- Vladas Petronaitis
Vladas Petronaitis (born
November 2 ,1888 - murderedJune 25 ,1941 ), was aLithuania n patriot, soldier and martyr. He was tortured and killed during the infamousRainiai massacre by members of theNKVD , and theRed Army . [ [http://www.kretvb.lt/lt/pages/view/?id=206 Petronaitis Vladas | Kretingos rajono savivaldybÄs Motiejaus ValanÄiaus vieÅ¡oji biblioteka ] at www.kretvb.lt]Early life and education
Vladas Petronaitis was born on
November 2 ,1888 , the son of a well to do farmer, Petras Petronaitis, in [http://www.fallingrain.com/world/LH/0/Plauciskiai.html Plauciškiai] , RozalimasVolost , nowKaunas County (Lithuanian: "Kauno apskritis"), Lithuania was at that time, part of theRussian Empire , as a result of the earlier partitions of thePolish-Lithuanian Commonwealth .The family's circumstances were good, and after attending the prestigious
Jelgava 's High SchoolGymnasium of Mitava , he went to the [http://www.spbu.ru/e/ Saint-Petersburg State University] ,Russia and studied mathematics and science. He shared a house with his cousin, Ignas Končius. In those days, many prominent Lithuanians studied in St. Petersburg, then the capital of the Russian Empire, including the future Lithuanian PresidentAntanas Smetona and Prime MinisterAugustinas Voldemaras .After graduating in 1913, he remained in
St Petersburg , and at the outbreak ofWorld War I , was teaching mathematics.Like many young Lithuanians, he was drafted into the
Russian Army . In 1915, he was stationed inJaroslavl nearMoscow . Heavy Russian casualties in the war forced [http://www.lka.lt/en/disp.php/en_about/en_history/en_history_1] the Russian Army to set aside long-standing discrimination against Catholic Lithuanian soldiers. In 1916, Vladas was promoted to officer rank and became a teaching fellow at a Moscow military officers' school. At the same time he studied law atMoscow University .Army service
Following the
Russian Revolution of 1917 , he made his way back toLithuania , which had regained its independence in 1918. He became an officer in the Lithuanian Army with an infantry battalion and later with an electricity technical battalion inVilnius .In 1920 he was promoted to Commandant in Vilnius and played a significant role in securing Vilnius against the Poles and the Soviet Union. For his military and organisational service in securing the city, the President of Lithuania,
Antanas Smetona , conferred on him the medal of theOrder of the Cross of Vytis [http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/an/lZC.2ACI/1772.1.1.1 for the "establishment of Vilnius City and County Commandant Institution"] .Following the Polish seizure of the Vilnius region, he was appointed Commandant in
Kretinga . He married Bronislava Kentraite in a ceremony atPalanga in 1922. Bronislava's Father,Jonas Kentra , was the public notary in Palanga, and very passionate about Lithuanian language and culture.A lawyer and advocate
In 1923, Vladas was discharged to the army reserve and settled down in
Kretinga working as a lawyer and advocate and supporting various Lithuanian patriotic activities. Like many other Lithuanians, he received the [http://adamkus.president.lt/ordinai/lnmedalis_e.phtml The Independence Medal]Pursuant to the secret
Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact betweenGermany and theSoviet Union , on September 19, 1939, Vilnius was seized and occupied by the Soviet Union. On October 10, 1939, under a Soviet ultimatum, the Lithuanian government accepted the presence of Soviet military bases in the country in exchange for restoring the city to Lithuania. The whole of Lithuania was occupied by the Soviet Union in June 1940, and a puppet Communist government was installed in the newly createdLithuanian SSR .Arrest
Within days, Vladas was arrested by the
NKVD and imprisoned in the cellar ofTelšiai prison. In spite of his imprisonment, and long interrogation over many months, he protested his innocence and denied any wrong doing.On June 22, 1941,
Operation Barbarossa , Nazi Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union, commenced. With the Soviet troops in a rout, theNKVD decided to execute itsLithuania n political prisoners as they retreated.Rainiai massacre .On the night of 24/25 June 1941, Vladas was taken to a forest at Rainiai and, together with 77 other political prisoners, tortured to death and buried in a mass grave. On exhumation three days later, his body was difficult to identify as it had been disfigured by the tortures applied to it.. [ [http://www.lituanus.org/1988/88_3_08.htm Lituanus Data Bank ] at www.lituanus.org]
References
*en iconRainiai Massacre
*en icon [http://beta.lka.lt/~serveris/biblioteka/KNYGOS/K_archyvas_XVII.pdf KARO ARCHYVAS] (Lithuanian)
*en icon [http://www.kretvb.lt/lt/pages/view/?id=206 Kretinga Library Reference]
*en icon [http://www.ziemgala.lt/z/2003_01_12.html Ziemgala] (Lithuanian]
*en icon [http://www.lithuanianresearch.org/eng/genocide/genocidehome.htm Center for the Study of Genocide in Lithuania]
*en iconLithuanian Archives: NKVD Files
*en iconKoncius, Joseph B. HISTORY OF LITHUANIA: Chicago: Lith. Amer. Community, 1965
*en icon [http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/an/lZC.2ACI/1772.1.1.1 Ancestry Boards]
*en icon [http://vip.latnet.lv/LPRA/TerrorVilnius.htm Terror Unearthed in the Heart of Vilnius]
*en icon [http://www.google.com/search?q=cache:qE3NoctKY5YJ:www.balticsww.com/wkcrier/0219_0409_01.htm+rainiai&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=6 Lithuanian Judges Convict Soviet secret police officer guilty of participating in a massacre]
*en icon [http://depts.washington.edu/baltic/encyclopedia.html Encyclopedia of Baltic History]
*en iconLithuanian 1941 Independence
*en icon"Telšiai Region. History and Cultural Heritage" - Adomas Butrimas.
*lt icon"Telšių ir Kretingos kontrrevoliucionieriai fašistai ir jų siekimai" - A testimony of the events by Domas Rocius, a Lithuanian communist.
*lt icon"Rainių kankiniai".
*lt icon"Rainių tragedija" - Arvydas Anušauskas, Birutė Burauskaitė.
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