Vilnius University awards memory diplomas to 46 former students and employees

Vilnius University (VU) has awarded memory diplomas to 46 former students and employees who were expelled during the Soviet era, reports LRT.

Among this year’s recipients is Elena Šuliauskaitė, sister of Gerarda, a nun and a recipient of the Freedom Award. Šuliauskaitė was dismissed from her position as a senior laboratory assistant at the History and Philology Faculty of Vilnius State V. Kapsukas University over 50 years ago due to her religious beliefs and anti-Soviet activities.

Another honoree was partisan Stasys (Stanislovas) Lukša-Juodvarnis, who was expelled from VU’s Chemistry Faculty in 1947 for skipping lectures and practical sessions. Later that year, he died in combat in the Kazlų Rūda forests after Soviet forces attacked a military school of the Tauras District.

Diplomas for those who could not attend the ceremony were handed over to the VU Museum, as neither the nominees nor their relatives could be located.

According to VU Rector Rimvydas Petrauskas, the memory diploma initiative symbolically honors and commemorates community members who were unable to continue their studies or work due to expulsion. The initiative is part of the historically researched project “Returning Memory,” which aims to assess the impact of totalitarian regimes on the VU community, identify those affected, and symbolically restore them to the community.

Approximately 1,000 people, who were barred from studying or working at the university during the occupation due to their nationality, views, disloyalty to the regime, social origin, exile, or ties to Lithuanian partisans and resistance fighters, are eligible for the memory diploma. So far, around 350 individuals living in Lithuania, the US, Israel, Poland, and France have been honored.