In 1941 and 1945–1952, the Soviet government carried out 35 mass deportations from Lithuania, a country that was occupied as a constituent socialist republic of the Soviet Union. 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, particularly in the Irkutsk Oblast and Krasnoyarsk Krai. Among the deportees were about 4,500 Poles. The number of deportees does not include approximately 150,000 people who became political prisoners – they were arrested, tried in Soviet courts, and imprisoned in Gulag camps.
Deportations of the civilians served a double purpose: repressing resistance to Sovietization policies in Lithuania and providing free labor in sparsely inhabited areas of the Soviet Union. 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. Similar deportations took place in Latvia, Estonia, and other parts of the Soviet Union (see population transfer in the Soviet Union). Lithuania observes the annual Mourning and Hope Day on 14 June in memory of those deported.
Historical background
In August 1939, Nazi Germany and Soviet Union signed the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, whereby Eastern Europe was divided into spheres of influence. The Baltic states (Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia) became part of the Russian sphere. The Soviet Union began preparations for the occupation and incorporation of these territories. First, it imposed mutual assistance treaties by which the Baltic states agreed to allow military bases for Soviet soldiers within their territory. Further steps were delayed by Winter War with Finland. By spring 1940, the war was over and Soviet Union increased its rhetoric accusing the Baltics of anti-Soviet conspiracy. Lithuania received Soviet ultimatum on 14 June 1940. Almost identical ultimatums to Latvia and Estonia followed two days later. Soviet Union demanded to allow an unlimited number of Soviet troops to enter the state territory and to form a more pro-Soviet government. The Soviets followed semi-constitutional procedures while forcibly transforming the independent Baltic states into the soviet socialist republics. They formed pro-Soviet People's Governments and held show elections to People's Parliaments. The annexation of the Lithuanian SSR, Latvian SSR, and Estonian SSR was completed by 6 August 1940.
The Soviets took control of political, economic, and cultural life in the three states. They rapidly implemented various sovietization policies: nationalization of private enterprises, land reform in preparation for collectivization, suppression of political, cultural, and religious organizations. Economic life was disrupted and standard of living decreased. Political activists and other people labeled as "enemy of the people" were arrested and imprisoned. In June 1941, some 17,000 Lithuanians were deported during the first deportation. Further repressions were prevented by Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union. Within a week Lithuania was under Nazi regime. At first the Germans were greeted as liberators from the oppressive Soviet rule. Even when the Lithuanians became disillusioned with the Nazi regime and organized resistance, notably the Supreme Committee for the Liberation of Lithuania, the Soviet Union remained "Public Enemy Number One".
In 1944, Nazi Germany was losing the war and Soviet Russia was making steady advances. In July 1944, Red Army reached the Lithuanian borders as part of the Operation Bagration. Most of the Lithuanian territory was taken during the Baltic Offensive. The last battle in Klaipėda ended in January 1945. Anticipating return of the Soviet terror, some 70,000 Lithuanians retreated into Germany ahead of the advancing Red Army. Generally those were political and cultural activists, artists and scientists, better educated and wealthier. Spending the first post-war years as displaced persons, they eventually settled in other countries, most often United States, forming culturally active Lithuanian diaspora. Those who remained in Lithuania were drafted into the army (some 80,000 soldiers). Men escaped the draft by joining the Lithuanian partisans, armed anti-Soviet resistance. Armed resistance inspired civil and political disobedience, to which the Soviets responded with persecutions: massacres, executions, arrests, deportations, etc.
Deportation procedures
Extra soldiers, equipment, and vehicles would be brought in to carry out the deportation. However, the deportations were kept strictly secret. There was a single public order by Juozas Bartašiūnas in February 1946. Armed groups of soldiers would surround a targeted house in the middle of the night. At night it was more likely to find everyone at home and easier to keep the operation quiet without alarming other residents. Everyone inside, including newborns and the elderly, would be ordered to pack food and other necessities (the exact list of what should or could be taken varied between deportations and depended on the generosity of the soldiers). If someone attempted to resist or run away, they would be shot or beaten. Often families would be separated and there were cases when parents, children, or spouses voluntarily reported to the train station to be deported with their captured relatives. The trains often used cattle cars with no amenities. The journey often lasted weeks if not months. The conditions were unsanitary, passengers often lacked food and water. Often trains would report deaths, especially among children and elderly, before reaching the destination. In one case, a train with deportees derailed killing 19 and injuring 57 people. While official instructions (for example Serov Instructions of 1941) often prescribed mild treatment of the deportees, in reality the captured people were subject to abuse and robbed of the few things that they were allowed to pack.
