Operation Vesna (; russian: Опера́ция «Весна́») was a mass deportation of the armed opposition to the Soviet power in the occupied Lithuania carried out by the forces of the Ministry of State Security (MGB) on May 22–24, 1948. According to the February 21, 1948 decree № 417—160сс of the USSR Council of Ministers, deportations were to target the "

forest brothers The Guerrilla war in the Baltic states was an armed struggle which was waged by the Latvian, Lithuanian, and Estonian partisans, called the Forest Brothers (also: the "Brothers of the Wood" and the "Forest Friars"; et, metsavennad, lv, mež ...

" ( lt, žaliukai), members of their families, and "various helpers of anti-Soviet partisans, including kulaks." The official tally of the deported was 49,331 (other sources give the number 39,766 and 47,534). In addition to ethnic Lithuanians, Poles and Belarussians were deported as well. The exact numbers by ethnicity are unknown. Their official status was " special settlers" (severely restricted in movement, but otherwise officially not deprived of other citizen's rights)."Этот день в истории: 1948 год — в Литве началась операция «Весна» МГБ СССР"
''

Eurasia Daily Eurasia (, ) is the largest continental area on Earth, comprising all of Europe and Asia. Primarily in the Northern and Eastern Hemispheres, it spans from the British Isles and the Iberian Peninsula in the west to the Japanese archipe ...

'', May 23, 2018 Grzegorz Motykabr>"Operacja "Wiosna": wysiedlenie 50 tys. Litwinów zajęło Sowietom 48 godzin"
''

Gazeta Wyborcza ''Gazeta Wyborcza'' (; ''The Electoral Gazette'' in English) is a Polish daily newspaper based in Warsaw, Poland. It is the first Polish daily newspaper after the era of " real socialism" and one of Poland's newspapers of record, covering the ...

'', May 21, 2918 It was the largest

Soviet deportation from Lithuania Soviet deportations from Lithuania were a series of 35 mass deportations carried out in Lithuania, a country that was occupied as a constituent socialist republic of the Soviet Union, in 1941 and 1945–1952. At least 130,000 people, 70% of the ...

."Operation ‘Spring’, biggest Soviet deportation of 40,000 Lithuanians"
''LRT.lt'' (

Lithuanian National Radio and Television Lithuanian National Radio and Television (Lithuanian: Lietuvos nacionalinis radijas ir televizija) is a non-profit public broadcaster that has been providing regular radio services since 1926 and television broadcasts since 1957. LRT joined Europ ...

), May 23, 2019

Life in exile

The majority of deportations were to

Krasnoyarsk Krai Krasnoyarsk Krai ( rus, Красноя́рский край, r=Krasnoyarskiy kray, p=krəsnɐˈjarskʲɪj ˈkraj) is a federal subject of Russia (a krai), with its administrative center in the city of Krasnoyarsk, the third-largest city in ...

(23,467),

Irkutsk Oblast Irkutsk Oblast (russian: Ирку́тская о́бласть, Irkutskaya oblast; bua, Эрхүү можо, Erkhüü mojo) is a federal subject of Russia (an oblast), located in southeastern Siberia in the basins of the Angara, Lena, and ...

(11,495) and

Buryat-Mongolian ASSR The Buryat Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (russian: Бурятская Автономная Советская Социалистическая Республика; bua, Буряадай Автономито Совет Социали ...

(4,038). About 25,000 worked in forest industry, and the rest in coal mines and

kolkhoz A kolkhoz ( rus, колхо́з, a=ru-kolkhoz.ogg, p=kɐlˈxos) was a form of collective farm in the Soviet Union. Kolkhozes existed along with state farms or sovkhoz., a contraction of советское хозяйство, soviet ownership o ...

es. About 11,000 children were deported with their parents. About 6,000 to 10,000 of the deportees were brought to

Igarka Igarka (russian: Ига́рка) is a town in Turukhansky District of Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia, located north of the Arctic Circle. Igarka is a monotown established around a sawmill which processed timber logged in the basin of the Yenisei ...

. Later more Lithuanians were moved from other places of Krasnoyarsk Krai to Igarka. In the first years, about 1,000 to 3,000 Lithuanians died in Igarka, mostly children and the elderly. There are three Lithuanian cemeteries in Igarka, one of them has 1,000 burials. Many "settlers" were arrested an put to

Gulag The Gulag, an acronym for , , "chief administration of the camps". The original name given to the system of camps controlled by the State Political Directorate, GPU was the Main Administration of Corrective Labor Camps (, )., name=, group= ...

labor camps for various violations: trying to escape, singing Lithuanian "nationalist" songs, etc. During 1956–1961 most Lithuanians returned from Igarka to Lithuania. about 270 Lithuanians stayed in Igarka. The Lithuanian Union of Igarka was established in 1992."Igarka"
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Visuotinė lietuvių enciklopedija The ''Visuotinė lietuvių enciklopedija'' or VLE (translation ''Universal Lithuanian Encyclopedia'') is a 25-volume universal Lithuanian-language encyclopedia published by the Science and Encyclopaedia Publishing Institute from 2001 to 2014. VL ...

'' The Lithuanian "special settlers" were kept in Buryat-Mongolia until 1958, after that the vast majority returned to Lithuania, but some stayed. They registered the society russian: Национально-культурное общество литовцев Бурятии, label=no.

Life in exile

References

Further reading