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Friday, 29.03.2024, 01:37
Mission Siberia team leaving for expedition to Russia from Vilnius
The 16th expedition of Mission Siberia will depart from the Vilnius railway
station on Monday evening to travel to far Russia, informs LETA/BNS.
The team of 16 young people will this year travel to the Irkutsk area to
arrange cemeteries in Tulun and Nizhneudinsk districts, as well as meet
deportees from Lithuania still living in Siberia.
Raminta Kezelyte, spokeswoman for the project, told BNS that the maximum
plan was to tidy up to 15 cemeteries.
"But everything will depend on the possibility to travel. We think
that it is realistic to arrange between seven and ten cemeteries," said
Kezelyte.
Over the 12 years of Mission Siberia expeditions, over 100 Lithuanian
cemeteries have been cleaned up.
Since 2006, more than 12,000 young people from Lithuania have applied for
the difficult trips on the paths of Lithuanian deportees.
After the Soviets occupied Lithuania, around 130,000 people were deported
from the country between 1940 and 1953.
The deportee lists included elderly and ill people, disabled people, pregnant
women, children and babies. Some 5,000 Lithuanian children died on their
journey to deportation sites.