1991-ŲJŲ SAUSIO ĮVYKIAI, TEISMO PROCESAS IR AUKOS: TEISINIS, KRIMINOLOGINIS IR VIKTIMOLOGINIS DISKURSAI

Abstract

This article analyzes the January 1991 events in Vilnius and the so-called “January 13th” case, based on a victimological approach. When analyzing the criminological, legal and victimological discourses of the January events, the main focus is on the victim’s perspective. First of all, the article reviews what crime, based on international law, was committed against the victims of the January 1991 events. Using the so-called “ideal victim” theory, it aims to reconstruct how the victim of the bloody January events was constructed in the Lithuanian legal, criminological and victimological discourses. Also, based on interviews with the victims of the January events themselves, it aims to clarify their interpretation of the January events, the crime and criminal prosecution. This study once again confirms the conclusion previously reached by other researchers that the January 1991 events in Lithuania are attributable to violence by one state (the USSR) against civilians of another state (Lithuania), in violation of both national and international law. This was not an internal conflict of the USSR. Therefore, the victims of the January events were also victims of international crimes, violations of international law. The depiction of the victims of the January events in Lithuanian legal, criminological and victimological discourses differs from the typical construction of the ideal victim of international crimes in that here the victim is not weak and passive. On the contrary, the victims of the January events are depicted as an important part of the Lithuanian political nation, active defenders of Freedom. Heroization practices are also widespread. Delving deeper into the experiences and self-reflection of the victims themselves, it became clear that not all victims seek and want to be portrayed as heroes, and the spectrum of victims’ experiences is much broader than reflected in the aforementioned discourses.