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Seeking political asylum

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My Soviet citizenship is revoked
Tomas Venclova Poet
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Well, while I was in Hawaii, a friend of mine, a Lithuanian émigré, was staying in the apartment which I was renting in San Francisco, next to the university at which I lectured for one semester. Well, later – his name was Algirdas Avižienis – later he went back to Lithuania, he was the first rector of the Vytautas Magnus University of Kaunas which had been newly re-established. He is an academic, a mathematician, a computer sciences expert. Well, and he... I became friends with him and he stayed for several days in that flat while I wasn't there, which I was renting. And all of a sudden there was a knock at the door. He opened the door to two people he didn't know who addressed him in Russian quite rudely. He doesn't speak Russian; he made them understand he doesn't speak Russian. Then they said, 'So you're not Venclova?' 'No, I'm not Venclova.' 'So where's Venclova?' 'Venclova is away temporarily, he'll back in a few days.' 'Then please tell him that when he comes back, we're inviting him to the Russian Consulate in San Francisco. Let him come with his passport – an entry needs to be made in his passport, something needs to be entered. And if he doesn't want to come,' they added, 'then he can send the passport by post.' I returned, and Professor Avižienis told me the whole story. I didn't go to the [Russian] Consulate, for fear of being detained and perhaps even forcibly sent back to Lithuania and what would happen then, so to speak, wouldn't be hard to guess. And I sent them my passport by post. I included a cover note saying that my American visa allowed me to be in America for, I think, half a year or even a year, and that I was intending to remain in America until the end of that period, at the very least until that period came to an end. Therefore please arrange for my passport to have a Soviet visa allowing me to stay on in America for that period. I sent that passport off and received a prompt answer. I have that answer hanging on the wall of my apartment in America. The document had a stamp on it, with the signature of Soviet consul Yermakov in San Francisco, saying: 'We hereby declare...' – all of that was in Russian – 'We hereby declare that because of your behaviour, which does not accord with the duties and honour of a Soviet citizen, your Soviet citizenship has been revoked, your passport confiscated and it will not be returned to you'.  That was it, followed by the consul's signature.

Na, ir... o tuo metu kai buvau Havajuose, tame bute, kurį nuomavausi prie San Francisko, prie universiteto, kuriame vieną semestrą dėsčiau, tame bute apsigyveno mano vienas bičiulis lietuvis emigrantas. Na, vėliau, jo pavardė Algirdas Avižienis, vėliau jisai išvyko į Lietuvą, buvo naujai atkurto Kauno Vytauto Didžiojo universiteto pirmasis rektorius. Jis yra mokslininkas, matematikas, kompiuterių mokslo specialistas. Na, o jis... aš su juo ten susidraugavau ir jis apsistojo keliom dienom man nesant kaip tik tame bute, kurį aš nuomavausi. Ir staiga į jo duris pasibeldė, jis atidarė duris, įėjo du jam nepažįstami asmenys, kurie gana šiurkščiai kreipėsi į jį rusiškai. Jis rusiškai nemoka, davė jiem suprasti, kad jis rusiškai nemoka. Tada jie sako: Tai jūs ne Venclova? Ne, aš ne Venclova. O kur Venclova? O Venclova laikinai išvykęs, grįš po kelių dienų. Tai prašom perduokit jam, kad kai jisai grįš, mes kviečiame jį Tarybinį konsulatą San Francisko, tegu ateina su savo pasu – pase reikia padaryti pažymą, kažką ten pažymėti. Ir jeigu jis nenori ateiti, taip jie irgi pasakė, tai jis gali atsiųsti pasą paštu. Aš grįžau, profesorius Avižienis man tą visą istoriją papasakojo. Į konsulatą aš nėjau, bijojau, kad galbūt ten mane sulaikys ir galbūt net prievarta išgabens atgal į Lietuvą, o kas toliau tai jau, taip sakant, nesunku nuspėti. Ir nusiunčiau jiems pasą paštu. Pridėjau tokį lydraštį, kad mano amerikiečių viza leidžia man Amerikoje būti dar, rodos, pusmetį ar kelis... ar net metus, ir aš numatau likti Amerikoje kol tas periodas nesibaigs, mažų mažiausia tol, kol tas periodas nesibaigs. Todėl prašom sutvarkyti mano pasą, taip kad aš turėčiau ir tarybinę vizą, leidžiančią man Amerikoje būti tiek laiko. Nusiunčiau jiems tą pasą paštu ir netrukus gavau atsakymą, tą atsakymą turiu pasikabinęs savo bute Amerikoje ant sienos. Raštas su antspaudu, su parašu tarybinio konsulo Jermakovo iš San Francisko, šiuo pranešame, rusų kalba visa tai buvo: Šiuo pranešame, kad ryšium su jūsų elgsena, kuri neatitinka tarybinio piliečio pareigų ir garbės, jūs esate nustodintas tarybinės pilietybės, jūsų pasas konfiskuotas ir jums grąžintas nebus. Viskas, konsulo parašas.

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: Vytautas Magnus University of Kaunas, Russian Consulate, San Francisco, USA, Soviet Union, Algirdas Avižienis

Duration: 3 minutes, 5 seconds

Date story recorded: May/June 2011

Date story went live: 20 March 2012