Interviews with Vytautas Landsbergis
Lithuania
The End of the Soviet Union
“Lithuania was a freedom fighter.”
Transcript
International role of Lithuania — What we did, it was not for ourselves. Even sometimes, we were fighting for our own rights, but as they were always the general rights of any nation, of all people, and it was successful and understood. It was encouragement. And Lithuania had a leading role there. Therefore, during the recent period until now– recent period of history after the Second World War, all– a way to Europe free and whole, you know who said it. [President George H.W. Bush described his vision for a “whole and free Europe” in a May 31, 1989 speech in Mainz, Germany.]
All the way to Europe free and whole, my country Lithuania, not being among the larger ones, played a significant role. We disagreed to stop this movement of democracy eastwards. [Referring the views of some at the time that wanted to preserve the Soviet Union.] And that of course, in a long time view, our role was a role, rather, of victim of two dictatorships, totalitarian dictatorships, but it was a role of resisting victim, which always resisted. And that made Lithuania itself a freedom fighter. And the leading a role it played in the disintegration of the former Soviet Union. It is a great evaluation. Sometimes a little bit threatening.
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.