The KGB prison in Vilnius. LibraryL
by RicardMN Photography
Title
The KGB prison in Vilnius. LibraryL
Artist
RicardMN Photography
Medium
Photograph
Description
Library in the former KGB prison now the museum of victims of the genocide in Vilnius, Lithuania.
The Soviet Union occupied Lithuania on 15 June 1940, having accused Lithuania of not keeping the treaty for mutual assistance. People not loyal to the occupiers were arrested, killed or deported to Siberia. To persecute people, special institutions were established, and the network of prisons and detention centres was widened.
The NKVD “inner” prison (a pre-trial detention centre) was set up in the basement of the former courthouse in the autumn of 1940, when the Vilnius board of the NKVD was established here. Now the prison looks the same as it did in August 1991, when the KGB vacated it. The present appearance of the prison hardly resembles the prison in which in the postwar period members of the anti-Soviet resistance were tortured. It was repainted many times (there are 18 layers of paint), the number of cells decreased (in 1964 there were just 23 cells left from the original 50, and later there were only 19 cells).
The Museum of Genocide Victims in Vilnius, Lithuania was established in 1992 by order of the Minister of Culture and Education and the President of the Lithuanian Union of Political Prisoners and Deportees. In 1997 it was transferred to the Genocide and Resistance Research Centre of Lithuania. The museum is located in the former KGB headquarters across from the Lukiskės Square, therefore it is informally referred to as the KGB Museum. (Description from www.genocid.lt/muziejus/en/ziejus/en)
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April 5th, 2022
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