Litene

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Litene - center of Litenes parish, in Gulbene District, Latvia. Other names: Lytene, Myza Lytene ^[1] Population - (?). Notable buildings - Litene Manor ^[2]. Litene became a known symbol in the summer of 1941, the “year of terror” of the Soviet occupation. For it was Litene where most Latvian officers were arrested. Part of them were shot on the spot, the others were deported to Siberia where nearly all of them died.

1 History
2 List of Latvian Army Officers assassinated at Litene
3 Litene tragedy in music and art
4 References

[edit] History

Army camp Litene is notorious for treacherous murder of the Latvian army personnel by the NKVD after occupation of Latvia by Soviet Union.^[3] It has certain similarity to the mass murder of Polish military personnel in Katyn.

In the spring of 1941, units of the Latvian Army 24th Territorial Corps were sent for summer training to the former Latvian Army base at Litene ^[4]. On 14 June 1941, the remaining officers, while on an alleged training mission, were disarmed, arrested and deported to Norilsk, north of the Arctic Circle in Siberia, where they were sentenced to death or long-term imprisonment.

During the commemoration ceremonies on 14 June 2001 at Litene fraternal cemetery Latvian Defence Minister Mr Girts Valdis Kristovskis unveiled a memorial to Latvian army officers, assassinated in 1941.^[5]

[edit] List of Latvian Army Officers assassinated at Litene

In 1990, excavation was undertaken at the former Latvian Army summer camp in Litene, where in June 1941 officers of the former army of the Republic of Latvia (which by then became the 24th Territorial Corps) were arrested and killed. The excavators uncovered the remains of 11 individuals, evidently officers of the 24th Territorial Corps^[6].

First Lieutenant Fridrichs Feldmanis ^[7]

[edit] Litene tragedy in music and art

Litene : ballad for 12-voiced chorus Composed by Peteris Vasks to a text by Uldis Berzins (1993). ISMN M-001-10158-5 EAN 7318590011454

Narrative: Liténe is the name of a village in Latvia, which has acquired a significance similar to that of 'Katyn' in Poland. It was in this village that in June 1941 the officer élite of the Latvian army was ambushed, disarmed and deported by the occupying Soviet forces. This despite the fact that the officers as members of the territorial army were at the time under the jurisdiction of the Red Army. The words of the ballad do not express emotions like sorrow, rage or mourning, but shows how base treason renders people heartless. Vask's music emphasises the irreconcilable difference between negative emotions and a tender, lyrical atmosphere.