Tomas Venclova, historian
The first Lithuanian ruler, Mindaugas (ca. 1200 – fall 1263), is wreathed in mystery and ambiguity―almost as much as St. Christopher on Vilnius’ coat of arms. His rise occurred at a time when Lithuania first confronted the German knights, the so-called Knights of the Teutonic Order. Like most founders and unifiers of nations, Mindaugas probably was not a very attractive character. He did away with the majority of his opponents (among them, quite a few of his relatives), adopted Christianity, was crowned King by the Pope, but then broke with Christianity after his wife’s death―in any case, that is what the Teutonic Knights claimed. His wife’s sister, who was married to Grand Duke Daumantas, came to the funeral. According to the story, “The king shamelessly violated the law, robbing the woman of her honor by force and keeping her as his wedded wife.” Daumantas killed Mindaugas and fled to the Russian city of Pskov, where he adopted the Orthodox Christian faith. He became a famous ruler and was later canonized. Meanwhile, for a good half-century the Lithuanian state disappeared from history: what happened during this time is beyond reliable historical knowledge.
What is clear is that there were no longer any kings, only grand dukes. (After the First World War an attempt was made to restore the old monarchy. When the German Prince von Urach was called to the throne, he intended to call himself Mindaugas II. But the idea never went beyond this operetta-like plan.) Historians, relying less on documents than on patriotism, have been trying to prove that the story of Mindaugas is connected with Vilnius: he was said to have been crowned and murdered in this settlement. In any case, he is credited with having built the first cathedral, whose Romanesque ruins can be found in the vaulted cellars of the present-day Cathedral. When Daumantas took revenge against Mindaugas, they say, the cathedral again became a pagan place of worship. Ardent supporters of this tale have even found twelve stone steps and the sacrificial altar of the cult site.
Admittedly, like most stories from that period, this one has a touch of the absurd. Still, Mindaugas became the symbol of the threatened state. Not long ago, a memorial to him was erected at the mouth of the Vilnia. A somewhat naïve play* portrays him as the first Lithuanian patriot. It influenced the generation that subsequently took to the barricades for the liberation of the country from Communism. Nevertheless, the true founder of the city was not Mindaugas, but Gediminas, a ruler who came to power after this “blank” period in the history of Vilnius.…
Category : Featured / Historical Lithuania
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Wed, 29th June, 2011 - (3) Comment
How did communism influence Lithuania's economic development?
A report by: Valdas Samonis
The Institute for New Economic Thinking, USA
Photo: http://www.landesa.org/where-we-work/more/lithuania/
In 1940, independent Lithuania produced per capita 1.9 times more meat, 2.8 times more milk, had 1.9 times more cattle and 2.7 times more pigs than Soviet Union. After 50 years of allegedly astounding economic progress, Soviet Lithuania had become dependent on subsidies from Moscow. To the extent that this assertion is true, how is this possible if not for the inefficiencies caused by the forcefully imposed system of central planning with its associated distortions?
Noncommunist Lithuania fed and clothed its citizens without any assistance from abroad during the interwar independence period. And the levels of agricultural production were high by comparison to the Soviet Union;
Following its forceful incorporation into the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in 1940, Lithuania was subjected to the Soviet development model based on Marxism-Leninism, as interpreted by the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, as its theoretical underpinning; the first "scientifically based economic system in human history", as Bolsheviks claimed. The Bolshevik interpretation of economic processes and development goals was made obligatory in both the theoretical and practical dimensions. New methods of economic management /central planning/ were introduced which deeply changed the entire decision-making processes. The country's economic administration was completely overhauled. The Soviet occupation of Lithuania lasted nearly half a century.
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What an intellectual shame to Western universities and other elites!" |
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Category : Featured black / Historical Lithuania
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The Molotov – Ribbentrop Pact
Mon, 27th June, 2011 - (2) Comment
Part 2 of 2:
THE DOCUMENTS
Dear readers,
While assembling the material for this article I found that continuously, instead of adhering to the task of organizing and formatting the text and the copies of the documents, I would be drawn to the translations of the documents. I would find myself over and over and over again reading the translations and as I did the emotions of disgust, repulsion and anger would begin to grow as I read the agreement between two powerful countries, led by two deranged mad men, presented in a contractual format as if they were documenting an agreement for the use of land which includes a right of way, which was in fact an agreement on the control of lands that were not theirs and the control of the free people that owned these lands and who’s land was their home.
