Lithuania - Ignalina District Municipality

[AOK4]

Hello,

I was invited to speak on a conference in Ignalina (Lithuania) on Thursday 12 September 2024. The museum of Ignalina has plans to do something with the First World War remains in the district (1,441 km²) in the northeast of Lithuania. I was contacted some time ago after someone from the area had read my book "Defending the Ypres Front, 1914-1918". The title of the conference was "Inclusion of World War I engineering fortifications, memorial sites and historical landscape in the development of cultural tourism in the Utena region".

I talked about how the Germans created several defensive positions in the area. A report of the conference can be found here: https://ignalinosmuziejus.lt/moksline-konferencija-ignalinos-krasto-muziejuje/ (one can use an online translator like deepl to get an English translation)

On Friday, a Lithuanian contact of me took me on a tour. We visited plenty of bunkers and German military cemeteries in unfortunately rapidly depopulating villages along the Eastern border of the EU and NATO (an worthwile experience on its own). I can highly recommend it to the more adventurous battlefield visitor. One shouldn't be afraid of deep forest, swarms of blood-sucking flying insects and dirt roads though...

I'll try to make some kind of illustrated report of my visit in the following days.

I hope that funds would be found to make these sites more accessible, not just for Lithuanian visitors (the knowledge of English by most locals is rather limited if not almost non-existent), but also to a more international public, although that may take many years still. Let's hope the vestiges survive until then. It might put some much needed (economic) oxygen into a desolate region.

Jan

[knittinganddeath]

Looking forward to seeing your pictures -- it sounds amazing.

ETA: Did people there also speak Russian in addition to Lithuanian? Just curious about the linguistic challenges since I don't really enjoy going to places where I can't at least muddle my way through a conversation, but I might make an exception for this. My husband met a surprising number of people in Lithuania and Latvia who spoke Swedish and Norwegian, but they were in the cities.

Edited Monday at 09:49 by knittinganddeath

[FROGSMILE]

It will be excellent to get a visual understanding of your adventures Jan. 👍

[charlie2]

I‘m looking forward to your report as well.

Charlie

[AOK4]

I'll try to post some pics and comments tomorrow. I have to learn how to upload the pics to the forum gallery...

[AOK4]

I'll give it a go. I will post a few pics at a time with some experiences and background. Those who want to just look at a selection of the pics I made, can check out the gallery I created. Feel free to ask any question you may have.

So, as I explained I was invited by the Ignalina Museum to speak at their conference. Ignalina is known for its nuclear power plant, which has been taken out of action. Quite remarkably, the area of the power plant doesn't belong to the Ignalina district any more. Ignalina is the main city (it was made a city during Soviet occupation because of the important nuclear power plant). It has just under 5,000 inhabitants (2023). This was still 5,605 in 2014. The whole district is rapidly depopulating as there is very little economic activity (some forestry, agriculture and a bit of tourism to the national park). Ignalina itself has quite a bit of appartment blocks and large buildings from the Soviet times, but most seem to be renovated, so they don't look that dull and grey. There are two restaurants that I spotted, one small hotel and two fastfood places (pizza and pitta). That's about it. In Ignalina are also the only two large modern looking shops that I encountered in the district.

Ignalina is located near a lake.

This is the hotel where I was staying, Zuvedra. It is decently priced and there's a restaurant (beware of the kitchen opening hours though). My room was clean, although it could use some renovation work. Staff were friendly and the ones that I met, understood a bit of English (at least one of them seemed to understand and speak it well, the other one seemed to have a lot more trouble).

This is the museum of Ignalina. There is a exhibition about the region's history (only in Lithuanian language) and now a temporary exhibition of photographs of some German First World war bunkers. Some of the staff speaks English.

Language is an issue when visiting. Most of the (older) people have lived under Soviet rule and Russian was taught as the second language in schools. Only in very recent times (the Russian invasion of Ukrraine) this has changed and English is now chosen more and more as the second language in schools.

Jan

[AOK4]

I'll create posts by subject, that should make it easier to follow.

We visited the southeastern part of the Ignalina district (and also the northeastern part of the Svencionys district). The area is a combination of mostly very small "villages" (which are mostly depopulating quickly). Most buildings are still the very same buildings that existed during the First World War. Plenty of buildings are nowadays derelict (among others the old collective farm buildings from the Soviet era). Only a few villages and areas seem to attract new inhabitants, e.g. the lakeside areas, where rich city people build second homes.

The nowadays main building of Paliesius Manor. The estate has been bought and renovated. It is now a hotel, sanatorium, concert hall and bakery (we were welcomed there in the morning with the smell of freshly baked cinnamon rolls). See https://www.paliesiusmanor.com/

From October 1915 to mid 1916, the estate served as the headquarters of the 4. bayerische Kavallerie-Brigade.

