Krakūnai
Encyclopedia
Krakūnai is a village in Lithuania
on the border with Belarus
. It is an old village, mentioned as early as 1433 when Jonas Goštautas
received Dieveniškės
and 26 surrounding villages from Grand Duke Sigismund Kęstutaitis
. The village had 302 residents in 1931, 283 in 1959, 249 in 1970, and 215 in 1979. According to the 2001 census, it had 127 residents. On May 19, 1991, Lithuanian border patrol Gintaras Žagunis was killed in the village by Soviet OMON
forces. It was the first deadly assault on a Lithuanian border post
. A five-meter tall monument in his memory was erected in 2004.
Lithuania
Lithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the biggest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, whereby to the west lie Sweden and Denmark...
on the border with Belarus
Belarus
Belarus , officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, bordered clockwise by Russia to the northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Its capital is Minsk; other major cities include Brest, Grodno , Gomel ,...
. It is an old village, mentioned as early as 1433 when Jonas Goštautas
Jonas Goštautas
Jonas Gostautas or Goštautas was a Lithuanian nobleman from the Grand Duchy of Lithuania of the Goštautai noble family, a politician and skillful land owner...
received Dieveniškės
Dieveniškes
Dieveniškės is a town in the Vilnius County of Lithuania, located about away from the Belarusian border in the so-called Dieveniškės appendix. Dieveniškės is surrounded by the Dieveniškės Regional Park.- History :...
and 26 surrounding villages from Grand Duke Sigismund Kęstutaitis
Sigismund Kestutaitis
Sigismund Kęstutaitis was the Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1432 to 1440. Sigismund was his baptismal name; Sigismund's pagan Lithuanian birth name is unknown. He was son of the Grand Duke of Lithuania Kęstutis and his wife Birutė....
. The village had 302 residents in 1931, 283 in 1959, 249 in 1970, and 215 in 1979. According to the 2001 census, it had 127 residents. On May 19, 1991, Lithuanian border patrol Gintaras Žagunis was killed in the village by Soviet OMON
OMON
OMOH is a generic name for the system of special units of militsiya within the Russian and earlier the Soviet MVD...
forces. It was the first deadly assault on a Lithuanian border post
Soviet OMON assaults on Lithuanian border posts
Several Soviet OMON assaults on Lithuanian border posts occurred in 1991, after Lithuania declared its independence from the Soviet Union on March 11, 1990. As a Soviet republic, the Lithuanian SSR did not have a state border with customs or checkpoints...
. A five-meter tall monument in his memory was erected in 2004.