While I understand nothing written in the cryptic alphabet of the Russian language and very little of written German, I would also find myself, for time on, end staring at the copies of the actual documents. Over and over I would look at these documents and realize that it was these very documents, that with a mere stroke of a pen that resulted in millions of innocent lives being lost and millions of more lives being changed forever.
Dear readers, we would be very interested to hear of your thoughts after reading these documents and their translations.
Su pagarbe
Vincas Karnila
Associate Editor
Category : Featured / Historical Lithuania
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Back to the USSR!
Thu, 16th June, 2011 - (6) Comment
ZAZ-965A Zaporozhets, produced 1962-1969
When people talk about how life was and how society was during the Soviet times, it is not a happy conversation filled with laughter. Yes, there is the laughter and warm conversations about family events during this time. There is also much laughter when talking about some of the absurdities of the Soviet system of government but in general, there is very little to generate smiles and good humor when you talk about how the Soviets imposed their will on the people. With one exception – their automobiles...
Category : Blog archive / Featured black / Historical Lithuania
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Gruto Parkas named the 4th most bizarre museum in Europe
Thu, 16th June, 2011 - (0) Comment
From 1952 till 1991 a statue of Lenin occupied one of the most prominent places in Vilnius centre. Today you can still see this and many other sculptures and artifacts from Lithuania's years under the Soviet Union in Grutas Park near Druskinkai in southern Lithuania.
Lonely planet, one of the world’s most popular travel guide publishers, announced recently the list of the most bizarre museums in the world, and Grutas Park near Druskninkai in southern Lithuania was listed as the 4th most bizarre!
The park is dedicated to remind the visitors about the Soviet occupation period in Lithuania.
The park, sometimes called The World of Stalin, won the publishers admiration by black humour and irony from this otherwise sad period.
Gruto Parkas, established in 2001, was appreciated over The Museum of Bad Art in the US, the Hair Museum in Turkey, the International Towing and Recovery Museum in the US, the British Lawnmower Museum, the Sulabh Museum of Toilets and the Museum of Crutches in Azerbaijan.
However, Gruto Parkas was overridden by the Paris Sewer Museum, The Meguro Parasite Museum in Japan and the Icelandic Phallological Museum.
Also, last spring Lonely Planet declared the Curonian Spit of Lithuania’s seaside as the single calmest and most hammock-friendly European beach. In this global beach rating, the Curonian Spit won the 2nd place, overridden only by Dahab beach in Egypt. The Curonian Spit is also listed in the top 10 of the best beaches in Europe.
Lonely Planet declares the Curonian Spit (Neringa) of Lithuania’s seaside as the single calmest and most hammock-friendly European beach. The Curonian Spit is also listed in the top 10 of the best beaches in Europe.
Category : Historical Lithuania
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Russian Rouble – invented in Lithuania?
Thu, 16th June, 2011 - (2) Comment
What would you think if you found out that experts believe that the Rouble did not originate in Russia? What would you think if you found out that these same experts believe the Rouble originated in Lithuania and then later migrated to Russia?
Category : Blog archive / Historical Lithuania
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Sat, 11th June, 2011 - (7) Comment
COMMEMORATING 14 JUNE 1941:
President Aleksandras Stulginskis was among those kidnapped and deported to Siberia
A LITHUANIAN ‘PRESIDENTIAL PALACE’:
Lithuania President Aleksandras Stulginskis built this Siberian log cabin by his
own hands, living here with his wife Ona until 1956.
Aleksandras Stulginskis, the first constitutional president after Lithuania had declared its renewed independence on 16 February 1918, was kidnapped at his home by Stalinist forces in June 1941 and deported to a Siberian Gulag. After he was released from the inhuman captivity, he was still for years forced to live in Siberia’s deep forests, until 1956.
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President Stulginskis’ sad fate as a prisoner in Siberia through 15 long years, until 1956, is still too little known, and I think it’s high time we start spreading the story of Stulginskis throughout the world. Then his sufferings would not have been in vain, after all… See also: http://www.lituanus.org/1971/71_3_01.htm |
 Stulginskis and his wife Ona in 1957, after their return from Siberia. |
Category : Featured / Historical Lithuania
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The face of cruelty
Sat, 11th June, 2011 - (3) Comment
Antanas Sniečkus, leader of Lithuania’s Communist Party for the period 1940-1974 sent tens of thousands of his own countrymen to inhuman suffering and death in Siberian labour camps.
