4.Historical Lithuania

14 June 1941 – the day Lina’s long journey to Siberia started

Sat, 11th June, 2011 0df53x21 - 6580(4) Comment2011-06-11+13%3A27%3A170df53x21http%3A%2F%2Fvilnews.com%2F%3Fp%3D6580

Best-selling author Ruta Sepetys interviewed by Ellen Cassedy

Ruta Sepetys' novel "Between shades of Gray" tells the story of the Soviet deportations of 1941. More at www.betweenshadesofgray.com

June 14 marks the 70th anniversary of mass deportation of Lithuanians to Siberia. On this date in 1941, as Nazi Germany prepared to invade Lithuania, Soviet authorities loaded tens of thousands of people – men, women and children – into cattle cars and transported them into exile. Some were sentenced to death; some died under harsh conditions of forced labor; some survived. With Stalin's death in 1953, the Siberian camps began to empty out. But it was many years before the stories of the exile were openly told.

Author Ruta Sepetys

A new novel, Between Shades of Gray (Philomel/Penguin), brings the story of the 1941 deportations into vivid focus. It will be published in Lithuania under the name Tarp pilku debesu (Alma Littera), and in 23 other countries.

VilNews correspondent Ellen Cassedy interviewed author Ruta Sepetys Washington, D.C.

The Molotov – Ribbentrop Pact

Sat, 11th June, 2011 0df53x21 - 6561(1) CommentThe+Molotov+%E2%80%93+Ribbentrop+Pact2011-06-11+13%3A20%3A490df53x21http%3A%2F%2Fvilnews.com%2F%3Fp%3D6561

Part 1 of 2:
THE DOCUMENTS

Dear Readers,

In this part 1 of 2 articles about the Molotov – Ribbentrop Pact and the Secret Protocols, you will get some insight as to when and why the Pact and Secret Protocols were made public and the work that has done to verify to authenticity of the copies of the documents now available.

INTRODUCTION by EDITOR SAULIUS SUŽIEDĖLIS
The day after the signing of the German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact of 23 August 1939, Soviet and German newspapers carried the news and text of the treaty to a stunned Europe.

Bloodlands – Europe between Hitler and Stalin

Thu, 19th May, 2011 0df53x21 - 5913(1) Comment2011-05-19+15%3A17%3A010df53x21http%3A%2F%2Fvilnews.com%2F%3Fp%3D5913

A book by history professor Anthony Snyder of Yale University

Hitler vs. Stalin: Who Killed More?
Who was worse, Hitler or Stalin?
Were these people victims of Stalin or of Hitler? Or both?

“Bloodlands makes clear that, if it hadn’t been for Hitler’s treachery in the spring of 1941, Stalin would have gladly remained a German ally. And it was not Germany alone that started the Second World War but Germany and the Soviets together, when they jointly invaded Poland, allowing the Nazis to finally catch up with a killing enterprise Stalin had already begun.”

- Charles Lewis, National Post, Canada

Category : Featured / Historical Lithuania

Sun, 15th May, 2011 0df53x21 - 5738(0) Comment2011-05-15+10%3A51%3A030df53x21http%3A%2F%2Fvilnews.com%2F%3Fp%3D5738

The Lithuanian partisan war 1944 – 1953:

A mistake to confuse resistance to occupation and WWII

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.

Robert Jennings,
Ireland-Lithuania

The 'war against fascism' was a construct intended to make the Soviet Union look good

Antantas Sileika

Dear Editor,

Mr. Robert Jennings's letter, in which he claims that the Second World War was a war against fascism and nothing else, obfuscates the truth rather than clarifies it.

No one declared war on fascism. If they had, Spain and Portugal would have between attacked. The United Sates and other powers declared war against the axis powers. The "war against fascism" was a construct intended to make the Soviet Union look good and to disguise its own crimes. How was the Soviet invasion of Finland in 1939 a war against fascism? What about the forced incorporation of the Baltic States into the Soviet Union well before any war with Germany? What about the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact, which divided Eastern Europe between the Soviet Union and Germany? Would the Poles agree that the war was a war against fascism? Was the murder of the Polish officers at Katyn part of the war against fascism?

