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Human Rights in Lithuania, historical past

Raminta Daukšaitė,

presentation at Universidad de Sevilla

26 of March, 2015


Lithuania in map of Europe


Lithuanian Grand Duchy 1263-1430


Lithuanian Coat of Arms


Grand Dukes of Lithuania


The King Mindaugas and the Queen Morta


Castles of Lithuania Grand Duchy


Gediminas’s tower


Battle of Žalgiris (Grunwald ) in 1410. Lithuania and

Poland reunion against Teutonic Order

Grand Master of the Teutonic Order

Ulrich von Jungingen Lithuanian duke Vytautas


Union of Lublin in 1569


Coat of Arms of Commonwealth


Commonwealth of the Crown of the Polish Kingdom

and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (Rzeczpospolita)

1569-1648


The three partitions of Rzeczpospolita.

1772, 1793, 1795


Lithuanian press ban 1864 – 1904. One of the first

official edicts in Cyrillic alphabet, delivered by

Alexander II. Speaking Lithuanian strictly forbidden


Lithuanian book smugglers. 1864-1904


Lithuanian book smugglers museum.

Audrius Daukša – guide, active public figure


World War I.

Germans occupying Lithuania in 1915


Act of Independence of Lithuania on February

16, 1918. 20 members of Council of Lithuania.

Vilnius conference


Authoritarian period

Antanas Smetona, the first and last

president of independent Lithuania

during the interwar years.

The 1918–39 period is often known

as "Smetona's time".


Molotov-Ribbentrop pact,

August 23rd, 1939

Joseph Stalin

Joachim von Ribbentrop

Vyacheslav Molotov


First Soviet occupation, August 30, 1940.

Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia “gets freed”


Soviet troops marching in Lithuania, 1940


Sovietization of Lithuania

• Nationalization of lands, private property, banks, larger

enterprises;

• Religious, cultural, and political organizations were

banned;

• Only one party - the Communist Party of Lithuania;

• An estimated 12,000 "enemies of the people" were

arrested;

• During the June deportation campaign people (mostly

former military officers, policemen, political figures,

intelligentsia and their families) were

deported to Gulags in Siberia. Many deportees perished

due to inhumane conditions; 3,600 were imprisoned

and over 1,000 were killed.[25]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Lithuania


Communist regime


June deportation to Siberia, 1941


German troops landing in Lithuania

1941, June


German Wehrmacht bicycle troops march through

the streets of Lithuania, following the retreating

Soviet Army


Holocaust in Lithuania,1941-1944

Burning synagogue. Killing jews


Holocaust in Lithuania,1941-1942.

Burning synagogue. Killing jews

Before the Holocaust Lithuania

was home to a disputed number of

Jews: 210,000 according to one

estimate, 250,000 according to

another. About 90% or more of

the Lithuanian Jews were

murdered, one of the highest rates

in Europe.

Título título título título título Vladas Zajančkauskas (December 27, 1915 –

August 5, 2013) – searched in USA for Nazi crimes

Vladas Zajančkauskas was a 21-year-

old Lithuanian soldier who had been

press-ganged into the Soviet army

and then captured as a prisoner of

war by the Germans. He claims that

at first he refused to become a prison

guard for them and so was brutalised.

"They took us, told us to take our

pants off and put our heads in barrels

and beat us with whips. And the

whips were made of flexible wire and

leather. They killed my friend right

there," he said.


Second Soviet occupation (1944-1990)


Second Soviet occupation (1944-1990)

1941 and 1945–1952 at least 130,000 people, 70% of them

women and children, were forcibly transported to labor

camps and other forced settlements in remote parts of the

Soviet Union. These deportations do not

include Lithuanian partisans or political prisoners

(approximately 150,000 people) deported to Gulags (prison

camps). Approximately 28,000 of Lithuanian deportees

died in exile due to poor living conditions. After Stalin's

death in 1953, the deportees were slowly and gradually

released. The last deportees were released only in 1963.

Some 60,000 managed to return to Lithuania, while 30,000

were prohibited from settling back in their homeland.


Deportations to Siberia


Partisan movement (1944-1953)


The main city square with bodies of

partisans. Partisan movement (1944-1953)


The main city square with bodies of

partisans. Partisan movement (1944-1953)

Approximately 20,000 Lithuanian

partisans participated in unsuccessful warfare

against the Soviet regime in the 1940s and early

1950s. Most were killed or deported to

Siberian gulags. During the years following the

German surrender at the end of World War II

in 1945, between 40 and 60 thousand civilians

and combatants perished in the context of the

anti-Soviet insurgency. More ethnic

Lithuanians died after World War II than

during it.


Lithuania in soviet times


Human rights violations in Soviet era

(1953–90)

The regime abolished Western rule and protection of law, civil liberties

and guarantees of property:

• Cultural suppression – arts, literature;

• Suppressed freedom of political and scientific expression;

• Suppressed freedom of religion (atheism promotion);

• Law was regarded as an arm of politics and courts were regarded

as agencies of the government (deportations, prisons, torture);

• No freedom of movement;

• Suppressed political rights, the right to vote (one party regime);

• Suppressed freedom of assembly and association (workers were

not allowed to organise trade unions, all organisations were

political);

• Collectivisation, no private property.


NIJOLĖ SADŪNAITĖ


The trial of Nijolė Sadūnaitė

• Received a three year sentence in a strict regime camp

to be followed by a three year exile from Lithuania. She

was confined to a Mordovian camp and after serving her

sentence was sent into exile to Boguchany, Krasnoiarsk

territory (Siberia).

• At the time of her trial on June 16-17, 1975, was 37

years old. She was arrested in 1974.

• The "crime" of Sadūnaitė was typing of some articles

in ”The Chronicle of the Catholic Church of Lithuania”

(periodical).

• At her trial she said she was happy to suffer for helping

to publish something that fought against the tyranny.

“Declared prisoner of conscience by Amnesty

International, she has received international attention,

though not all letters or packages mailed to her. In very

poor health she now is serving her term in exile”.

LITUANUS. LITHUANIAN QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF ARTS

AND SCIENCES, USA, 1979


Nijolė Sadūnaitė in AI publication. “Parcels and printed matter sent to

Nijole Sadunaite (who is in exile in Boguchany) from abroad are

systematically stopped at customs and returned to the senders” (page 78)


Lithuanian Helsinki Group

A dissident organization active in

the Lithuanian SSR, in 1976 – 1982. It

was the first human rights organization

in Lithuania. The group published over

30 documents that exposed:

• religious repressions,

• limitations on freedom of movement,

• political abuse of psychiatry,

• discrimination of minorities,

• persecution of human right activists,

• other violations of human rights in the

Soviet Union.

Most of the documents reached the West

and were published by other human rights

groups. Members of the group were

persecuted by the Soviet authorities..


Independence movement, “Rebirth”

(1988-1990)


48th anniversary of Molotov-Ribbentrop pact

(23 of August, 1987). N. Sadūnaitė – main speaker


Defamation article about Nijolė Sadūnaitė.

“The enemies of our new life and our future”


Juozas Valiušaitis – Rebirth activist,

photoartist, active public figure

Starting from year 1991, J. Valiušaitis

published over 100 exhibitions in

Lithuania and foreign countries.

One of the main photographic fields –

society upraisings against injustice,

liberation movements.

J. Valiušaitis is a famous photoartist in

Ukraine, activist in Ukraine’s Orange

Revolution and Ukraine’s freedom

movement nowadays.


The first Rebirth’s meeting in Kaunas, 2nd of

August, 1988 (Juozas Valiušaitis photograph)

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