North Moldova city university hosts exhibition in memory of Lithuanians deported by Soviet regime

Chisinau, 6 November /MOLDPRES/ – "Sub cer strain" (Under the foreign sky) is the generic of an exhibition in memory of the victims of the communist regime, which was inaugurated today at the State University A. Russo (USARB) in Balti by the Embassy of Lithuania in Moldova.

The exhibition comprises 20 stands, with photographs and documents, which refer to the period of deportation of the Soviet totalitarian regime in 1940 – 1958 and illustrate conditions in the Soviet camps, where thousands of Lithuanians were placed during that period.

Rimantas Latakas, the Lithuanian ambassador to Chisinau, told at the inauguration of the exhibition about the crimes committed in his country by the Soviet occupation regime. "There were between 20 and 25 thousand people in the camps, and deportations killed a total of 28 thousand Lithuanians. Every third detainee died tortured or hunger, every third inhabitant of the country was the victim of communist terror in the 1940s and 1950s, and 400,000 people abandoned Lithuania due to the communist terror," said the Lithuanian diplomat.

Gheorghe Neagu, vice – rector of the USARB thanked the Lithuanian Embassy for their collaboration with the Balti institution and mentioned that such exhibitions to be important in the students' educational process.

At their turn, other participants in the event referred to the consequences of the Ribbentrop – Molotov Pact, which resulted in the forced Soviet annexation of the Soviet occupation regime, followed by repression and hunger. "In this respect, Moldova and Lithuania had common problems," said Lidia Padureac, head of the department of the institution in Balti.

The Lithuanian Embassy in Moldova organized several activities at the USARB and it contributed to the opening of the NATO Information Point within the library of the institution in 2010. The exhibition is open to visitors till 20 November 2017.

(Reporter L. Grubii, editor L. Alcaza)