Interviews with Vytautas Landsbergis
Lithuania
Lithuania Under Communism
There were signs that changes will come and that ways may be found.
Transcript
The feeling was very much depressing, and oppressive, and depressing with such outbreaks of hope as a revolution in Hungary, events in Poland, strikes and confrontation between the Polish workers with the communist regime. [The anti-communist Hungarian Revolution of 1956 was brutally suppressed by Soviet military force. Strikes and demonstrations in Poland occurred sporadically through the 1970s, leading to the foundation of the Solidarity independent labor union in 1980.]
Of course, events in East Germany were not so well known then for us. But I remember Hungary. It was a great hope for the people of my generation. As we have heard that Khrushchev ordered Soviet troops to leave Hungary, the next day he ordered [them] to come back and to crush the revolution. [Nikita Khrushchev (1894 – 1971) served as First Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party from 1953 to 1964.] But this chance, the Hungarians could proclaim themselves independent from Soviet domination, calling on them to leave, calling on Western democracies to help. It was something unbelievable.
Of course, it was crushed in blood. But the same way the later events in Poland and especially in Czechoslovakia — Prague Spring. [The establishment of the independent Solidarity labor union in 1980 and a period of relative freedom was squelched by the imposition of martial law in 1981. In 1968, moderate reformers took control of the Czechoslovak Communist Party and instituted a period of liberalization known as the Prague Spring. A military invasion by the USSR and its allies in August 1968 ended the Prague Spring and returned the country to orthodox communism.]
There were always the waves of hope that the changes are possible. The changes have to come also to Soviet Union, not only into the satellite countries of the Soviet Union. And finally the Polish solidarity movement, Solidarność, appeared on the scene. It was absolutely unbelievable that a workers union [was formed]. But they felt their strength and power. And the communist government went to the disobedient workers to negotiate how [it could] live further. So it was again a milestone and a sign that changes will come and that ways may be found as well in Czechoslovakia and then in Poland by nonviolent political, maybe parliamentary, confrontation, resistance, opposition. Maybe a real political opposition will be allowed or will dare to stand on its own.
It became a framework for our future activities and for Lithuanian Sajudis as [a] nonviolent, but strongly political, democratic movement for liberation. [Sajudis, meaning “movement” in Lithuanian, was a civil society organization formed in 1988 to advocate the restoration of the country’s independence from the USSR.]
About Vytautas Landsbergis
Vytautas Landsbergis was born in Lithuania in 1932 to a family of noted intellectuals. During the Second World War, Lithuania was occupied by the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), Nazi Germany, and once again by the USSR, which abolished Lithuania’s independence and forcibly annexed it. Landsbergis studied music and pursued a career as an educator, eventually becoming a professor of music history at the Lithuanian Academy of Music. He has written ten books on music and art history, five political books, and a book of poetry.
In 1988, Landsbergis joined other artists and intellectuals in forming the Sajudis movement, which developed to support the restoration of Lithuanian independence from the Soviet Union. He was elected as chairman of the movement. Under his leadership, Sajudis quickly won broad popular support from the Lithuanian population.
In February 1989, Sajudis declared the Soviet occupation illegal and formally proclaimed its goal of restoring independence. Landsbergis was elected as a deputy to the new USSR Congress of People’s Deputies in March 1989. Sajudis won 36 of the 42 seats at stake and used their mandates to lobby for Lithuanian independence.
On August 23, 1989, on the fiftieth anniversary of the Nazi-Soviet treaty that led to the abolition of the independence of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania and their forcible incorporation into the USSR, Landbergis and the leaders of Sajudis joined with their counterpart organizations, the Rahvarinne Popular Front of Estonia and the Popular Front of Latvia, in organizing the Baltic Way demonstration. Over one million people joined hands to form a 600 kilometer long human chain across the three countries. The nonviolent protest drew worldwide attention to the Baltic nations’ quest for freedom and independence.
In the first free Lithuanian elections held in February 1990, Landsbergis was elected to the legislature. When the new legislature convened in March, Landsbergis was elected chairman (speaker) and proclaimed the reestablishment of independence. In 1990 and 1991, he served as chairman of the commission that drafted the new Lithuanian constitution. He also chaired the Lithuanian delegation for negotiations with the USSR, achieving a withdrawal of Soviet military forces from Lithuania and securing widespread international recognition of the restored Lithuanian republic. In 1993, he cofounded the Lithuanian Conservative Party – Homeland Union and was elected party chairman.
From 1992 to 1996, he served as the leader of the opposition in the Seimas, the Lithuanian parliament. After his party won the 1996 elections, he served again as Chairman of the Seimas until 2000. He was an unsuccessful candidate for President in the 1997 elections.
In 2004, he was elected to the European Parliament as Lithuania joined the European Union. He was reelected in 2009.
Landsbergis has received numerous international honors for his artistic and political activities. In 2013, he received the Democracy Service Award from the National Endowment for Democracy’s for his efforts to build a stable democracy in Lithuania and to assist democratic development abroad.