Vytautas Lisauskas

Vilnius. The menacing 1938–1948

Five Frame Exhibit

Description: The exhibit’s goal is to show the life of Vilnius between 1938 and 1948 through postal history. The period was very complicated. In 1938, while the most prominent European countries were pleasing Nazi Germany, Europe was nearing wartime, unstoppably. Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, signed on August 23, 1939, decided the future of Europe, and the whole world, for more than one decade.

On September 1, 1939, which is officially considered as the beginning of The Second World War, Germany attacked Poland. The Soviet Union did the same on September 17, 1939.

On October 10, 1939, following the Lithuania-Russia agreement signed in 1920, the USSR returned a part of Polish-occupied eastern Lithuania and the city of Vilnius to Lithuania. On June 15, 1940, the USSR occupied Lithuania. On June 22, 1941, Germany attacked its ally, USSR, and occupied Lithuanian territory. On July 13, 1944, the Red Army returned and occupied Vilnius and the rest of Lithuania. Soviet rule was restored. The Soviet post was re-established in the territory of Lithuania, and for a long time, censorship was widespread.

In one way or another, the exhibit reflects the main events of those times. We learn about them through the correspondence of war-affected people – prisoners of war, interned soldiers, German and Soviet concentration or labour camp prisoners, deportees to the remote USSR parts – and their loved ones.