MISSION SIBERIA
THE BRITISH-LITHUANIAN SOCIETY HE Mr Vygaudas Ušackas Ambassador of the Republic of Lithuania Wednesday 22nd August 2007 6.30 pm for 7.00 pm Lithuanian Embassy, 84 Gloucester Place, London W1U 6AU “Mission Siberia”
On 23rd August 1939 the Foreign Ministers of Germany and the USSR, J Ribbentrop and VM Molotov, signed a secret protocol which determined the fate of the people of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia for half a century. The most tragic consequences of this pact were the holocaust, massacres and mass deportations. Nowadays this date is commemorated in the Baltic States as Black Ribbon Day.
In recent years the Council of Lithuanian Youth Organisations (Lietuvos jaunimo organizacijų taryba – LiJOT) has organized expeditions to places in Siberia where Lithuanians were imprisoned, exiled and died. During the Summer of 2006 they visited sites in the Komi, Irkutsk, Tomsk and Perm regions. This August a group of 20 plans to visit the Krasnojarsk region. The purpose of these trips is to visit gulag sites, tidy graveyards and learn about the conditions endured by prisoners and deportees.
The presentation by Ambassador Ušackas included a short DVD film and an exhibition of photographs made during several expeditions. The Ambassador was an initiator of the ‘Mission Siberia’ project.
For British-Lithuanian Society members and their guests.
For membership details please e-mail blssecretary@hotmail.com
