Issues 15 and 16 of the Chronicle of the Lithuanian Catholic Church (LCC Chronicle) have come out. The information in this section is largely based on material provided by these issues.
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THE FATE OF JAUGELIS
Virgilijus Jaugelis, sentenced under Article 199-1 in December by a Vilnius court (CCE 34.6) to two years in an ordinary-regime camp, has been sent to camp OCh-12/8 in Praveniškes, east of Kaunas (central Lithuania).
On 10 February criminal prisoners beat him up while he was praying. He received serious head injuries and his skull was fractured, but it was a week before he was sent to the Lukiškis prison hospital in Vilnius.
On 7 March Monika Jaugeliene, Virgilijus’s mother, sent a declaration to the procurator of the Lithuanian SSR in which she holds responsible for the beating those who imprisoned her son along with criminals, when he had been sentenced for reproducing the Chronicle of the Lithuanian Catholic Church and collecting signatures for the Catholics’ memorandum.
“I ask the procurator”, she wrote, “to arrange for my son, on his return from the Vilnius prison hospital, not to have to live together with murderers, rapists and thieves.”
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On 28 March in a declaration addressed to the USSR Procurator-General, Jaugelis described how during a search at the camp guardroom before hir transfer to the hospital, some religious objects which he had earlier been allowed to take from prison to the camp, were confiscated from him.
“I consider that the behaviour of the uniformed officials”, declared Jaugelis, “was not only a mockery of me and my faith, but also an insult to the Soviet Constitution; I demand the return of the articles confiscated from me, and the punishment of those persons who behaved so insultingly towards me.”
Jaugelis also asked to be transferred to a political labour camp, and stated that if his demands were not met he would begin a hunger strike in a month’s time.
In March, during Jaugelis’s stay in the hospital, he was examined in the oncological clinic, which discovered third-stage cancer of the intestine and recommended an immediate operation. Jaugelis refused to undergo the operation in prison conditions.
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On 2 May he began a hunger strike.
On 7 May, because the cancer had reached a potentially lethal stage, he was released from the rest of his sentence and taken home from the prison hospital in a serious condition.
Virgilijus Jaugelis is 28 years old.
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THE TRIAL OF JUOZAS GRAZYS
The case was heard on 11-17 March 1975 in the Supreme Court of the Lithuanian SSR.
The judge was Jankauskas, the prosecutor Bakucionis, and the defence counsel Kudaba. The court hearing was declared to be open, but no one was allowed into the courtroom. Among those called as witnesses were prisoners sentenced in December — Povilas Petronis and Jonas Stasaitis (CCE 34.6), and also Kazenaite, Martinaite, and Semaska (the search at the home of the latter was reported in CCE 32.10).
Grazys was arrested on 24 April 1974 (CCE 32.10); the investigation was conducted in connection with Case 345.
At the trial he was charged under Article 68 (Lithuanian SSR Criminal Code = Article 70, RSFSR Code). He was accused of binding several issues of LCC Chronicle, of retyping articles and books (for example, Bishop T. Matulionis and The Trial of S. Kudirka), of translating from Russian the article “The Distribution of the National Income”, and of making a summary of the article “To Thee, Lithuania”.
Grazys refused to tell the court who had given him these works or to whom he had given them. The prosecutor called for a sentence of six years of intensified-regime. The sentence was three years of ordinary-regime. In addition, the court ordered the confiscation of his typewriter and the destruction of three high-voltage electrical units used in the working of an Era duplicating machine, which had been discovered during a search at Grazys’s home.
This is the third time that Grazys has been sentenced ‘for political reasons’. During his second imprisonment he developed a chronic illness of the intestine.
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THE INVESTIGATION OF CASE 345
According to LCC Chronicle (15), Case 345 was initiated on 5 June 1972.
During 23-26 December 1974 the following searches and interrogations took place in Lithuania, besides those mentioned in CCE 34.6.
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SEARCHES AND INTERROGATIONS
In Siauliai Jonas Petkevičius was detained. He was taken to Vilnius and interrogated there for three days. Petkevičius has served 18 years of imprisonment.
In Skuodas, Alvidas Seduikis, former student at Vilnius Conservatory and organist of the local church, was interrogated for three days; he has served a four-year term of imprisonment.
