Staurila Henrikas

Staurila Henrikas (1928-?) was born in Kurkliai town, Kurkliai parish, Ukmergė county, in the family of Leonas Staurila and Valerija Bohdzievičiūtė. In 1942, he entered Anykščiai Gymnasium, graduating in 1944. In the same year he entered the Faculty of Law of Vilnius University. On 4 November 1946, he was noted to be an exemplary student by the then Rector Zigmas Žemaitis. He studied until 19 January 1948, when he was arrested and sentenced to ten years of forced labour in a labour camp. The reason for his conviction was his anti-Soviet activities and distribution of a large number of anti-Soviet leaflets on the night of 16-17 January 1948. 14 persons were convicted together with him for these activities. In July 1956, after returning from imprisonment, he applied to the management of Vilnius University for a transcript of the courses he took and passed, as his student book was taken away from him. The Rector of the University replied that Staurila’s enrolment papers were available, but no documents proving his studies were found. In 1957, Henrikas contacted the Chief Archivist of the Ministry of the Interior of the LSSR in search of proof of his studies, but on 17 January he received a reply stating “Henrikas Staurila, son of Leonas, was admitted to the University’s Faculty of Law in 1944. There is no other information about Staurila’s education in his personal file.” A few weeks later, on 25 January, Henrikas received a clarification from the university that there were documents attesting only to his studies at the Faculty of Law between 1944 and 1946.

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