The building that stands in Vilnius at Gedimino pr. 40/Vasario 16-osios g. 1 was where the repressive occupation authorities operated from the beginning of the first Soviet occupation in 1940 until 1991. In the autumn of 1940, the Vilnius Board of the People’s Commissariat for Internal Affairs (NKVD) was set up here, and was joined by the People’s Commissariat for State Security (NGB) in the spring of 1941. A prisonwas built in the basement of the building. During the Nazi occupation (1941–1944), the building housed the headquarters of the German secret police (Gestapo) and security service (SD), a prison, and barracks for the Vilnius “Special Squad”. In 1944, after the Soviet Union occupied Lithuania for the second time, the building went back into the hands of Soviet security (NKGB, MGB, KGB), which occupied it until autumn 1991.

In 1988, with the establishment of the Reform Movement of Lithuania and the changes in the political situation, the entrances to the building, which had been avoided for so many years, were increasingly surrounded by opposition rallies or pickets of the freedom-seeking nation.

The virtual exhibition covers the 1988–1991 period, with a brief review of post-1991 events at the end. It features material captured not only by famous photographers or event participants, but also by KGB employees.