Antanas Sniečkus, the first secretary of the Communist Party of Lithuania (from 15 August 1940 until his death in 1974), is said to have been the initiator of the first mass deportations of Lithuanians in June 1941. He even had his own brother, with his family, deported to Siberia, where his brother died.
Antanas Sniečkus was born in 1903, in the village of Būbleliai, 60 km west of Kaunas. During the First World War, his family fled to Russia where he observed the Russian revolution of 1917. In 1919, his family returned to Lithuania; by 1920 he was already a member of the Bolshevik Party. In the same year, he was arrested for anti-governmental activities. He was released from prison on bail, but fled to Moscow, and became an agent of the Comintern. In Moscow, he earned the trust of Zigmas Angarietis, and Vincas Mickevičius-Kapsukas, and became a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Lithuania. In 1926, the Comintern sent Sniečkus to Lithuania to replace the recently-executed Karolis Požėla as head of the banned and underground Communist Party of Lithuania.
From 1926 to 1930, he engaged in subversive activities in Lithuania, and was again arrested and imprisoned for them in the Kaunas Prison in 1930. In 1933, Sniečkus was released in exchange for Lithuanian political prisoners held in the USSR. In 1936, he returned to Lithuania. In 1939, he was arrested again, and sentenced to eight years in prison.
After the Soviets invaded and occupied Lithuania, Sniečkus was released from prison on 18 June 1940, and became the head of the Department of National Security. Foreign Affairs Commissar Vladimir Dekanozov, arrived in Lithuania a few days earlier on June 15, 1940, to organize the incorporation of Lithuania into the Soviet Union. As party secretary, Sniečkus issued Vladimir Dekanozov’s orders in the party’s name.
Sniečkus helped create an atmosphere of terror prior to the elections of the newly established, by the Soviet authorities, People's Seimas in July 1940. Only the Communist Party of Lithuania and its collaborators could nominate candidates. People were threatened in various ways to participate in the elections, but the results were falsified anyway. 21 July 1940 the People's Parliament, declared that the Lithuanian "people" wanted to join the Soviet Union, and 3 August 3 1940, the Supreme Soviet of the USSR incorporated Lithuania into the Soviet Union.
The process of annexation was formally over and the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic was created. From 15 August 1940, until his death in 1974, Sniečkus remained the First Secretary of the Lithuanian Communist Party.
34 years of terror and atrocities against his own people had finally come to an end.…
Category : Historical Lithuania
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The significance of 14 June 1941
Sat, 11th June, 2011 - (2) Comment
Every year, around 14th June, Baltic communities all over the world commemorate the mass-deportations from their homelands by USSR occupying forces, to the Siberian gulags during and after WWII.
In June 1940 Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania were occupied by Soviet Russia. One year later, on the fatal night of 14 June 1941, at least 60,000 people from those three countries were deported at a single stroke to the remote Siberian regions of the former USSR. Some 27.000 Lithuanians were arrested and deported during the week of 14 and 20 June 1941, before the Soviet-German war broke out 22 June 1941.
The deportations of 14 June 1941 were acts of macabre political violence never before experienced by the Baltic people. The vivid memory of that day has remained indelible in the minds of Estonians, Latvians and Lithuanians.
The fate of the Baltic States was decided by the so-called Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939 between Nazi Germany and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (see below article). A secret protocol to this treaty assigned Finland, Estonia, Latvia and eastern Poland to the Soviet orbit.
In June 1940 a Soviet ultimatum demanded new Baltic governments "able and willing to secure the honest application of the Soviet-Baltic mutual assistance treaty". The following days Soviet forces occupied the whole region.
People of all social strata and nationality were deported, and it is hard to speculate about the general principle underlying these deportations. The victims were generally those regarded as 'socially harmful or undesirable.' For several months preceding the deportations, the NKVD (later renamed to KGB) employees were engaged in composing the lists of people to be deported. Later, it became clear that these lists were composed haphazardly and were based on apparently unconfirmed denunciations.
The deportation process often started with an NKVD truck approaching the house where the target family lived. Two of the three NKVD men in the truck entered the house and told the victims to pack up. Some people got twenty minutes to pack, others, an entire day. The manner was rude, the soldiers did not give any consideration to age or illness. There were cases when persons to be deported were carried into the truck on a stretcher. Then the load of deportees was taken to cattle wagons which were already waiting for them on a side track of the railway station.
