12-01-2024
The Virtual Exhibition "Reflections of Petras Plumpa's Anti-Soviet Resistance in KGB Documents"
In 2023, the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania awarded the Freedom Prize for contributions to the fight for Lithuania's freedom and independence to Petras Plumpa, a participant in the non-armed resistance against the Soviet occupation regime.
In honor of the Freedom Prize laureate, the Lithuanian Special Archive has prepared a virtual exhibition, showcasing documents and photographs about Petras Plumpa from the KGB of the Lithuanian SSR, as well as photographs preserved in the Lithuanian Central State Archive.
Petras Plumpa was first detained by the Soviet security services in 1958. Accused of participating in an underground student organization "Freedom for Lithuania", creating anti-Soviet poems and writings, distributing anti-Soviet appeals, raising the Lithuanian tricolor flag on the chimney of the Petrašiūnai Thermal Power Plant, and other activities, he was sentenced to 7 years of imprisonment. He was imprisoned in Dubravlag, Mordovian ASSR until 1965.
After returning from the camp, P. Plumpa continued his anti-Soviet activities, illegally duplicating and distributing religious literature, banned press, and contributed to the publishing, duplication, and distribution of the first issues of the underground publication "Chronicle of the Catholic Church of Lithuania". In 1973, he was arrested for the second time by the Soviet security. In 1974, P. Plumpa was sentenced to 8 years of imprisonment, serving his sentence in a strict regime corrective labor colony. He was imprisoned in camps in the Perm region, and in the prison of Chistopol, Tatar ASSR. He returned to Lithuania in 1981. Although he no longer participated in underground activities, the KGB continued to follow him.