Most often, Lithuanians associate Siberia with Stalin’s repressions of 1941–1953. Previous forced relocations of Lithuanian residents, for example, those that took place after the 1863–1864 Uprising in Lithuania and Poland, are often forgotten. In 2016, during the project Lithuanian Siberia, initiated by Dr. Viktoras Bilotas, over 3,000 copies of historical documents concerning the nineteenth century exiles from Lithuania were found in the main archives of Siberia: Tomsk, Krasnoyarsk, Irkutsk and Tobolsk. They were copied and brought to Lithuania.
In 2024, Dr. Bilotas, together with several historians and members of the Lithuanian Union of Political Prisoners and Exiles, initiated a new project designed not only to research, but also to perpetuate the names and memory of nineteenth century exiles and fighters for the restoration of Lithuania’s independence.
An electronic publication dedicated to the above mentioned exiles from Lithuania was presented at the National Library of Lithuania in November. The publication is the result of the project Political Exiles from Lithuania in Siberia after the 1863 Uprising, during which information collected in the Siberian archives about the deportations from the Lithuanian governorates of Vilnius, Kaunas, and Augustów (Suwalki) carried out after the 1863–1864 Uprising was processed. The publication consists of biographies of the exiled persons, presented in alphabetical order.
The project was carried out by Vytautas Magnus University, supported by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Lithuania; project partners were the Lithuanian Union of Political Prisoners and Exiles, the XXVII Book Lovers Society, the Siberian History Research Department of the Polish Academy of Sciences, and the Lietuvos nacionalinės bibliotekos Memorial Museum.