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'If we have to die let it be to music'

RELATED STORIES

Setting up the Lithuanian Helsinki group
Tomas Venclova Poet
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After reading [Eduard] Kuznetsov's book I began to shake because I understood that this was a very serious game, that there might be very serious... very serious consequences. He wrote about Soviet prison as a really horrific institution which it without a doubt was, and I thought that I was in danger of ending up in one. Then I went to [Viktoras] Petkus and [Eitanas] Finkelšteinas and said, ‘Now that I've read that book it would be shameful of me not to join because I would feel that I was a coward if I didn't join that group. So, fine, I'm joining'. They said that we had to find two more people so that there would be at least five people in the group. We found an old Catholic priest, Father Karolis Garuckas, and an old political prisoner, a poet, a friend at one time of Salomėja Nėris, and even a competitor, whose surname was Ona Lukauskaitė-Poškienė who was living in Šiauliai. She had spent more than 10 years in Stalin's prisons in Vorkuta. She agreed to join the group. She said we are already old people, all that can happen to us is exile and perhaps on Lithuanian territory, they might not even deport us to Siberia. Well, you younger people, of course, are under greater threat but if you really want to set up this group... if you consider it useful, as it were, for propagating and spreading democratic ideas – let it happen.

Taigi perskaitęs tą Kuznecovo knygą aš pradėjau drebėti, nes supratau, kad čia labai rimtas žaidimas, čia tikrai gresia labai rimti, labai rimtos pasėkmės. Jis aprašė tarybinį kalėjimą kaip tikrai siaubingą įstaigą, kokia ji, be abejo, ir buvo; ir pagalvojau – man tas viskas gresia. Tada aš nuėjau pas Petkų su Finkelšteinu ir sakau: dabar perskaitęs tą knygą, man jau gėda neįstoti, nes aš jau jausiuosi bailys, jei aš neįstosiu į tą grupę. Tai gerai, aš stoju. Jie pasakė, kad dar reikia atrasti du žmonės, kad būtų bent penkių žmonių komanda. Suradome, vieną seną katalikų kunigą, Karolį Garucką, ir vieną seną politkalinę poetę, kadaise Salomėjos Neries bičiulę, ir net konkurentę, kurios pavardė buvo Ona Lukauskaitė, ji gyveno Šiauliuos. Praleidusi daugiau kaip dešimts metų Stalino kalėjimuose, Vorkutoj. Jinai sutiko irgi įstoti į grupę. Pasakė: mes esam jau seni žmonės, mums gresia daugiausiai tremtis ir net galbūt Lietuvos teritorijoj, galbūt net mūsų neišveš į Sibirą. Na, jums jaunesniems, žinoma, gresia rimtesni dalykai, bet jeigu jau norite tą grupę kurti, laikote, kad ji naudinga, taip sakant, demokratinių idėjų propagandai ir plitimui, tai tegu taip ir būna.

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: prison, Šiauliai, Vorkuta, Lithuania, Eduard Kuznetsov, Viktoras Petkus, Eitanas Finkelšteinas, Karolis Garuckas, Salomėja Nėris, Ona Lukauskaitė-Poškienė

Duration: 1 minute, 25 seconds

Date story recorded: May/June 2011

Date story went live: 20 March 2012