The Museum of Occupations and Freedom Fights (formerly known as the Museum of Genocide Victims) was established by the Order of the Minister of Culture and Education of the Republic of Lithuania and the President of the Union of Political Prisoners and Deportees of the Republic of Lithuania on 14 October 1992. Historian Gintaras Vaičiūnas was appointed as its first director.
The Museum is housed in a building where the Soviet security services, best known to the world as the KGB, operated for almost 50 years. For the people of Lithuania, this building is a symbol of the Soviet occupation, and it is therefore very important that a museum is established in this building to remind the present generation and to tell the next generation about the difficult and tragic years 1940-1991 for Lithuania and its people.
In 1997 the Museum was reorganised. By Resolution of the Government of the Republic of Lithuania of 24 March 1997 On the Transfer of the Research Centre of Repressions in Lithuania and the Museum of Genocide Victims to the Genocide and Resistance Research Centre of Lithuania, the rights of the Museum’s founder were taken over by the Genocide and Resistance Research Centre of Lithuania (LGGRTC). The Museum is part of the Memorial Department of the Centre.
In the first years of the Museum’s existence, visitors were only able to see the former KGB internal prison, which was set up in the basement of the building in the autumn of 1940 (the cells, solitary confinement cells, outdoor exercise areas). In 1999, creative architects, together with the Museum staff, drew up a project for the Museum’s exhibitions. As the Museum is housed in a historic building, the decision was taken to keep the previous layout, preserve the authentic details, and in some places recreate former rooms or their fragments. It was decided to leave the former KGB internal prison completely in its authentic shape, or rather as it was left behind by the Soviet security forces when they vacated the building in August 1991. The first exhibition under the new project was opened on 24 June 2000 in the former execution room. The material on display introduces visitors to the executions carried out in the 1940’s and 1960’s, the victims, and executioners.
In 2002, the Museum started to prepare exhibits on the first floor of the Museum – in November, the introductory exposition “Lithuania 1940-1941: Beginning of the Losses…” was opened. It is installed in the former office of the deputy chief of the MGB (KGB) internal prison, so that along with the exhibits about the occupation and Sovietisation of the country, one can also see the restored interior of this office. The preparation of the exhibitions on the first floor of the Museum was completed at the end of 2004, with the installation of exhibitions dedicated to the partisan war of 1944-1953.
In 2006, the second floor of the Museum was used to house exhibitions on the imprisonment of the Lithuanian population in the Gulag forced labour camps in 1944-1956, deportations in 1944-1953 and KGB operations in 1954-1991. In 2007, the last exposition on the second floor was opened to visitors, talking about the civil (unarmed) anti-Soviet resistance in 1954-1991. Two rooms on the second floor have also been restored to their former interiors, with the KGB photo lab and a phone wiretapping room displayed behind the glass partitions.
The installation of exhibitions dedicated to the Soviet occupation opened the possibility of preparing an exhibition on the Nazi occupation of Lithuania. In 2011, such an exposition was set up in the 3rd cell of the former KGB prison, where polychrome research led to the discovery of Gestapo prisoners’ records dating back to 1942–1944.
The Museum of Occupations and Freedom Fights has the following Museum units: the Memorial Complex of Tuskulėnai Peace Park in Vilnius and the Druskininkai Resistance and Exile Museum.
History of the building
The building that houses the Museum of Occupations and Freedom Fights (formerly the Museum of Genocide Victims) is over 100 years old. It reflects the complex events of Lithuanian history between the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The large building, with its neoclassical forms and eclectic décor, has become a symbol of the occupation forces in the minds of the Lithuanian people. The administrative offices of the occupation forces were in the building for most of the time.
The building was built at the end of the 19th century for the courts of Vilnius Governorate of the Russian Empire. It was designed by architect Mikhail Prozorov and engineer Leonid Viner, based on sketches by St Petersburg academician Vasily Prusakov. The construction work was completed in 1899 and the building was solemnly consecrated on 13 October. It housed Vilnius Regional Court and the Court Chamber. Our book smugglers Juozas Račiūga, Vladislovas Šatas, Nikodemas Mačernis and others were tried in this courthouse. The court was used until World War I, more precisely until 1915, when the German army occupied the territory of Lithuania. At that time, the building housed various offices of the German occupation authorities. It is believed that before the war, in 1914, an extension was built along Aukų Street, where the Museum is now located. On 16 February 1918, by availing of a favourable international situation, Lithuania declared itself an independent state. In November 1918, the former Court House building (then on Šv. Jurgio Ave. 36) was used as a recruiting station for Lithuanian volunteers and as Vilnius City Commandant’s office.
However, the Lithuanian army, which had barely established itself, was unable to defend Vilnius against Bolshevik attacks. In January 1919, Vilnius was occupied by the Red Army and the building housed the commissariats of the Bolshevik government of Vincas Kapsukas and the revolutionary tribunal. But their existence was short-lived. After Poland took over Vilnius, the building was given over to the courts of the Polish occupation forces; until the autumn of 1939, the Vilnius Voivodeship courts operated here. Prominent Lithuanian figures in opposition to the Polish rule were tried here. In 1929, during the Polish rule, a new three-storey extension was built on what is now Vasario 16-osios Street. Since then, there have been no major alterations to the building.
When Lithuania was occupied by the Soviet Union, the building housed Soviet security agencies. From the autumn of 1940, the Vilnius Office of the People’s Commissariat for Internal Affairs (NKVD) was located here, and from the spring of 1941, the People’s Commissariat for State Security (NKGB) settled here. A prison was set up in the basement of the building. During the Nazi occupation (1941–1944), the building housed the headquarters of the German secret police (Gestapo) and the Security Service (SD), a prison, and the barracks of the Vilnius Special Squad. People opposing the Nazi rule were interrogated, imprisoned, and killed here. When the Soviet Union occupied Lithuania for the second time in 1944, the building was once again handed over to the Soviet security services, the NKGB, later the MGB and KGB. A new phase of terror against the Lithuanian population began. Operations against Lithuanian partisans were planned in this building, deportation plans were coordinated, and those who had committed crimes against the Soviets were imprisoned, interrogated, and tortured.
The shooting chamber in the basement of the building was used for executions until 1969. The Soviet security services occupied the building until autumn 1991.
Today, the building houses several institutions: the Museum of Occupations and Freedom Fights, the Lithuanian Special Archive, which keeps documents from the former KGB archive, the Genocide and Resistance Research Centre of Lithuania, and the courts.