Neither Tony Judt nor Norman Davies, prominent historians of Europe, would agree that the conflict which only ended in 1989 with the fall of the Berlin wall was a "war against fascism."

Who benefits by such a formulation? Only the Soviets, whose crimes become excusable excesses of war. The independent Lithuanian government now considers the last anti-Soviet partisan commander, Jonas Zemaitis, to have been the Lithuanian head of state. It seems that L Beria considered him the same way because upon his capture in 1953, Zemaitis was transported to Moscow and interviewed by Beria who seemed to be seeking accommodation now that Stalin had died. However, both Zemaitis and Beria were executed that same year.

WW2 is remembered as a "good war", but this is a formulation that works only on the western side, where the allies came to help brave resisters such as the French underground. There were brave underground resisters in the East too, but no one ever came to help them. They fought until the dies, were captured, or gave up. Their story is just coming out now.

Antanas Sileika,
Canada

Category : Featured / Historical Lithuania

Fri, 13th May, 2011 0df53x21 - 5674(0) Comment2011-05-13+11%3A29%3A580df53x21http%3A%2F%2Fvilnews.com%2F%3Fp%3D5674

Lithuania and the Soviet Union
1939 – 1940 (1 – 4)

Dear readers,

On 15 June 1940, Soviet Russia invaded Lithuania. This was the beginning of Lithuania's loss of freedom for more than fifty years and the beginning of one of the saddest and most tragic parts of Lithuania's history. There has been much talk and speculation about how this invasion came about and what Lithuania did, or as some would accuse didn't do, to prevent it. To shed clear light on this topic, we would like to share with you parts of the personal memoirs of Juozas Urbšys who was a member of the group that personally met with Vyacheslav Molotov and Stalin. After reading these fascinating and very informative memoirs we are sure you will have a better appreciation for the precarious situation the leaders of the then free Republic of Lithuania were in and what they did to try to protect the lives of the Lithuanian people.

URBŠYS

MOLOTOV

SMETONA

STALIN

We share these memoirs in 4 parts. Here they are:
(click on the titles to open the articles)

Part 1: In Moscow
Part 2: Vilnius, army garrisons
Part 3: We accustom ourselves to army bases.
Part 4: Ultimatum. Occupation.

Category : Featured / Historical Lithuania

Venclova`s Vilnius (1 – 4)

Fri, 13th May, 2011 0df53x21 - 5668(0) CommentVenclova%60s+Vilnius+%281+-+4%292011-05-13+11%3A23%3A390df53x21http%3A%2F%2Fvilnews.com%2F%3Fp%3D5668

The history of the amazing Lithuanian city written by the great poet most qualified to write about it. This book includes a dialogue between the author and Nobel Prize laureate Czeslaw Milosz about the city. An absolutely indispensable work on the city that produced John Gielgud, Bernard Berenson and the Budapest String Quartet.

This is the four parts in a series of excerpts from Tomas Venclova’s book “Vilnius a Personal History”.
(click on the titles to open the articles)

Part 1: Venclova’s Vilnius
Part 2: Mindaugas, Gediminas and Vilnius
Part 3: Pagan Lithuania
Part 4: Lithuanians, “The Saracens of the North”…

Category : Historical Lithuania

A Christmas story from Šilagalis, year 1945

Sun, 8th May, 2011 0df53x21 - 5498(4) Comment2011-05-08+12%3A49%3A480df53x21http%3A%2F%2Fvilnews.com%2F%3Fp%3D5498

Desecrated bodies of unrecognized Lithuanian partisans.

Christmas 1945 was in most of the world celebrated with a joy and delight hardly ever seen before. Young and old met in homes, on streets and in churches. An infinite series of victory events took place in almost every corner of the world. With a deep sense of joy and gratitude all wished each other a heartfelt good and restful Christmas holiday, 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 its grip, forgotten was the economic recession of the 1930s, but forgotten was also our close friends and neighbours - the Baltic States.

On a small farm in northern Lithuania, in the outskirts of the village Šilagalis, the Christmas of 1945 is also approaching. It is the 22nd December today, and the mother in the house feels very happy that her 21-year-old son Povilas finally has come home for a visit after having been away for many months.

He has come to change to dry clothes that can keep him warm through the cold winter days waiting. His mother is infinitely happy to have her son home this one day, and she does everything she can to treat him with all the good food and drink found in the farm stores. You never know how long it will be till next time.

