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Setting up the Lithuanian Helsinki group

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The Lithuanian Helsinki group: to join or not to join?
Tomas Venclova Poet
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Tavo atvėjis yra žinomas, tu esi gana jau linksniuojamas vakaruose žmogus, mes girdim tavo pavardę visą laiką per radiją, laikraščiuose vakarietiškuose yra, įstok į grupę. Mums reikalingi žinomesni žmonės. Ir paieškosim dar kelių, kai surinksim bent penkis asmenis tai paskelbsim, kad įsisteigė ir Lietuvos Helsinkio grupė. Tai yra geras būdas klibinti Tarybų valdžios pamatus. Tikra toji disidentinė veikla. Aš sakau, gerbiamieji, sakau aš sutinku, kad tai labai geras sumanymas, ir kad dalyvauti tose tose grupėse reikia, bet aš prašausi emigruoti ir labai gali būti, kad jeigu aš įstosiu į grupę, tai man duos tą pasą ir pasakys važiuok į Vakarus, kad čia mes tavęs nematytumėm, bet tai nedrumsk vandens, o jūs liksite ir jus areštuos, jūs gausite ilgus kalėjimo terminus. O aš būdamas Vakaruose jausiuosi kaip dezertyras, bailys, išdavikas ir visi Lietuvoje taip mane vertins. Sakau, dėl to aš į grupę nelabai norėčiau stoti. Tada man Petkus pasakė: Na, pirmiausia gali ne tik tave išleisti į Vakarus, gali Finkelšteiną išleisti į Izraelį, jis, taip sakant, priimame, kad yra tokia galimybė, jeigu jį išleis, jis bus mūsų atstovas Vakaruose, jisai populiarins grupės veiklą Vakaruose. O jeigu tave kartais išleis, tai tu būsi mūsų atstovas Vakaruose, kad mums irgi bus naudinga. Mes tau duodame, reiškia, sutikimą, kad jeigu tu atsidursi Vakaruose, mes nieko prieš neturime. Bet tu neatsidursi Vakaruose, tave irgi pasodins ir tu gausi penkioliką metų, kaip ir mes visi. Tai labai rimtas, labai rizikingas žaidimas, turėk tą omenyje. Ir Petkus man pasakė, na, sako, apsigalvok per keletą dienų, ar stoji ar nestoji. Mes tavęs, žinoma, prievarta negalime priversti, o jeigu ir galėtume tai neverstume, bet apsigalvok. Ir davė man paskaityti knygą, tokio Kuznecovo knygą, jo atsiminimus iš kalėjimo. Kuznecovas buvo žmogus, kuris norėjo pagrobti lėktuvą ir išskristi į Vakarus. Tokių atvėjų buvo tada keletas, taip pat ir Lietuvoje pagrobė lėktuvą, Brazinskas ir išskrido. Kuznecovui nepavyko, jį areštavo dar neįlipus į lėktuvą ir nespėjusį jokio nusikalstamo veiksmo padaryti, bet jisai buvo nuteistas net mirties bausme. Vakaruose kilo didelis triukšmas ir jam tą mirties bausmę pakeitė pekiolikos metų kalėjimu. Būdamas kalėjime jis parašė savo atsiminimus apie tą bylą: apie teismą, apie tai, kaip jis laukė mirties bausmės, apie tai, kaip jam pakeitė į penkioliką metų, apie tai, kaip jis dabar jaučiasi kalėjime, ir pavyko prašmugeliuoti tuos jo užrašus į laisvę, iš laisvės į Vakarus, ir Vakaruose jie buvo išleisti. Paskui vėl pateko slaptais keliais į Lietuvą ir Petkus man davė tą knygą paskaityti. Aš perskaičiau ir man, mane pradėjo krėsti šiurpas – vis dėlto labai baisu, tarybinis kalėjimas, ko gero net mirties bausmė ir, tap sakant, kelias dienas aš tiesiog drebėjau, sakau, vat, tikrai dabar aš patekau į labai rizikingų veiksmų sritį.

