Lithuanians Lift Their Heads
MANN, ALICIA
GLASNOST IN A BALTIC REPUBLIC Lithuanians Lift Their Heads BY ALICJA MANN Vilnius Stopping in my native Poland on the way to Lithuania, I couldn't help being struck by the deepseated...
...A man in his late 40s, a Ukrainian lawyer visiting Vilnius for a few days, explained how amazed he was with what he had witnessed here...
...It stands for Lietuvos Persitvarkymo Sajudis, Lithuanian Movement for the Support of Perestroika, the largest of the country's grass-roots political organizations...
...We are working now on the question of how to integrate our movement into the political system...
...When Gorbachev talked about perestroika, our bureaucrats talked about it too...
...He won a bronze medal in swimming at the Montreal Olympic Games...
...The festive atmosphere was heightened by the colors of the Lithuanian flags many people carried...
...Vendors sell a variety of stickers and pins, including one that is a replica of Lithuania's coat of arms—a red shield with a charging white knight on a white horse...
...Juozaitis excused himself to join them, promising he would be back...
...Another simply says Sajudis (Movement...
...The pastel colors of the buildings and the elegance of their decorative details evoke the capital's past and its individuality...
...Do you support Sajudis...
...Some announcements were made that I could not grasp...
...Having two children and a job as a teacher, she confided, it was difficult for her to participate actively in the Movement...
...The intensity of the current one was immediately brought home to me by the excitement of my friend Zinas, who was waiting on the station platform...
...A woman in her late 20s, walking with her young daughter, brightened up when asked about Sajudis...
...Over 1,000 delegates attended...
...Driving to my hotel we passed a tower, the only remains of a medieval castle that once stood on a hill near the center of the city...
...Then he added reassuringly, "This has already happened in Estonia...
...And in our school most of the teachers are for it...
...A 16-year-old student pointed to a pin of the national flag on the lapel of my jacket and said, "Just for having this a few years ago you would be sent to jail for a year or two...
...Even if Gorbachev loses politically, the changes already made will be irreversible...
...Michnik's concluding words were echoing in my head when I arrived here on the Warsaw-Vilnius train...
...politics simply did not interest him...
...Only the director and some of the administrators are against it...
...With the force of morality...
...And I would recall them repeatedly during my stay...
...There come a time," he continued, "when such a movement starts to live a life of its own and takes action on issues [Soviet President Mikhail S.] Gorbachev had no intentions of raising...
...Adam Michnik, the historian and Solidarity adviser, was the one person I talked to in Poland who did not brush off the Baltic developments...
...Would a movement like Sajudis have sprung up without glasnost and perestroika...
...Two days earlier, the unpopular Communist Party leader Rimgaudas Songaila was replaced...
...Among other measures, the Congress endorsed a resolution in support of Lithuania's economic and political independence from Moscow...
...Vilnius charmed me instantly with its warmth and softness, enhanced by the October sun...
...People were sitting quietly here...
...Perhaps not today, we are not so naive, but in the near future...
...On October 22-23 the Lithuanian Movement for the Support of Perestroika held its first Congress...
...We stood near the wide paved path leading to its steps...
...I learned more about Sajudis from one of its leaders, Arvydas Juozaitis, at a rally in the small park in front of the Lithuanian Communist Party Central Committee building...
...Asked how far that sovereignty could go, he said decisively, "Any idea of totally breaking away from the Soviet Union at this moment is impossible— in fact, it would be suicidal...
...Clearly he was comfortable, indeed enjoyed, the attention he received from those around him...
...Besides, the people back home arestill fearful and are not sure what to do...
...The next afternoon I spoke to people on the street...
...We hope to be able to work from within the framework of a one-party system...
...Gediminas Square in the Old Town, I quickly found, is the place to discover what is going on politically...
...I wanted to get a sense of their feelings about what is happening in Lithuania these days...
...An assertive, charismatic man in his 30s, Arvydas Juozaitis is a philosopher at the Lithuanian Academy of Science...
...People are always present...
...Then the crowd started to disperse peacefully...
...They were angry yet completely silent because of fear...
...No," he answered, "we declared that we will not become another party...
...During one of the chants Juozaitis said to me, "I believe they will have to change that man...
...They talk about their own currency, creating more private cooperatives, reopening churches that had been turned into museums, and establishing direct ties with foreign countries...
...We did not have time to go there," Zinas said with disappointment...
...The main aspect of our program is economic sovereignty...
...That had a strong psychological impact till now...
...From time to time the name of the unwanted Songaila was chanted along with the demand for his resignation...
...Do you see this movement becoming another party...
...I asked...
