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166-560: On All Saints' Day in 1956, a spontaneous anti-Soviet demonstration started in the cemetery in support of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 . After smaller incidents in 1957 and 1958, Soviet authorities decided to demolish the cemetery and turn it into a recreational park. Families were given a few months to rebury their relatives elsewhere (many were moved to the Petrašiūnai Cemetery ). Tombstones, monuments, crypts and

332-530: A Lithuania–USSR agreement on mutual assistance was signed in Moscow on 10 October 1939, allowing a Soviet military presence in Lithuania. A total of 18,786 Red Army troops were deployed at strategically important locations within the country: Alytus , Prienai , Gaižiūnai , and Naujoji Vilnia . This move effectively ended Lithuanian neutrality and brought it directly under Soviet influence. While Germany

498-661: A democratic socialist political system based upon land reform and (public) state ownership in the economy ; Hungarian membership to the United Nations ; and all freedoms and rights for the citizens of Hungary. After Veres proclaimed the manifesto demanding Hungarian sovereignty, the crowd chanted the Hungarian patriotic poem National Song ( Nemzeti dal ) , which the Soviet-controlled Rákosi government of Hungary had banned from public performance;

664-574: A transatlantic flight from New York to Kaunas, was constructed by architect Vytautas Landsbergis-Žemkalnis . It was meant as a temporary measure until the Christ's Resurrection Church was completed. On 1 November 1937, bodies of Girėnas and Darius were moved to the mausoleum. In 1941, during World War II, their bodies were removed to the Faculty of Medicine of Vytautas Magnus University and hid in 1944. They were buried in Šančiai in 1964. The mausoleum

830-629: A Catholic chapel were demolished. The Soviets installed a monument with ashes of four communists executed after the December 1926 coup . After Lithuania regained independence in 1990 , the Soviet monument was moved to Grūtas Park . The monument to Lithuanian soldiers was reconstructed, and new monuments dedicated to the participants of the June Uprising and Lithuanian partisans were erected. People were traditionally buried in churchyards but as

996-923: A bag, at the doorway raped a seventy-year-old woman. On 10 December, two soldiers shot a passing elderly woman. In Klaipėda Lithuanian men aged 17 to 48 were arrested and deported. In December 1944, Chief of the Priekulė KGB Kazakov wrote to the LSSR Minister of the Interior Josifas Bertašiūnas that due to the soldiers' violence most of the houses in Priekulė were unsuitable for living in: windows were knocked out, fireplaces disassembled, furniture and agricultural inventory broken up and exported as scrap. Many Red Army soldiers engaged in robbery, rape, and murder, and Lithuanians who saw soldiers at night would often run from their homes and hide. "On

1162-570: A bid to integrate the country into the economic system of the USSR. The output of major factories would be exported from the republic as there was a lack of local demand. This process of industrialisation was followed by urbanisation, as villages for the workers had to be established or expanded in the vicinity of the new factories, resulting in new towns such as Baltoji Vokė , Naujoji Akmenė , Elektrėnai and Sniečkus or expansion of old ones such as Jonava . Residents would be relocated from elsewhere in

1328-535: A cemetery as it was surrounded by busy city streets and residential buildings. Discussions about relocating the cemetery started as early as twenty years after its opening, but no solutions were found. During World War I, hundreds of Russian, German, and Lithuanian soldiers were buried at the cemetery. Statistics about burials was collected since 1933: 507 burials in 1933, 673 in 1934, 564 in 1935, 586 in 1936, 626 in 1937, 740 in 1938, 595 in 1939. In 1920s and 1930s, several buildings (churches, schools) were constructed on

1494-759: A combined conference in Budapest that decided to end the nationwide labour strikes and to resume work on 5 November, with the more important councils sending delegates to the Parliament to assure the Nagy government of their support. On 24 October 1956, the Politburo of the USSR discussed how to resolve the political revolts that had occurred in Warsaw Pact countries, specifically the Polish October and

1660-478: A delegation to deliver their demands in the Parliament, but government guards and a company of the Ministry of Defence's armoured regiment, backed by seven Soviet T-54 tanks lined up in front of the Parliament, kept the demonstrators away from the building. The events at Astoria were repeated, with demonstrators trying to make friends with the Soviet soldiers, handing out bilingual leaflets and some climbing on top of

1826-598: A document signed by Field Marshall Paul von Hindenburg and other German officers was imbedded into the foundations of the monument. It was destroyed when the cemetery was closed in 1959. About 1,000 to 1,500 people who died during the Lithuanian Wars of Independence (1918–1920) were buried in the cemetery. In 1927–1930, the Lithuanian military cleaned up these military graves (created new paths, replaced rotten crosses, planted flowers, etc.). A tradition to honor

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1992-636: A mistaken imitation of the Anglo–French intervention to Egypt. In Russia, on 30 October 1956, the Presidium of the CPSU decided to not depose the new Hungarian government. Marshal Zhukov said: "We should withdraw troops from Budapest, and, if necessary, withdraw from Hungary, as a whole. This is a lesson for us in the military-political sphere". The Presidium then adopted and published the Declaration of

2158-456: A national radio broadcast that he had deposed Smetona, and was now president in his own right. On 17 June, the cabinet resolved that Smetona had effectively abandoned his post by leaving the country and confirmed Merkys as president without any qualifiers. Later that day, under pressure from Moscow, on 17 June 1940, Merkys appointed Justas Paleckis prime minister and resigned soon after. Paleckis then assumed presidential duties, and Vincas Krėvė

2324-718: A neutral country in the geopolitical cold war between the US and the USSR. Austria's declaration of geopolitical neutrality allowed the Communist government of PM Nagy to publicly consider "the possibility of Hungary adopting a neutral status on the Austrian pattern". In June 1956, the Polish Army violently repressed the workers' uprising at Poznań against the economic policies of the Polish People's Republic . In October,

2490-483: A place of passive anti-Soviet resistance, particularly on the All Saints' Day when Lithuanians visit graves of their relatives to light a candle. A particularly large anti-Soviet demonstration broke out on All Saints' Day in 1956 in support of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 . According to KGB data, 124 people were tried for participating in the demonstration. Smaller incidents repeated in 1957 and 1958. Therefore,

2656-664: A significant amount of the Soviet Union's industrial and agricultural output: 22 percent of its electric welding apparatus, 11.1 percent of its metal-cutting lathes, 2.3 percent of its mineral fertilizers, 4.8 percent of its alternating current electric motors, 2.0 percent of its paper, 2.4 percent of its furniture, 5.2 percent of its socks, 3.5 percent of underwear and knitwear, 1.4 percent of leather footwear, 5.3 percent of household refrigerators, 6.5 percent of television sets, 3.7 percent of meat, 4.7 percent of butter, 1.8 percent of canned products, and 1.9 percent of sugar. Lithuania

2822-525: A smaller scale. The last deportations took place in 1953, when people were deported to the district of Tomsk and the regions of Altai and Krasnoyarsk. Even after the guerrilla resistance had been quelled, Soviet authorities failed to suppress the movement for Lithuania's independence. Underground dissident groups had been active from the 1950s, publishing periodicals and Catholic literature. They fostered national culture, celebrated historical events, instigated patriotism and encouraged hopes for independence. In

2988-544: A special report on the situation in the Klaipėda Region , the head of the local NKGB operational group wrote that: A beautiful city, Šilutė , left by the Germans without a battle, currently looks repulsive: there is not one remaining store, almost no flats that are suitable for living. ... Metal scrap collection teams are blowing up working agricultural machinery, engines of various kinds, stealing valuable equipment from

3154-709: The Budapest University of Technology and Economics had reestablished the MEFESZ Students' union , which the Rákosi government earlier had banned for their politically incorrect politics. Initially, the Hungarian People's Republic was a socialist state headed by the Communist government of Mátyás Rákosi (r. 1947–1956), a Stalinist who was beholden to the USSR. To ensure ideological compliance within his Stalinist government, Rákosi used

