About
Ordinary citizens forced to flee their homes, crushed by gargantuan government and running away for their lives from the country they actually love. This is a story of a modern Russian political refugee community finding asylum in Lithuania.
Lithuania has a long history of welcoming Russian political refugees in its premises. Back in 16th century The Polish – Lithuanian Commonweath accepted the first wave of refugees from Russia – the Old believers' community. In beginning of 20th century the famous Lithuanian poet and diplomat Jurgis Baltrusaitis was issuing Lithuanian visas for Russian intellectuals, persecuted by Bolshevik revolutionary regime. These Lithuanian visas saved lives of such world known figures as painter Mark Shagal or poet Marina Tsvetaeva as well as many others. During the Soviet occupation after WW2, Russian dissidents were supporting Lithuanian resistance eventually helping Lithuanians to achieve Independence in 1990.
Today Russian government is using KGB tactics, persecution and repressive methods to go after human rights activists, political opponents, LGBTQ+ community or anybody else, not functioning according to prescribed ideology.
“There is a solidarity between people who experienced suppression of freedom“ - said philosopher Leonidas Donskis referring to relationship between Lithuanians and Russian dissidents.
Authors
| Idea of the project and photographs: | Artūras Morozovas |
| Journalist: | Ina Šilina |
| Coordinator: | Berta Tilmantaitė |
| Illustrations: | Ūla Rugevičiūtė Rugytė |
| Web solutions: | Kazimiras Jarmolovskis (OriHive) |
| Translated by: | Darius Jarusevičius |
| Text editing: | Gintarė Obelenė |
| Video: | Berta Tilmantaitė, Karolis Pilypas Lutkevičius, Mindaugas Drigotas, Artūras Morozovas |
| Color correction: | Karolis Pilypas Lutkevičius |
| Sound desig: | Martynas Gailius |
Supported by:
