ST. PETERSBURG, March 2, 2012, Asia-Plus – Graves of ethnic Lithuanians have been restored in Tajikistan under the Mission Siberia Project.
The Project participants Yuozas Valchukas and Lina Krilavichute noted this at a meeting with scientific community in St. Petersburg.
The expedition to Tajikistan was organized in July of 2011 and abandoned Lithuanian graves were restored by the Project participants near the city of Qurghon Teppa, the administrative center of the southern Khatlon province.
During the expedition, the Project participants met with the Lithuanian family living in the region and parishioners of local small Catholic Church. The expedition to Tajikistan was led by Professor Algis Vishnyunas from the Vilnius Gediminas Technical University (VGTU).
According to information posted on the Mission Siberia Project’s website, the Project has organized 10 expeditions and more than 70 Lithuanian cemeteries have been restored in Siberia as well as in Kazakhstan and Tajikistan since 2006.
The Mission Siberia Project is sponsored by Lithuanian Youth Council (LiJOT), which is the biggest non-governmental, non-profit umbrella structure for Lithuanian national youth organizations and regional unions of youth organizations. At present LiJOT reportedly has 60 members (non-governmental youth organisations), that means more than 200 000 young people in all Lithuania.
The mass deportation campaigns of 1941–1952, the June deportation according to Serov Instructions and the March deportation known as Operation “Priboi”, exiled tens of thousands of families to forced settlements in Siberia and other remote parts of the Soviet Union. Official statistics state that more than 120,000 people were deported from Lithuania during this period, while researchers estimate the number of political prisoners and deportees at 300,000.
