Rainiai massacre
Encyclopedia
The Rainiai massacre was the mass murder
of between 70 and 80 Lithuanian
political prisoner
s 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 many similar massacres
carried out by Soviet forces in Lithuania, and other parts of the USSR, 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 Tartu massacre, in which almost two hundred and fifty people were murdered.
A decision had been made to carry out the massacre after the June Revolt (during which the Lithuanian Activist Front
had deposed the Soviet government in Lithuania), had taken place and Nazi Germany
had invaded
the Soviet Union
. The Soviet authorities were unable to evacuate the inmates (political prisoner
s) of the Telšiai
prison, but they did not want to abandon them, as the inmates would then have been freed by the local population or by the Germans. Therefore, a punishment squad of the Red Army
led by Dontsov was called in to "liquidate" them.
Most of the prisoners were put into trucks during the night of June 24, brought to the Rainiai forest where they were tortured and killed. Many of the victims were so mutilated, that only twenty-seven bodies could be identified after they were exhumed
, only three days later.
According to the coroner's examination after the exhumation, both the report and the testimonies of witnesses, concurred that the Soviets cut off tongues, ears, genitals, scalps, put genitals into mouths, picked out eyes, pulled off fingernails, made belts of victims' skins to tie their hands, burned them with torches and acid, crushed bones and skulls, all done while the prisoners were still alive., The organizers of the massacre included Pyotr Raslan, Boris Mironov, Nachman Dushanski
, political leader of 8th border army Mikhail Kompanyanec, NKVD
Kretinga
county deputy director Yermolayev, NKVD lieutenant Zhdanov and others.
Most of those who were killed in the Rainiai massacre had been arrested for political reasons from the time when Lithuania was occupied by the Soviet Union
in 1940. Some of them, like Vladas Petronaitis
, were arrested for their roles in the independence struggle or their societal roles in independent Lithuania ("intellectuals", politicians, lawyers, policemen and public servants). Some had been arrested as "enemies of the revolution" for their business interests, land ownership or savings, as Soviet propaganda taught that businessmen and landlords were thieves and oppressors. Other people were arrested for possession of non-communist literature (such as books which supported the idea of independent Lithuania or were written by authors considered to be in the wrong by the Soviets), owning a Lithuanian flag, not giving their crops to the Soviet authorities, and similar "crimes". Others had been arrested without any evidence, because their friends had been arrested or because someone had "denounced" them. This group included mainly younger people, such as students from the Telšiai Crafts School (aged 18 – 19), and young people from the villages around Telšiai. Many were arrested for having been members of certain parties and organizations such as Boy Scouts
. These people were not tried, but were held in the Telšiai prison until the time it was decided to carry out the massacre. While most of the prisoners of the Telšiai prison were killed in the massacre, a few were released prior to the massacre.
When the bodies of those killed in Rainiai were exhumed and reburied after the Soviets retreated from the country, the funeral turned into a mass demonstration against the former Soviet occupation.
Both the German and Soviet occupying forces tried to use the events for propaganda purposes. Since several of the organizers and perpetrators were Jewish, the Nazi German occupying force produced propaganda blaming Jewish Bolshevik activists for the massacre. Perversely, in 1942, Soviet planes dropped propaganda pamphlets in Samogitia
asking Who are those "Bolshevik martyrs"? and blaming German forces for the massacre.
The local citizenry were well aware of the Soviet responsibility and in 1942, planned to build a chapel, designed by Jonas Virakas
, to honor and remember the victims of the massacre. However, as the Soviet Union reoccupied the area again in 1944, it was not built. Throughout the Soviet occupation, discussion of the massacre was suppressed, and it was not permitted to hold memorial services commemorating it. Despite this, local people, under threat of arrest used to build crosses at the site of the Rainiai massacre; the crosses were periodically demolished by the Soviet authorities, only to spring up again.
The political organization Sąjūdis
began to discuss the massacre more openly in 1988, during the glasnost
policy of Soviet premier Mikhail Gorbachev
.
After Lithuania regained its independence, a chapel designed by Algirdas Žebrauskas was built in the Telšiai cemetery. Funded by donations, it was built in 1991, and became one of the first memorials to be erected for the people who were killed by the Soviet authorities during the Soviet occupation of Lithuania (1940–1941 and 1944–1991).
After the dissolution of the Soviet Union
, those perpetrators who had remained in Lithuania, fled to Russia and Israel. Lithuania requested their extradition
to put them on trial, which Russia has refused, saying he is 'too ill to be tried'. Some of the perpetrators have since died.