3320-598: The Eastern Bloc , including the Hungarian People's Republic. The geopolitical principles of the Warsaw Pact defence treaty included "respect for the independence and [the] sovereignty of [the member] states" and the practise of "non-interference in their internal affairs". Then, on 15 May 1955, a day after the USSR established the Warsaw Pact, the Austrian State Treaty established Austria as

3486-814: The Hungarian Social Democratic Party merged with the Communist Party and became the Hungarian Working People's Party , whose candidate stood unopposed in the 1949 Hungarian parliamentary election . Afterwards, on 20 August 1949, the Hungarian People's Republic was proclaimed and established as a socialist state, with whom the USSR then concorded the COMECON treaty of mutual assistance, which allowed stationing troops of Red Army soldiers in Hungary. Based upon

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3652-536: The Hungarian Uprising , was an attempted countrywide revolution against the government of the Hungarian People's Republic (1949–1989) and the policies caused by the government's subordination to the Soviet Union (USSR). The uprising lasted 12 days before being crushed by Soviet tanks and troops on 4 November 1956. Thousands were killed and wounded and nearly a quarter of a million Hungarians fled

3818-634: The Hungarian Working People's Party ( Magyar Dolgozók Pártja ). The new government of Imre Nagy disbanded the ÁVH, declared Hungary's withdrawal from the Warsaw Pact , and pledged to re-establish free elections. By the end of October the intense fighting had subsided. Although initially willing to negotiate the withdrawal of the Soviet Army from Hungary, the USSR repressed the Hungarian Revolution on 4 November 1956, and fought

3984-837: The Kingdom of Romania , and the Kingdom of Bulgaria . In 1941, the Royal Hungarian Army participated in the Nazi invasion of Yugoslavia (6 April 1941) and in Operation Barbarossa (22 June 1941), the invasion of the USSR. In the event, by 1944, the Red Army were en route to the Kingdom of Hungary, after first having repelled the Royal Hungarian Army and the armies of the other Axis Powers from

4150-834: The Lithuanian Partisans Declaration of 1949 , the Partisan Alley was unveiled in the park. The path leading to the Mother of Those Who Perished for Freedom of Lithuania is lined with ten stelas – one introductory and one for each of the nine districts of the anti-Soviet Lithuanian partisans . Some of the notable people buried in the cemetery include: [REDACTED] Media related to Ramybė Park (Kaunas) at Wikimedia Commons Hungarian Revolution of 1956 Soviet invasion and victory The Hungarian Revolution of 1956 (23 October – 4 November 1956; Hungarian : 1956-os forradalom ), also known as

4316-665: The Neris river ; on 19 August a fifteen-minute firefight took place between the garrison soldiers and prison guards; on 22 August drunk officers shot at each other. On 1 October 1944, Chief of the Kaunas NKVD G. Svečnikov reported that on the night of 19 October two aviation unit soldiers killed the Mavraušaitis family during a burglary. On 17 January 1945, Chairman of the Alytus Executive Committee requested

4482-641: The Russian SFSR 's declaration of sovereignty on 12 June meant that the Soviet Union could not enforce Lithuania's retention. While other republics held the union-wide referendum in March to restructure the Soviet Union in a loose form , Lithuania, along with Estonia , Latvia , Armenia , Georgia , and Moldova did not take part. Lithuania held an independence referendum earlier that month, with 93.2% voting for it. Iceland immediately recognised Lithuania's independence. Other countries followed suit after

4648-593: The Sixteen Political, Economic, and Ideological Points against the USSR's geopolitical hegemony upon Hungary. The Hungarian Writers' Union ceremoniously proclaimed Hungary's anti-Soviet political solidarity with anti-communist reformers in Poland when they laid a commemorative wreath at the statue of the Polish hero Gen. Józef Zachariasz Bem who also was a hero of the Hungarian Revolution of 1848 ; likewise,

4814-599: The Soviet Union signed the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact , which contained agreements to divide Europe into spheres of influence , with Lithuania falling into Germany's sphere of influence. On 28 September 1939, the USSR and Germany signed the Frontier Treaty and its secret protocol, by which Lithuania was placed in the USSR's sphere of influence in exchange for Germany gaining an increased share of Polish territory, which had already been occupied. The next day,

4980-500: The Soviet authorities decided to demolish the cemetery. Relocation of some of the famous burials to the Petrašiūnai Cemetery was paid for by the government. Relatives had until June 1959 to request reburials at other cemeteries. Many bodies were moved to Petrašiunai, Panemunė, Senava, Eiguliai and other cemeteries. Many others, including some famous people, remained buried at the cemetery if no relatives submitted requests. For example,

5146-582: The Soviet occupation and annexation illegal and, like the other two Baltic States, claimed state continuity . This legal continuity has been recognised by most Western powers . The Soviet authorities considered the independence declaration illegal, but after the January Events in Lithuania and failed 1991 Soviet coup attempt in Moscow, the Soviet Union itself recognized Lithuanian independence on 6 September 1991. On 23 August 1939, Nazi Germany and

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5312-570: The Stalin Monument in Budapest , which had been erected in place of a razed church, in 1951; and, by 21:30 hrs – an hour and a half later – the nationalist and anti-communist protestors had destroyed the eight-metre-tall statue of Josef Stalin. Also at 20:00 hrs, a crowd of nationalist and anti-communist protestors had gathered outside the Magyar Rádió building, which was guarded by the ÁVH secret police. Violence soon occurred between

5478-629: The failed coup in August , with the State Council of the Soviet Union recognising Lithuania's independence on 6 September 1991. The Soviet Union officially ceased to exist on 26 December 1991. It was agreed that the Soviet Army (later the Russian Army) must leave Lithuania because it was stationed without any legal reason. Its troops withdrew in 1993. The first secretaries of the Communist Party of Lithuania were: Collectivization in

5644-814: The 1970s, dissidents established the Lithuanian Liberty League under Antanas Terleckas. Founded in Vilnius in the wake of an international conference in Helsinki , Finland, which recognised the borders established after the Second World War, the Lithuanian Helsinki Group demanded that Lithuania's occupation be recognised as illegal and the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact be condemned. The dissidents ensured that

5810-457: The 1980s, the USSR sank into a deep economic crisis. In 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev was elected head of the USSR's Communist party and undertook internal reforms which had the effect of liberalising society (whilst actually increasing the economic chaos) and a new approach to foreign policy that effectively ended the Cold War. This encouraged the activity of anti-communist movements within the USSR,

5976-492: The Carmelite Cemetery. The cemetery was divided into plots for four religious communities: southern section for Eastern Orthodox , largest central section for Roman Catholics , northern section for Evangelical Lutherans and Muslims . It is believed that the first burial took place in 1850. The cemetery was not planned and burials were made haphazardly without clear rows or paths. It was not an ideal location for

6142-568: The Catholic plot. During the Soviet era, it was a post office. After the independence, housed the Museum of Resistance and Deportations until 2014. A two-floor wooden primary school in the Lutheran plot was constructed in 1898. The Lutheran community also built a German gymnasium based on a project by a Swiss architect. The project was completed only partially. The construction started in 1922 and

6308-579: The Church of the Resurrection. The new church was consecrated in September 1935. The Church of the Resurrection was closed by the Soviet authorities in 1962. It was restored and reopened in 2000. The Catholic plot had a wooden chapel that was moved from an older cemetery that was closed when the Carmelite Cemetery was opened. In 1934, a two-floor administrative building with a chapel was constructed in

6474-569: The Civic Party , headed by President Zoltán Tildy and Prime Minister Ferenc Nagy . Nonetheless, on behalf of the USSR, the Hungarian Communist Party continually used salami tactics to wrest minor political concessions, which continually diminished the political authority of the coalition government – despite the Communist Party only having received 17 percent of the votes in the parliamentary election of 1945. After

6640-568: The Communist Party and communist organisations. Science and art based on communist ideology and their expression controlled by censorship mechanisms. People were encouraged into atheism in an attempt to secularise Lithuania, with monasteries closed, religion classes prohibited and church-goers persecuted. The second Soviet occupation was followed by armed resistance in 1944–1953, aiming to restore an independent Lithuania, re-establish capitalism and eradicate communism, and bring back national identity and freedom of faith. Partisans were labelled bandits by