Povilas had joined a local partisan group earlier in 1945, and now spends all the time in Northern Lithuania's forests where the local "forest brothers" have established their hidden habitats. It is from these caches, often at night time, they still conduct operations against the military facilities and forces of the Soviet Red Army and the NKVD, the Soviet secret police which later changed its name to KGB. Soviet occupation of Lithuania has lasted more than a year now, but Povilas and other forest brothers still hope their constant needle can get Joseph Stalin to withdraw his troops out of Lithuania and the other two Baltic countries.

Category : Historical Lithuania

I’ve known her just by sight and hearsay, in the famous Klaipėda Castle

Sat, 9th April, 2011 0df53x21 - 4595(4) Comment2011-04-09+12%3A30%3A250df53x21http%3A%2F%2Fvilnews.com%2F%3Fp%3D4595

Madrid, 1799.

I must set sail before Napoleon tries to conquer London, winter has been hard in Madrid. From the beginning of spring I have enlisted as first gunner on a pirate ship. An old friend, a German Captain, has given me a map and a letter for some gentlemen in Memel. I have been serving among men of his Majesty Charles III. A betrayal has put my name among his enemies. In truth, my goal is to keep track of a beautiful woman, who seems an honest person. I've known her just by sight and hearsay, in the famous Klaipėda Castle during a trip by this port with English traders. She was discussing with master control, even too highly educated for my sword. She is a port that I don’t know. Her eyes guide me, but also betray me. In a few centuries my children will be writing about this feat. Useless for history; perhaps even bloody. This is my logbook. The rest should be decided by the fury of the wind, my trusty sword and the unpredictable night.

Category : Historical Lithuania

Searching for the Holy Grail? Come to Vilnius!

Thu, 17th March, 2011 0df53x21 - 1652(14) Comment2011-03-17+18%3A50%3A590df53x21http%3A%2F%2Fvilnews.com%2F%3Fp%3D1652

The death of Lithuania’s Grand Duke Sigismund Augustus in July 1572 could have become extremely disastrous for the Holy Grail. But the duke passed away knowing that it was in the safe hands of the Jesuit Brothers. The duke, however, never got to see the final hiding place for the Grail, as Vilnius University was completed only in 1579. Sigismund Augustus died childless and thus became the last ruler of the grand Jogailo Dynasty as well as of the Italian-Lithuanian dynasty that Leonardo da Vinci and the Holy Roman Empire had planned with so much energy earlier in the century.

Forget Rosslyn Chapel in Scotland. Forget the Louvre Museum in Paris. If you're among the millions who have read Dan Brown's book 'The da Vinci Code', you have probably also made some reflections on how the Holy Grail disappeared, virtually without a trace, after Leonardo da Vinci died in 1519. In that case I will now give you some hints and clues that you can begin to investigate.

Let me first put on the table some facts Dan Brown missed in his book. Brown, and many with him, thinks of Florence, Rome and Paris as the cities da Vinci was linked to. Most people forget that he lived and worked in Milan for many years, and that it was precisely here he painted ‘The Last Supper’ that Dan Brown so strongly emphasizes in his evidence collection.

Brown also does not mention that da Vinci for many years lived in the house of the Sforza family that ruled Milan at that time. But it is in this house the solution to the riddle lies.

Category : Blog archive / Featured / Historical Lithuania

Hitherto unknown Da Vinci painting uncovered; the cousin of Lithuania’s Grand Duchess Bona Sforza

Thu, 17th March, 2011 0df53x21 - 3851(7) Comment2011-03-17+18%3A41%3A240df53x21http%3A%2F%2Fvilnews.com%2F%3Fp%3D3851

The painting was thought to be an obscure 19th Century work known as Young Girl in Profile in Renaissance Dress. It has been revealed, though, to be a hitherto unknown work by Leonardo da Vinci and has been renamed La Bella Principessa.

The painting became known when it showed up in a Christies auction house catalogue in the early 1990s. It sold for $19,000 to an art dealer named Kate Ganz, who subsequently sold it for a similar price in 2007. The work is now in a Swiss bank vault and is valued at $160 million.

