THE VOICE OF INTERNATIONAL LITHUANIA
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Actually Sigismund Augustas never trusted the Jesuit Brothers and he had the Grail secretly hinded in the bell tower, because that is the last place the Brotherhood would look for the Grail after his death.
Joe Bakaitis
It is worth to mention that later on starting from 1779 Vilnius and the Lithuanian Grand Duchy, as many other nations around the world, was an invisible battleground between Jewish led Illuminati freemasons and Vatican Jesuits fighting each other in order to gain and maintain control. Maybe It is worth to mention some colourful names and their activities like Elijah ben Shlomo Zalman known as the Vilna Gaon or Elijah of Vilna
Enjoyed this interesting VilNews issue. Especially, your article on Holy Grail and Sforza family connection even though you did not provided any supporting historical data to prove this. Nevertheless, legends do sell and we need them to market this country.
It is worth to mention that later on starting from 1779 Vilnius and the Lithuanian Grand Duchy, as many other nations around the world, was an invisible battleground between Jewish led Illuminati freemasons and Vatican Jesuits fighting each other in order to gain and maintain control. Maybe It is worth to mention some colourful names and their activities like Elijah ben Shlomo Zalman known as the Vilna Gaon or Elijah of Vilna who was an exceptional Talmudist, Halachist, Kabbalist, and the foremost leader of non-hasidic world Jewry of the past few centuries. He is commonly referred to in Hebrew as ha'Gaon ha'Chasid mi'Vilna, "the saintly genius from Vilnius."
Arvydas Arnasius, Vilnius
Fantastico . Molto bella come storia, anzi credo proprio che se qualcuno pieno di soldi ne facesse un film, come "il codice da vinci" la Lituania avrebbe un ritorno economico non indifferente, specie se, nel racconto il sacro grall avesse fatto tappa in diverse località della Lituania, prima di arrivare a Vilnius ... così che ci sia un percorso da seguire per vedere posti, di importanza storica dove tra mistero ed intrighi il sacro grall passò attraverso le mani di quei seguaci del Cristo Bianco, così come veniva chiamato tra le popolazioni del nord il noto e ben amato Gesù Cristo ..........
Rino Logiacco
Santa Claus and Lithuania’s Grand Duchess buried in same South-Italian basilica
(maybe no need to tell your kids…)
Grand Duchess Bona Sforza (1494-1557) and St. Nicholas (270-343).
The Basilica di San Nicola in the South-Italian city Bari was built between 1087 and 1197. Its foundation is related to the stealing and burying of the relics of St. Nicholas (270-343) from the saint’s original shrine in Myra in what is now south-west Turkey.
When Myra passed into the hands of the Saracens, some saw it as an opportunity to move the saint's relics to a more hospitable location. According to the justifying legend, the saint, on a trip passing by the city on his way to Rome, had chosen Bari as his burial place.
There was great competition for the relics between Venice and Bari. The latter won and the relics were carried off under the noses of the lawful Greek custodians and their Muslim masters, and on 9 May 1087, were safely landed at Bari. A new church was built to shelter Nicholas' remains and Pope Urban II was present at the consecration of the crypt in 1089.
460 years pass, and Lithuania’s Grand Duchess Bona Sforza, now widow after Grand Duke Sigismund the Old, comes to Bari to claim the dept Spain’s King Philip II has to her – but instead she is poisoned and dies here in Bari in 1557.
It was, by the way, Bona and her mother, Isabella d'Aragona, princess of Naples, Duchess of Milan and Bari, who transformed the Bari Castle, that so much dominates the city’s old town, into a cultural centre and adding imposing defensive bastions to it. Today the castle is the seat of a Gallery of plaster casts and of temporary exhibitions..
The Sforza family’s role in Bari was indeed very important, and it’s no wonder that Bona’s sarcophagus in the St. Nicholas Basilica even today fully symbolizes and represents this role.
So here they are, St. Nicolas who later became better known as Santa Claus, and Bona Sforza, the Grand Duchess who also was the mother of the two last representatives of Lithuania’s famous Jagiellon Dynasty, Sigismund Augustus and Anna Jagiellon.
With them the 300-year Dynasty after the House of Gediminas ended, and today the world knows very little about what once was Europe’s largest country, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.
And, ironically enough, relics of the woman who was such a leading symbol of Lithuania’s days of glory are to find right here in Southern Italy – along with the relics of a truly main symbol of our today’s Christmas traditions...
Losing Trust in Lithuania
BY JEREMY DRUKER
Jeremy Druker is the Executive Director and Editor in Chief of Transitions Online (TOL), a media development organization that he co-founded in 1999. TOL publishes an Internet newsmagazine on Central and Eastern Europe and runs journalism and new media training programs with a mission of improving the professionalism, independence, and impact of the media and civil society organizations in this region.