6806-448: The Communist Party, a post held by Antanas Sniečkus until 1974. Upon recapturing Lithuania from the retreating Germans in 1944, the Red Army immediately began committing war crimes . The situation was so extreme that even Sniečkus complained to Lavrentiy Beria on 23 July that "If such robbery and violence continues in Kaunas , this will burst our last sympathy for the Red Army". Beria passed this complaint on to Joseph Stalin . In

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6972-418: The Government of the USSR on the Principles of Development and Further Strengthening of Friendship and Cooperation between the Soviet Union and other Socialist States , which said that "The Soviet Government is prepared to enter into the appropriate negotiations with the government of the Hungarian People's Republic, and [with] other members of the Warsaw Treaty, on the question of the presence of Soviet troops in

7138-430: The Hungarian Army restored order in Csepel; two days later, the Hungarian Revolutionaries recaptured Csepel after the Hungarian Army's withdrawal on 29 October. In the Angyalföld area of Budapest, the communists and 350 armed workers and 380 communist soldiers defended the Láng factory. Anti-fascist Hungarian veterans of the Second World War participated in recapturing the offices of the Szabad Nép communist newspaper. At

7304-493: The Hungarian Communist Party retained the confidence of the Hungarian people, because the Hungarians were protesting unresolved socio-economic problems, not ideology. Meanwhile, in the West, the concurrent Suez Crisis (29 October – 7 November 1956) of the French and the British empires' seizure of the Suez Canal from Egypt voided the political possibility of Western military intervention to Hungary. On 28 October, Khrushchev said that Soviet military intervention to Hungary would be

7470-463: The Hungarian Communist Party, ÁVH policeman, and pro-Soviet Hungarian soldier they encountered; and most Red Army troops withdrew from Budapest to garrisons in the Hungarian countryside. Fighting ceased between 28 October and 4 November, as many Hungarians believed that Soviet military units were withdrawing from Hungary. According to post-revolution communist sources, there were approximately 213 Hungarian Working People's Party members executed during

7636-400: The Hungarian Communist Party. The Nagy government freed the political prisoner General Béla Király to restore order to Hungary with a National Guard force composed of policemen, soldiers, and Revolutionaries loyal to Hungary. On 30 October 1956, Gen. Király's National Guard attacked the building of the Central Committee of the Hungarian Communist Party and killed every pro-Soviet officer of

7802-401: The Hungarian People's Republic from receiving American financial aid through the Marshall Plan (1948). Socially, the imposition of Soviet-style economic policies and the payment of war reparations angered the peoples of Hungary, whilst the cumulative effects of economic austerity fuelled anti-Soviet political discontent as the payment of foreign debt took precedence over the material needs of

7968-519: The Hungarian Revolt. Led by Vyacheslav Molotov , the hardline faction of the CPSU voted for military intervention, but were opposed by Khrushchev and Marshal Georgy Zhukov who sought a political resolution to the Hungarian revolt. In Budapest, the Soviet delegation reported to Moscow that the Hungarian political situation was less confrontational than reported during the revolt proper. In pursuit of political resolution, Khrushchev said that Ernő Gerő's 23 October request for Soviet intervention indicated that

8134-428: The Hungarian Revolution against the USSR's control of Hungary, and negotiated ceasefire agreements with the revolutionaries; nonetheless, the Hungarian Revolution took many communist prisoners who were registered to lists that identified the prisoner either for summary execution or as an enemy of the people . In the Csepel area of Budapest, 250 communists defended the Csepel Iron and Steel Works, and, on 27 October,

8300-447: The Hungarian Revolution against the USSR; from amongst the crowd outside the parliament, the armed revolutionaries shot at the roof-top ÁVH policemen. Meanwhile, nationalist and anti-communist loyalties had fractured the chain of command of the Hungarian Army in response to the communist government's order to militarily repress the popular demonstrations against the Soviet control of Hungary. The Hungarian Army units in Budapest and in

8466-404: The Hungarian anti-communist revolution, but Nagy's declaration of Hungarian neutrality decided his dispatching the Red Army into Hungary. The USSR invaded the Hungarian People's Republic, because: In the People's Republic of Hungary, the anti-communist militants concluded that "the [Hungarian Communist] Party is the incarnation of bureaucratic despotism " and that "socialism can develop only on

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8632-491: The Hungarian people, yet their standard of living diminished because of the compulsory financial contributions towards the industrialisation of Hungary, which reduced the disposable and discretionary income of individual Hungarian workers. That poor economy was further diminished by the bureaucratic mismanagement of resources, which caused shortages of supplies, and the consequent rationing of bread and sugar, flour and meat, et cetera. The net result of those economic conditions,

8798-434: The Hungarian people. On 5 March 1953, the death of Stalin allowed the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) to proceed with the de-Stalinization of the USSR, which was a relative liberalization of politics that afterward allowed most European communist parties and the communist parties of the Warsaw Pact to develop a reformist wing – within the structures of the Philosophy of Marxism and orders from Moscow. Hence,

8964-414: The Hungarian revolutionaries until Soviet victory on 10 November; repression of the Hungarian Uprising killed 2,500 Hungarians and 700 Soviet Army soldiers, and compelled 200,000 Hungarians to seek political refuge abroad, mostly to Austria . During the Second World War (1939–1945), the Kingdom of Hungary (1920–1946) was a member of the Axis powers – in alliance with Nazi Germany , Fascist Italy ,

9130-445: The Imam and a shelter). The Tatars built the new brick Kaunas Mosque which officially opened on 15 June 1933, an anniversary of the Battle of Grunwald . It remains the only brick mosque in the Baltic states . During the Soviet era, the mosque was closed in 1947 and used for various purposes including storage and library. After independence in 1990, the mosque was returned to the Islamic community and resumed religious services. One of

9296-557: The LSSR People's Commissars Council to withdraw the border guards unit, which was sent to fight the Lithuanian partisans , because it was burning not only the enemy's homes and farms, but also those of innocent people. They were also robbing local inhabitants cattle and other property. The Sovietisation of Lithuania began with the strengthening of the supervision of the Communist Party. Officials were sent from Moscow to set up bodies of local governance. They were exclusively Lithuanian, with trustworthy Russian specialists for assistants – it

9462-427: The LSSR included. On 23 August 1987, the Lithuanian Liberty League initiated an unsanctioned meeting in front of the monument to Adomas Mickevičius in Vilnius. At the meeting, the Molotov–Ribbentrop pact was condemned for the first time in public. The meeting and the speeches made at it were widely reported by western radio stations. Also meeting was reported by Central Television and even TV Vilnius . In May 1987,

9628-412: The LSSR, and from other USSR republics. By 1979, more than half of population lived in urban areas. All symbols of the former Republic of Lithuania were removed from public view by 1950, and the country had its history rewritten and its achievements belittled. The veneration of Stalin was spread and the role of Russia and the USSR in the history of Lithuania was highlighted. People were encouraged to join

9794-451: The Lithuanian Cultural Fund was established to engage in environmental activity and the protection of Lithuanian cultural assets. On 3 June 1988, the Lithuanian Reformation Movement (LRM) was founded; its mission was to restore the statehood of Lithuania; LRM supporters formed groups across Lithuania. On 23 August 1988, a meeting took place at Vingis Park in Vilnius, with a turnout of about 250,000 people. On 23 August 1989, marking 50 years of

9960-477: The Lithuanian SSR took place between 1947 and 1952. The 1990 per capita GDP of the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic was $ 8,591, which was above the average for the rest of the Soviet Union of $ 6,871. This was half or less of the per capita GDPs of adjacent countries Norway ($ 18,470), Sweden ($ 17,680) and Finland ($ 16,868). Overall, in the Eastern Bloc , systems without competition or market-clearing prices became costly and unsustainable, especially with