Peter Silverman, an art collector, was the first to suspect that the work was not 19th Century. After study, Silverman concluded that the painting was a hitherto unknown work of Leonardo da Vinci, one of the most famous artists of the Renaissance. Further study using the latest in digital imaging technology discovered a partial hand print and a fingerprint that matched those found on two other known works by Leonardo da Vinci.

Finally Da Vinci expert Martin Kemp, Professor Emeritus at Oxford University, was called in to examine the painting, Kemp concluded that the painting was indeed a Da Vinci, likely dating from 1496. The work was executed on vellum and was meant to be the cover of a book of poetry, meant as a gift. Kemp believes that the portrait is of Bianca Sforza, daughter of Ludovico Sforza, Duke of Milan and his mistress Bernardina de Corradis. Hence Martin Kemp has renamed the painting, La Bella Principessa.

La Bella Principessa Bianca Sforza, painted by Leonardo da Vinci in 1496, when Bona Sforza was just two years old.

…

Category : Historical Lithuania

150 years since the birth of Jonas Sliupas (1861 – 1944)

Sun, 6th March, 2011 0df53x21 - 3499(0) Comment2011-03-06+14%3A20%3A130df53x21http%3A%2F%2Fvilnews.com%2F%3Fp%3D3499

Dr. Jonas Sliupas (1861 – 1944) with family and friends at his Palanga home in the 1930s.

Dr. Sliupas was a physician, publicist, and a leading nationalist liberal activist both in USA and Lithuania. He was Mayor of Palanga from 1933 to 1940, and returned to this office briefly during the Nazi occupation of 1941, until ousted because of his protest against the destruction of Lithuanian and Jewish lives. Dr. Sliupas was one of the interwar's leading politicians and advocates for a free, independent, honourable and prosperous Lithuania – a proud representative of the national patriarchs who continuously fought for Lithuania’s case through all the years between the First and Second World War. Dr. Sliupas continued to speak the case of a free Lithuania until his death in 1944. He will be celebrated as one of Lithuania’s true heroes and finest gentlemen ever, with an amazing record of achievements for his beloved homeland.

Category : Featured / Historical Lithuania

The man who declined the presidency

Sun, 6th March, 2011 0df53x21 - 3545(4) CommentThe+man+who+declined+the+presidency2011-03-06+14%3A03%3A220df53x21http%3A%2F%2Fvilnews.com%2F%3Fp%3D3545

Dr. Jonas Sliupas (1861 – 1944)

The year is 1926. It is a very dark late autumn evening in Kaunas, Lithuania's capital between 1^st and 2^nd World Wars, when three officers from the Lithuanian army rush up to the house where Dr. Jonas Sliupas now lives while he teaches at the University of Kaunas. It is nearly midnight when the officers knock heavily on his door and asks to come inside.

The officers bring shocking news. They tell that since the early autumn of 1926 key officers within two army groups have been in full swing of planning a coup d’état in Lithuania, and that they have now reached the point that they want to depose of President Kazys Grinius and insert a new President. The question to Dr. Sliupas is therefore whether he can accept becoming the country's new President.

But Dr. Sliupas is not willing to accept. President Grinius has been his good friend for many years, and Sliupas is puzzled as to why the military has found a coup appropriate and necessary. His answer to the officers is therefore that the only way he could accept becoming President of Lithuania would be through a democratic election.

The officers had to leave Sliupas empty-handed that night, but continued their plans, and the very coup took place a few days later, during the very night when the 60^th birthday of President Grinius was celebrated, 17 December 1926.

Category : Historical Lithuania

Sat, 18th December, 2010 0df53x21 - 335(7) Comment2010-12-18+10%3A41%3A190df53x21http%3A%2F%2Fvilnews.com%2F%3Fp%3D335

1941- 1953:
300 000 Lithuanians were deported to merciless inhumanity in Siberia...

From Lietuviai Sibire / Lithuanians in Siberia,
Chicago: Lithuanian Press, Inc. 1981, Dust jacket cover

During the period 1941-1953, some 132,000 Lithuanians were deported to remote areas of the USSR, in Siberia, the Arctic Circle areas and Central Asia. They were not allowed to leave the remote villages they were brought to. More than 70 percent of the deportees were women and children. Around 50,000 of the deportees were not able to return to Lithuania ever again.

