Museum of Genocide Victims

Vilnius, Lithuania

The Museum of Genocide Victims, also known as KGB Museum, was established in 1992. In 1997 it was transferred to the Genocide and Resistance Research Centre of Lithuania. The museum is located in the former KGB headquarters across from the Lukiškės Square, therefore it is informally referred to as the KGB Museum. The museum is dedicated to collecting and exhibiting documents relating to the 50-year occupation of Lithuania by the Soviet Union, the Lithuanian resistance, and the victims of the arrests, deportations, and executions that took place during this period.

The museum building, completed in 1890, originally housed the court of the Vilna Governorate. The German Empire used it during its World War I occupation of the country. After independence was declared, it served as a conscription center for the newly formed Lithuanian army and as the Vilnius commander's headquarters. During theLithuanian Wars of Independence, the city was briefly taken by the Bolsheviks, and the building housed commissariats and a revolutionary tribunal. Following Żeligowski's Mutiny of 1920, Vilnius and its surroundings were incorporated into Poland, and the building housed the courts of justice for the Wilno Voivodship.

Lithuania was invaded by the Soviet Union in 1940, and following an ultimatum, became a Soviet Socialist Republic. Mass arrests and deportations followed, and the building's basement became a prison. In 1941 Nazi Germany invaded the country; the building then housed the Gestapo headquarters. Inscriptions on the cell walls from this era remain. The Soviets retook the country in 1944, and from then until independence was re-established in 1991, the building was used by the KGB, housing offices, a prison, and an interrogation center. Over 1,000 prisoners were executed in the basement between 1944 and the early 1960s, about one third for resisting the occupation. Most bodies were buried in the Tuskulėnai Manor, which underwent reconstruction and is selected to host the second Museum of Genocide Victims.

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Founded: 1992
Category: Museums in Lithuania

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4.6/5 (based on Google user reviews)

User Reviews

Sofiia Matsiutsia (2 months ago)
Heartbreaking place, which is a must to visit. Especially if you come from any country being occupied by ussr or russia. Worth reminding about unhumiliated crimes done by ussr. We took a private tour and could ask all the questions we had.
miguel org (4 months ago)
Interesting visit to a real KGB facility turned into a museum. You can move around the once terrifying cells and torture and execution rooms. The entry fee is 6€.
Albert Vsc (5 months ago)
This place is horrifying. In here many people were persecuted, tortured, killed mainly by the brutal Soviet regime during the Soviet occupation of Lithuania. I hope it never happens again. This place makes you really appreciate the values of freedom. Inside the explanations are very accurate and exhaustive.
Gordon Shaffer (6 months ago)
The Museum opened shortly after Lithuania gained its independence from Soviet Russia in 1991. The KGB operated out of this building for nearly 50 years. The basement prison remains as it was found after their departure. Interrogations, confinement, torture, exercise yard, and executions were all conducted here and seen here. Exhibitions on the upper floors deal w the "pain & dramatic times in the history of Lithuania: the loss of independence, brutal reprisals at the hands of the Soviet regime, and the bitter fight for the reestablishment of independence." Unbelievable sad and revealing ?.
Levan Giorgadze (7 months ago)
An interesting museum, about the Soviet regime in Lithuania. In the building are 3 floors and all of them well made to tell you all those sad stories, but still i highly recommend taking a guide! It will save your time and also make it more informative.
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