...It will remain a oneparty system, but we will control every step of our Communist party...
...Two years ago, when he visited the United States, he was totally preoccupied with his work as a photographer...
...Behind us a crowd covered the open area near General Chernyakhovsky's monument and filled the spaces between the trees and benches...
...Most of the posters express anti-Stalinist sentiments...
...Zinas pointed to the red flag of the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic flying above the tower...
...I was curious about how that could be done without the leverage of a formal opposition...
...Perhaps because Poles have had their own version of openness for several years, and criticism of the system's failures has not relieved the hardships of everyday life in a steadily deteriorating economy, some even joked: "Dzisiaj perestroika, jutro perestrelka...
...I was informed, meanwhile, that like him the delegation members were all intellectuals: a historian, an editor, an economist, and a filmmaker...
...Some are gathered around individuals collecting signatures on petitions urging a halt to the building of nuclear power plants...
...Lithuania—with a population of less than 4 million, occupying about 25,000 square miles—has a complicated history marked by periodic struggles for identity...
...Occasionally there was a wave of clapping in approval of a new political slogan or of a poster that was being unfolded before the crowd...
...Describing Sajudis and its objectives, heexplained: "We are a very young movement, born this June after being encouraged by Estonia's creation of the Popular Front Movement...
...But Lithuanians know exactly what they want to do...
...We can talk freely...
...We do not have such an excuse," he said sadly, referring to the forced annexation of Lithuania...
...It is only because of perestroïka that we started to move again, encouraged by Estonia's example...
...My friend Zinas lives in a fever of impatience and optimism, which in Lithuania seems contagious...
...But it has my total moral support," she stressed...
...Now these people in Sajudis are really doing something good...
...Soon," he declared, "our national flag will be hanging there and not that...
...When in Lithuania or Estonia a movement with hundreds of thousands of people is born in support of perestroika, and it then pushes and fights for economic autonomy or the right to use the national language, that should not be ignored," he said...
...Others are reading political slogans and posters displayed against the fence of the old cathedral building...
...Young people from Sajudis, wearing wide green bands on their sleeves, served as marshals to keep order, an easy task since everyone was in a friendly mood...
...At that moment the Sajudis delegation came out of the gray Central Committee building and began walking toward the cheering crowd...
...I persisted...
...I do, and all the Lithuanians in my school do, but not the Russians...
...Following a pause he added: "In Lithuania, there was strong resistance against inclusion into the Soviet Union...
...Well, you shall see for yourself...
...It is unbelievable...
...several that I saw criticized brutal police behavior during a recent rally...
...Of course...
...I found myself touched with the "disease" as I packed my bags and prepared to depart...
...They sit at night in front of their televisions listening to debates and debating among themselves, excited that all of this is possible...
...I glanced at the tower and answered, "We will go there next time, when your national flag is flying on top...
...GLASNOST IN A BALTIC REPUBLIC Lithuanians Lift Their Heads BY ALICJA MANN Vilnius Stopping in my native Poland on the way to Lithuania, I couldn't help being struck by the deepseated skepticism that marked the reaction of most people to the news of the seemingly positive events taking place in the three Baltic republics under Soviet rule for the past half century...
...Today perestroika, tomorrow shooting...
...On the way to the train station we again passed the tower of the medieval castle...
...Frankly, I am more of a sympathizer of the Lithuanian Liberation League, which wants total separation from the Soviet Union...
...The yellow, green and red national flag of Lithuania is visibly displayed...
...Do you understand...
...We have moral strength, the force of morality of our people," he said, pointing at the crowd...
...The last opposition groups were in fact liquidated in 1956...
...Something will remain of that...
...But it was only talk...
...No, that would have been impossible," he responded...
...Alicja Mann, a new contributor to The New Leader, is a freelance journalist...
...But how...
...he shot back...
...He was obviously pleased that the Sajudis members had been able to speak before the Central Committee...
...This will not happen where I live...
...Of several possibilities considered, we believe the regional approach will be most acceptable to Moscow...
...Our delegates were heard by the Communist Party Central Committee and the decision about Songaila will be made later, " Juozaitis told me upon his return...
...Only high position bureaucrats are against it...
...As you can see," Juozaitis smiled, "we have our Lithuanian variant of perestroïka these days...
...The rally was in support of Sajudis members who, at that moment, were attending a meeting inside to express their disapproval of Party policy and to demand the expulsion of First Secretary Rimgaudas Songaila...
...We want to work with Estonia and Latvia to create a sovereign region of Baltic republics...
...Now he bombarded me with news of what was happening: "People are organizing rallies...
Vol. 71 • December 1988 • No. 21