In 2001, the Šiauliai
Area Court in northwest Lithuania issued a verdict finding a former officer of the NKVD
, Pyotr Raslan, guilty of genocide
against Lithuanian civilians and sentenced him in absentia
, to life in prison. He remained protected by the Russian authorities and in 2004, Vytautas Landsbergis
, urged the Lithuanian President, to boycott the Victory Day
celebrations in Moscow, for this reason (among other reasons).
about the massacre. An investigation was carried out. In 1942 the first book about the massacre was published ("Rainių kankiniai"). The Soviet authorities attempted to document the events that took place in the first days after Germany invaded "Soviet" territory. Most of the communists of Lithuania had fled to Russia when the invasion began, some were asked to write their testimonies of the events. The Rainiai massacre was explained in the testimonies of the communists who were based in Telšiai. The leaders of Lithuanian SSR asked the perpetrators of the massacre to write these testimonies after Antanas Bimba, a Lithuanian communist who was living in USA and sending aid to USSR, found out about the massacre and demanded an explanation.
Mass murder
Mass murder is the act of murdering a large number of people , typically at the same time or over a relatively short period of time. According to the FBI, mass murder is defined as four or more murders occurring during a particular event with no cooling-off period between the murders...
of between 70 and 80 Lithuanian
Lithuanians
Lithuanians are the Baltic ethnic group native to Lithuania, where they number around 2,765,600 people. Another million or more make up the Lithuanian diaspora, largely found in countries such as the United States, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Russia, United Kingdom and Ireland. Their native language...
political prisoner
Political prisoner
According to the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, a political prisoner is ‘someone who is in prison because they have opposed or criticized the government of their own country’....
s by the NKVD
NKVD
The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs was the public and secret police organization of the Soviet Union that directly executed the rule of power of the Soviets, including political repression, during the era of Joseph Stalin....
, with help from the Red Army
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...
, in a forest near Telšiai
Telšiai
Telšiai , is a city in Lithuania with about 35,000 inhabitants. It is the capital of Telšiai County and Samogitia region, and it is located on Lake Mastis.-Names:...
, Lithuania
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...
, during the night of June 24–25, 1941. It was one of many similar massacres
NKVD massacres of prisoners
The NKVD prisoner massacres were a series of mass executions committed by the Soviet NKVD against prisoners in Eastern Europe, primarily Poland, Ukraine, the Baltic states, Bessarabia and other parts of the Soviet Union from which the Red Army was withdrawing after the German invasion in 1941...
carried out by Soviet forces in Lithuania, and other parts of the USSR, 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 Tartu massacre, in which almost two hundred and fifty people were murdered.
The Massacre
Lithuanian Activist Front
Lithuanian Activist Front or LAF was a short-lived resistance organization established in 1940 after Lithuania was occupied by the Soviet Union. The goal of the organization was to liberate Lithuania and re-establish its independence...
had deposed the Soviet government in Lithuania), had taken place and Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
had invaded
Operation Barbarossa
Operation Barbarossa was the code name for Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II that began on 22 June 1941. Over 4.5 million troops of the Axis powers invaded the USSR along a front., the largest invasion in the history of warfare...
the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
. The Soviet authorities were unable to evacuate the inmates (political prisoner
Political prisoner
According to the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, a political prisoner is ‘someone who is in prison because they have opposed or criticized the government of their own country’....
s) of the Telšiai
Telšiai
Telšiai , is a city in Lithuania with about 35,000 inhabitants. It is the capital of Telšiai County and Samogitia region, and it is located on Lake Mastis.-Names:...
prison, but they did not want to abandon them, as the inmates would then have been freed by the local population or by the Germans. Therefore, a punishment squad of the Red Army
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...
led by Dontsov was called in to "liquidate" them.
Most of the prisoners were put into trucks during the night of June 24, brought to the Rainiai forest where they were tortured and killed. Many of the victims were so mutilated, that only twenty-seven bodies could be identified after they were exhumed
Exhumed
Exhumed may refer to:*Exhumation*Exhumed , a first-person shooter*Exhumed , a deathgrind band* Exhumed Films, a Philadelphia-based "organization* Exhumed river channel, a ridge of sandstone...
, only three days later.
According to the coroner's examination after the exhumation, both the report and the testimonies of witnesses, concurred that the Soviets cut off tongues, ears, genitals, scalps, put genitals into mouths, picked out eyes, pulled off fingernails, made belts of victims' skins to tie their hands, burned them with torches and acid, crushed bones and skulls, all done while the prisoners were still alive., The organizers of the massacre included Pyotr Raslan, Boris Mironov, Nachman Dushanski
Nachman Dushanski
Nachman Dushanski was an officer of Soviet security agencies in the Lithuanian SSR for over thirty years. He was heavily involved in suppression of the Lithuanian partisans, who fought against Soviet occupation of Lithuania...
