ABOUT WEBSITE

About the Website

The website “Electronic Archive of Names” publicises personal names, mentioned in the documents produced by the NKGB-MGB-KGB of the Lithuanian SSR, NKVD-MVD of the Lithuanian SSR, Lithuanian Communist Party, as well as in other fonds of archival documents, stored at the Lithuanian Special Archives.

When applying the selected criteria, such as the surname, the first name, the pseudonym, the year of birth of a person, the website offers a possibility to find persons who, during the soviet occupation of 1940 – 1941 and 1944 – 1990,

• were deported from Lithuania;
• were listed as persons scheduled to be deported from Lithuania;
• were arrested, interrogated, sentenced and imprisoned by the soviet repressive structures;
• were evacuated to the depths of the Soviet Union when the war between Germany and the USSR broke out;
• were inmates of the NKVD screening-filtration prison camps of the USSR;
• were recruited by the Red Army;
• participated in the World War II as the Red Army troops and in the soviet partisan squads, and were killed or injured there;
• happened to come to Lithuania from East Prussia after the war between Germany and the USSR was over (“wolf children”);
• emigrated to the Western countries at the end of the war between Germany and the USSR;
• were fighting or were killed as Lithuanian Freedom Fighters during the post-war period in Lithuania;
• participated in the unarmed anti-soviet resistance;
• were persecuted and/or secretly monitored by the special services of the USSR;
• were leaving Lithuania for temporary or permanent residence in a foreign country.

The search results reveal the surnames, names and/or pseudonyms as well as the year of birth of the persons, who met the search criteria.  One can also see the serial number of the fonds, inventories and the cases, preserved in the Lithuanian Special Archives, which provide information about the person in search.

Once the information about the person is obtained, one can apply to the Lithuanian Special Archives and:

• Get acquainted with the documents containing information about the given person in the reading rooms of the Archives.

Find the information on the reading rooms of the Archives, their address, working hours and contacts, also the order number of the document required and the procedure of handling the document on https://www.archyvai.lt/lt/skaityklos/lya-skaityklos.html.

Digitised documents are to be found in the Reading Room of the Electronic Archives Information System (EAIS) (https://eais.archyvai.lt), where one can read documents without restrictions.

• File an application to order either analogous or digital copy of the documents containing the name of the person in search.

The information on how to file an application and how to pay for the production of copies can be found on https://www.archyvai.lt/lt/lya_paslaugos/lya_mokamos-paslaugos.html.

• File an application for the document search and for the preparation of the information about the person in search.

Application forms, as well as the information about the procedure of application and payment, can be found on https://www.archyvai.lt/lt/lya_prasymu-formos.html.

The names on the website are mostly derived from the Russian language, which was the language of the written documents of the soviet repressive structures. In most cases the documents were produced by non-Lithuanian people, and Lithuanian names were really “a hard nut to crack” for them. As a result, the name in Russian is often different from the original name. Consequently, it is not always possible to establish the correct version of the name, so there may be mistakes or discrepancies in the names publicised.

The website is supplemented on a permanent basis, which means that, if you have not found the name, it may still be mentioned in the documents stored. Please contact the Lithuanian Special Archives and we will do the document search for you. 

In case any questions regarding the familiarization with documents or the procedure of application arise, please contact the archive: by e-mail lya@archyvai.lt or phone +370 5 264 9024.

The website was developed during the implementation of the project on the Development of the Website “Electronic Archives of Names”, funded by the Lithuanian Council for Culture.

The design of the website reveals images from the book “Diaries of Death” by Kęstutis Grigaliūnas (published in Vilnius, 2010).