Staff of the Lithuanian Special Archives discovered one more original copy of the 1949 February 16 Declaration of the Lithuanian Liberation Movement when arranging newly received Lithuanian partisans’ documents.
Lithuania’s occupation by the Soviet Union in 1944 triggered a universal armed resistance, from 1949 the fight was led by the Lithuanian Liberation Movement. The Council of the Liberation Movement adopted a declaration on 16 February 1949 which stated the will of the people of Lithuania to re-establish an independent democratic state. Eight Lithuanian partisan commanders, Jonas Žemaitis-Vytautas, Adolfas Ramanauskas-Vanagas, Petras Bartkus-Žadgaila, Leonardas Vilhelmas Grigonis-Užpalis, Aleksandras Grybinas-Faustas, Vytautas Gužas-Kardas, Bronius Liesis-Naktis, Juozas Šibaila-Merainis, signed the document.
A private natural person found documents of various Lithuanian partisan units, roughly 4,000 pages in total, and handed them over to the Archive in late 2019. The documents are assessed to have been embezzled in 1967–1970 from the Office for Publishing Edited Archival Records of the Institute of History of the Lithuanian SSR Academy of Sciences. Lithuanian partisans’ documents used to be provided to the Office by the Lithuanian SSR Committee for State Security (KGB). KGB would capture documents together with arrested partisans or their supporters and signallers, or at Cheka-military operations. Once in the KGB hands, documents of Lithuanian partisans would be used for various propaganda publications falsifying the history of Lithuania’s freedom fights.
The copy of the Declaration is typewritten on carbon paper, the text is identical to another original copy of the Declaration kept at the Lithuanian Special Archives, only its layout has differences. The copy bears original signatures, so it is evident that more than one copy was typewritten and signed. The only original copy known before this discovery is included in the National Register of Lithuania of the UNESCO Memory of the World (MoW) Programme.
The Lithuanian Special Archives has made the text of the Declaration available in English, German and Russian and presented a publication and a video as part of the project funded by the Office of the Government of the Republic of Lithuania (http://epartizanai.archyvai.lt/llks-tarybos-1949-m.-vasario-16-d.-deklaracija/57).
Our fellow countrymen are invited to share documents or photographs of Lithuanian partisans that may have been preserved by you or your relatives with the Lithuanian Special Archives (Gedimino pr. 40, LT-01110 Vilnius, +370 5 264 9026, [email protected]). Please, pay respects to those who fought for our freedom by joining efforts to save for future generations the most important documentary heritage of our state that testifies to the history of freedom fights of Lithuania.
Related links http://www.archyvai.lt/lt/lya/rastas-dar-vienas-umpd.html,
https://www.facebook.com/lietuvosypatingasisarchyvas/
Based on information by the Lithuanian Special Archives
