World War II in Kaunas and Soviet spy games

Kaunas Ninth Fort Museum is located at the crossroads of ma jor international transport routes near Kaunas and it is easily accessible by car. The Ninth Fort was built from 1903–1913 as one of the forts of the Kaunas fortress complex with the task of protecting the strategically important Linkuva ridge. The fort was built with the use of concrete slabs – an innovation of the time, elec tricity and ventilation system. The fort did not suffer damage during the First World War. From 1924 to 1940, the Ninth Fort was a prison for political prisoners and criminals, while from 1940 to 1941, it became an NKVD redistribution point. During the Second World War, the Ninth Fort became the site of a mass murder of Jews, where around 50,000 Jews from different countries were killed by the Nazi occupation regime. In 1958, a museum was established in the Ninth Fort to tell the story of Nazi crimes, and in 1984, a memorial complex was built and a monument to the victims of Nazism was erected (authors: Alfonsas Vincentas Ambraziūnas, Gediminas Baravykas and Vytautas Vielius). Today, the Ninth Fort Museum tells the story of the fortress, as well as the history of crimes committed by the Nazis and the Soviets.

The Kaunas nuclear bunker, located 6 m underground, has a museum with exhibits from private collectors (> 1200). The most interesting ones include a collection of gas masks and the largest exhibition of Cold War radio equipment and spy devices in the Baltic States.

The museum is located in the centre of Kaunas. Vytautas the Great War Museum is a Lithuanian military museum established during the War of Independence, and the opening ceremony of the museum was held on 16 February 1921. Originally, the museum was established in a wooden building constructed during the Tsarist Russian Empire, while, on 16 February 1936, the museum opened in its new premises, where it remains open to visi tors to date. During the occupations of 1940–1941 and 1944–1956, the museum was called the War History Museum, from 1956–1990 it was called the Kaunas State History Museum, and in 1990, it regained the name of Vytautas the Great War Museum. During the inter-war period, the museum, together with the K. M. Čiurlionis Gallery, performed the functions of the national museum. The exhibition of the museum told the story of the struggle for independence of the people of Lithuania, and the garden was the main venue for national holidays and important celebrations. During the Soviet occupation, the exhibition of the War Museum and its garden were destroyed and replaced with exhibits and monuments glorifying the Soviet ideology. Today, the Vytautas the Great War Museum exhibition invites you to explore Lithuanian military history: ancient and modern weap ons, armour and uniforms of the soldiers, awards, and an exhibition about pilots S. Darius and S. Girėnas, who crossed the Atlantic Ocean in an aircraft. The Special Warfare Equipment exhibit dis plays Soviet military equipment and military equipment of NATO.