, political leader of 8th border army Mikhail Kompanyanec, NKVD
NKVD
The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs was the public and secret police organization of the Soviet Union that directly executed the rule of power of the Soviets, including political repression, during the era of Joseph Stalin....
Kretinga
Kretinga
Kretinga is a city in the Klaipėda County, Lithuania. It is the capital of the Kretinga district municipality. It is located east of the popular Baltic Sea resort town of Palanga, and about north of Lithuania's 3rd largest city and principal seaport, Klaipėda.The population was listed as 21,423...
county deputy director Yermolayev, NKVD lieutenant Zhdanov and others.
The Victims
Occupation of Baltic Republics
The occupation of the Baltic states refers to the military occupation of the three Baltic states: Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania by the Soviet Union under the auspices of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact on 14 June 1940 followed by their incorporation into the USSR as constituent republics, unrecognised...
in 1940. Some of them, like Vladas Petronaitis
Vladas Petronaitis
Vladas Petronaitis , was a Lithuanian patriot, soldier and martyr. He was tortured and killed during the infamous Rainiai massacre by members of the NKVD, and the Red Army.- Early life and education :...
, were arrested for their roles in the independence struggle or their societal roles in independent Lithuania ("intellectuals", politicians, lawyers, policemen and public servants). Some had been arrested as "enemies of the revolution" for their business interests, land ownership or savings, as Soviet propaganda taught that businessmen and landlords were thieves and oppressors. Other people were arrested for possession of non-communist literature (such as books which supported the idea of independent Lithuania or were written by authors considered to be in the wrong by the Soviets), owning a Lithuanian flag, not giving their crops to the Soviet authorities, and similar "crimes". Others had been arrested without any evidence, because their friends had been arrested or because someone had "denounced" them. This group included mainly younger people, such as students from the Telšiai Crafts School (aged 18 – 19), and young people from the villages around Telšiai. Many were arrested for having been members of certain parties and organizations such as Boy Scouts
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 2,311 members as of 2011.-History of Lithuanian Scouting:...
. These people were not tried, but were held in the Telšiai prison until the time it was decided to carry out the massacre. While most of the prisoners of the Telšiai prison were killed in the massacre, a few were released prior to the massacre.
After the Massacre
Both the German and Soviet occupying forces tried to use the events for propaganda purposes. Since several of the organizers and perpetrators were Jewish, the Nazi German occupying force produced propaganda blaming Jewish Bolshevik activists for the massacre. Perversely, in 1942, Soviet planes dropped propaganda pamphlets in Samogitia
Samogitia
Samogitia is one of the five ethnographic regions of Lithuania. It is located in northwestern Lithuania. Its largest city is Šiauliai/Šiaulē. The region has a long and distinct cultural history, reflected in the existence of the Samogitian dialect...
asking Who are those "Bolshevik martyrs"? and blaming German forces for the massacre.
The local citizenry were well aware of the Soviet responsibility and in 1942, planned to build a chapel, designed by Jonas Virakas
Jonas Virakas
Jonas Virakas was born in Seredžius town of Kaunas district. He studied at Kaunas Art School, work as sketch-maker for the architect Vladimiras Dubeneckis till 1934 and continued architecture studies at Kaunas Art Institute from 1940. From 1942, J...
, to honor and remember the victims of the massacre. However, as the Soviet Union reoccupied the area again in 1944, it was not built. Throughout the Soviet occupation, discussion of the massacre was suppressed, and it was not permitted to hold memorial services commemorating it. Despite this, local people, under threat of arrest used to build crosses at the site of the Rainiai massacre; the crosses were periodically demolished by the Soviet authorities, only to spring up again.
The political organization Sąjūdis
Sajudis
Sąjūdis initially known as the Reform Movement of Lithuania, is the political organization which led the struggle for Lithuanian independence in the late 1980s and early 1990s. It was established on June 3, 1988 and was led by Vytautas Landsbergis...
began to discuss the massacre more openly in 1988, during the glasnost
Glasnost
Glasnost was the policy of maximal publicity, openness, and transparency in the activities of all government institutions in the Soviet Union, together with freedom of information, introduced by Mikhail Gorbachev in the second half of the 1980s...
policy of Soviet premier Mikhail Gorbachev
Mikhail Gorbachev
Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev is a former Soviet statesman, having served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1985 until 1991, and as the last head of state of the USSR, having served from 1988 until its dissolution in 1991...
.