Over the past few years Vilnius has served as something of a sanctuary for Belarusian human rights activists, critically minded students, independent journalists, and other “enemies” of the regime. There is a Belarusian Human Rights House, which provides a meeting space and facilities for human rights defenders, and perhaps the only university operating completely in exile—the European Humanities University, with around 600 students—has its home here. A short and cheap bus trip from Minsk, the city has also proven to be a popular venue for international meetings that gather opposition types.
All of that could be changing, after the recent arrest in Belarus of Ales Bialatski, chairman of the Viasna Human Rights Center. The Belarusian authorities have accused him of tax evasion over money that he received through accounts in Lithuania for his human rights work. Disturbingly, it has emerged over the past week that the authorities in Lithuania were directly involved with providing the Belarusians with the financial information that led to his arrest.
Read more at:
http://eastofcenter.tol.org/2011/08/losing-trust-in-lithuania/
Hungarian Wizz Air remains confident of the success of the new base in the Lithuanian capital, which was launched last April.
Wizz Air launched its operations and opened its 14th operating base in Vilnius in April, 2011. Currently Wizz Air deploys one Airbus A320 aircraft and operates 21 flights on 8 routes per week.
Wizz Air has one of the youngest fleets in the world, consisting of 35 Airbus A320s.
This summer, FL Technics, an aircraft maintenance and repair organization signed its first contract with Wizz Air. FL Technics has been entrusted to provide maintenance services for the airline’s Airbus 320 at its newly opened base in Vilnius International Airport.
According to the recently signed agreement, FL Technics will provide Wizz Air with the fixed price all inclusive line maintenance support, coupled with additional support services.
“We are honoured that one of the largest carriers in the CEE region, Wizz Air has decided to start cooperating with FL Technics, which is the reward for our strive for quality and customer satisfaction. We have worked very hard and have earned the name of a trustworthy aircraft technical maintenance centre, leader in CEE region. Wizz Air has joined a long and constantly expanding list of our highly appreciated clients and partners. We are looking forward to an ongoing and gradually growing cooperation between FL Technics and Wizz Air” – said Jonas Butautis, CEO of FL Technics.
Fascinating and welcome news of Hungarian links with Lithuania. As a collector of Hungarian philately for over 60 years and with a family friendship that has lasted as long, I find Hungary an amazing place. Glad to see it featured.
Mervyn Benford,
Oxford, UK
Lithuania has an amazing 700-year history as an international melting pot. This has been especially evident since 1323, the year Grand Duke Gediminas founded Vilnius as Lithuania's capital city and immediately decided to invite merchants, craftsmen, bankers, farmers, and soldiers from all Europe to come to the new capital, guaranteeing all freedom of beliefs and good working conditions. Vilnius became international, though with less of German or Scandinavian influence, as one could expect, rather influenced by Italy and Mediterranean ideas – greatly different from the other two Baltic capitals where Hanseatic influence became dominant.
VilNews will in some upcoming issues publish articles about impacts of foreign nations and cultures here. We also welcome you, dear readers, to share with us information you may have about 'foreign footprints in Lithuania'.
Stephen Báthory, the Hungarian who
became Lithuania’s Grand Duke
Stephen Báthory and his wife Anna Jagiellon were co-rulers, as the second monarch in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth with the dual title ‘King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania’.
You may remember our story about Anna Jagiellon (Lithuanian: Ona Jogailaitė, 1523–1596) daughter of Grand Duke Sigismund the Old and Italian Bona Sforza. In 1572, when the throne of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, at the time the largest and one of the most populous states in Europe, was vacated after her brother Sigismund Augustus died without heirs, she convinced the Polish and Lithuanian nobles to elect the French prince Henry of Valois as the new ruler. It was Jean Montluc, Bishop of Valence, who had offered the French prince to the electors of the commonwealth as the next King and Grand Duke. Montluc promised the electors that Henry would marry Anna, "to maintain the dynastic tradition". Unfortunately, for Anna, after Henry was elected as the first monarch in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, he withdrew his promise and they never wed.
In 1574 Henry left Poland to assume his new duties as King of France and by May of 1575 the Parliament of the Commonwealth had removed him as their monarch. By the autumn of 1575 a new candidate was offered to the electors, Stephen Báthory, Prince of Transylvania. Stephen had to agree to the condition that he would marry Anna, which he did.
On 15 December 1575, near Warsaw, Anna along with Stephen Báthory, her fiancé, was elected as co-rulers, as the second monarch in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth with the dual title of King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania. The coronation took place in Krakow 1 May 1576.
Stephen Báthory's Smocze Zęby ("Dragon's Teeth") coat-of-arms.
Stephen Báthory's position was at first extremely difficult, but some important victories in the by then ‘religious wars’ gave him a chance to devote himself to strengthening royal authority, in which he was supported by his chancellor Jan Zamoyski, who was just as skilled a politician. The two managed to win over several factions of the Lithuanian and Polish nobility, mostly by means of better taxation of crown lands and royal property leased to the nobility.
