Public executions, hidden victims: the story of the rebels discovered on Gediminas Hill is offered within the tower of Gediminas Citadel | Tradition

2017-2019 The finds found by LNM archaeologists and the story revealing their historical past “Unforgotten Rebels” complemented the everlasting exhibition of the Gediminas Citadel Tower. Approaching June 15, when in 1863 One of many commanders of the rebellion, Zigmantas Sierakauskas, was publicly hanged in Lukiškiau Sq., guests are invited to recollect the tales of those fighters.

An surprising discovery in Mount Gediminas

In 2017-2019, throughout the administration works of Mount Gediminas, a bunch of archaeologists from the Nationwide Museum of Lithuania carried out archaeological analysis on the location of the mountain, throughout which 14 grave pits with 20 skeletal stays of males had been found and examined. Till then, there have been no archaeological finds confirming that folks had been buried on the mountain. LNM museum staff, along with scientists from the Division of Anatomy, Histology and Anthropology of the College of Drugs of Vilnius College, specialists from the State Forensic Drugs Service, researchers from the Lithuanian Historical past Institute and UAB “Seek for Cultural Values” examined and recognized the stays.

It was established that it was in 1863-1864. rebels sentenced to demise, publicly hanged or shot in Lukiškiau Sq. in Vilnius. Amongst them are the commanders of the rebellion, Zigmantas Sierakauskas (hanged on June 15, 1863) and Konstantinas Kalinauskas (hanged on March 10, 1864). It turned out that Konstantinas Kalinauskas himself was the primary sufferer discovered on the mountain. The rebels had been buried humiliatingly, with out coffins, and coated with lime on Gediminas Hill. A few of them are buried, kneeling, fingers tied.

The trail of the victims and stays of the rebellion to Mount Gediminas

1863-1864 A big-scale rebellion came regarding within the territory of the Republic of the Two Peoples with the intention to liberate itself from the oppression of the Russian Empire. nineteenth century it was essentially the most militant nationwide and social liberation motion in the whole Russian Empire, wherein regarding 15 thousand joined the struggle. rebels of varied lessons – nobles, peasants, townspeople, clergy. By way of the variety of individuals, weapons and ammunition, the rebels had been far behind the imperial military, however their struggle for liberation was important.

Till 1865 January 1 regarding 22 thousand individuals had been sentenced to demise by the empire, punished with exhausting labor, despatched to the mines, exiled to distant areas of Russia, handed over to the care of the imperial military and police. After the rebellion, the indiscriminate Russification of the nation started, repressions continued, mass executions had been carried out. Public executions of rebels by capturing or hanging in Lukiški Sq. had been carried out in Vilnius. There’s a surviving checklist of the convicted with their names, the strategy of execution and the date of execution.

21 individuals of the rebellion had been executed in Lukiški Sq.. Throughout archaeological analysis, 20 of their stays had been discovered on the website of Mount Gediminas. Archaeologists of the Nationwide Museum of Lithuania hoped to seek out the primary 1863-1864. The stays of the sufferer of the executions carried out in Lukiški Sq. – the priest Stanislaus Ihora, who was shot by the order of Mikhail Muravyov – are nonetheless a thriller to the investigators.

After the general public executions, the stays had been secretly buried in a spot inaccessible to the general public at the moment – on Gediminas Hill, which in 1831 by order of the tsar, it was changed into a fortress of the navy service of the Russian Empire. Kinfolk mightn’t bury their family members. Comrades mightn’t honor the stays.

The choice to secretly bury the our bodies of the rebels on Gediminas Hill following the executions was not unintended. The Russian Empire hid the stays to additional break the spirit of the insurrection. As the final director of the Lithuanian Nationwide Museum, dr. Rūta Kačkutė: “This reveals that not solely bodily but in addition psychological struggle was waged towards the rebels. The Russian Empire sought in each attainable option to destroy folks’s hope that they’d be capable of escape from the oppression of occupation. One a part of this was the general public execution of the rebels in Lukiški Sq., the opposite was the hiding of the our bodies, which prevented the family members from saying goodbye and the individuals of the rebellion from gathering and mobilizing for additional wrestle. All these had been deliberate measures to keep up folks’s concern of becoming a member of the motion towards the occupying empire.”

In honor of those sacrifices, in 2019 November 22 a state funeral was held and the stays of the leaders and individuals of the rebellion, discovered on Gediminas Hill, had been reburied within the Previous Rasa Cemetery in Vilnius.

Perpetuation of psychological warfare within the tower of Gediminas Citadel

The story of the rebels discovered on Gediminas Hill is advised within the new exhibition of the Gediminas Citadel Tower “Unforgettable Rebels”, which enhances the everlasting exhibition of this LNM unit. In it, guests can see the imprint of the face of the insurgent Eduard Čaplinskis in lime and the reconstruction of his face, together with the spiritual medals and crosses of the fighters buried with the stays.

An interactive data terminal in Lithuanian and English languages ​​awaits guests on the exhibition. Within the terminal, you will get acquainted with the life and demise tales of the rebels discovered on the mountain, in addition to their private belongings, be taught in regards to the junction ring of Zigmantas Sierakauskas and Apolonia Dalevskytė discovered throughout archaeological analysis on the mountain, which might be seen in one other LNM unit – the Pilininka home on the foot of the mountain.

2023 is ready for guests’ consideration on the Gediminas kalnos website. a memorial was offered to the general public with the locations the place the stays of the rebels had been discovered. The memorial, seen to the guests of the exhibition “Neuzmiršti sukilėii” by the window of the Gediminas citadel tower, was created by the architect Gintaras Čaikauskas (UAB “Architektūros linija”) who gained the general public competitors introduced by LNM.