In 1941, in response to the 16 May 1941 Politburo resolution, more than 250 deported Lithuanian men, women and children arrived in Tenga village. The adults worked in the fields, logging timber and at a vegetable-growing State farm (sovkhoz). Those who died were buried in a separate section of the village graveyard according to Catholic rites, and crosses and name plates were placed on their graves. The total numbers who died then are not known.
In 1990, former deportees and their relations visited the graveyard and put up a wooden commemorative cross. In 1991, Lithuanian researcher Gintautas Alekna studied the graveyard, carried out a photo survey, and uncovered two graves with surviving headboards. In August 2012, members of the “Destination, Siberia!” youth expedition from Lithuania worked in the graveyard. They cleared the territory and raised the fallen crosses.
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 and see Deportation of Lithuanians, 1941-1951 for the 28 other burial grounds and commemorative sites on the Map of Memory.
The Memorial online database (2025) lists 7,379 victims in the Altai Republic (see [Gorno-Altaisk, 04-02]): the republic’s Book of Remembrance includes 11 Lithuanians.
| State of burials | Area | Boundaries |
|---|---|---|
|
Two headboards have survived
|
Not defined
|
Not delineated
|
[ original texts and hyperlinks ]
Note on the 1991 expedition by the Genocide and Resistance Research Centre of Lithuania
“Ekspedicija Altajus 2012”, Lemtis (Destiny) association website (in Lithuanian)
