On June 14, Lithuania marks the Day of Mourning and Hope – 81 years ago, after occupying the country, the Soviet authorities started mass deportations of Lithuanian residents to remote areas of the USSR.
Events are being held in Vilnius and other places across Lithuania to mark the date.
Soviet repressive structures started mass deportations of Lithuanian residents into remote northern areas at 03:00 on June 14, 1941.
Around 18,000 Lithuanian residents were deported over the course of several days, according to the Genocide and Resistance Research Centre of Lithuania.
The Soviet Union occupied Lithuania on June 15, 1940, imprisoning and deporting around 280,000 Lithuanian citizens over the occupation period.
The Lithuanian parliament, Seimas, is hold a solemn sitting on Tuesday, with a minute of silence scheduled across the country at 11:59.
“The Day of Mourning and Hope has its special hue every year,” Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonytė was quoted in a statement. “This year, it has a new meaning as the war in Ukraine has shown that the fight against the dragon of Bolshevik occupation isn’t over yet.”
“We can be more specific now – enormous efforts are being made during the war in Ukraine to finally end that totalitarian empire because it has become evident to us that if you cut off the dragon’s head, another one, even fiercer, will grow back,” Šimonytė said.
“We are a nation that has suffered a lot but that is why we can draw strength and hope from our history. Our grandparents endured exile, remained strong and, most importantly, preserved their humanity. This strengthens the belief that we will withstand even the last convulsions of this multi-headed dragon and will finally be able to say that a very long and difficult struggle against Soviet imperialism has been won,” she added.
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