In 1987, a Lithuanian national poet Justinas Marcinkevicius, published an article about Dalia Grinkeviciute’s experiences as a deportee on the coast of the Arctic Ocean in 1941. After this, more memoirs of deportees were published by newspapers and magazines and monuments were erected to commemorate them. Expeditions to various places in Siberia were organised so that people could bring back the remains of family members who had died in exile and bury them in their family graves in Lithuania. The Soviet policy of ‘perestrioka’ (restructuring) meant that the communist authorities in Lithuania did not dare to oppose these actions and pilots from the Soviet bomber squadron stationed in Kedainiai flew the coffins out of Siberia.

The first mass deportation of Lithuanian citizens took place just before Nazi Germany attacked the USSR on the 14th of June 1941. When the USSR re-established power in Lithuania after the war, deportations were repeated almost every year until Stalin’s death. Between 200,000 and 300,000 people were deported from Lithuania (according to different calculations) or around 7% of the population. When Lithuania began to assert its independence from the Soviet Union, the anniversary of the first deportation was established as the ‘Day of Mourning and Hope’. The day is usually marked by a procession and the laying of wreaths at monuments to those deported.

This poster was published in 1989 to mark the announcement of the first Day of Mourning and Hope. Deportees were transported to Siberia in crowded cattle trucks and the image of rails fading into the distance leaving behind a desecrated Lithuanian national flag conveys the tragedy of their passage from their homeland into the unknown. The dates ‘1941 – 1952’ quoted on the poster refer to the years of the first and the last deportation. The design for the poster was painted in gouache.

The designer of this poster, Arunas Žilys (b. 1953), graduated from the Design Department of the State Art Institute. He worked for the Trade House of the LSSR creating graphic design projects and posters. He is now well known for his mystical paintings.