10126-446: The Lithuanian, Latvian, and Estonian people to part ways with the USSR. The LSSR de facto ceased to exist on 11 March 1990, with the Reconstituent Seimas declaring Lithuania's independence restored. It took the line that since Lithuania's membership in the USSR was a violation of international law, it was reasserting an independence that still legally existed. Therefore, the Reconstituent Seimas argued that Lithuania did not need to follow

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10292-463: The MEFESZ student union held a parallel demonstration of Hungarians' political solidarity with the Poles. In the afternoon of 23 October 1956, approximately 20,000 protestors met beside the statue of General József Bem , a national hero of Poland and Hungary. To the amassed crowd of protestors, the intellectual Péter Veres , the president of the Writers' Union ( Írószövetség ), read a manifesto demanding Hungarian independence from all foreign powers;

10458-434: The MEFESZ, and ten anti-Soviet demands, e.g. free elections and the departure of Soviet troops from Hungary, etc.; days later, the university students at Pécs , Miskolc , and Sopron followed suit. On 22 October, at the Budapest University of Technology and Economics , one of the law students from the original group of twelve students, announced that the MEFESZ student union was again politically active, and then proclaimed

10624-406: The Molotov–Ribbentrop pact and aiming to draw the world's attention to the occupation of the Baltic states, the Baltic Way event was staged. Organised by the Lithuanian Reformation Movement, the Baltic Way was a chain of people holding hands that stretched for nearly 600 kilometres (370 mi) to connect the three Baltic capitals of Vilnius, Riga, and Tallinn. It was a display of the aspiration of

10790-411: The Nagy government in talks about withdrawing the Red Army from Hungary. Moreover, Mao Zedong influenced Khrushchev's decision to repress the Hungarian uprising. The deputy chairman of the Chinese Communist Party , Liu Shaoqi , pressed Khrushchev to militarily repress the Hungarian Revolution. Although Sino–Soviet relations were unstable, the opinion of Mao carried great weight among the members of

10956-425: The Nagy government's political and socio-economic reforms; by 18 April 1955, Rákosi had so discredited Nagy that the USSR deposed Nagy as head-of-state of Socialist Hungary. Three months of plotting and conspiring rid Rákosi and the Hungarian Communist Party of Imre Nagy, who was reduced to a political non-person. On 14 April Prime Minister Imre Nagy was stripped of his Hungarian Communist Party offices and functions and

11122-411: The Nazi government , encouraged Hungarian Catholics not to vote for the Arrow Cross Party , and was imprisoned for this dissent by the Arrow Cross-led Government of National Unity . In the 1950–1952 period, the ÁVH forcibly relocated more than 26,000 non-communist Hungarians and confiscated their housing for members of the Communist Party of Hungary, and so eliminated the political threats posed by

11288-426: The Polish communist politician Władysław Gomułka in Brest, Belarus; and then spoke with the Romanian, Czechoslovak, and Bulgarian leaders in Bucharest, Romania. Finally, Khrushchev went to the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and spoke with Tito ( Josip Broz ) who persuaded Khrushchev to install János Kádár as the new leader of the People's Republic of Hungary, instead of Ferenc Münnich . Two months after

11454-419: The Polish government appointed the politically rehabilitated , reform communist Władysław Gomułka as First Secretary of the Polish United Workers' Party to deal with the USSR, and, by 19 October 1956, Gomułka had successfully negotiated greater trade agreements and fewer Red Army troops stationed in Poland. The USSR's concessions to Poland – known as the Polish October – emboldened Hungarians to demand from

11620-422: The Presidium of the CPSU. Initially, Mao opposed a second intervention, which was communicated to Khrushchev on 30 October, before the Presidium met and decided against a Hungarian intervention; later, Mao changed his mind and supported intervention to Hungary. In the 1–3 November 1956 period, Khrushchev informed the USSR's Warsaw Pact allies of his decision to repress the Hungarian Revolution. Khrushchev met with

11786-406: The Red Army. Also on that day, Imre Nagy became prime minister in place of András Hegedüs . In a national radio broadcast, PM Nagy asked a ceasefire between the Red Army and the Hungarian Revolutionaries, and agreed to initiate postponed political reforms decided in 1953. Despite the pleas of PM Nagy, groups of revolutionaries in Budapest armed themselves and continually fought the Red Army. At

11952-651: The Russo–American Cold War. About 8000 political prisoners were released, most notably Cardinal József Mindszenty . Banned political parties, such as the Independent Smallholders and the National Peasant Party ("Petőfi Party"), reappeared to join the coalition. In 1,170 communities in Hungary, there were 348 cases of revolutionary councils dismissing the local administrators; 312 cases of revolutionary councils sacking

12118-632: The Soviet forces in Hungary were on their way to the headquarters of the Hungarian Workers' Party (MDP) on Akadémia Street, where they were to attend a meeting of the Central Executive Committee (CEC), which was to begin at 10 a.m. Under pressure from the Soviet delegates, the CEC relieved Ernő Gerő of his position as party leader and elected János Kádár in his place. Meanwhile, the crowd demonstrating at Kossuth Square elected

12284-527: The Soviets. The clergy published chronicles of the Catholic Church of Lithuania, secretly distributed in Lithuania and abroad. The faithful would gather in small groups to teach their children religion, celebrate religious holidays, and use national and religious symbols. The most active repressed figures of the movement were Vincentas Sladkevičius , Sigitas Tamkevičius , and Nijolė Sadūnaitė . In

12450-540: The Soviets. They were forced into the woods and into armed resistance by the Soviet rule. Armed skirmishes with the Red Army were common between 1944 and 1946. From the summer of 1946 a partisan organisational structure was established, with units of 5–15 partisans living in bunkers. Guerrilla warfare with surprise attacks was the preferred tactic. In 1949 the Union of Lithuanian Freedom Fighters under Jonas Žemaitis–Vytautas

12616-582: The USSR and LSSR Ministers of the Interior that due to the violence and mass arrests by the counterintelligence units of SMERSH , many Kaunas inhabitants were forced into crime . Eleven SMERSH subdivisions did not obey any orders, not even those from the NKGB. Chief of the Vilnius Garrison, P. Vetrov, in his order described discipline violations: on 18 August a soldier went fishing with explosives in

12782-598: The USSR and of international law governing the relations of sovereign states . The last session of the government of the Republic of Lithuania was called to discuss the ultimatum, with most members in favour of accepting it. On 15 June, President Antanas Smetona left for the West, expecting to return when the geopolitical situation changed, leaving Prime Minister Antanas Merkys in Lithuania. Before his departure, Smetona transferred most presidential duties to Merkys. Under

12948-670: The USSR like concessions for the Hungarian People's Republic, which much contributed to the Hungarians' greatly idealistic politics in October 1956. On 13 October 1956, a group of 12 students from the university faculties in Szeged met to play cards, and snubbed the DISZ, the official communist student union, by re-establishing the MEFESZ (Union of Hungarian University and Academy Students),

13114-433: The USSR offered Lithuania an agreement on the establishment of Soviet military bases in its territory. During the negotiations, the Lithuanian delegation was told of the division of the spheres of influence. The Soviets threatened that if Lithuania refused to host the bases, Vilnius could be annexed to Belarus (at that time the majority of population in Vilnius and Vilnius region were Polish people ). In these circumstances

13280-747: The USSR repressed the Hungarian Revolution, Tito told Nikolai Firiubin, the Soviet ambassador to Yugoslavia, that "[political] reaction raised its head, especially in Croatia , where the reactionary elements openly incited the employees of the Yugoslav security organs to violence." Lithuanian SSR The Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic ( Lithuanian SSR ; Lithuanian : Lietuvos Tarybų Socialistinė Respublika ; Russian : Литовская Советская Социалистическая Республика , romanized :  Litovskaya Sovetskaya Sotsialisticheskaya Respublika ), also known as Soviet Lithuania or simply Lithuania ,

13446-604: The abuses of power committed by Stalin and his inner-circle protégés, in Russia and abroad. Therefore, the de-Stalinization of Hungarian People's Republic featured Rákosi's dismissal as General Secretary of the Communist Party of Hungary, and his replacement by Ernő Gerő , on 18 July 1956. From the Western perspective, the countries of western Europe co-operated with the CIA's propaganda radio network, Radio Free Europe , to broadcast

