Laima Vince (June 18, 2021)
The Little Lithuania Museum & Library in Chugiak, Alaska is officially open! This delightful historical museum was created by Svaja Worthington, the Republic of Lithuania's Honorary Consul in Alaska. Svaja's family has a long and distinguished history connected to Lithuania. Svaja's grandfather, Stasys Šilingas, was the Minister of Justice in pre-World War II independent Lithuania. When the Soviet Union invaded and occupied Lithuania, because he was an intellectual, and because of his service to his country, Stasys Šilingas, his wife, Emilija, and one of his nine daughters, Raminta, were deported to the Gulag in Siberia, where they were tortured and starved to death. About her grandfather's life, Svaja writes on her blog:
"My grandfather was then Minister of Justice, a leader in the intelligentsia of Lithuania, and a tireless champion of Lithuanian autonomy and independence. He was a patron of the arts, a poet and writer, and his home, Misiunai, was a gathering place for artists, writers, poets, philosophers. He was an orator described as "the Cicero of the North," renowned for his "fiery, patriotic speeches" according to Encyclopedia Lituanica. Others called him "The Soul of Lietuva" and "The Father of Lithuanian Independence." With a full beard and intense, passionate eyes, to me, he always looked like Leonardo da Vinci, or God. "
Svaja's mother, Laima, one of the nine sisters, and her husband, Mykolas, escaped Soviet occupied Lithuanian in 1944 on foot to the Allied occupied territories of Germany, carrying a wooden suitcase in one hand and two-year-old Svaja in the other. This journey is documented in the Little Lithuania Museum and the suitcase and its contents are on display. Also documented are Lithuanian historical landmark events, like the 1863 uprising against the Tsar, which was in part funded by one of the Šilingas ancestors.
Original post: https://www.facebook.com/groups/170790266633157/posts/The-Little-Lithuania-Museum-&-Library-in-Chugiak,-Alaska-is-officially-open/1414724232239748/