News

On 24-25 March, Lithuanian Embassies in Dublin and Sofia, and the Consulate General in New York organised commemorations of the victims of mass deportations from Lithuania to Siberia in 1949.

On 25 March, Lithuanian Consulate General in New York invited local Lithuanians to a commemoration at the Church of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

At the commemoration, Lithuanian Consul General in New York Valdemaras Sarapinas said that during the time of Stalin’s dictatorship more than 220 thousand innocent Lithuanians were sent to Siberia, among them there were intellectuals, farmers, military officers, engineers, teachers, doctors, politicians, public figures, including Lithuania’s second  President in the interwar period Aleksandras Stulginskis, Speaker of the Seimas (Parliament) Konstantinas Šakenis, Prime Minister Pranas Dovydaitis and other famous Lithuanians.

“It is even difficult to imagine how badly these deportations have damaged our nation’s genofund, also our national identity and culture, because, first of all, they exiled our greatest minds, intellectuals and those who were the most educated and socially active people. After all, the Soviets aimed to destroy entire families, to wipe out their wisdom and priceless experience, societal and cultural influences,” Serapinas said.

Despite the fact that these tragic events occurred dozens of years ago, Serapinas believes that their remembrance will remain alive in later generations.

“I believe that time cannot erase our memories. We should not allow ourselves to be so forgetful and insensible,” the Consul General said.

The Lithuanian Embassy in Dublin commemorated the tragic events of 1949 in cooperation with the Lithuanians living in Ireland, who gathered at St. Andrew’s Church.

Counsellor and Chargé d’Affaires a.i. of Lithuanian Embassy in Ireland Audronė Markevičienė said that the sacrifice of parents and grandparents for the freedom of the Homeland would never be forgotten and invited members of the Lithuanian community to join the international campaign, and light candles in memory of their exiled fellow countrymen.

On 24 March, the Lithuanian Embassy in Bulgaria organised a commemoration at the memorial for the victims of the Communist regime in Sofia.

In Bulgaria, local Latvians, Lithuanians and Estonians lit candles and honoured the memory of the Baltic victims with a minute of silence.

On 25 March in Tbilisi, Lithuania’s Ambassador to Georgia Jonas Paslauskas participated in the event dedicated to commemorate victims of mass deportations from the Baltic States that began in March 1949. A Mass was offered for the victims at the Peter and Paul’s Church in Tbilisi. After the prayer, members of the Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian communities in Georgia gathered in the Vilnius square in the centre of Tbilisi and lit candles in memory of those who died in exile.

The memory campaign was also joined by the staff of the Lithuanian Embassy in the U.S. and Romania, and by diplomats from other Baltic States, representatives of local authorities, also members of the Lithuanian, Latvian and Estonian communities.

On 25 March 1949, there was a wave of mass deportations of citizens from the three Baltic States to Siberia. In a few days of the operation “Wave fall” (“Priboj”), about 95 thousand people were deported from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.