BioGraphy
Antanas KYBARTAS
Antanas Kybartas was born on August 4, 1943 in the village of Stanaičiai, Lithuania. One night in July 1947, Lithuanian nationalist partisans arrived, armed, at the door of the family residence to ask for shelter. A shootout ensued between these partisans and Soviet soldiers.
Following this episode, soldiers interrogated the family, who is accused of helping the partisans. They are deported to Siberia in December 1947. The family was first taken near Yurginskoe, in the Tyumen region, where they lived for two years. They were then relocated to the nearby Verhkamenka forestry operation, where they were allowed to build a family house.
In 1951, NKVD men searched the family house and arrested Antanas' father. Antanas Kybartas later discovered that his father had been the subject of purges related to the North Korean War, which had been conducted in several towns around the Trans-Siberian Railway. He had been imprisoned in Tyumen and shot in 1952.
Antanas and his mother returned to Lithuania in 1958, to their house. Antanas Kybartas perfected his Lithuanian and entered a kolkhoz. He became a Komsomol and later held the position of secretary of this organization in this kolkhoz. In 1963, he finished high school and decided to move to Vilnius to learn computer science at the Technical College of Electromechanics, where he became a teacher before specializing in the energy sector.
In 2009, Antanas Kybartas still lived in Vilnius, where he was a member of the Council of Former Deportees of Lithuania.
The interview with Antanas Kybartas was conducted in 2009 by Jurgita Mačiulytė.
A shootout between Soviet soldiers and "brothers of the forest" at the Kybartas home (Original in Russian)
One night, Lithuanian nationalist partisans ("brothers of the forest") knocked on the door of the Kybartas' family home and asked for shelter. A shootout with Soviet soldiers ensued. Following this episode, soldiers interrogated the family, who were accused of having helped the partisans. They were deported to Siberia in December 1947.
The journey and the installation in Siberia (Original in Russian)
After a trip in a cattle car and then two years living in the same place, the family was allowed to build a house near the sawmill of Verhkamenka.
His father's arrest (Original in Russian)
Antanas Kybartas recounts the arrival of the NKVD to arrest his father in 1951.
His father's death (Original in Russian)
Antanas Kybartas explains how long it took him to learn that his father had been shot.
His father's death (French version)
Antanas Kybartas explains how long it took him to learn that his father had been shot.
The reasons for his father's arrest (Original in Russian)
Antanas Kybartas explains that he only learned the reasons for his father's arrest much later. The latter was a victim of the purges in the localities surrounding the Trans-Siberian Railway related to the North Korean War.
« I was taught to be a good soviet » (Original in Russian)
In this excerpt, Antanas Kybartas recounts the education he received in deportation.
Growing up in Siberia (Original in Russian)
In this excerpt, Antanas Kybartas talks about his childhood memories in Siberia: nature, other children, languages.
Stalin's death (Original in Russian)
Antanas Kybartas recalls the announcement of Stalin's death.
Stalin's death (French version)
Antanas Kybartas recalls the announcement of Stalin's death.
First impressions of Lithuania (Original in Russian)
After 1956, Antanas' mother is able to make a short stay in Lithuania. She brings back an apple, the first fruit Antanas has ever seen.
1958: the return to Lithuania (Original in Russian)
Antanas Kybartas and his mother return to Lithuania. They join his brother, who had returned from the Vorkuta camp some time earlier. Antanas discovers the Lithuanian landscape on his arrival, and in particular its Khoutors, large isolated farms.
Secretary of the Komsomol in the kolkhoz (Original in Russian)
In this excerpt, Antanas Kybartas explains how he came to hold the position of secretary of the Komsomol of his kolkhoz and how the stigma he carried as a former deportee influenced his actions.