Those who remember this historical event are thinking more and more every year and hearing the story firsthand is becoming more and more difficult. However, fortunately, the director of UAB “Trakų žemas” and the head of the Trakų district newspaper “Trakų žemas”. editor Juozas Vercinkevičius is still the living witness who can share experiences and moods from the Baltic Way, even more so – in the editorial office there is a Baltic Assembly thanking him for his exceptional merits in organizing the Baltic Way, on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the Baltic Way.
Dear Mr. Juoza, 35 years have passed since that historic moment when the citizens of all three Baltic states stood hand in hand. What memories do you still have of him?
Very meaningful. This is a historic event for all three Baltic States and their residents. It is also important on a global scale. The Baltic Way shook the totalitarian state that was called the USSR, and therefore glory and honor to those who conceived and implemented it, and to those who participated in the Baltic Way…
The Baltic Way was intended to commemorate the anniversary of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, as this pact, adopted in 1939, In Moscow, on the basis of the Soviet Union and Hitler’s Germany, Europe was divided and at the same time all three Baltic states went to the Soviet Union.
Therefore, the Baltic Way was the beginning to publicly mention the Soviet occupation and declare that Lithuania needs independence, that Lithuania must be an independent state. The Baltic Way is a referendum for independence of all three Baltic States, whose citizens were already ready for it… That’s what the Baltic Way means.
Each Lithuanian municipality was allocated a certain section of the Baltic Road. In which part, that is, from where to where did the Lithuanian citizens who came from the Trakai district stand?
All municipal Sąjūdis councils, or rather all districts, were allocated certain kilometers for residents to stop and hold hands. This was done considering the population. Trakas, which included Elektrėnai, Vievis, Grigiškės, went 2 km, in the Širvinto district, from the Musninkai-Širvinto road to the Viesi intersection, and the Kaišiadori sajūdininkai stood behind us, with whom a joint rally was held at 19:00.
On the scale of the Trakai district, the Baltic Way was organized by sajūdians (the chairman of the district Sajūdis council, engineer Aleksandras Klumbys from Elektrėnai) in the following places: Elektrėnai, Vievy, Grigiškės, Lentvary, Rūdiškės, Onušky, Dusmeny, Aukštadvary, Semeliškės, of course – and Trakai. Separate organizations with their employees also went to the Baltic road, there were many flowers and, of course, radios, mostly VEF, made in Riga. They were placed on the roofs of cars to listen to Lithuanian radio broadcasts.
Is that place marked in any way today, or do we have much historiography of that day?
First of all, readers should be reminded that a five-meter oak cross was already erected that evening, which was consecrated by Vytautas Pranciškus Rūkas, pastor of Trakai Church. That cross still stands today, only the fir trees planted around it have grown up. The cross was made by Jonas Kasparavičius, a folk artist from Ukshtvara, with his sons Ramūnas and Vida.
It was built on the eve of the Baltic road, and it was consecrated by Bishop Juozapas Matulaitis of Kaišiadori and other priests during the rally. Commemorative events take place there. Driving on the highway towards Panevėžys, on the right side we can see various signs for the Baltic Way every few kilometers. Each district built its own signs of the Baltic Way, by the way, they are all very meaningful, mostly made by folk artists.
You were one of the organizers of the Trakai district in 1989. on August 23, who led the residents of Trakai district to the Baltic road. How did you manage to organize everything, how did you travel?
The district authorities did not prevent the participants from hiring transport, but most of them drove their cars to and from their workplaces. And collective farm workers could also cooperate and travel by official transport. Today is an opportunity to remember and thank Anatolii Kuchalskis, the chairman of the Dusmenų collective farm, Marijonas Michalkevičiis, the chairman of the Onuškis collective farm, Rostislav Kosmačius of Semeliški, Algirdas Sadkauskas of Beizioni, Jonas Kryževičius, the chairman of the Trakai court, Jonas Puišius, the director of the Trakai water supply system, Jonas Kriaučiūnas, the director of the Trakai electricity network, and to many other managers at that time who participated in the Baltic Way together with their employees.
Participating residents of the city of Trakai traveled with the bus of the Trakai auto transport company, in which I also rode. My family, my wife and both daughters, drove a private car “Žiglu” directly to Viesas. But a lot of cars did not reach the intended destination due to traffic jams – there were so many cars that they could not move towards the Baltic road…
Who traveled with you and approximately how many inhabitants represented the Trakai district on the Baltic Road?
There could be about two thousand participants from the Trakai region. No one counted them, there was no accounting, you just had to cover those two kilometers and stop next to each other and hold hands, listen to the Lithuanian Radio report at 7 p.m. After some time, a plane flew by and scattered flowers on the asphalt.
