Lithuanian deportees call for Ukraine support and higher pensions

Political prisoners, deportees and participants in Lithuania’s freedom struggle gathered in Ariogala for the 36th “With Lithuania in Our Hearts” rally and adopted resolutions calling for greater support for Ukraine and changes to deportees’ state pensions, LRT reported.

This year marks 85 years since the first deportations to Siberia. Participants said memories of the cold, hunger and loss of relatives remain vivid.

The traditional procession led from Ariogala to the Dubysa valley. Some participants said they had attended the rally since its first year.

Many participants spent their childhoods in Siberia. Some were too young to remember the deportations, while others recalled hunger and extreme cold.

“The biggest hardship was the tiny flies. They bit so much while we were working in the forest that people would return from work with swollen eyes and could not see where they were going,” one man said.

Another participant said her mother had often wondered how she had managed not to lose her mind during the hardships. “God grant that nobody has to experience this again, neither children nor grandchildren,” she said.

Participants also recalled living in barracks and helping one another. Assistance was shared among Lithuanians, Germans, Georgians, Armenians, Poles and Russians who opposed Soviet rule.

The Soviet authorities began deporting Lithuanian residents to Siberia on June 14, 1941. Arūnas Bubnys, head of the Genocide and Resistance Research Centre of Lithuania, said the first deportation was the most difficult because it was unexpected and took place under extremely harsh conditions. People were initially sent to the Altai region and later, in 1942, moved beyond the Arctic Circle near the mouth of the Lena River. Mortality was highest during the first deportation.

One resolution called on Russia to end its war against Ukraine and urged the United States and the European Union to increase support for the country. “We are wholeheartedly with Ukraine and believe that Ukraine will win,” it said.

The second resolution asked Lithuania’s authorities to link deportees’ state pensions to the minimum wage.

Gvidas Rutkauskas, chairman of the Union of Political Prisoners and Deportees, said the state pension for deportees had fallen threefold compared with the minimum wage since 2006. Linking the pension to the minimum wage would also be a sign of respect for deportees, he said.

Parliament Speaker Juozas Olekas said the parliamentary Commission for the Struggles for Freedom could show initiative on the issue, adding that discussions would take place as preparations for budget deliberations approach.

The rally included salvos honouring Lithuania, deportees, political prisoners and partisans.

According to the Genocide and Resistance Research Centre of Lithuania, about 300,000 residents experienced Soviet repression and about 70,000 were killed.

President Gitanas Nausėda said that, as Europe again witnesses brutal aggression, the experiences of Lithuania’s political prisoners and deportees during the Soviet era serve as a reminder that freedom requires courage, unity and the daily determination to defend it. He delivered the message in a greeting to the rally participants in Ariogala on Saturday.