13612-548: The assembled protestors from the roof of the building of the Agricultural Ministry. In the fog of war, some Red Army soldiers mistakenly returned the fire towards the roof, having mistakenly believed themselves the targets. The Hungarian revolutionaries armed themselves with weapons captured from ÁVH policemen and with weapons donated by anti-communist soldiers who had deserted the Hungarian Army for

13778-462: The authorities put 28,981 persons into livestock cars and dispatched them deep into the USSR. Some people went into hiding and managed to escape the deportations, but then a manhunt began in April. As a result, another two echelons left for the remote regions of the USSR. During March–April 1949, a total of some 32,000 people were deported from Lithuania. By 1952, 10 more operations had been staged, but of

13944-560: The bosses; and 215 cases of the locals burning the communist administrative records of their communities. In 681 communities, anti-communist and nationalist Hungarians damaged and destroyed symbols of the hegemony of the USSR, such as the Red Star, and statues of Josef Stalin and of Lenin; 393 communities damaged Soviet war memorials; and 122 communities burned the books of Marx, Lenin, and Stalin. Local revolutionary councils formed throughout Hungary, generally without involvement from

14110-441: The buildings on the other side of the square. Another Soviet tank coming from a nearby street fired aimed shots at the demonstrators trying to take cover. This action claimed the most lives. The number of the dead is still disputed, with estimates ranging from 75 to 1000. According to another version of the events, which already appeared during the revolution but still unproven, the ÁVH policemen and/or communist partisans fired into

14276-511: The call of the party organisation, swept the Danube-Tisza Interfluve six times, smashing everything". As Hungarian revolutionaries fought the soldiers and tanks of the Red Army with small arms and Molotov cocktails in the streets of Budapest, throughout Hungary, revolutionary workers' councils assumed government power and called general strikes to halt the economy and the functioning of civil society. In ridding Hungary of

14442-444: The cemetery's territory. The cemetery also had various tombstones of artistic and architectural value. In 1930, a large monument was built for the fallen Lithuanian soldiers. In 1930s, there were again plans to relocate the cemetery, but the plans were delayed due to lawsuits over cemetery's land ownership between the city municipality and the religious communities. During World War II, there were several politically sensitive burials at

14608-505: The cemetery. When Germany invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941, Lithuanians organized the anti-Soviet June Uprising . 74 Lithuanian men killed in Kaunas were buried in the cemetery on 26 June. 64 of them were buried in a mass grave, others in their family plots. In spring 1941, Soviet NKVD tortured and killed 29 political prisoners (including one woman) and buried them in a plot allocated to

14774-585: The companies. There is no electricity in Šilutė because an internal combustion engine was blown up. In the same report, the mass rape of Lithuanian women in the Klaipėda and Šilutė regions was reported: Seventy year old women and fourteen-year-old girls are being raped, even in the presence of parents. For example, in November 1944 eleven soldiers raped a Priekulė County resident in the presence of her husband. In Šilutė district, two soldiers, covering her head with

14940-446: The constitution, the prime minister became acting president whenever the president was unable to carry out his duties. Meanwhile, the 8th and 11th armies of the USSR, comprising a total of 15 divisions, crossed the border. Flying squads took over the airports of Kaunas, Radviliškis, and Šiauliai. Regiments of the Red Army disarmed the Lithuanian military, took over its assets, and supported local communists. On 16 June, Merkys announced in

15106-540: The cost of war reparations was "between 19 and 22 per cent of the annual national income" of Hungary, an onerous national expense aggravated by the hyperinflation consequent to the post-war depreciation of the Hungarian pengő . Moreover, participation in the Soviet-sponsored Council of Mutual Economic Assistance ( COMECON ) prevented direct trade with the countries of the West, and also prevented

15272-701: The country. The Hungarian Revolution began on 23 October 1956 in Budapest when university students appealed to the civil populace to join them at the Hungarian Parliament Building to protest against the USSR's geopolitical domination of Hungary through the Stalinist government of Mátyás Rákosi . A delegation of students entered the building of Magyar Rádió to broadcast their sixteen demands for political and economic reforms to civil society, but were detained by security guards. When

15438-475: The countryside remained uninvolved in the Revolution, because local commanders avoided politics in order to avoid repressing the revolutionaries. Order was restored in the 24–29 October period after the Hungarian Army had fought 71 firefights with the nationalist and with the anti-communist revolutionaries in fifty communities. On 26 October, in the town of Kecskemét, outside the office of State Security and

15604-484: The crowd repeatedly chanted the refrain: "This we swear, this we swear, that we will no longer be slaves." At 20:00 hrs, the first secretary of the Hungarian Working People's Party, Ernő Gerő broadcast a hardline speech condemning the political demands of the intelligentsia and of the university students. Angered by Gerő's rejection, some protestors realised one of their demands, and demolished

15770-477: The democratic student union banned by the Stalinist Rákosi government. The MEFESZ students distributed hand-written notes in classrooms to inform faculty and students of the time and place for the meeting on 16 October 1956. A professor of law was chairman of committee who formally reestablished the MEFESZ student union, with the proclamation and publication of a twenty-demand manifesto, ten demands about

15936-421: The demolished grave of General Silvestras Žukauskas has not been located despite an archaeological excavation carried out in 2012. Some relatives were afraid to identify themselves as related to some anti-Soviet activists in fear of retribution. The cemetery was bulldozed at the end of 1959. Tombstones, monuments, crypts and a Catholic chapel were demolished. Even if bodies were moved to other cemeteries, sometimes

16102-731: The destruction battalions, or istrebitels . On 18–21 February 1946, deportations began in four counties: Alytus, Marijampolė, Lazdijai, and Tauragė. On 12 December 1947 the Central Committee of the Lithuanian Communist Party resolved that actions against supporters of resistance were too weak and that additional measures were in order. A new series of deportations began and 2,782 people were deported in December. In January–February 1948, another 1,134 persons were exiled from every county in Lithuania. By May 1948,

16268-473: The economic model of the USSR, the Hungarian Working People's Party established the socialist economy of Hungary with the nationalization of the means of production and of the natural resources of the country. Moreover, by 1955, the relatively free politics of Hungary allowed intellectuals and journalists to freely criticise the social and economic policies of the Rákosi government. In that vein of relative political freedom, on 22 October 1956, students from

16434-473: The education system with a toiling intelligentsia who would assist in the Russification of Hungary; thus the study of Russian language and communist political instruction were mandatory at school and at university; religious schools were nationalized and church leaders replaced with communist officials. In the early 1950s, the Rákosi government's socialist economics increased the per capita income of

16600-644: The election in 1945, control of the State Protection Authority ( Államvédelmi Hatóság , ÁVH) was transferred from the Independent Smallholders Party of the coalition government to the Hungarian Communist party. The ÁVH repressed non­­‑communist political opponents with intimidation and false accusations, imprisonment and torture . The brief, four­­‑year period of multi-party democracy ended when

16766-580: The enterprise while protecting workers' interests, establishing a socialist economy free of rigid party control. Local control by the councils was not always bloodless; in Debrecen , Győr , Sopron , Mosonmagyaróvár and other cities, crowds of demonstrators were fired upon by the ÁVH, with many lives lost. The ÁVH were disarmed, often by force, in many cases assisted by the local police. In total, there were approximately 2,100 local revolutionary and workers councils with over 28,000 members. The councils held

16932-495: The fall of 1944, lists of 'bandits' and 'bandit family' members to be deported appeared. Deportees were marshaled and put on a USSR-bound trains in Kaunas in early May 1945, reaching their destination in Tajikistan in summer. Once there, they employed as forced labour at cotton plantations. In May 1945, a new wave of deportations from every county took place, enforced by battlegroups made of NKVD and NKGB staff and NKVD troops –

