The information in this section is largely based on issue 17 of the Chronicle of the Lithuanian Catholic Church.
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The Trial of Nijole Sadunaite
On 16 and 17 June 1975 the Supreme Court of the Lithuanian SSR heard Case 416 which had been separated from Case 345 and in which Nijole Sadunaite (born 1938) was charged with ‘anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda’, and specifically with reproducing and distributing the Chronicle of the Lithuanian Catholic Church. The presiding judge at the trial was Kudryashov, the prosecutor was procurator Bakucionis. The defendant refused to have a defence lawyer. Only five KGB officials (including Pilelis, Platinskas, and Jankauskas) and six soldiers were present in court. The judge did not even allow witnesses to stay in the courtroom after giving evidence, with the exception of the defendant’s brother, Jonas Sadunas. K G B officials asserted that the trial was a closed one.
N. Sadunaite was arrested on 27 August 1974 (see CCE 34). During the pre-trial investigation she did not give any evidence, and because of this the investigators threatened her with internment in a psychiatric hospital.
At the trial Sadunaite refused to answer questions, explaining that she did not consider herself a criminal and that she considered her judges to be defenders of falsehood and coercion. She explained her refusal to have a defence lawyer, first by her wish to avoid unpleasant consequences for her friends who would have tried to find one for her (Nijole told how in 1970, when she was trying to find a lawyer to defend the priest Seskevicius, K o B officials Gudas and Kolgov had threatened that they would imprison her and persecute her relatives); and secondly by the fact that ‘truth does not need to be defended, it is all- powerful and unconquerable. Only treachery and falsehood need weapons, soldiers and prisons, because they are powerless yet wish to continue their rule… There is no greater happiness than to suffer for the truth and for people.’
Jonas Sadunas, who appeared as a witness, said he had not read the Chronicle of the Lithuanian Catholic Church and had got to know of the material confiscated from his sister only from the search record.
Vladas Sadunas, Nijole’s twin brother, confirmed in court that the three issues of the LLC Chronicle and the book Simas Kudirka [CCE 20], confiscated from him during the search, had been given to him by Nijole.
A headmaster, Povilaitis, denied that he had, as reported in Chronicle of the Lithuanian Catholic Church number 8, forbidden pupils to participate in the church funeral of their schoolmate or that he had terrorized pupils while forcing them to join the Pioneers and the Komsomol.
The witness Kusleika denied that his son had been forced to join the Pioneers (this was reported in LLC Chronicle, number 11).
The witness Brone Kibickaite denied that Sadunaite had given her the LLC Chronicle and the leaflet ‘How to Behave during Interrogation’. Kibickaite refused to answer when the judge asked her: “As you were good friends, no doubt you used to go to church together?”; and when the judge began to insist, she declared: “You have no right to ask that. Faith is every individual’s personal affair.”
The procurator called for Sadunaite to be given four years in camps and five years exile.
In her speech Nijole defended the LCC Chronicle. She said:
“The Chronicle of the Lithuanian Catholic Church reflects like a mirror the crimes committed by the atheists against believers. As evil does not like its own ugliness, it fears its own reflection in the mirror. It is for this reason that you hate all those who tear off your mask of falsehood and hypocrisy. However, the mirror does not lose its significance because of this.
“A thief robs people of their money but you rob people by depriving them of their most precious possession — loyalty to their convictions and the opportunity of passing on these treasures to their children, the younger generation… In Lithuania the Church is not separated from the state but is enslaved by it. The authorities interfere in the crudest way in the internal affairs of the Church… Your crimes are pushing you very rapidly towards the rubbish- heap of history… To fight for human rights is every person’s most sacred duty in life! I am happy to have the privilege of suffering for the LLC Chronicle, for I am convinced of its truth and necessity, and I shall remain faithful to my convictions to the last moment of my life …”
In her concluding statement Sadunaite said:
This is the happiest day of my life: I am being tried because of the LLC Chronicle, which fights against spiritual and physical tyranny. This means I am being tried for serving the truth and loving people… ! I have an enviable lot: not only have I fought for human rights and for justice, I have been sentenced for doing so. My punishment will be my triumph. I am only sorry that I have not had enough time to do a lot for people. I will gladly lose my freedom for the freedom of others, and I am willing to die so that others may live.
The court sentenced N. Sadunaite to 3 years in strict-regime camps and 3 years’ exile. On hearing the sentence, Nijole asked: “Why have they given me so little?”