The Soviet culture of violence exploded when Nazi troops crossed into Lithuania 22 June 1941. As Soviet authorities fled, some local communist officials summarily executed prisoners whom they could not take along. In turn Lithuanians rose in revolt and attacked the retreating Red Army.
Urged on by Nazi propaganda that identified Jews with communism, some joined the Nazi authorities and turned on the Jewish population of the republic. During WWII, an estimated 90-95 percent of Lithuania’s some 250.000 Jews were killed.
When the Red Army returned to Lithuania in 1944, it found a different mood and even a different population than it had faced in 1940. In the cities, the historic Jewish communities barely existed; many urban Lithuanians had fled to seek refuge in the West as “Displaced Persons.”
In the countryside, partisan groups offered fierce armed resistance to Soviet rule, through a guerilla war referred to as the longest and bloodiest in modern European history, killing more than 20.000 Lithuanians and 70.000 Soviet soldiers during the period 1944-1953.…
Category : Historical Lithuania
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OPINIONS
Have your say. Send to:
editor@VilNews.com
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1941 – 1953:
300 000 Lithuanians deported to Siberia
The above picture, of innocent children looking out through a cattle car window from a train that would take them to the coldest hell on Earth, has touched many…
Below some of the comments we have received to our articles describing how it was to be deported and trying to survive in the terribly tough and inhuman conditions that Siberia offered for the hundreds of thousands brought there by Josef Stalin’s merciless forces.
To read the articles, go to our SECTION 10 -
If you like horror stories, read this. You wouldn’t believe it if it wasn’t true
Matthew Valentinas
via LTnews.net... -
The misfortune of being overrun and dominated by a sick tyrant This is one of the many untold stories of cruel and unusual (Sorry, for the communist regime it was usual) treatment of non-communist foreign people who had the misfortune of being overrun and dominated by a sick tyrant Josef Stalin and all the other that followed him until they were forced to leave after the fall of communism. I am proud to say that Lietuva kicked out the occupying troops of the Soviet Union BEFORE East Germany and the other Baltic countries did. TEGYVOUJA LIETUVA LIETUVOS VISADA
Josef Stalin
Daniel Raymond Aleliunas
via LTnews.net... -
There is no grand museum in Washington, D.C., dedicated to those whose lives were destroyed by the communists.
Dalia Kuodyte.
"Virtually no one has been called to account for what was done. The West has chosen to forget these horrors. Nothing of these horrors is taught in their schools. There is no grand museum in Washington, D.C., dedicated to those whose lives were destroyed by the communists."
Dalia Kuodyte.... -
I think no one can imagine the struggles all of the Gulag-prisoners saw in their lives
Lars Persen, Norway
This is such a strong story. I think no one can imagine the struggles all of the Gulag-prisoners saw in their lives. For Lithuanians, other nationalities, dissidents, this was the real life; to survive. Stalin's camps can only be describes as hell. But it is also the story of surviving hell, for some of them...... - Many thanks for this very painful article.
Ralph, Kfar Ruppin , Israel
Many thanks for this very painful article.... - Very important for all to remember (or more likely, learn for the first time, this tragic story)
Arthur Hessel
Very important for all to remember (or more likely, learn for the first time, this tragic story. Also important to realize that the Soviets did not distinguish between Lithuanian Jews and Lithuanian gentiles in making their selection and that the Lithuanian population did not become so religiously divided until the Germans pushed back the Soviets the next year and made the Jews the enemy that had to be exterminated.
Ray Janus
We need to always remember and keep those who perished and suffered in our prayers.
Virginia Pudinas Schoenfeld
So very sad. Ray is right--we must never forget.
Ruta Brazis-Velasco
It hurts my heart to look at the photo, truth hurts.
Bea Rimas
Thank you for posting this, so our children can see and remember..
Rasa Weber
Every nation has their darkest years, and this period was one of the darkest for Lithuania. We will never forget.
Jane Kreivenas Hermanas
My father's oldest brother was taken away from his family. My father, his siblings and parents all fled just a day before occupation. He stayed behind. I thank God that years later he was allowed to visit America and I got to meet my Uncle Bruno.
Ruth Budrys Mandala
My Dad was jailed for being a dissident when they came and took his parents and brothers and deported them to Siberia. He was 16 years old and never saw them again. They survived the ordeal and lived out their life in Lithuania and he immigrated to America. Every day he appreciates his freedom in this country.