17098-538: The fallen soldiers on the All Saints' Day started forming in 1927. On 27 October 1930, the 500th death anniversary of Grand Duke Vytautas , monument We Died for the Fatherland ( Žuvome dėl Tėvynės ) was unveiled by President Antanas Smetona and blessed by Vladas Mironas . At the same time, an unknown soldier who was killed in the present-day Latvia during the Lithuanian–Soviet War was reburied under

17264-784: The first days of the Holocaust in Lithuania ). Škirpa was named prime minister in the Provisional Government of Lithuania ; however, the Germans placed him under house arrest and dissolved the LAF on 5 August 1941. During the German occupation, Lithuania was made part of the Reichskommissariat Ostland . Between July and October 1944, the Red Army entered Lithuania once again, and the second Soviet government began. The first post-war elections took place in

17430-504: The formal procedure of secession from the USSR. Lithuania declared the sovereignty of its territory on 18 May 1989 and declared independence from the Soviet Union on 11 March 1990 under its pre-1940 name, the Republic of Lithuania . Lithuania was the first Baltic state to assert state continuity , and the first Soviet Republic to declare full independence from the Union (though Estonia

17596-568: The foundations of direct democracy." For the anti-communists, the struggle of the Hungarian workers was "for the principle of direct democracy" and that "all power should be transferred to the Workers Committees of Hungary." In response, the Presidium broke the de facto ceasefire and repressed the Hungarian Revolution. The Soviet Union's plan was to declare a "Provisional Revolutionary Government" led by János Kádár, who would appeal for Soviet assistance to restore order to Hungary. Kádár

17762-409: The government, and allow an unlimited number of Red Army troops to enter the country. The acceptance of the ultimatum would have meant the loss of sovereignty, but Soviet foreign minister Vyacheslav Molotov declared to diplomat Juozas Urbšys that, whatever the reply may be, "troops will enter Lithuania tomorrow nonetheless". The ultimatum was a violation of every prior agreement between Lithuania and

17928-442: The guard tanks. At a few minutes after 11 a.m., General Serov decided to inspect the situation on Kossuth Square, accompanied by several Soviet and Hungarian officers and a tank. Seeing several Soviet soldiers fraternising with the demonstrators, Serov ordered the firing of warning shots, which caused a mass panic on the square. In the ensuing confusion, the Soviet tanks lined up in front of the Parliament building responded by targeting

18094-542: The head of the Budapest party committee, Imre Mező, also was killed. Within hours, news reportage and filmed scenes of the Hungarian anti-communist revolt that occurred in Republic Square were broadcast in the USSR; and the CPSU made propaganda of the images of the communist victims of the Hungarian Revolt. The leaders of the Hungarian Revolution condemned the attack upon the ÁVH headquarters and asked

18260-406: The increasing complexity of world economics. Such systems, which required party-state planning at all levels, collapsed under the weight of accumulated economic inefficiencies, with various attempts at reform merely contributing to the acceleration of crisis-generating tendencies. Lithuania accounted for 0.3 percent of the Soviet Union's territory and 1.3 percent of its population, but it generated

18426-418: The influence of and control from the USSR, the revolutionaries destroyed the symbols of Communism, such as the red star and Red Army monuments, and burned communist literature. Moreover, Revolutionary militias, such as the 400-man militia led by József Dudás attacked and murdered pro-Soviet Hungarians and ÁVH policemen. The Hungarian Army armoured division stationed in Budapest, commanded by Pál Maléter led

18592-580: The legations appointed by the pre-1940 Baltic states, which functioned in various places through the Lithuanian Diplomatic Service . On 18 May 1989, the Lithuanian SSR declared itself to be a sovereign state , though still part of the USSR. On 11 March 1990, the Republic of Lithuania was re-established as an independent state , the first Soviet Republic to leave Moscow and leading other states to do so. Lithuania considered

18758-437: The local jail, Hungarian Army's Third Corps, led by Major General Lajos Gyurkó , shot seven anti-communist protestors and arrested the organizers of the anti-Soviet protest. On Gyurkó's order Hungarian Air Force fighter planes shot up demonstrators with cannon fire in various towns (see hu:Tiszakécskei sortűz ), earning the praise of János Kádár after the defeat of the "counter-revolution" as "the only division commander who, at

18924-471: The mass demonstration outside the Astoria , accompanied by three Soviet tanks, which the demonstrators climbed on, fraternising with the crews. At the same time a column of Soviet tanks carrying two delegates of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) sent to Hungary, Politburo members Anastas Mikoyan and Mikhail Suslov , as well as KGB Chairman Ivan Serov and Mikhail Malinin , commander-in-chief of

19090-493: The monument was moved to Grūtas Park . After Lithuania regained independence in 1990 , new monuments were built in the park. Monument Cross-Tree (sculptor Robertas Antinis ) dedicated to the participants of the June Uprising was erected in 1991. It is accompanied by a cenotaph with last names of the rebels. In 2011, 40 small bronze crosses were placed at the location where victims of the June Uprising were buried. At

19256-467: The monument. The monument, 9 metres (30 ft) in height, depicted a sword thrusting the ground thus resembling a cross. The monument was demolished in 1956–1959. It was reconstructed (sculptor Robertas Antinis ) in 1994. The cemetery had 37 known tombs of military aviators. Their headstones featured metal crosses shaped as airplane propellers . A mausoleum dedicated to Stasys Girėnas and Steponas Darius , Lithuanian aviators who died in 1933 attempting

19422-513: The national crisis, PM Nagy would: On 1 November, the Nagy government formally declared Hungary's withdrawal from the Warsaw Pact and Hungary's international status as a politically non-aligned country. Because of being in power for only ten days, the National Government did not explain their policies in detail; however, contemporary newspaper editorials stressed that Hungary should be a multiparty social democracy uninvolved in

19588-453: The nationalist and anti-communist intelligentsia and by the local bourgeoisie . According to their particular politics, anti-communist Hungarians were either imprisoned in concentration camps or were deported to the USSR or were killed, either summarily or after a show trial ; the victims included the communist politician László Rajk , the minister of the interior who established the ÁVH secret police. The Rákosi government politicised

19754-410: The new Petrašiūnai Cemetery . The mass grave was discovered on 11 July 1941 and their bodies were exhumed. Victims that could not be identified were reburied in the old cemetery. In January 1944, large public funeral of Elena Spirgevičiūtė and Stasė Žukaitė took place in the cemetery. The young women were killed by the Soviet partisans . After the death of Joseph Stalin in 1953, the cemetery became

19920-543: The night of 20 October, aviation unit senior M. Kapylov, by taking revenge against 14-year-old Marija Drulaitė who refused to have sexual intercourse, killed her, her mother, uncle Juozas and severely injured a 12-year-old." — Georgiy Vladimirovich Svechnikov, Chief of the Kaunas NKVD . Other regions of the LSSR also suffered heavily. For example, on 26 December 1944, Kaunas' NKGB representative Rodionov wrote to

20086-554: The offices of the communist newspaper Szabad Nép , the ÁVH guards fired upon unarmed protestors; in turn, anti-communists attacked and drove out the ÁVH policemen from the newspaper building. The Hungarian revolutionaries then avenged themselves against the ÁVH policemen. On 25 October, a crowd gathered in Kossuth Square in front of the Hungarian parliament building, which was a mixed group of civilian demonstrators including women, children, and elderly. Most of them came from

20252-570: The only Communist Hungarian leader with political credibility among Hungarians, the political actions of the Nagy government allowed the USSR to view the Hungarians' anti-Soviet protests as a popular uprising, rather than as an anti-communist counter-revolution . On 28 October 1956, the Nagy Communist government announced the ceasefire among the nationalist, the anti-communist, and the Communist Hungarians, and that, to resolve

20418-556: The park was added to the registry of cultural heritage. The monument to the fallen Lithuanian soldiers was rebuilt, a few new monuments were installed. In 1995, the park was officially renamed as Kaunas City Old Cemetery though it continues to be popularly known as Ramybė Park. In 1862, the Church of the Resurrection was built in the Eastern Orthodox plot of the cemetery. A two-floor Russian gymnasium with Neo-Russian elements