Category : Featured sub-section / Historical Lithuania

The tragic story of how one third of Lithuania’s population became victims of Soviet terror

Thu, 9th December, 2010 0df53x21 - 2168(5) Comment2010-12-09+11%3A59%3A390df53x21http%3A%2F%2Fvilnews.com%2F%3Fp%3D2168

Dalia Kuodyte.

This article is based on a speech manuscript by Dalia Kuodyte,

Member of the Parliament, former Director General of the Centre of Genocide and Resistance (LGGRTC).

“In the trains’ cattle cars the passengers were hardly given any food except from a little water and some inedible soup. There was scarcely any air to breathe as everyone was jammed together and the cars had only a few small windows covered with bars. A hole in the floor served as a toilet. Some of the people, especially the infants became sick immediately and died. The bodies of those who died on the journey were left on the side of the tracks.”

The string of tragedies began in August 1939, when Hitler and Stalin concluded a cynical agreement that divided up Central Europe between the two totalitarian countries. According to the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact, Lithuania was to fall into the Soviet zone of influence.

After the outbreak of the Second World War, Lithuania was occupied three times: first by the USSR in 1940, then by Nazi Germany in 1941, and finally by the USSR again in 1944.

Pre-war Lithuania’s position of neutrality on the eve of WWII did not protect the country from its sad fate. According to Lithuanian state institutions, the damage caused by the USSR‘s occupation to the Republic of Lithuania in financial terms is $278 billion. During Nazi and Soviet occupations, including 200,000 Holocaust victims, the losses of the population of Lithuania amounted to 33 percent of the total number of the country's population in 1940. Lithuania lost 1 million people to deportations, executions, incarceration, the murder of the political opposition and forced emigration.

The total number of persons registered as “anti-Soviet elements” reached 320,000 entries. There were teachers and professors, school and college students, farmers, industry workers and craftsmen among them.

June 14-18, 1941 were the dark days of the first massive arrest and deportation of the Lithuanian population. A cargo of 16,246 people were crammed into cattle cars. Moscow’s instruction required separate men from their families. So, 3,915 men were separated and transported to concentration camps in the Krasnoyarsk territory while 12,331 women, children and elderly people were transported to the Altai Mountains territory, the Komi republic and to the Tomsk region.

Forty percent these deportees were children below 16 years old. More than half of the deported died quickly. Pregnant women and babies born in the cattle cars were the first victims – they died in the trains. The deportation process was interrupted by the German-Soviet war.

The Soviets resumed mass deportations to Siberia and other eastern regions of the USSR after recapturing Lithuania from Nazi Germany in 1944. The partisan anti-Soviet war for democratic and independent Lithuania began in 1944. Some 22,000 Lithuanian partisans lost their lives in unequal war against the Soviet regular army and NKVD units. From 1949 the armed resistance started to wane. This guerilla war continued until 1953. The last resistance fighter refused to surrender and shot himself in 1965.

Partisans, their supporters and non-armed opposition made up a big group among those who were deported in 1945 – 1947. Another big group of deportees was those who tried to escape service in the Red Army. Ethnic Germans and members of their families, who did not leave Lithuania, were deported as well.

The situation changed in 1948. The most extensive deportation from Lithuania was held on May 22 and 23, 1948. Over these two days 12,100 families, numbering over 41,000 people, were seized from their homes and exiled. In 1948, 50 percent of deportees were accused not of their relations with the armed guerillas. Their official guilt was their social class – they were owners of private farms. In 1949, already two-thirds of the deportees belonged to this category while in 1951 they absolutely dominated the Soviet secret police‘s statistics.

Such change was due to the collectivization campaign in the Lithuania’s countryside. In 1948, the Soviets started to implement mass collectivization, appropriating land and livestock. This resulted in establishment of kolkhozes. In 1950, some 90 percent of land was given to kolkhozes. Mass deportations continued until the death of Josef Stalin in 1953.

Category : Historical Lithuania

OPINIONS

Have your say. Send to:
editor@VilNews.com

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…

60 - 70 years ago thousands of Lithuanian families 'celebrated' Christmas on the Siberian permafrost... In tents or shelters...

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
Josef Stalin
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
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