Plenty of storks live in Lithuania during the summer time, so one can see their nests everywhere.

One of the farms in the area. One can see the swallows gathering to fly south on the telephone lines.

The village of Senoji Katinautiske. This is an ethnographic village which still looks as the village looked like in earlier times. It is inhabited and houses are maintained (it doesn't look that much different as the "normal" villages apart from the fact that here the houses are all maintained).

A typical Lithuanian water well. Some are still in use.

The church of Tverecius. A landmark along the Belarusian border. It still looks like in the First World War, but it's probably way too big for the current population (351 inhabitants in 1989, 169 in 2021). A lot of empty buildings in the centre, some of them quite large.

The village shop in Tverecius (yes this picture was taken in 2024). I only spotted one identical shop in another village on our journey. One can buy there what they have available... Nothing much has changed since the Soviet era. One should be prepared when touring the area: there are no shops, cafés, restaurants or anything similar...

One of the main reasons why the area is quickly declining, is of course the closed border with Belarus. This is the border station in Tverecius nowadays. There used to be some traffic from and to Belarus, but the border has been close in recent years (one of the consequences of the Russian invasion of Ukraine). We weren't checked, but border guards are patrolling the area and one needs to show identification if requested.

The new "Iron Curtain", the eastern border of the European Union and NATO... One isn't allowed to go to closely (cameras are detecting everything). I was told that bears don't care about the fence and just break through it.

The typical landscape: large agricultural fields but also a lot of forest and here and there a lake.

All in all, one could look at pictures from during the First World War and find almost no difference with how everyhting looks today, which makes the area interesting as such. Next posts, I'll be showing some of the First World War vestiges.

[AOK4]

In this post, I want to show some German military cemeteries and graves in the area. The history is quite complicated as the Vilnius area (including Ignalina district) belonged to Poland until 1939. Information about the cemeteries is very difficult to find. It appears the graves were put in order in the 1920s, but since then nothing much has been done. There is an official agreement since 1996 between Lithuania and the Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge, but very little has been done since for the German WWI graves. However, one should probably prefer that the Volksbund wouldn't do anything as they would most probably just dig up the bodies and transfer them to concentration cemeteries, which would basically destroy these old cemeteries. Some serious thinking is needed about these graves as they have historical and cultural significance. None of the (very few) names that are still readable can be found on the VDK's website. I can say many things about how Germany deals with its war dead, but it is a very complicated discussion, which includes the German ghosts from the past and the current political views.

Bernotai German Military Cemetery. If I understood correctly from the conference, the graves here were recently exhumed and reburied elsewhere. Anyway, the wall is still there, as well as the monument. It is nicely located with a view towards a lake (the German knew where to build their cemeteries). The monument is in need of being renovated. Some of the stones have fallen down and I fear that the weather may reduce the monument to a pile of rubble in just a few months of years.

Guntauninkai German Military Cemetery, located next to the communal cemetery. This marker is typical for all the German cemeteries. The first line has the name of the vllage (in one of the cases, probably a genitive). The rest "Vokieciu Kariu I Pasaulinio Karo Kapines" means something like "military cemetery of German soldiers from the First World War".

Only one grave marker is still visible and readable (the rest are standard flat grave markers in the grass, but no longer readable). Oberjäger Julius Hinke of 2. Landsturm-Infanterie-Bataillon Stade was born on 8 April 1875 and died in 1916 (I believe 19 March).

Kliukai German Military Cemetery. Some grave markers can be seen still in the grass, but none can be read.

Tverecius German Military Cemetery (in the communal cemetery). On can see the grave markers in the picture but none can be read.

Erzvetas German Military Cemetery, again nicely located with a view on the lake. Unfortunately, the lakeside is very popular with wealthy people who build their second homes and spoil quite a bit of the view.

There must be quite a few burials here, but no names can be read.

Gudeliai German Military Cemetery (in the communal cemetery).

Here, one can still read the names.

There are two burials of Feldartillerie-Regiment 235 (Kanonier Oskar Hilbert? and Unteroffizier Gustav Wischeropp) and one of the reitende Abteilung/Bayerisches Feldartillerie-Regiment 5. The Bavarian is Gefreiter Christian Molter, born 2 March 1887 Schnappach. He died after "being stabbed by a comrade" on 25 December 1915...

I hope you liked this pictures. There must be many more small cemeteries in the area.

Jan

[charlie2]

Thank you Jan, that is all very interesting. One would hope if the Volksbund ever decide to do something with what remains of the cemeteries that they still have the original plans. Not that I am expect something to happen in the near future as their emphasis at the time is further east and 25 years or so later.

