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Rainiai Massacre
The Rainiai massacre ( lt, Rainių žudynės) was the mass murder of between 70 and 80 Lithuanians, Lithuanian political prisoners by the NKVD, with help from the Red Army, in a forest near Telšiai, Lithuania, during the night of June 24–25, 1941. It was one of NKVD massacres of prisoners, many similar massacres carried out by Soviet forces in Lithuania, and other parts of the Soviet Union, during June 1941. Several thousand people were killed in these massacres. The Rainiai massacre was far from the largest of these massacres, but it is one of the best-known, due to the brutality and tortures inflicted on the victims by the perpetrators. Similar atrocities were committed in other places, like the NKVD prisoner massacre in Tartu, Tartu massacre, in which almost two hundred and fifty people were murdered. Massacre A decision had been made to carry out the massacre after the June Uprising in Lithuania, June Revolt had taken place, during which the Lithuanian Activist Front had de ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mass Murder
Mass murder is the act of murdering a number of people, typically simultaneously or over a relatively short period of time and in close geographic proximity. The United States Congress defines mass killings as the killings of three or more people during an event with no "cooling-off period" between the homicides. A mass murder typically occurs in a single location where one or more people kill several others. A mass murder may be committed by individuals or organizations whereas a spree killing is committed by one or two individuals. Mass murderers differ from spree killers, who kill at two or more locations with almost no time break between murders and are not defined by the number of victims, and serial killers, who may kill people over long periods of time. The incidents of mass shootings are continuing to increase. By terrorist organizations Many terrorist groups in recent times have used the tactic of killing many victims to fulfill their political aims. Such incidents h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nachman Dushanski
Nachman Dushanski ( lt, Nachmanas Dušanskis, russian: Нахман Ноахович Душанский, he, נחמן דושנסקי; December 29, 1919 in Šiauliai – February 20, 2008 in Haifa) was a Lithuanian officer of Soviet security agencies. For over thirty years, he was involved in the suppression of the Lithuanian partisans who fought against the Soviet occupation. In Russia, he was regarded as a war hero and was awarded the Medal for Courage, Order of the Patriotic War, and Order of Lenin, while many Lithuanians perceived him as a war criminal for the killing and torture of resistance fighters. In 1989, Dushanski immigrated to Israel. After Lithuania declared independence in 1990, Lithuanian prosecutors began a case for 9 criminal activities, but Israel refused to extradite him. Early life He was born in to a large Jewish family with a long military background. Dushanki's father was blinded during World War I and could not provide for the large family. T ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jonas Virakas
Jonas Virakas (5 September 1905 – 30 April 1988) was born in the town of Seredžius in the Kaunas district. He studied at the Kaunas Art School, work as a sketch-maker for the architect Vladimiras Dubeneckis until 1934, and continued architecture studies at the Kaunas Art Institute in 1940. Starting in 1942, Virakas started teaching design and architectural drawing as well as interior design and decoration at the Kaunas Art Institute. In 1944, he became the dean of the Decorative Architecture Department. Starting in 1949, the architect worked at the Kaunas Fine Art Workshop for more than thirty years. Virakas created a number interiors for drugstores, civil registry offices, halls, and bookstores. His most prominent work is the interior design of the Tulpė Cafe in Kaunas and the central bookstore in Kaunas. The interiors created by this artist are remarkable for their simplicity, logical and constructive distribution of space, and use of decorative elements. Jonas Virakas ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Samogitia
Samogitia or Žemaitija ( Samogitian: ''Žemaitėjė''; see below for alternative and historical names) is one of the five cultural regions of Lithuania and formerly one of the two core administrative divisions of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania alongside Lithuania proper. Žemaitija is located in northwestern Lithuania. Its largest city is Šiauliai. Žemaitija has a long and distinct cultural history, reflected in the existence of the Samogitian language. Etymology and alternative names Ruthenian sources mentioned the region as жемотьская земля, ''Žemot'skaja zemlja''; this gave rise to its Polish form, , and probably to the Middle High German . In Latin texts, the name is usually written as etc. The area has long been known to its residents and to other Lithuanians exclusively as Žemaitija (the name Samogitia is no longer in use within Lithuania and has not been used for at least two centuries); Žemaitija means "lowlands" in Lithuanian. The region is also ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Propaganda Pamphlets
Propaganda is communication that is primarily used to influence or persuade an audience to further an agenda, which may not be objective and may be selectively presenting facts to encourage a particular synthesis or perception, or using loaded language to produce an emotional rather than a rational response to the information that is being presented. Propaganda can be found in news and journalism, government, advertising, entertainment, education, and activism and is often associated with material which is prepared by governments as part of war efforts, political campaigns, health campaigns, revolutionaries, big businesses, ultra-religious organizations, the media, and certain individuals such as soapboxers. In the 20th century, the English term ''propaganda'' was often associated with a manipulative approach, but historically, propaganda has been a neutral descriptive term of any material that promotes certain opinions or ideologies. Equivalent non-English terms have also lar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lietuvos Skautija