Cheryle Prakop-Good
I have been reading lots of books of these most wretched times. As we set an extra place setting on Christmas Eve, say a prayer, light a candle, remember, as Lithuanians, we are peace loving people. I am blessed as my grandfather left before WW1. There is only one Prakapas left in the village. Maybe I should try to write to him.?
Ray Chesnick
My paternal grandfather had a sister who was sent to Siberia from Zagare. I believe it was just after WWII.
Ruta Rusinas
Both my grandparents, my aunt and my cousin (2 yrs.old) were sent to Siberia. All came back alive, thank God! My grandfather spent 14 yrs there!...
- What a refreshing read!
What a refreshing read! I understand that it is important to focus on current issues, surrounding socio-economic/political issues, but it is also excellent to satisfy the car enthusiasts amongst us. Being one myself, I really enjoyed this issue and will add it to the rest of my VilNews archives!!!
Any chance of a future issue, containing all of the movies that have been made in Lithuania recently? Or perhaps a more current list of all the Lithuanians, who are shaking up the international arena?
Regards,
Eugene Rangayah
London
- Exceptionally well written article
Exceptionally well written article by Vin Karila.
How and may I share this article with my friends on The Lithuanian Rat Pack on Facebook and YahooGroups?
Rimgaudas P. Vidziunas
Mesa, Arizona - My 1978 Lada in New Zealand
Letter from John Iavas - New Zealand
Dear Vin Karnila,
A friend of mine whose brother lives in Lithuania sent me a copy of your article Back to the USSR in Vilnews which I read with interest. Regarding your comments on buying cars during Soviet times reminded me that when my father purchased his car in 1969 (and for many years after), it was not possible to buy a new car in New Zealand unless you had access to overseas funds, which meant that you had to be someone like a dairy farmer who was exporting. At that time, some people would ask their relatives who were farmers to buy cars on their behalf, and then pay them back. In the neighbourhood in which I lived for example, the daughter of only one family had a new car as her husband was a farmer. In fact, they bought a new car (GM Holdens made in Australia) every couple of years. My father ended up buying a 1965 MK III Ford Zodiac imported from the UK by its first owner and I still own it. It is in original condition and has appeared in two UK car magazines. I also have a rare 1972 Volvo 164 (with only 42,000 mls) which I bought several years ago.
My daily car is a 1978 Lada 21031 (1500cc) which I have had since 1987 and used almost every day until recently…
Read more... - 1939: The Year that Changed Everything in Lithuania's History
Book author: Sarunas Liekis
In a commentary to our VilNews article series "Lithuania and the Soviet Union 1939-1940" (Section 10 - HISTORICAL LITHUANIA) Tony Mazeika from Mission Viejo in California writes the following:
"It is necessary to read the full account of Lithuania's leadership response to Soviet demands and occupation in 1940. The book, "1939, The Year that Changed Everything in Lithuania's History", Arnas Liekis, reveals the unflattering response by the top leadership, their abdication, and flight from the nation, leaving the population defenseless...without any responsible and effective resistance. It's as if independence never happened. Lithuania, together with Latvia & Estonia, make no formal military resistance knowing that Finland fought in 1939-1940 and survived a Soviet onslaught. Much more need to be disclosed about those "patriots" who chose to run rather than fight for their nation."
Tony Mazeika 
Our VilNews Associate Editor, Vin Karnila, has edited the four articles we have presented on the topic "Lithuania and the Soviet Union 1939-1940" from the personal memoirs of Juozas Urbšys. Here is his response to Mr. Mazeika's commentary:
Easy to say that they should have organized formal Military resistance – and get slaughtered
Vin Karnila
I would like to thank you Mr. Mazeika for sharing your thoughts with us and making us aware of what I'm sure is a very interesting book written by Arnas Liekis.
You bring up a topic that has been discussed many times throughout the years following 1940. The members of the Lithuanian delegation that were involved in the negotiations with Russia have always claimed that they knew that Russia at any time they chose could have invaded Lithuania. They also felt that if Russia did in fact invade, whether there was organized military resistance or not, this would result in catastrophic consequences for Lithuania and its people. Throughout the negotiations they said that what they were trying to achieve was the best possible outcome for Lithuania. In the end what they achieved was the best possible outcome that Russia would allow.