After Lithuania regained its independence, a chapel designed by Algirdas Žebrauskas was built in the Telšiai cemetery. Funded by donations, it was built in 1991, and became one of the first memorials to be erected for the people who were killed by the Soviet authorities during the Soviet occupation of Lithuania (1940–1941 and 1944–1991).
Prosecutions
The perpetrators of the massacre continued to hold high positions in the Soviet Union, some were awarded various medals. Pyotr Raslan, for example, was employed as an official in the Soviet Ministry of Religious Affairs.After the dissolution of the Soviet Union
Dissolution of the Soviet Union
The dissolution of the Soviet Union was the disintegration of the federal political structures and central government of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , resulting in the independence of all fifteen republics of the Soviet Union between March 11, 1990 and December 25, 1991...
, those perpetrators who had remained in Lithuania, fled to Russia and Israel. Lithuania requested their extradition
Extradition
Extradition is the official process whereby one nation or state surrenders a suspected or convicted criminal to another nation or state. Between nation states, extradition is regulated by treaties...
to put them on trial, which Russia has refused, saying he is 'too ill to be tried'. Some of the perpetrators have since died.
In 2001, the Šiauliai
Šiauliai
Šiauliai , is the fourth largest city in Lithuania, with a population of 133,900. It is the capital of Šiauliai County. Unofficially, the city is the capital of Northern Lithuania.-Names:...
Area Court in northwest Lithuania issued a verdict finding a former officer of the NKVD
NKVD
The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs was the public and secret police organization of the Soviet Union that directly executed the rule of power of the Soviets, including political repression, during the era of Joseph Stalin....
, Pyotr Raslan, guilty of genocide
Genocide
Genocide is defined as "the deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of an ethnic, racial, religious, or national group", though what constitutes enough of a "part" to qualify as genocide has been subject to much debate by legal scholars...
against Lithuanian civilians and sentenced him in absentia
In absentia
In absentia is Latin for "in the absence". In legal use, it usually means a trial at which the defendant is not physically present. The phrase is not ordinarily a mere observation, but suggests recognition of violation to a defendant's right to be present in court proceedings in a criminal trial.In...
, to life in prison. He remained protected by the Russian authorities and in 2004, Vytautas Landsbergis
Vytautas Landsbergis
Professor Vytautas Landsbergis is a Lithuanian conservative politician and Member of the European Parliament. He was the first head of state of Lithuania after its independence declaration from the Soviet Union, and served as the Head of the Lithuanian Parliament Seimas...
, urged the Lithuanian President, to boycott the Victory Day
Victory Day (Eastern Europe)
Victory Day or 9 May marks the capitulation of Nazi Germany to the Soviet Union in the Second World War...
celebrations in Moscow, for this reason (among other reasons).
Documentation of the massacre
The massacre was well documented by both the Lithuanians and the Soviets. Examination of the bodies was done after the exhumation. The full account of the tortures and wounds inflicted on the victims was given by the surgeons who had examined the exhumed bodies, such as Dr. Leonardas Plechavičius and others. After the war Dr. Plechavičius delivered a speech before the US House of RepresentativesUnited States House of Representatives
The United States House of Representatives is one of the two Houses of the United States Congress, the bicameral legislature which also includes the Senate.The composition and powers of the House are established in Article One of the Constitution...
about the massacre. An investigation was carried out. In 1942 the first book about the massacre was published ("Rainių kankiniai"). The Soviet authorities attempted to document the events that took place in the first days after Germany invaded "Soviet" territory. Most of the communists of Lithuania had fled to Russia when the invasion began, some were asked to write their testimonies of the events. The Rainiai massacre was explained in the testimonies of the communists who were based in Telšiai. The leaders of Lithuanian SSR asked the perpetrators of the massacre to write these testimonies after Antanas Bimba, a Lithuanian communist who was living in USA and sending aid to USSR, found out about the massacre and demanded an explanation.
Further reading
"Telšiai Region. History and Cultural Heritage" - Adomas Butrimas."Telšių ir Kretingos kontrrevoliucionieriai fašistai ir jų siekimai" - A testimony of the events by Domas Rocius, a Lithuanian communist."Rainių kankiniai"."Rainių tragedija" - Arvydas Anušauskas, Birutė Burauskaitė.See also
- NKVD massacres of prisonersNKVD massacres of prisonersThe NKVD prisoner massacres were a series of mass executions committed by the Soviet NKVD against prisoners in Eastern Europe, primarily Poland, Ukraine, the Baltic states, Bessarabia and other parts of the Soviet Union from which the Red Army was withdrawing after the German invasion in 1941...