The direction is different, but the mission is the same

Two teams of 12 people were deployed yesterday at the "Siberian Mission" at the Vilnius train station. Pictures of the Siberian Mission

The participants of the Siberian Mission, who will visit the 17th time political prisoners and deportees, declare that in addition to the contribution of the Lithuanian Soviet Resistance, it is not necessary to take any part in it. There would be no independent history of Lithuania. The issuance of visas to Russia, where it was planned to organize an expedition this year, the organizers of the mission had to change plans and, instead of the Krasnoyarsk region, choose Kazakhstan. The leader of the initiative Raminta Kėželytė said that the idea of ​​preserving the memory of the exiles and political prisoners remains unchanged after the change of geographical location of the mission

"This year, the & [[[[[[[[[[[Thefocusisnotonlyonthemanagementofburialsastherearepeopleinprisoncampsintheseplacestherearedifferentburialplaces-mostofthembeingmbadburialswillchangebutthemissionwillremainthesame"saidRKėželytė

Two teams of 12 people were deployed to the" Siberian Mission "at the Vilnius railway station yesterday.

Siberia – General Concept

Two teams of 12 people were deployed yesterday at the "Siberian Mission" at the Vilnius Railway Station. His two trips to Kazakhstan will begin at the same time in Karaganda, then one team will move to Balkah and another will carry out his mission in Žezkazgan.

Giedrė, a 32-year-old marketing specialist, said that her grandmother and her family also survived the fate of a deportee, she said that respect for the memory of political prisoners is the least . "Only because of these people we are alive, they have had to experience many, and what we do is the smallest we can do," said Giedre

Attorney Gytis, thirty years old, had no doubt that the expedition was doing a remarkable job in paying tribute to people without whom, in his opinion, it would not be our story. "They were offended for us so that we could be here." This year's mission, especially when we go to the places of deportation of political prisoners, is unique in that people have not been deported. , but imprisoned, because their existence was a threat to the Soviet system.The head of the mission, R. Kėželytė and others at Vilnius Railway Station, the Railwaymen Museum, expelled the participants from the soviet system. expedition, pointed out that Lithuanian Siberia is more of a geographical than general concept, which has marked the repressions, persecutions, deportations and detentions of the people since the eighteenth century, while Lithuania was still at the rank of Tsarist Russia

Where Lithuanians, Lithuania

Vytautas Landsbergis drew attention to the fact that our people in the camps in Kazakhstan did not let their hands fall, there they propped up Constantly armed with insurrections. According to him, Lithuanians, Ukrainians organized the insurrections that they themselves called the continuation of the Lithuanian Freedom War. "Lithuania resisted and was sent to these scary places, very often in death camps, and not only in the Far North, on the island of Trofimovsky, but also in the hot southern desert, for The people who decided that they did not want to be bullied were uprooted, "the professor said.

Foreign Minister Linas Linkevičius thanked the Embbady of Kazakhstan for the demonstrated flexibility when the mission participants had to change their plans for the last minute.He stressed that in Kazakhstan are living up to now more than 5 thousand.Lithers and compatriots who escaped from prisons and deportations expressed their special gratitude for the help given to local Kazakhs. "Where there are Lithuanian prisoners, where there are deportees, repressed people, there is also the Lithuania, it is Some survivors return or return their remains, others will never come back. Therefore, what these young people do is a huge nuisance when they drag the grunts of the Lithuanian land, bringing closer to the Lithuanian spirit, reminding us unconsciously that there is also Lithuania, which we We are grateful to the people who sacrificed their lives, "said the Minister of Foreign Affairs. expedition

During the Siberian mission, efforts will be made to restore monumental monuments, to find Lithuanian tombs in the common cemetery of cities, to search for Lithuanians still living in Kazakhstan or their descendants for talk to them The organizers stressed that this expedition is different from the events that took place in Siberia, as people in Kazakhstan have suffered more from deportations than detentions. They worked in camps, the dead were usually buried in mbad graves, not buried in separate cemeteries in Lithuania.

Dozens of camps were operating in the old Kazakh SSR, some 20,000 people were imprisoned. political prisoners from Lithuania. According to the extent of the detention and burial of the Lithuanian exile, only Russia is ahead of the territory of Kazakhstan

The expedition will last ten days, the participants of the mission will return to Lithuania on 29 July. The "Siberian Mission" project has been running since 2006. During this period, more than 150 Lithuanian cemeteries organized youth expeditions to visit Lithuania in exile and in prison in Siberia – Russia, Kazakhstan and Tajikistan. In total, more than 250 people participated in expeditions.