Mother of volunteer soldier Artūras Sakalauskas dies at 85

Genovaitė Sakalauskienė, the mother of volunteer soldier and Supreme Council Reconstituent Seimas defender Artūras Sakalauskas, has died at the age of 85, LRT reported, citing the AlytusPlius news portal.

Sakalauskienė reportedly died after a serious illness.

At the age of 27, Sakalauskas joined Lithuania’s Voluntary National Defence Service in January 1991. He took part in resisting Soviet aggression and guarded the Supreme Council Reconstituent Seimas building, as well as volunteer posts in Kaunas and Sitkūnai.

On August 19, 1991, he and volunteers from the Alytus unit returned to defend the parliament. Two days later, during a Soviet military provocation as the coup in Moscow was collapsing, Soviet special forces soldiers entered the area guarded by volunteer soldiers near the first post on A. Goštauto Street by car.

Sakalauskas was killed during the resistance. Two other volunteers from the Alytus unit were wounded.

He was posthumously awarded the Order of the Cross of Vytis, the January 13 Medal of Remembrance and the Medal of the Founders of the Lithuanian Armed Forces.