20584-424: The peasants from the surrounding areas would be herded to their properties. Since kolkhozes had to donate a large portion of their produce to the state, the people working there lived in poorer conditions than the rest of the nation. Their pay would often be delayed and made in kind and their movement to cities was restricted. This collectivisation ended in 1953. Lithuania became home to factories and power plants, in

20750-402: The period. The new communist government of Prime Minister Imre Nagy was surprised by the rapidity with which the Hungarian Revolution extended from the streets of Budapest to all of Hungary, and the consequent collapse of the old Gerő–Hegedüs communist government. As head of government, PM Nagy asked every Hungarian to exercise political forbearance in order to restore civil order to Hungary. As

20916-465: The political purging of Hungarian society. At 02.00 hrs., on 24 October 1956, Soviet defence minister Georgy Zhukov ordered the Red Army to occupy Budapest – the capital city of a Warsaw Pact country. By 12.00 hrs of 24 October, Red Army tanks were stationed outside the parliament building, and Red Army soldiers held the bridges and crossroads that controlled access to Budapest, while Hungarian revolutionaries barricaded streets to defend their city from

21082-549: The population of Kaunas grew, there was a need for a new city cemetery. The cemetery was planned in 1847 together with the city's expansion east, the so-called New City ( Naujamiestis ) in the present-day Centras district. As it was established on land that belonged to the former monastery of the Discalced Carmelites based in the Church of the Holy Cross (closed in 1845), the cemetery is sometimes known as

21248-553: The preoccupied National Government in Budapest, and assumed various responsibilities of local government from the defunct Communist party. By 30 October , the councils had been officially sanctioned by the Hungarian Working People's Party, and the Nagy government asked for their support as "autonomous, democratic local organs formed during the Revolution". Likewise, workers' councils were established at industrial plants and mines, and many unpopular regulations such as production norms were eliminated. The workers' councils strove to manage

21414-514: The process of secession because the entire process by which Lithuania joined the Soviet Union violated both Lithuanian and international law. Specifically, it contended that Smetona never resigned, making Merkys' takeover of the presidency illegal and unconstitutional. Therefore, Lithuania argued that all acts leading up to the Soviet takeover were ipso facto null and void, and it was simply reasserting an independence that still existed under international law. The Soviet Union threatened to invade, but

21580-418: The protestors to cease and desist from mob violence. On 30 October, at Budapest, Anastas Mikoyan and Mikhail Suslov spoke with Prime Minister Imre Nagy who told them that Hungarian geopolitical neutrality was a long-term political objective for the Hungarian People's Republic, which he wanted to discuss with the presidium of the CPSU. Khrushchev considered the geopolitical options for the USSR's resolving

21746-675: The reformist communist Imre Nagy became prime minister (1953–55) of the Hungarian People's Republic, in replacement of the Stalinist Mátyás Rákosi (1946–56), whose heavy-hand style of communist government had proved counter-productive to the interests of the USSR in Hungary. Despite not being prime minister of Hungary, Rákosi remained politically powerful as the General Secretary of the Hungarian Communist Party, and so undermined many of

21912-521: The results of the elections were likely falsified. At its first meeting on 21 July, the new People's Seimas declared that the Lithuanian people desired to join the Soviet Union. Accordingly, it unanimously changed Lithuania's official name to the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic (LSSR) and formally petitioned to join the Soviet Union as a constituent republic. Resolutions to start the country's Sovietisation were passed

22078-533: The same day. On 3 August, a Lithuanian delegation of prominent public figures was dispatched to Moscow to sign the document by which Lithuania acceded to the USSR. After the signing, Lithuania was annexed to the USSR. On 25 August 1940, an extraordinary session of the People's Seimas reorganized itself as the provisional Supreme Soviet of the LSSR, ratified the Constitution of the LSSR, which in form and substance

22244-454: The same time, new paths and lighting were installed. In August 2010, monument Mother of Those Who Perished for Freedom of Lithuania ( Žuvusių už Lietuvos laisvę Motinai ) by sculptor Vidmantas Gylikis  [ lt ] was erected at the location of the former Catholic chapel. On 16 February 2019, the 101st anniversary of the Act of Independence of Lithuania and the 70th anniversary of

22410-402: The sides when the protestors heard rumours of the arrest and detainment of a delegation of students who had entered the radio station in effort to broadcast their political demands to the entire country. The situation escalated after protestors heard rumours that the ÁVH had killed their delegation of comrades sent to broadcast the anti–Soviet message. In response, from the windows of the building,

22576-548: The speech On the Personality Cult and its Consequences to the countries of eastern Europe, expecting that, as Secretary of the CPSU, Khrushchev's anti–Stalinist speech would substantively contribute to the destabilisation of the internal politics of the Warsaw Pact countries. On 14 May 1955, with the Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance , the USSR established the Warsaw Pact with seven countries of

22742-565: The student protestors outside the radio building demanded the release of their delegation, a group of police from the ÁVH ( State Protection Authority ) fatally shot several of the students. Consequently, Hungarians organized into revolutionary militias to fight against the ÁVH; local Hungarian communist leaders and ÁVH policemen were captured and summarily executed; and political prisoners were released and armed. To realize their political, economic, and social demands, local soviets (councils of workers) assumed control of municipal government from

22908-457: The students moved in 1923, but the school did not have enough space. Therefore, the school decided to build another adjacent building in 1923. The school was enlarged again by adding the third floor in 1930 based on plans by architect Vytautas Landsbergis-Žemkalnis . It now houses a Russian school. The Muslim plot served the community of Lipka Tatars . Their plot had a small wooden mosque (built in 1860) and two small wooden buildings (residence of

23074-494: The symbols of Russian communism in Hungary. On 23 October 1956, the Secretary of the Hungarian Working People's Party, Ernő Gerő, asked for the USSR's military intervention in order "to suppress a demonstration that was reaching an ever-greater and unprecedented scale", which threatens the national security of the Hungarian People's Republic . To that end, the USSR already had planned the invasion and occupation of Hungary, and

23240-554: The terms of the 23 August 1939 Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact , and established as a puppet state on 21 July. Between 1941 and 1944, the German invasion of the Soviet Union caused its de facto dissolution. However, with the retreat of the Germans in 1944–1945, Soviet hegemony was re-established and continued for forty-five years. As a result, many Western countries continued to recognize Lithuania as an independent, sovereign de jure state subject to international law, represented by

23406-543: The territory of Hungary." In Hungary, on 30 October, consequent to hearing rumours of that the secret police had anti-communist prisoners, and rumours of the ÁVH shooting anti-communist demonstrators in the city of Mosonmagyaróvár armed protestors attacked the ÁVH detachment guarding the headquarters building of the Hungarian Working People's Party in Köztársaság tér (Republic Square), in Budapest. The anti-communists killed more than 20 ÁVH officers and ÁVH conscripts;

23572-586: The territory of the USSR. Fearful of the Red Army's occupation of the Kingdom of Hungary, the royal Hungarian government unsuccessfully sought an armistice with the Allies, which was a betrayal of the Axis powers. The Germans launched Operation Margarethe (12 March 1944) to establish the Nazi Government of National Unity of Hungary; the short-lived puppet government existed for less than a year and Hungary

23738-440: The tombstones were not relocated. For example, the tombstone of linguist Kazimieras Jaunius by sculptor Antanas Aleksandravičius  [ lt ] was destroyed and replaced with a simple headstone. The former cemetery was turned into a recreational park with new asphalt paths, children playgrounds, benches. In 1988, the park was named Ramybė Park (peace, tranquility). In 1994, after Lithuania regained independence in 1990 ,

23904-446: The total number of deportees had risen to 13,304. In May 1948, preparations for very large-scale deportations were being made, with 30,118 staff members from Soviet organisations involved. On 22–23 May 1948, a large-scale deportation operation called Vesna began, leading to 36,932 arrests, a figure that later increased to 40,002. The second major mass deportation, known as Operation Priboi , took place on 25–28 March 1949, during which