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In Vilnius searches were carried out at the homes of:
- Valery Smolkin, who has served a three-year sentence. The First Circle was confiscated and after the search there were two days of interrogation;
- engineer Albertas Zilinskas, who has served seven years in Mordovia. One issue each of the Chronicle of Current Events and the LCC Chronicle, and statements by the Human Rights Committee were confiscated. After the search he was detained, then released after three days;
- engineer-economist Antanas Terleckas, who has already served two terms of imprisonment;
- Algis Baltrusis, a master craftsman in folk art, who has served four years in Mordovia. He was interrogated for two days.
Jonas Volungevicius, a former conservatory student who has served a five-year prison term, was interrogated over a two-day period after being summoned from work.
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The following former political prisoners and wives of political prisoners were also interrogated: Vincas Korsakas (Luksiai), Bronis Guiga, Povilas Peciulaitis, Pupeikis and his wife, Janina Burbuliene (Kaunas), Jonas Protosevicius, Kestutis Jakubinas and Justus Silinskas (Panevėžys).
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On 23 December, during a search at the home of A. Petrusevicius in Kaunas, his friend Leonas Laurinskas came to visit him.
He was also searched, and photographs found in his briefcase of members of the Lithuanian underground, taken in 1945-1947, were confiscated. These men are all dead now, except for Laurinskas and Paulaitis, the latter now being held in Camp 17 in Mordovia.
Laurinskas served 15 years in the camps and is now living without work or a residence permit.
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The report in CCE 35.5 about the interrogations in March can also be supplemented and made more precise.
On 4-6 March in Vilnius, Zilinskas and Smolkin were interrogated as well as B. Gajauskas, B. Pasiliene, and Petrusevicius. The basic question asked was, “Do you know [Sergei] Kovalyov?”
On 14 March a personal confrontation was arranged between Balys Gajauskas and Cidzikas.
The latter had earlier testified that Gajauskas had given him 30 roubles for a visit to his brother, who is undergoing compulsory psychiatric treatment (CCE 34.18 [4]). This money had been given in the name of some committee or other. During the personal confrontation, Gajauskas said that he had given his own money to Cidzikas. The latter admitted that he might have been mistaken about the committee.
The investigator made a remark in passing about The Gulag Archipelago, “a well-written book, but perhaps libellous” — this would be decided by a court.
On 21 March a personal confrontation took place between Gajauskas and Zilinskas.
According to Zilinskas’s testimony, Gajauskas had introduced him in Vilnius to the Muscovite Irina (“from Kovalyov’s group”, in the words of the investigator), but Gajauskas denied this. At the confrontation Zilinskas made a formal statement that earlier he had obviously been mistaken. The investigator said that the statement would be translated into Russian, and also that there was a lot of ‘evidence’ about Kovalyov.
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On 30 January 1975 the senior librarian at Vilnius Republican Library, Elena Suliauskaite (CCE 30.11) was interrogated by KGB investigators Marcinkevičius and Rimkus.
The interrogation lasted six hours and concerned the distribution of the LCC Chronicle and the birthday celebrations of T. Masyte in September 1973, which the investigators called ‘an anti-Soviet gathering’. She was also asked about the assistant rector of Simnas parish (Alytus district), the priest Sigitas Tamkevičius (CCE 32.10). The investigators expressed annoyance because Tamkevičius was inciting young people and distributing LCC Chronicle and the instruction pamphlet ‘How to Behave During an Interrogation’.
The investigators tried to obtain the evidence they needed by threats, but without success.
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In connection with the same ‘gathering’ in January-February 1975, the sisters Aldona and Regina Belskute, students at Vilnius University, were summoned by the KGB. Searches were carried out at their mother’s house, at work, and at the small house on their allotment. Both sisters were expelled from the university.
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On 14 and 15 February 1975 Major Rimkus and Major Pilelis, investigators of the Vilnius KGB, interrogated Father S. Tamkevičius. He was questioned about Nijole Sadunaite who has been arrested (CCE 34.7).
The investigators also said that Tamkevicius was undoubtedly one of the publishers of LCC Chronicle. They expressed the hope that he might still ‘reform’, though as far as the priests J. Buliauskas (CCE 34.7), J. Zdebskis (CCE 29.9), Raciunas, and A. Svarinskas were concerned the investigators had lost all hope. The investigators threatened that if LCC Chronicle continued to appear, criminal charges would be initiated against Tamkevičius. They alleged that about 50 per cent of the facts in LCC Chronicle were of a libellous nature.
Tamkevičius said in reply to the threats that he had no say in any decision about whether to continue or to cease publication of LCC Chronicle.
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On 20 February 1975 Elena Suliauskaite was again summoned for interrogation by the KGB.
