Lithuania publishes KGB files on Internet

  • 2007-09-05
  • By Kimberly Kweder

FRESH EXPOSURE: KGB documents that were once only accessible to museum visitors will now be available worldwide via the Internet.

VILNIUS - A Lithuanian research center has launched a Web site that allows the public to access original KGB documents online.
Activated on Sept. 3, the site kgbdocuments.eu contains working documents from various KGB departments, as well as descriptive articles on the activities of Soviet state security agencies in Lithuania from 1940 to 1991. The material is presented in English and Russian.
The Lithuanian Genocide and Resistance Center, which created the site, has invited all former Soviet and Eastern Bloc countries to contribute material to the database, which they hope will become one of the largest archives of original KGB documents on the Internet.  

"It's not just for professionals, but for everyone to understand the history," the center's spokesman Ricardas Cekutis told The Baltic Times. 
"The most important thing is for Lithuanian historians and all young historians to obtain files from former KGB members," he said.
The project was born out of a meeting of Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian historians Vilnius in 2006, who wanted to jointly publish KGB documents collected in all three countries. 
According to Cekutis, the historians had been tired of hearing "propaganda from people who want to rewrite history," an allusion to Moscow's continued claims that the Baltic states joined the Soviet Union voluntarily rather than being forcibly occupied.
 
"We would also like to show this to Russia to help the people open their eyes and know our history," he said.
The Lithuanian Genocide and Resistance Center was chosen to manage the Web site content because it is state-financed and has more experience in archival services than similar institutions in Latvia and Estonia.
Cekutis said there was not much concern among historians about any backlash from groups opposed to the site, which reveals specific names and titles.
"It's a moment of truth," he said, "we're not listening to former KGB officials and what they're thinking. We'll start opening publications for everyone to read."

He said the main problem for the historians has been access to documents. Around the time the Baltics re-established independence in 1991, many KGB files were lost, shredded or sent to Moscow.
Visitors to Vilnius' KGB Museum expressed an interest in a Web site of this nature.
Tourist Maria Henniger said her native Germany also has an agency that collects data about the Stasi, the secret service of the former German Democratic Republic.

"In 1989, all the documents were shredded, but the researchers are piecing everything together," Henniger said. "For the Baltics, it's exciting [to have a Web site] because they never had the chance before."
By some estimates, Lithuania lost about one million citizens due to the 50 years of Soviet occupation and suffered financial damages totaling 80 billion litas (23 billion euros).