The readings were organized by project Mission Siberia and took place in ten Lithuanian cities and took almost 24 hours – from Thursday’s midday until Friday morning – in Vilnius, Kaunas and Klaipėda.
“This year, 1,044 people took part in ten cities. We planned to read out 105,000 names and did that,” Mission Siberia head Raminta Kėželytė told BNS Lithuania on Friday.
In her words, 20,000 names were read out in Vilnius, Kaunas and Klaipėda each, followed by Šiauliai and Panevėžys (10,000 names each) and Alytus, Marijampolė, Jonava and Mažeikiai (5,000 names each).
“20,000 names were read out in Vilnius, Kaunas and Klaipėda each, the readings lasted until Friday morning and ended at around 9–10 a.m. So it took almost 24 hours,” Kėželytė said.
The Soviet Union occupied Lithuania on June 15, 1940. Soviet repressive structures at 3 a.m. on June 14, 1941 started mass deportations of the Lithuanian population to remote northern areas of the Soviet Union.
Some 280,000 Lithuanian citizens were imprisoned or deported during the Soviet occupation period.