This time the interrogation lasted for over six hours. The investigators Rimkus and Marcinkevičius threatened Elena with imprisonment for distributing the LCC Chronicle and for covering up the ‘crimes’ of Father Tamkevičius. Rimkus said that the KGB had checked the facts mentioned in the LCC Chronicle and almost all of them had turned out to be false.
The record of the interrogation was set out in the form of questions and answers, and after each question a blank space was left. When Suliauskaite began to scribble over the blank spaces, investigator Marcinkevičius forbade her to do so. Then Elena began to sign her name after each reply, “There’s an impudent woman for you,” said the investigator, “you can see at once that she’s read the instruction pamphlet ‘How to Behave During an Interrogation’.”
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CCE 34.7 [6] contains a report of a search at the home of Vladas Lapienis on 20 November 1973 and the series of interrogations which he underwent.
On 15 October 1974 Vladas Lapienis sent a declaration to the head of the KGB, the Procurator of the Lithuanian SSR and the Minister of Justice of the Lithuanian SSR.
In his description of the events which took place during his interrogation, Lapienis writes: ‘Since the KGB officials infringed Articles 17 and 18 of the Lithuanian SSR code of criminal procedure during the investigation of my case by forcing me to give evidence by means of threats, deceptions, lies and other illegal means, I renounce the testimony which I gave both orally and in writing between 20 November 1973 and 28 June 1974.’ (It appears that the date of this last interrogation was recorded inaccurately in CCE 34.)
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In 1975 the Vilnius KGB interrogated Stauskas, President of the Lithuanian Artists’ Union, the artist Didelyte and the librarians Kilikeviciute and Stankeviciute. The investigators were interested in the mood of the intelligentsia after the sentence passed on Zukauskas (the chief defendant in the ‘Trial of the Five’ in February-March 1974, CCE 32.10), and its links with the Catholic Church. Some of those questioned were asked to become informers.
These interrogations are probably unconnected with Case 345. LCC Chronicle (16) considers them to be a continuation of the KGB ‘s interest in ethnographers (CCE 29.9).
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A Readers’ Letter to the LCC Chronicle
(published in issue 15)
Not long ago we heard of the arrest of Dr Sergei Kovalyov in connection with LCC Chronicle.
We Catholics of Lithuania pray to God for the physical and spiritual well-being of this scientist. Today what the world vitally needs is love. Jesus Christ said “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13). We believe that the sacrifices made by Kovalyov and others are not in vain.
We bow our heads before Academician Andrei Sakharov, fighter for human rights in the USSR, and in his person we honour all Russian intellectuals of good-will. By their courage and sacrifice they have made us, Lithuanian Catholics, see the Russian people in a new light.
We express our heartfelt gratitude to the great Russian writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn for the warm words which he spoke about Lithuanians and in defence of the Lithuanian cause. Thousands of Lithuanians, especially the former citizens of the Gulag Archipelago, pray for the blessing of the Almighty to be upon him.
The letter expresses gratitude to Western organizations, church leaders, radio stations, and the journal Kontinent, which has concerned itself with the fate of Lithuania and that of the Catholic Church; it continues later:
“We Catholics of Lithuania are firmly resolved, with the Lord’s help, to fight for our rights. We would still like to believe that the Soviet authorities will understand the great mistake they have made in supporting the atheist minority and in inciting against themselves the Catholic masses.”
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The LCC Chronicle on the Situation of Believers and the Church
In the autumn of 1974, a lecture was given at Kaunas Polytechnic Institute by K. Tumenas, the representative for the Lithuanian SSR of the Committee for Religious Affairs of the USSR Council of Ministers.
According to the lecturer, half of Lithuania’s Inhabitants are practising Catholics. Official figures state that 45 per cent of newborn infants are baptised, 25 per cent of marriages take place in church, and 51 per cent of those who die are buried with religious rites.
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It is reported that attempts are being made to forbid completely the observance of religious rites.
Romualdas Sarmavicius, a driver at the Bogaslaviskis collective farm, was preparing to get married on 9 September 1974, in the village church of Gelvonai. Jonas Vasiliauskas, secretary of the collective farm Party organization, demanded that Sarmavicius forego the church wedding, but to no avail.
In November 1974 in the town of Alytus, the death occurred of the 29-year-old Vaclovas Paliokas, a veterinary surgeon and a candidate member of the CPSU, from the village of Pivaciunas.
As he had been a believer, his relatives decided to bury him with religious rites. A representative of the district Party committee and the chairman of the collective farm, Mikalava, demanded that A. Alkavikas, rector of Pivasiunas parish, should not conduct Paliokas’s funeral, but again to no avail.