Lietuvos skautija, the primary national Scouting organization of Lithuania, became a member of the World Organization of the Scout Movement in 1997. The coeducational Lietuvos skautija has 1,446 members as of 2012. History of Lithuanian Scouting Scouting first came to Lithuania in 1909, as part of the Russian Empire. The indigenous Lithuanian Scout movement began in 1918, when the first Scout patrol and then troop was founded in Vilnius by Scouter Petras Jurgėla. In 1922, the first Scout General Assembly united the Lithuanian Scout Movement into the Scout Association of Lithuania. In 1924, the Scout Association of Lithuania was registered as a member of the World Bureau. Lithuania was a member of the World Organization of the Scout Movement from 1923 to 1940. Scouting prospered until 1940, when occupation forces banned Scouting.John S. Wilson (1959), Scouting Round the World. First edition, Blandford Press. p. 159 In 1940, the Soviet occupation of Lithuania resulted in Scouti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Telšiai Crafts School
Telšiai (; Samogitian: ''Telšē'') is a city in Lithuania with about 21,499 inhabitants. It is the capital of Telšiai County and Samogitia region, and it is located on the shores of Lake Mastis. Telšiai is one of the oldest cities in Lithuania, probably dating earlier than the 14th century. Between the 15th and 20th centuries, Telšiai became a district capital and between 1795 and 1802 it was included in the Vilnius Governorate. In 1873, Telšiai was transferred to the Kovno Governorate. Names The name Telšiai is a variant of the same Lithuanian language root (''-telš-'', ''-tilž-'') as Tilžė with the meaning connected to water. The name Telšiai or Telšē in Samogitian dialect of Lithuanian is derived from a verb ''telkšoti'' (literally, ''to be flooded with water'', ''to splash'', etc.). The name of Telšiai has been recorded in different forms and different languages throughout its history. Most of them are derived from ''Telšē'' in Samogitian dialect. Some ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lithuanian Flag
The national flag of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos vėliava) consists of a horizontal tricolour of yellow, green, and red. It was adopted on 25 April 1918 during Lithuania's first period of independence (in the 20th century) from 1918 to 1940, which ceased with the occupation first by the Soviet Union, and then by Nazi Germany (1941–1944). During the post-World War II Soviet occupation, from 1945 until 1989, the Soviet Lithuanian flag consisted first of a generic red Soviet flag with the name of the republic, then changed to the red flag with white and green bands at the bottom. The flag was then re-adopted on 20 March 1989, almost a year before the re-establishment of Lithuania's independence and almost three years before the collapse of the Soviet Union. The last alteration to the current flag occurred in 2004, when the aspect ratio changed from 1:2 to 3:5. History Historical state flag The earliest known flags with a Lithuanian identity were recorded in the 15th-century ' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Soviet Propaganda
Propaganda in the Soviet Union was the practice of state-directed communication to promote class conflict, internationalism, the goals of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, and the party itself. The main Soviet censorship body, Glavlit, was employed not only to eliminate any undesirable printed materials but also "to ensure that the correct ideological spin was put on every published item." Under Stalinism, deviation from the dictates of official propaganda was punished by execution and labor camps. Afterwards, such punitive measures were replaced by punitive psychiatry, prison, denial of work, and loss of citizenship. "Today a man only talks freely to his wife – at night, with the blankets pulled over his head," the writer Isaac Babel privately told a trusted friend.Robert Conquest ''Reflections on a Ravaged Century'' (2000) , pp. 101–111. Theory of propaganda According to historian Peter Kenez, "the Russian socialists have contributed nothing to the theoretical dis ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vladas Petronaitis
Vladas Petronaitis (November 2, 1888 – June 25, 1941) was a Lithuanian military officer. He was tortured and executed in the infamous Rainiai massacre by members of the NKVD. Early life and education Petronaitis was born on November 2, 1888 to a family of Petras Petronaitis, a well-to-do farmer, in Plauciškiai village, Rozalimas Volost, Ponevezhsky Uyezd, Kovno Governorate. The village was at that time part of the Russian Empire as a result of the partition of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1795. The family's circumstances were good and, after the graduation from the Gymnasium of Mitava, he studied mathematics and science at the Saint Petersburg State University. In Saint Petersburg, he shared a house with his friend . In those days, many prominent Lithuanians studied in St. Petersburg, then the capital of the Russian Empire, including the future Lithuanian President Antanas Smetona and Prime Minister Augustinas Voldemaras. After graduating in 1913, he rem ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Occupation Of Baltic Republics
The Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania were invaded and occupied in June 1940 by the Soviet Union, under the leadership of Stalin and auspices of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact that had been signed between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union in August 1939, immediately before the outbreak of World War II. The three countries were then annexed into the Soviet Union (formally as " constituent republics") in August 1940. The United States and most other Western countries never recognised this incorporation, considering it illegal. On 22 June 1941, Nazi Germany attacked the Soviet Union and within weeks occupied the Baltic territories. In July 1941, the Third Reich incorporated the Baltic territory into its ''Reichskommissariat Ostland''. As a result of the Red Army's Baltic Offensive of 1944, the Soviet Union recaptured most of the Baltic states and trapped the remaining German forces in the Courland pocket until their formal surrender in May 1945. Latvian plenipotentiar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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