The topic of the courageous people of Finland and their organized military resistance to Russia's invasion of their homeland in relation to the fact that Russia's invasion of Lithuania in 1940 occurred without a shot being fired has also been discussed many times. The question remains how much did Lithuania know or did not know about Finland's armed resistance to Russia in what is known as the "Winter War"?
3 October 1939 the Lithuanian delegation flew to Moscow to begin the negotiations with Russia. 30 November 1939 Russia attacked Finland to begin the "Winter War". By March of 1940 both sides began to negotiate a peace treaty. Did Lithuania know that in spite of the great courage of the Finns the primary factor in Finland's success was that the Winter War was fought in some of the harshest of winter weather conditions and in equally harsh terrain? This harsh terrain the Finns knew like the back of their hand and the weather conditions to them was normal winter weather? Did Lithuania know that if Russia attacked across the gentle rolling hills and flat farmlands of Lithuania in spring or summer that the advantage of weather and terrain, that so greatly helped the Finns, would only make Russia's evil task easier? An invasion of Lithuania by Russia in the spring or summer of 1940 would have been a military situation completely the opposite of the Finland's and Russia's Winter War. Did Lithuania know that whatever peace agreement Finland and Russia came to that it would end up being short lived? Had Lithuania taken notice of the fact that no Western power had come to Finland's aid with any meaningful support? From all reports, Lithuania realized that their Military, no matter how courageously they fought, was no match against the might of Soviet Russia's army.
Many comments have been made and questions asked about the large number of government and Military top officials that left after 15 June 1940. Why didn't they stay? Why didn't they stay and resist? How could they leave their homeland? I would say that the real answers to these questions can only be answered by these top officials that left. Some left almost immediately as if they knew what would happen once Russia occupied the country. Others left after they saw what Russia was doing now that they occupied the country. In fact many people that had the means to do so left once they understood what their future would be at the hands of Russia.
All these questions to all these situations I have asked myself over and over. Again and again I come to the conclusion that more than seventy years after these events occurred, while I'm sitting in the comfort of my home and while I can walk the streets of Vilnius without (for the time being) having to worry about being run over by a Russian tank, shot by a Russian soldier, kidnapped by the NKVD, put in a gulag or executed, I am really not in a position to judge people who were trying to do the best they could for our country and simply trying to survive during very difficult and dangerous times. I guess it could be kind of easy for some to say that they should have organized formal Military resistance – and got slaughtered. It could also be easy for some to say that the top officials and the people of means should have stayed – and got executed, imprisoned, put in gulags or sent to Siberia. Personally I can't judge these people for their actions because I wasn't alive then and I wasn't involved in these dangerous and difficult times. I also refuse to be a "Monday morning quarterback" and go on and on talking about all of the "should haves" for the same reasons I just stated. The opinions of others about these matters though are something I am very interested in.
Having said all this I must say that the discussion of what happened, what did not happen, why it did happen and why it didn't happen during these times are matters that will continue to occupy my thoughts – I'm still trying to understand and make sense of all of it. Again I would like to thank you Mr. Mazeika for sharing your thoughts with all of us and I would also like to thank you for letting us know about the book by Arnas Liekis - 1939, The Year that Changed Everything in Lithuania's History. I'm sure that I am not the only one out there looking for more information about this period of Lithuania's history and I'm sure that I'm not the only one looking for more information about this so that I can try to make more sense of everything.
Dear readers, I'm sure that Mr. Mazeika and I are not the only ones out there that are interested in what happened during these times and we are not the only ones with opinions. We would please invite you to share information and your opinions on this topic with all our readers throughout the world. I'm sure this is something we all are trying to understand better.
Su pagarbe
Vin Karnila
Associate editor- You reduced me to tears with your addition of one Song of Freedom by Lithuanian fighters
Wall of former KGB headquarters (now museum) in Vilnius. Each stone is engraved with the name of a Lithuanian partisan who was executed by the Soviets.
You reduced me to tears with your addition of one Song of Freedom by Lithuanian fighters [Oh little falcon].
Those songs, sung by my family in secret when I was a kid, still ring in my ears today, e.g. about the Kalniske battle or about the Soviet murdered freedom fighters whose bloodied bodies were put by the NKVD for display and further humiliation in the Lithuanian town squares:
"Pagulde Tave ant akmeneliu, o aplink Tave kraujo klanai
Ir neatejo nei Motinele, nei Tavo Broliai narsus kariai".
Valdas Samonis,
Canada - Aciu Tetei ir Mamytiai!
