From 1948 to 1957, Barun (Chelan) was a special settlement in the Khorinsky district for deported Lithuanians. The graveyard was located on an elevated area next to the village; those who died were buried according to Catholic traditions and high wooden crosses were placed on their graves. In 1957, before the surviving Lithuanians left to return home, they erected a commemorative memorial in the cemetery – a fretwork, wrought metal cross on a concrete base with an inscription in Lithuanian.
In 2000, the memorial was restored by an expedition from Lithuania, a fence was placed around it with a metal plate bearing an explanatory text in Russian. Lithuania’s Centre for Genocide and Resistance Research has compiled an incomplete list of those buried in Barun graveyard. By 2007, the graveyard was becoming overgrown with young pine; most of the Lithuanian graves had survived.
Research on the Genocide of the Lithuanian People (Lietuvos gyventoju Genocidas; 3 vols. 1999-2009) contains about 130,000 biographical entries (in Lithuanian). Vol. 3 covers the years from 1948 onwards.
| Date | Nature of ceremonies | Organiser or responsible person | Participants | Frequency |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
nk
|
Catholic memorial services
|
nk
|
nk
|
From time to time
|
| State of burials | Area | Boundaries |
|---|---|---|
|
Some grave-markers have survived
|
not defined
|
not delineated
|
[ original texts and hyperlinks ]
Archive of the Genocide and Resistance Research Centre of Lithuania
V.I. Bakushev, Lithuanian special settlers in Buryat-Mongolia, 1948-1960, Ulan-Ude, 2009
V. Bakushev and B. Razgus, “Burials of Lithuanian special settlers in Buryatia: past and present, 1948-2010”, Cogita!ru [retrieved 26 May 2022]