The Trakai and Kaišiadorii residents’ rally at the Viesu intersection was described by the then Trakai district newspaper “Spartuolis”, whose editor I had to be at the time. He even printed the speech of Bishop Juozaps Matulaitis of Kaišiadori, delivered during the rally.
By the way, the bishop brought 10 priests from various parishes to the rally: Fr. Jonas Sabaliauskas (Elektrėnai), Romualdas Šalčiūnas (Vievis), Fr. Jonas Danilevičius (Birštonas), Fr. Jonas Dobrovolskas (Širvintos), prel. Jonas Jonys (Kaišiadorai Curia) and others. It was impressive and very beautiful.
But there was an even more interesting thing: the pastor of the Trakai church, Vytautas Pranciskus Rūkas, had a video camera bought in Canada and filmed the entire rally with audio recording – in this way, he left an authentic testimony to history.
That footage is with the owner of UAB “Aidas” Česlovas Rulevičius. Leonas Stosiūnas from Canada was a very honorable guest at our rally. He is from Semeliš, he came to visit his relatives. Leon photographed the rally and the Baltic road with color tape and later sent color photographs.
It was a surprise and news. Gelena Drungilienė from Trakiškė participated in the Baltic Way with her family and took a lot of photographs, organized exhibitions together with Romualdas Lankas. We must also mention the electrical engineer and photographer Vytautas Suslavičius – there are many photos of his Baltic road… By the way, journalists from the editorial office of “Spartuolios” can also be seen in various photos: Sigita Nemeikaitė, Kazimieras Šliužas, Stasys Stacevičius.
It is common for residents to be in an upbeat, friendly mood during such events. And what mood prevailed that time?
Everyone was in high spirits because, one could say, like-minded people gathered who saw the power of such a gathering and felt that great transformations and changes are coming to Lithuania. And most importantly, they saw that Sąjūdis is the force that brings liberation to Lithuania, Sąjūdis became a recognized political force. Such a rally at the Vieų skryža with sound system and loudspeakers provided by the Kaišiadori sajūdis was a great innovation and showed the power of the Sajūdis and its recognition in the public space and in the society of that time.
I would like to remind you that rallies were held in other places along the Baltic route, the agendas of which were the condemnation of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, the disclosure of the Soviet deportations in Lithuania and the demand to reveal who did it, the demand for rehabilitation and punishment of the culprits, and most importantly – to restore the independent state of Lithuania.
Looking at the perspective of time, in your opinion, was it possible to achieve the goal of the Baltic Way, to fulfill the dreams and cherished hopes of the Lithuanians who stood on it then?
Undoubtedly. No one could believe that the Baltic Way would open up such great transformations not only in Lithuania, but also in Latvia, Estonia and the entire Soviet Union. Everyone felt it and saw that something great was going to happen, that something had to happen. This was the great dream of the Lithuanian nation, which was related to the restoration of Lithuanian statehood, the elimination of the effects of the Soviet occupation, and the withdrawal of the Soviet army from Lithuania. Finally – with the regaining of Lithuania’s freedom…
Dear Juoz, what do you think the slogans and ideas of the Baltic Way would look like in today’s context?
It was very brave in those days. Until the last day, many Lithuanians thought that the Baltic Road would not happen, because there was no proper communication, messages, except for “Atgimimo banga” and Sąjūdis information channels. Here was the main reason. However, as mentioned earlier, the authorities did not resist and it was said that this was part of “perestroika”.
Unfortunately, the Baltic Way to support Belarus organized by journalist and publicist Andrias Tapinas four years ago did not bring the desired results. Why do you think what was missing?
There are different things here, because the Baltic Way had already matured in the minds of Lithuanians, and as a result, Lithuanians bravely set out on the Baltic Way, believing in their future. In this case, the Baltic Way to Belarus was early, because the dictator relies on military force and power structures, so the Baltic Way could not be so massive, Belarusians from Belarus could not participate in it.
What could you wish Lithuanians on the occasion of the anniversary of this historic event?
We must learn and know the history of our nation and state, after all, Lithuanian statehood dates back to the 13th century, to the time of Mindaugas, after all, he is the first king of Lithuania. Every Lithuanian should be proud of his statehood. And without knowing the history of our country, we are children, as an old saying goes. Look at what uncultivated soils are waiting for us!
The history of Lithuanian resistance alone – how many graves of unknown heroes we have. When will we learn about them and honor them properly? They cannot remain unknown, after all, there are surviving documents. We need to allocate more funds for the search of these persons and for publicizing them to the general public.
The situation is the same with our story of exile. Many of these cases lie untouched, unreviewed, because there is no one, there are no remaining relatives who would be interested in them, so it must be done by the communities – after all, funds can be found for this, and there are also authors who are interested in it, they just need to be encouraged.
2024-08-23 20:52:35