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On 9 January 1975 M. Jurevicius, a painter at the Siauliai industrial teaching complex of the Lithuanian Society for the Blind, was dismissed from his job ‘for absenteeism’. In November and December Jurevičius made written declarations, stating that he had refused to work on obligatory Catholic feast days and
had offered either to take these days off his holidays or to make up the time on other days. The charge that he ‘had absented himself from work without a valid excuse’ referred to 10 November and 8 December (Sundays declared as working days), 25 December (Christmas) and 6 January (Feast of the Epiphany).
On 4 February the local paper published an article accusing Jurevičius of hiding anti-Soviet feelings under the cloak of religion and reported that in 1950 he had been sentenced to 25 years’ imprisonment.
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In October 1974 the crosses on ‘the Hill of Crosses’ outside Siauliai were destroyed for the third time. Many believers expressed their indignation orally and in writing. According to LCC Chronicle, people are again putting crosses on the hill.
In Panevėžys cemetery, on Good Friday, 28 March 1975, 28 crosses and a statue of the Virgin Mary were broken or smashed to pieces.
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In 1972, in Jurbarkas, the craftsman Verbickas carved a wooden statue of the Mother of God for the new altar.
A commission of the district soviet executive committee, headed by deputy-chairwoman, Tamosiuniene, ordered the statue to be removed from the church as it had been ‘erected without permission’. The craftsman and Father V. Byla left the statue where it was. Recently Verbickas made another statue for the church. ‘The executive committee has said nothing so far’, reports LCC Chronicle 15.
In 1974, after a ten-year ban, bell-ringing before Sunday Mass was allowed at this church.
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G. Lazdauskas, chief surgeon at the central district hospital in Utena, issued an order on 24 January strictly regulating the inviting of a priest to attend the dying: written permission from the chief surgeon or his deputy is required.
Lazdauskas, as the chairman of the atheist council, published an article in the wall newspaper in which he admitted that there were shortcomings in the organization of anti-religious propaganda in the hospital. The article, quoted in LCC Chronicle (16), states that the sufferings of the sick lead them to re-examine their beliefs, but that these conditions are not exploited by medical personnel in order to inculcate the materialist world-view.
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The authorities are hindering church repairs in every way.
In a declaration by Father B. Laurinavicius to K. Tumenas, the representative of the Committee for Religious Affairs, dated 25 January 1975. it is stated that a certain Tarasov, when he arrived from Moscow on 16 July 1973, had said: ‘Without the permission of the authorities you have no right to hammer a single nail into the church.’
Jonas Mazgelis and AIeks Lubas were repairing the church in Akmuo (Varena district). Government representatives from Varena told the workers that by repairing the church they had broken Soviet laws and would get five years in prison for it, but, as this was their first offence, if they promised not to repair churches in the future, they might get away with a fine.
On 8 January 1975 the administrative commission of Varena district, presided over by Varena police chief Reckus, fined each of them 25 roubles.
The sentenced men paid the fines, still not knowing which law they had broken.
In the town of Silale deputy chairman Jankus of the soviet executive committee forbade Valaitis, rector of the local church, to repair the church clock.
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On 9 February V. Vaiciunas (CCE 32.10), an engineer from Kaunas, sent a letter entitled “The Law and the Believer’s Conscience” to the Presidium of the Lithuanian Supreme Soviet and to the editors of the official newspapers Tiesa and Kauno Tiesa.
He quotes newspaper articles which stated that believers were forbidden to teach their children religion, to carry out charitable works, or to hold meetings in order to discuss religious questions. On the other hand, the decisions of the second Vatican Council (published in Lithuania, according to the same newspaper report) enjoin the Church to help the needy and encourage the education of the young. Vaiciunas writes
“It is sad that the Lithuanian believer, in carrying out his religious duties, feels as if he were walking through a minefield: if he puts a foot wrong with the law it counts as a crime against the State, if he goes against his conscience, he suffers spiritually.”
An editor of Tiesa replied to Vaiciunas on 20 February:
“Soviet laws do not infringe freedom of conscience, he writes: ‘In your letter, you are often illogical and you contradict yourself. Try to gain a better understanding of Soviet laws’.”
The Presidium of the Lithuanian Supreme Soviet informed Vaiciunas that his letter had been sent to the representative of the Committee for Religious Affairs. On 14 March Vaiciunas visited the representative’s official advisor. During a short conversation the latter said nothing concrete, except that Vaiciunas should not write such letters.
