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What happened to the Lithuanian Helsinki group

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Invitation to the Ministry of Internal Affairs
Tomas Venclova Poet
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Ir tada mano motina sako: o tu esi kviečiamas į Vidaus reikalų ministeriją. Aš pagalvojau, nu dabar į Vidaus rReikalų ministeriją, tai yra faktiškai, policiją. Aš iš ten galiu ir neišeiti, turbūt jau mane dabar po tos spaudos konferencijos areštuos. Žinoma, gali kilti klausimas: kodėl Saugumas neišvaikė tos spaudos konferencijos, kodėl jis ją leido privačiam bute susirinko Vakarų žurnalistai ir taip toliau? Tai buvo labai specifiškas momentas Sąjungos gyvenime. Buvo šiek tiek su Vakarais flirtuojama ir kai kurie dalykai buvo leidžiami, taip sakant, po to jau buvo jie... po to, reiškia, būdavo represijos, bet kai ką būdavo galima padaryti, ir ne iš karto susilaukti represijų. Tie dalykai keitėsi, bet tuo metu buvo tokia ypatinga atmosfera visame krašte. Tai buvo Brežnevo vėlyvasis laikotarpis. Na, ir disidentai kai ką sugebėdavo tada daryti viešai, kaip mes, kaip mes tada ir padarėme. Na, ir aš nuėjau į tą Vidaus reikalų ministeriją, ten sėdi Vidaus reikalų ministras tuometinis Lietuvos, ir kažkokia dar pora man nepažįstamų žmonių, vienas iš jų aiškiai iš Saugumo ir sako: čia jūs turite kvietimą į Vakarus, iš Česlovo Milošo, skaityti kursą Berklio universitete, jūs galite ten važiuoti, kodėl nevažiuojate? Berklio universitetas yra Kalifornijoje, tai yra, San Francisko priemiestyje. Ten Milošas dirbo Slavistikos katedroje tuo metu. Aš sakau: na, kaip aš važiuosiu, aš neturiu užsienio paso, neturiu vizos išvažiuojamosios ir nežinau kaip tą gauti. Jie pasakė: bus jums ir pasas ir viza, tiktai, kad jūsų čia neliktų. Aš sakau: atleiskit, man reikia pasitarti su šeima ir su bičiuliais. Pasakė: duodam jums dvi savaites tartis, po to jau, taip sakant, arba važiuojate arba kaltinkite pats save jeigu neišvažiuosite. Bet taip viskas labai mandagiai, bet panašiai kaip savo metu Brodskiui. Na, man tai žinoma, važiuoti į Vakarus, tai kaip tame, kaip pasakėčioje.

And then my mother said, 'You've been invited to the Ministry of Internal Affairs'. I thought, well, now to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, in fact, to the police. I might not be able to get out of there – they'll probably arrest me because I was at that press conference. Of course, another question might occur to you: why did the state security service not break up that press conference, why did it allow Western journalists to gather in that private flat, and so on? This was a very specific moment in the life of the USSR. There was a kind of flirtation going on with the West, and some things were being allowed, so to speak, after that there were… after that there were repressions, but it was possible to do something and not to have repressions straight away. Those things changed but at that time there was a special atmosphere in the whole land. This was the latter part of [Leonid] Brezhnev's rule. Well, and dissidents did manage to do some things publicly, like us... like we did then. Well, I went to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the then Minister of Internal Affairs was sitting there and a couple of people not known to me, one of them clearly from state security and I was told, 'You have here a request from the West, from Czesław Miłosz, to teach a course at the University of California, Berkeley, you can go there, why don't you go?' The university is in California, in a suburb of San Francisco. Miłosz was working there in the Department of Slavonic Studies at that time. I said, 'Well, how can I go, I don't have a passport, I don't have a visa for abroad and don't know how to get one'.  They said, 'You'll get a passport and a visa, as long as you don't stay here'. I said, 'Forgive me, I need to consult with my family and friends'. They said, 'We're giving you two weeks to discuss things, after that, so to speak, you either go or you can blame yourself if you don't leave'. Everything was said very politely as it had been with [Joseph] Brodsky then. Well, for me, of course, to go to the West, it was like a fairytale.

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: Ministry of Internal Affairs, Leonid Brezhnev, Czesław Miłosz, Joseph Brodsky

Duration: 2 minutes, 23 seconds

Date story recorded: May/June 2011

Date story went live: 20 March 2012