Deportations
First deportation in 1941
The first mass deportation was carefully planned by the Soviets. Already in late summer 1940, high-ranking Soviet officials began hinting at planned mass arrests and deportations. NKVD began registering and tracking all "anti-Soviet elements", i.e. people who were judged to be harboring anti-Soviet attitudes solely based on their social standing, political affiliations, religious beliefs, etc. In particular, it targeted policemen, members of the Lithuanian Nationalist Union, Lithuanian Riflemen's Union, various Catholic organizations. In total, NKVD estimated that it needed to register 320,000 people or about 15% of the Lithuanian population, which with family members constituted about half of the population. In preparation for the deportation, NKVD drafted lists of people that would be deported during the first campaign, identified their incriminating background, traced their family members, and located their current residence. The list was fluid and kept changing. For example, a report dated 13 May 1941 identified 19,610 people that should be arrested and deported to prison camps and 2,954 people (mostly family members of those arrested) that should be deported to work camps. A month later, the numbers changed to 8,598 arrested and 13,654 deported family members clearly indicating a policy of eliminating entire anti-Soviet families.
The operation began during the Friday night of 13 June and was carried out by NKVD and NKGB troops from Russia, Ukraine, Belarus. Ivan Serov issued instructions, known as Serov Instructions, detailing how the deportees should be detained and transported to the trains. The instructions emphasized that the deportations should be carried out as stealthily as possible to minimize panic and resistance. Each four-member executive group was given the task of deporting two families. According to the official instructions, each family could take up to of food, clothes, shoes, and other necessities but witnesses testified that these instructions were often not followed. Many families left unprepared for the journey or the life at the destination. According to the official instructions, signed by Mečislovas Gedvilas and Icikas Meskupas, property left by the deportees was to be divided into personal property (clothes, linens, furniture, tableware) and other (art, investments, trade inventory, real estate, farm animals, agricultural tools and machinery). Personal property was to be transferred to a representative of the deportee who would sell the property and would transfer the money to the original owners. Other property was to be confiscated and either sold or used by local Soviet officials. These instructions were not followed and people reported widespread looting of the left property.
The deportations continued, but on 16 June it was counted that the Soviets were still missing about 1,400 people from their list. Needing to meet their quotas, Soviet officials hurriedly arrested another 2,000 people on 16-18 June. The trains with deportees gathered in Naujoji Vilnia where men (using various excuses of needing additional inspection, questioning, or paperwork) were separated from their families and loaded onto trains heading towards prison camps. In total, there were 17 trains; they moved out on 19 June and reached their destinations between 30 June and 9 July. An official NKVD report, prepared on 19 June, accounted for 17,485 deportees, but the official statistics was incomplete and confused. The Genocide and Resistance Research Centre of Lithuania has traced and published the fate of 16,246 deportees.
First post-war deportations
By 1944, Nazi Germany was retreating along the Eastern Front and Soviet forces reached the territory of Lithuania by mid-1944. In October 1944, Soviet officials, including Sergei Kruglov who had experience deporting the Chechen and Ingush people, began circulating ideas about deporting families of "bandits" – men who avoided conscription into the Red Army and joined the Lithuanian partisans. However, such measures were not practical at the time of war. Instead, preparations were made to deport any Lithuanian Germans, their families, and more distant relatives. The train with 1,000 people left Kaunas on 3 May and arrived at its destination only in June. The deportees provided free labor to cotton plantations in the valley of the Vakhsh River. Due to particularly poor living conditions, about 580 deportees died in the first two years.
After World War II ended, Mikhail Suslov, chairman of the Bureau for Lithuanian Affairs of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, approved a decision to deport 50–60 families from each county. Lavrentiy Beria approved the plan and sent Bogdan Kobulov and Arkady Apollonov to assist. The campaign targeted Lithuanian families of the "bandits" and was coordinated with a "legalization" offer to the partisans: if they surrendered, their families would be unharmed. However, such promises were not kept and lists of legalized partisans were used as basis for the deportee lists. Over 6,000 people were deported over the course of a month and a half. Most of those families had already their property confiscated, therefore official Soviet instructions that a family could take up to of property were often useless. In addition to NKVD troops, destruction battalions were used for auxiliary duties.
From 1946 to early 1948, the civilian deportations were relatively small. The main method of oppression were individual arrests of "enemies of the people" and subsequent mass deportations of the prisoners. The deportations targeted Lithuanian partisans and their supported, but also included kulaks () and bourgeoisie.
Operations Vesna and Priboi
+ Collectivization in Lithuania