24070-464: The town of Szarvas , armed guards defended the Hungarian Communist Party and the communist government of Hungary. In the event, the Revolutionaries' successful attacks upon the Parliament collapsed the communist government of Hungary; and First Secretary Ernő Gerő and ex-PM András Hegedüs fled Hungary to the USSR; Imre Nagy became prime minister, and János Kádár became the first secretary of

24236-509: The very few remaining original structures is a memorial to Russian soldiers who died protecting the Kaunas Fortress during World War I. The soldiers were buried in mass unmarked graves. The memorial cross was erected in 1923; it is located near the Eastern Orthodox churches. About 870 German soldiers were also buried in the cemetery. They were commemorated with a stone monument with cannons on its sides constructed in 1916. A capsule with

24402-519: The weapons for themselves. The Hungarian Army sent soldiers to support the ÁVH policemen defending the Magyar Rádió building, but some of the soldiers tore off the red-star insignia on their caps and joined the side of the anti-government protestors. ÁVH policemen used guns and tear gas, while the protestors set police cars afire and distributed weapons captured from the military and police forces, and acted on their anti–Soviet politics by destroying

24568-475: The winter of 1946 to elect 35 representatives to the LSSR Supreme Council. The results were again likely falsified to show an attendance rate of at over 90% and to establish an absolute victory for Communist Party candidates. The LSSR Supreme Council under Paleckis was formally the supreme governmental authority; in reality, power was in the hands of the first secretary of the Central Committee of

24734-424: The world would receive information about the situation in the LSSR and human rights violations, which caused Moscow to soften the regime. In 1972, young Romas Kalanta immolated himself in Kaunas in a public display of protest against the regime. This was followed by public unrest , demonstrating that a large portion of the population were against the regime. The Catholic Church took an active part in opposing

24900-600: The ÁVH ( State Protection Authority ) to purge 7,000 politically dissident " Titoists " and " Trotskyists " from the Communist Party of Hungary , for being "Western agents" whose participation in the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939) interfered with Stalin's long-term plans for world Communism . Among the Stalinist governments of the Eastern Bloc , the Rákosi government of the Hungarian People's Republic

25066-409: The ÁVH threw tear gas grenades at and fired upon the many anti-communist and nationalist protestors assembled outside the Magyar Rádió building, and soon required resupply and reinforcement. In suppressing the Hungarians' anti-government protestations, the ÁVH smuggled weapons and ammunition in an ambulance for delivery to them at the Magyar Rádió building, but the protestors hijacked the ambulance and

25232-411: Was de facto one of the constituent republics of the Soviet Union between 1940–1941 and 1944–1990. After 1946, its territory and borders mirrored those of today's Republic of Lithuania , with the exception of minor adjustments to its border with Belarus . During World War II , the previously independent Republic of Lithuania was occupied by the Red Army on 16 June 1940, in conformity with

25398-468: Was also a net donor to the USSR budget. It was calculated in 1995 that the occupation resulted in 80 billion LTL (more than 23 billion euros ) worth of losses, including population, military, and church property losses and economic destruction among other things. Lithuania mostly suffered until 1958 when more than a half of the annual national budgets was sent to the USSR budgets, later this number decreased but still remained high at around 25% of

25564-559: Was appointed prime minister. The Communist Party was legalized again and began publication of its papers and staging meetings to support the new government. Opposition organizations and newspapers were outlawed, and ties abroad cut. On 14–15 July, elections took place for a " People's Seimas ." The only contender was the Union of the Working People of Lithuania , a front for the Communists. Citizens were mandated to vote, and

25730-425: Was completed in 1925. It was accompanied by several wooden buildings, including a primary school and a dormitory. When the St. Michael the Archangel Church became a Catholic church, the Eastern Orthodox community needed a new cathedral. The Lithuanian government provided funds to enlarge the Church of the Resurrection, but the community decided to build the new Church of the Annunciation  [ lt ] next to

25896-403: Was conducting its military campaign in Western Europe in May and June 1940, the USSR invaded the Baltic states. On 14 June 1940, an ultimatum was served to Lithuania on the alleged grounds of abduction of Red Army troops. The ultimatum said Lithuania should remove officials that the USSR found unsuitable (the Minister of the Interior and the Head of the Security Department in particular), replace

26062-476: Was demolished in 1959. Its underground crypt survived and was excavated in 1996. There were plans of reestablishing a memorial to the pilots, but the crypt was buried again in 2004. In 1973, ashes of four communists executed after the December 1926 coup were moved to the park. Bronze sculpture Four Communards by sculptors Bronius Vyšniauskas and Napoleonas Petrulis  [ lt ] was installed in their memory. After Lithuania regained independence in 1990,

26228-425: Was founded. Partisan units became smaller still, consisting of 3 to 5 partisans. Open fighting was a rarity, with sabotage and terrorism preferred. Despite guerrilla warfare failing to achieve its objectives and claiming the lives of more than 20,000 fighters, it demonstrated to the world that Lithuania's joining the USSR had not been a voluntary act and highlighted the desire of many Lithuanians to be independent. In

26394-473: Was in Moscow in early November, and was in communication with the Soviet embassy whilst still a member of the Nagy government. The USSR sent diplomatic delegations to other communist governments in Eastern Europe and to the People's Republic of China in effort to avoid misunderstandings that might provoke to regional conflicts, and broadcast propaganda explaining their second Soviet intervention to Hungary. The Soviet diplomats disguised their intentions by engaging

26560-472: Was most repressive of political, sexual, and religious minorities. In 1949, the Rákosi government arrested, tortured and convicted Cardinal József Mindszenty in a show trial for treason against Hungary, for collaboration with Nazi Germany in the Holocaust in Hungary – the religious persecution of Hungarian Jews, and the political persecutions of Hungarian communists and of Hungarian anti-Nazis . Mindszenty had, in fact, been an active opponent of

26726-427: Was occupied by the Soviet Union in 1945 after the Siege of Budapest . At the end of the Second World War (1939–1945), the Kingdom of Hungary was in the geopolitical sphere of influence of the USSR. In the political aftermath of the War, Hungary was a multiparty democracy , in which the 1945 Hungarian parliamentary election produced a coalition government composed of Independent Smallholders, Agrarian Workers and

26892-458: Was sacked as prime minister on 18 April. Despite having been out of political favor with the USSR since January 1955, Nagy had refused to perform the requisite communist penance of ' self-criticism ', and refused to resign as PM of Hungary. In February 1956, as the First Secretary of the CPSU, Nikita Khrushchev initiated the de-Stalinization of the USSR with the speech On the Personality Cult and its Consequences , which catalogued and denounced

27058-431: Was similar to the 1936 Constitution of the Soviet Union . On 22 June 1941, Nazi Germany invaded the USSR and occupied all of Lithuania within a month. The Lithuanian Activist Front (LAF), a resistance organisation founded in Berlin and led by Kazys Škirpa whose goal was to liberate Lithuania and re-establish its independence, cooperated with the Nazis. The LAF was responsible for killing many Lithuanian Jews (during

27224-419: Was that the Hungarian workers' disposable income in 1952 was two-thirds of the disposable income of Hungarian workers in 1938. Besides paying for the Red Army occupation of socialist Hungary, the Hungarians also paid war reparations (US$ 300 million) to the USSR, to the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic , and to the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia . In 1946, the Hungarian National Bank reported that

27390-486: Was the first Soviet Republic to assert its national sovereignty and the supremacy of its national laws over the laws of the Soviet Union). All of the Soviet Union's claims on Lithuania were repudiated as Lithuania declared the restitution of its independence . The Soviet Union claimed that this declaration was illegal, as Lithuania had to follow the process of secession mandated in the Soviet Constitution if it wanted to leave. Lithuania contended that it did not need to follow

27556-402: Was these who were in effective control. By the spring of 1945, 6,100 Russian-speaking workers had been sent to Lithuania. When the Soviets reoccupied the territory, Lithuanians were deprived of all property except personal belongings. This was followed by collectivisation , which started in 1947, with people being forced to join kolkhozes . Well-off farmers would be exiled, and the livestock of

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