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At the end of May 1975 Povilas Peciulaitis, a former political prisoner, got 1 year of strict-regime camps for ‘violating the residence regulations’. He had been released from a camp in 1972 after 19 years’ imprisonment and forced to live without a residence permit, as he could not obtain one in Lithuania. The Supreme Court of the Lithuanian s s R, at an appeal hearing on 12 June, upheld the new sentence (see also CCE 36, ‘News in Brief’).
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On 12 June 1975 Leonas Laurinskas (CCE 36) was arrested in the town of Taurage. The pretext for his arrest: a section of cable, found in his case during a search’ was defined as a ‘weapon’.
Laurinskas had earlier received an invitation from Israel and had applied to emigrate.
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In the autumn of 1974 Anele Paskauskiene was arrested in the town of Jurbarkas. She was charged with disseminating anti-Soviet leaflets. After a lengthy investigation at KGB headquarters. Paskauskiene was sent to the psychiatric wing of the Lukiškis prison in Vilnius.
Paskauskiene had been working in a Communal Services Factory and studying as a third-year external student at the Faculty of Economics. At home she has a husband and two small children.
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On 16 February 1972 the Lithuanian national flag was raised in the village of Gruzde, Maseikiai district, KGB officials accused V. Maijauskas, a 25-year-old driver, of having done this, and arrested him. Sometime later he was sent to a psychiatric hospital.
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On 7 April 1975 KGB officials led by Major Markevičius carried out a search at the home of a doctor, Jadviga Lapenyte (Vilnius, Tilto St. 12, flat 6). They were looking for ‘anti-Soviet literature’. They found nothing. The search was followed by a five-hour interrogation.
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On 14 August 1975 M, Vitkunaite’s home was searched. The search was again led by Major Markevičius. A Lithuanian translation (published officially in 1963) of One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Solzhenitsyn was confiscated.
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In the middle of August the KGB summoned for interrogation five priests of Vilkaviskis diocese: P« Adomaitis, P. Dumbliauskas, J. Zdebskis, L, Kunevicius and S, Tamkevicius, The interrogations were ‘in connection with case number 345’. They were asked about the joint declaration sent by the priests to the Committee for Human Rights in Moscow concerning the Lithuanians arrested under case 345, about Sergei Kovalyov, about the Chronicle of Current Events, and about A Chronicle of Human Rights in the USSR.
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Lithuanian former political prisoners are often not given residence permits in Lithuania. For instance, Balys Gajauskas [note 33] has been refused a residence permit for the second year running; he was earlier imprisoned for 25 years and is forced to live under the constant threat of arrest for ‘infringement of the residence regulations’. Gajauskas has a 74-year-old sick mother. He is her only means of support. His countless requests for a permit to reside with his mother have so far had no effect.
About 20 other Lithuanians, former political prisoners, are in a similar situation.
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K. Tumenas, Commissioner for the Lithuanian s s R of the Council for Religious Affairs attached to the u s s R Council of Ministers, has asked Bishop L. Povilonis to try to stop the publication of the LLC Chronicle. The bishop answered that he was not responsible for the founding of the LLC Chronicle and could not do anything about it.
KGB officials, in talks with the priests Lauriunas (Kabeliai parish) and Garuckas (Ceikiniai parish), have tried to persuade them that the LLC Chronicle will only cause harm.
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On 12 May 1975 the engineer Vaiciunas (CCE 36) was ‘warned’ by the K G B, apparently in accordance with the decree of 25 December 1972 (CCEs 30, 32). Vaiciunas refused to sign the ‘warning’.
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On 28 April 1975 six priests of Vilnius diocese appealed to the leaders of the USSR and the Lithuanian SSR in a declaration asking for ‘the release of prisoners and those under investigation (in connection with case 345 — Chronicle) and the opportunity for Lithuanian believers to avail themselves of the freedoms guaranteed in the USSR Constitution and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights’.
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On 21 May 1975 Vytautas Kabelis, headmaster of the Balys Dvarionis School of Music in Vilnius, and Jonas Urban, the school’s party secretary, forced a music teacher, Aldona Kezyte, to resign ‘at her own request’; at the same time the headmaster openly told Kezyte that she had worked very well (Kezyte had worked for 25 years at the school and had often been praised by the school and local authorities), but that he had been ordered to dismiss her because she was a believer.
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In August, issue 18 of the LLC Chronicle appeared.
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A Chronicle of Current Events 