So here were [Viktoras] Petkus and Eitanas Finkelšteinas saying we want to organise a Lithuanian Helsinki group. Your case is known, you are a person whose name is being constantly brought up in the West, we hear your surname all the time over the radio, it's in the Western newspapers, join our group. We need people who are better known, and we'll look for more. When we have at least five people we'll make an announcement that a Lithuanian Helsinki group has been set up. This was a good way to shake the foundations of the Soviet government. This was real dissident activity. I addressed them as honoured friends, and I agreed that this was a very good idea and that it was necessary to take part in those groups, but I had applied to emigrate and it was very possible that if I joined the group they would then give me a passport and say, go to the West so we wouldn't see you here but don't muddy the waters. If you stay and you're arrested you'll get a long prison sentence. But in the West I would feel like a deserter, a traitor and everyone in Lithuania would think of me like that. I said for that reason I didn't really want to join the group. Then Petkus said to me, ‘Well, first of all they might let not just you go to the West, but they could let Eitanas Finkelšteinas go to Israel. We accept that if they let him go, he could become our representative in the West, and he'll make the activities of our group known in the West. And if they perhaps let you go, you'll be our representative in the West which will also be useful to us. We're giving you a promise that if you find yourself in the West we'll have nothing against you. But if you don't find yourself in the West, you'll also be put into prison and you'll get 15 years, like all of us'. Remember that this was a very serious, very risky game. And Petkus said to me, ‘Well', he said, ‘take a few days to decide if you'll join or not. We, of course, can't force you, and even if we could we wouldn't, but think it over'. And he gave me a book, a book by [Eduard] Kuznetsov, his prison memoirs. Kuznetsov was a person who wanted to hijack a plane and fly to the West. There were several cases like that, in Lithuania as well. [Pranas] Brazinskas hijacked a plane and flew off. Kuznetsov was unsuccessful, he was arrested before he got on the plane and before he had committed any criminal act but he was sentenced to death all the same. This caused a big stir in the West and the death sentence was commuted to 15 years in prison. While in prison he wrote his memoirs about that case, about the trial, about how he was waiting for the death sentence to be carried out, about how it was commuted to 15 years, about how he felt in prison and how he managed to smuggle his writings out of prison, to the West and they were published in the West. It then found its way into Lithuania via clandestine channels and Petkus gave me the book to read. I read it and I began to shake – it was really terrible, Soviet prison, perhaps even the death sentence, and, as it were, I was upset by it for several days, I said to myself I had really got into a very risky business.

Born in 1937, Tomas Venclova is a Lithuanian scholar, poet, author and translator of literature. He was educated at Vilnius University and later at Tartu University. As an active participant in the dissident movement he was deprived of Soviet citizenship in 1977 and had to emigrate. Between 1977 and 1980 he lectured at University of California, Berkeley, where he became friends with the Polish poet Czesław Miłosz, who was a professor of Slavic Languages and Literature at the school, as well as the Russian poet Joseph Brodsky. He is currently a full professor at Yale University.

Listeners: Andrzej Wolski

Film director and documentary maker, Andrzej Wolski has made around 40 films since 1982 for French television, the BBC, TVP and other TV networks. He specializes in portraits and in historical films. Films that he has directed or written the screenplay for include Kultura, which he co-directed with Agnieszka Holland, and KOR which presents the history of the Worker’s Defence Committee as told by its members. Andrzej Wolski has received many awards for his work, including the UNESCO Grand Prix at the Festival du Film d’Art.

Tags: Helsinki Accords, Lithuania, Soviet Uniom, Viktoras Petkus, Eitanas Finkelšteinas, Eduard Kuznetsov

Duration: 3 minutes, 40 seconds

Date story recorded: May/June 2011

Date story went live: 20 March 2012