Thank you for posting this article which so affected my parents' post-war years in Germany and later in the US. I think they felt guilty for abandoning their homeland and relieved that they had gotten to freedom. What they did not leave behind is their love for Lietuva which they worked hard to pass on to their children. Aciu Tetei ir Mamytiai!
Jurate Kutkus Burns
- Very good article. Thank you Aage!
Very good article. Thank you Aage!
Lina Petrauskaite Rumskiene - "The inconvenient truth is that you in the West preferred not to know"
One of the many killed Lithuanian partisans, Juozas Luksa – "Skirmantas", "Daumantas", after his death on the 4th of September 1951.
You in the West preferred not to know, "the inconvenient truth" is.
I learned that the hard way, from my grandparents & other family who closely worked with Skirmantas and other top Lithuanian freedom war leaders in the Seinai-Punskas (Sejny-Punsk), Poland, during their secret border crossing missions to the West (via Gdansk and Warsaw) and back to Lithuania in 1946-50. My family was put in hard-regime prisons for that, all the hard earned property confiscated, and I was born a communist slave, so to speak. While in high school I rebelled against the Soviet occupation of Lithuania, was arrested and thrown out of school, persecuted for a long time by communist secret services, and finally made my way to the West: Glory Be to God!
Yours sincerely,
Valdas Samonis,
Canada
P.S. My family was decorated with Lithuania's top freedom medals by President Adamkus. I was officially recognized by free Poland (IPN) as the freedom activist persecuted by the communist regime. - BUT THE SPIRIT OF LITHUANIA IS STILL NOT FREE
Hi Aage,
I found your article interesting and would like to get more of them. After looking at those young faces, who lost their lives for the freedom of Lithuania, I realize that these days we have freedom, but the spirit of Lithuanian is still not free, rather haunted by the past challenging experiences. I believe that eventually we will become free and will start feeling worthy again.
Sincerely,
Aušra, USA - IN MY OPINION IT IS A MISTAKE TO CONFUSE RESISTANCE TO OCCUPATION AND THE SECOND WORLD WAR
Dear Aage
The Second World War in Europe was a war fought against fascism – in particular the German variant exemplified by Nazism – and including also Italian fascism. The Second World War in Europe ended with the surrender of Germany; a surrender to which Russia was the major contributor because Germany was largely defeated at Stalingrad and Kursk and was always in retreat afterwards.
The Resistance in Lithuania against Soviet occupation was a heroic effort by some Lithuanians to obtain freedom for their country. In my opinion it is a mistake to confuse resistance to occupation and the Second World War. After the end of the Second World War there have been many occupations of many countries by Capitalist and Communist powers and each side has tried to characterise any resistance to its forces as an act of the 'Other' side.
Resistance to Occupation has a very long and courageous history in Europe and throughout the world and no 'side' has a right to claim the heroic activities of resistance fighters/activists to support its ideology. Inevitably that requires misrepresentation of the motives and objectives of the resistance; part of the theme of the book "The Ugly American" about the then developing Vietnamese war. It is also the type of misrepresentation that leads to one 'side' claiming "We are all Georgians now".
This misrepresentation is a major cause of the inability of 'Western' countries to think in any clear way about the activities grouped under the label of 'terrorism' and it is better to avoid such ideologically driven commentary/analysis.
Kindest Regards
Robert Jennings, Ireland-Lithuania - UNFORTUNATELY YOU ARE GIVING SOME CREDIT TO THE BRITISH INTELLIGENCE
Dear Aage,
Thank you for the very moving story about the post WWII partisans. Unfortunately on page 6 you are giving some credit to the British intelligence, even though later on you mention Philby as having been responsible for the vicious death of thousands of the Baltic partisans. In fact the entire top levels of MI5 and MI6 since late 30's through early 70s were thoroughly penetrated by Britishers serving the soviet espionage services. Peter Wright in his book "the Spycatcher" identified Maclean, Burgess, Blake, Sinclair, Roger Hollis and numerous others who participated in setting up contacts with the partisans while assuring that the KGB was in full knowledge and control of their every movement and contact. Unfortunately, the doomed fighters sincerely believed for a long time that the British were on their side while being betrayed and delivered into the hands of the KGB.
In my view, it is also the British who have much to apologize to the thousands and thousands of victims for the vicious treachery in peace time of their MI5 and MI6 services.
Stan Backaitis
Washington, D.C. , USA
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