Charlie

[AOK4]

12 minutes ago, charlie2 said:

Thank you Jan, that is all very interesting. One would hope if the Volksbund ever decide to do something with what remains of the cemeteries that they still have the original plans. Not that I am expect something to happen in the near future as their emphasis at the time is further east and 25 years or so later.

Charlie

Lithuania is more in its focus now as working in Russia is nowadays extremely difficult. But it is WWII indeed that has their attention.

Jan

 

[FROGSMILE]

A very interesting thread from a seldom mentioned or considered theatre of the war Jan.  Thank you for sharing it.

[knittinganddeath]

Thank you for the pictures. In a very strange way, it reminds me of where my grandmother grew up in Hawaii. Same sense of isolation and left-behind-ness. Did you leave the grave light for Julius Hinke or was it there already (perhaps a sign that someone still visits regularly)?

[deutscherinfanteriest]

very interesting trip congrats and  thank for sharing it, i hope they will take care of those cemeteries

[RHLV]

Very nice pictures and very nice discussion of an interesting and often forgotten topic. Thanks for sharing.

Rich

[AOK4]

A last post is about the many German bunkers that remain. One day was of course much too short to see a lot of them, but anyway. There is a bit of cluster of remaining constructions in/around Rascunai along the 4402 road.

An observation or communication bunker probably, on the road towards Pociske (and further towards Adutiskis/Goduzischki on WWI maps).

This is the inside of the small bunker.

Some nearby debris of another bunker.

This bunker stood a bit further down the road.

On the road towards Guntauninkai/Guntowniki was this shelter built with concrete blocks, probably partly torn down and the blocks reused for post war civilian reconstructing.

This one was just across the street. A large square room inside with a large slab of concrete (possibly a kind of protective wall originally placed outside of the bunker to protect the people inside from the blast shockwaves?). On the roof is a semicircle. It reminds me of the German bunkers of the Hollandstellung, some of which have a MG emplacement on top, but in this case the semicircle doesn't seem large enough for an MG).

This looks like some kind of command bunker, which would makes sense since it is located in Guntauninkai, where some staffs are known to have been and there were artillery positions just to the east of the village.

Shelter near the cemetery of Tverecius.

A bunker in Kekstai/Kakschty. Allegedly it was built right in the pre war communal cemetery, so a cross was placed on top to commemorate these lost (civilian) graves). This was a bunker of the front line.

Close by is this other bunker. There was some rubble nearby of which it wasn't clear whether that had been a bunker as well or what remained of some farm building.

We then headed southwards into some seemingly endless woods (no road signs or anything, so quite confusing) along this former railroad (which isn't on mu July 1917 trench, so probably from after the war).

Erbaut 1916 - Signaltrupp 294-295. Communication bunker in the sector of the 17. Landwehr-Division  (south of Katinautiske).

Things became rather unpleasant by this time. The weather turned hot and humid (with some thunder rumbling in the distance) and we were under attack by dozens of small bloodsucking black flies.

My friend decided to try to take the forest track towards Guntauninkai along which we passed a small complex of three similar bunkers.

It looks idyllic with the table and benches, but sitting there for some time would cost one a loot of blood...

These bunkers in the forest were all located just behind the actual front line from late 1915 until early 1918.

A lot of the bunkers look rather similar: the inside rooms built with corrugated iron and a large exit/entry on one side.

[AOK4]

I want to say something still about accessibility. Most of the bunkers and other vestiges aren't marked on any map or in any guide. One has to know where to find them. This may be especially challenging inside a large forest, where only tracks are running and no habitation nearby. Others are on private land and one has to drive almost through some farms. There is some work to do to make it easier for tourists to go and see the places.

My friend explained that this is what remains of a tourist information panel about the First World War sites in Tverecius, I believe from Soviet times. It has become unreadable and has become archaeology on itself. Some concrete roadsigns (with no text any more on them) are still present from that time as well. They even had built a toilet ("French style") near the cemetery of Tverecius for the tourists as well according to my friend (although I suspect the toilet may have been for the cemetery visitors and/or bus stop as well).

 

 

There is a rather recent information panel near one of the bunkers in Rasciunai.

Plenty of work to do for Ignalina, I would say. Let's hope they manage to make something happen.

Just as a comparison: the neighbouring district of Zarasai managed to get a lot of European funds (more than 730,000 euros) for a similar project together with Medumi in Latvia. There is an online website for this project: https://ww1route.eu/

Jan

[MartH]

Jan, thanks for posting and helping them. A most intresting area.