Other events in Baltic States

After two weeks on Friday morning Lithuanian team for the patriotic expedition Mission Siberia'12 returned to Vilnius. A team of 16 young men and women visited and tidied up cemeteries of Lithuanian exile in the Republic of Khakassia of in the Russian Federation. They also have met with local Lithuanian exile representatives and their descendents, writes LETA/ELTA.

In several weeks the youth expedition covered more than 2,000 kilometers and arranged 11 cemeteries.

In one of the most beautiful cemeteries of Lithuanian exiles located in Mature village the team installed a wooden cross graven by Lithuanian artist Vidmantas Zakarkas. The cross was brought all way from Lithuania. It is a symbol of the respect and the remembrance of former Lithuanian exiles.

Since 2006, a total of 80 cemeteries of Lithuanian exile on their burial sites were cleaned. So far, cemeteries in the regions of Irkutsk, Krasnoyarsk, Komi, Tomsk, Buryatia, Sverdlovsk, Kazakhstan were tidied up, while last year – in Tajikistan.

Historians estimate that by 1953 around 270,000 Lithuanian residents were deported to the harshest climate places in the Soviet Union.