Catch 22! [ Stories from Siberia continued] Catch 22! [ Stories from Siberia continued] Translated from Lithuanian from the memoirs of Irena K In the 1990’s committees were set up to help those Lithuanians who had suffered under the Communist regime. Volunteers travelled to Siberia to interview those Lithuanians who wanted to come back and helped to find and preserve the graves of those who had died there. Museums and monuments were established to educate people about the terrible conditions exiles and partisan fighters had to endure. Those Lithuanians still living in Siberia were given government assistance to purchase flats in Lithuania or reclaim property seized in the war by the Soviets. We helped our granddaughter Juliya and her brother Oleg to come and live in a flat near us. Lithuanians who had fled overseas during World War 2 could theoretically reclaim their original properties too, if they had proof of ownership. However there was a catch.... If the Russians living in these houses did not want to move, they had up to 10 years to find a suitable replacement property. A lot of records had also been destroyed during WW2 and very few families had documents which proved ownership of original family homes. Our new government had a difficult time changing the Russian rouble back to the original Lithuanian “litas”. In between, we were issued with special coupons. Some people lost money in the changeover period. Now we had to pay for rent, gas, water and electricity which had been free under Communism . Sometimes workers weren’t paid on time and had to borrow money from friends or relatives. Our pensions were stretched to the limit, but at least we had freedom . We would take our own coffee in a small plastic container to a cafe and just order hot water and a small cake. That was our only weekly luxury, but least we were free to speak Lithuanian and say what we wanted to say.