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In the autumn of 1974, the administrative commission of Prienai district soviet executive committee fined the Prienai parish organist 50 roubles because school children had been singing in the church choir.
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Gene Zukauskaite, a resident of Kaunas, was suspected of teaching schoolchildren religion.
In December 1974 she was interrogated and stated that she had tested children to see if they were ready for confirmation. The procurator’s office carried out an investigation in the schools, among the children and their parents.
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In September 1969, in Skrebotiskis, after a church feast day in which many children had taken part, the authorities investigated whether or not the organist Emilija Kinskaite was attracting children to services. Deputy chairman Stapulionis of the district soviet executive committee, together with the headmaster, questioned five school-girls who tearfully confessed that they had been in the organist’s home. The next day E. Kinskaite was summoned by the procurator, who threatened to press charges against her for teaching religion to children. In September 1970 the executive committee demanded that the parish council dismiss Kinskaite. Stapulionis said that if she were not dismissed the committee would not confirm the new parish council’s membership, but that if she were dismissed the parish would be allowed to paint the church roof and lay a cement pathway. The parish council resisted for a while but later gave in.
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The regular column in LCC Chronicle “In Soviet Schools”, reports facts about discrimination against religious school-children and the pressures put on their parents.
Children have their behaviour marks lowered for attending church, and for refusing to join the Pioneers or the Komsomol.
In School No. 1 in Klaipeda pupils of the sixth year were given questionnaires which asked the following: ‘Do you believe in God? Do you go to church? Do you know how to say prayers? Who prepared you for your first Holy Communion? Who in your family believes in God and goes to church?’ The teacher Sobeckas later mocked pupils who had declared themselves to be believers on the questionnaire.
Before Christmas an anti-religious play was to have been staged at the secondary school in K. Naumiestis. The teacher Damiionaitis assigned roles to religious pupils and told the children not to tell their parents about the preparations for the play. However, the children did not obey him and after complaints from parents the performance did not take place.
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K. Mockuviene, Party secretary at the school in the ‘Saulute’ sanitorium (in Druskininkai), asked teachers to write down their attitude to religion, to state whether they were believers or non-believers, and to endorse their statements with their signatures. Mockuviene explained that this had been requested by the local authorities.
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In 1974, during the entrance examination to Siauliai Polytechnic, K. Raudys, deputy director of teaching, told the school leaver Mistautas that if he wanted to pass he would have to join the Komsomol and promise not to go to church. The young man immediately withdrew his application.
His brother Zenonas Mistautas had once been a student at the polytechnic (CCE 30.11). Shortly before his finals he had been expelled for putting a cross on “the Hill of Crosses”, and, according to the evidence supplied by the KGB to the polytechnic, because he intended to enter a seminary.
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The Struggle Against the LCC Chronicle
LCC Chronicle (15) has published yet another anonymous letter (the first was in LCC Chronicle [12], see CCE 35.5) addressed to the bishops.
The author, who describes himself as ‘a priest of the older generation’, condemns the LCC Chronicle as a political and not a church publication, and writes: Tt is understandable that the authorities are trying to stop these activities.’ The anonymous author blames the LCC Chronicle for the worsening of the authorities’ attitude towards believers and for the fact that prayer-books have ceased to be published. Tt is no secret,’ he concludes, ‘that this publication is run by priests who have lost their sense of responsibility and reason.”
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LCC Chronicle (15 & 16) contain comments on an article in the newspaper Tarybinis Mokytojas (Soviet Teacher) of 24 January 1975.
The article accuses Radio Vatican of broadcasting imaginary stories about teachers mocking religious pupils and alleges that teachers with the surnames given in the broadcasts do not exist. The LCC Chronicle says that the aim of the article was also to compromise LCC Chronicle, which had earlier published these facts, and that in reality it was the newspaper which had distorted surnames and place names.
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The paper reports that the Dabenai village Soviet (Kretinga district) issued a statement on 22 November 1974, endorsed by a seal and the signatures of the chairman and the secretary, stating that there had been no conflicts between the headmaster Povilaitis and his pupils, nor between him and their parents. However, LCC Chronicle (16) states again that Povilaitis beat on the hand pupils who had not filled in applications to join the Komsomol, and that a commission was set up to investigate complaints made by parents.
The LCC Chronicle notes that at the present time the KGB is collecting official statements of this sort, interrogating people mentioned in its issues, and forcing them to deny the veracity of the facts published in the LCC Chronicle.
LCC Chronicle (15) concludes with the statement that 18 March 1975 marked the third anniversary of its first issue.
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A Chronicle of Current Events 