In external relations, Stephen sought peace through strong alliances. Though he remained distrustful of the Habsburgs, he entered into a defensive alliance with Maximilian's successor, Rudolf II, fostered by the papal nuncio. The difficulties with the Ottoman Empire were temporarily adjusted by a truce signed on November 5, 1577.
He ruled the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth only for slightly more than a decade but managed to leave prominent trace in the countries’ history. His rule, from 1575 to 1586, was marked by a series of important events such as the Commonwealth victory over Muscovy in the Livonian war and foundation of Vilnius University, both of which had direct repercussions for the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.
With his three carefully planned military campaigns against Russia from 1579 to 1581, Stephen Báthory managed to force Muscovy to denounce its rights to the conquered Livonian territories and sign a peace treaty in 1582. He also established a cannon shop in Vilnius, perfected the artillery and war engineering techniques, reorganized the army and introduced uniforms. Meanwhile, to neutralize a military threat from the south he signed a peace treaty with the Ottoman Empire and the Crimean Khanate.
To bulk up his presence in Livonia Stephen Báthory's in 1579 also deployed the Commonwealth Polish troops. Yet the decisive point in the campaign against Russia was the siege of Pskov that was eventually used by him as a trading chip in his negotiations with Muscovy. The Commonwealth received all Livonian territories that fell under its rule by the Vilnius treaty of 1561, except for the northern Livonian lands under Swedish control. Meanwhile, Russia regained the lands annexed by Poland-Lithuania in 1580. The negotiations were a success. Within three years Stephen Báthory managed to turn the fortunes of the war that seemed to go all wrong for Poland and Lithuania in particular. This was also only a part of the story. The war with Muscovy appears to be only a part of the master plan: Stephen Báthory sought to turn Russia into a dependency of the Commonwealth, use joint forces in a war with the Ottoman Empire and eventually free his homeland Transylvania.
Establishment of Vilnius University in 1579 is another prominent event associated with the rule of Stephen Báthory. While the Grand Duchy was ready to feature its own university already for some time, his decision to found a higher education establishment in Vilnius had clear political undertones. He sought to strengthen the rule of the monarchy in regards to the strong caste of noblemen. To do that he often reverted for help to the Catholic Church, a natural ally against protestant nobles.
The appearance of Vilnius University was in fact a well-planned step in a clever political campaign. It was essential for the Catholic Church to establish an educational establishment before the Reformats would do so. Thus already in 1569, Waleryan Protasewicz, the Bishop of Vilnius, invited Jesuit monks to the city of Vilnius and allocated funds to establish a Jesuit academy. The academy was opened in 1970 with an aim to become a university in the near future. The Jesuits appear to have grand plans for their school in Vilnius that went far and beyond the confines of the Lithuania. The university was to serve as a beacon of Catholicism not only in Grand Duchy but also in the neighbouring states and as far as China.
However the final steps in founding the university appeared to be far from easy. In 1577 Pope Gregory XIII issued a bull that supported the establishment of Vilnius University. Now the Bishop of Vilnius had to secure the support of the Grand Duke. Stephen Báthory granted his privilege in 1578 but that was only a part of the story. For the document to become official it had to bear the stamp of Grand Duchy of Lithuania which was in the possession of Radvila the Brown, the Chancellor of the State and a zealous protestant. The Chancellor did not grant the stamp, so the same procedure was repeated next year. This time King Stephan issued a privilege in Vilnius which was stamped by the minor state stamp of Grand Duchy of Lithuania in possession of the Vice-Chancellor. Once again, he failed to claim the support of Chancellor Radvila the Brown and had the Vice-Chancellor, also a reformist, stamp the document only after threats to take punitive measures. To make the matters complete, on 29 October 1579 the Pope issued another bull that confirmed existence of Academia et Universitas Vilnensis Societatis Iesu. Finally, Vilnius had its own university.
The rule of Stephen Báthory, however brief, undoubtedly left positive marks in the Commonwealth and Grand Duchy history. In a relatively short time he managed to solve imminent external problems of the state and strengthen its internal structures. He acknowledged Grand Duchy of Lithuania as an equal partner in the Commonwealth of two nations and heavily contributed to its further cultural development. According to contemporary panegyrics Stephen Báthory's deeds surpassed previous monarchs and can be compared only to Lithuania’s famous Grand Duke Vytautas.
His death was followed by an interregnum of one year. The Emperor's brother Archduke Maximilian, was elected King but was contested by Anna’s nephew, Swedish Sigismund III Vasa, who defeated Maximilian at the Byczyna and succeeded as ruler of the Commonwealth.
Sigismund III Vasa was King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1587 to 1632, and King of Sweden (where he is known simply as Sigismund) from 1592 until he was deposed in 1599. He was the son of King John III of Sweden and his first wife, Catherine Jagiellon, sister of Anna.
Anna died during her nephew Sigismund's reign, on 9 September 1596. She was the last member of the Jagiellon Dynasty that had started with Grand Duke Gediminas 300 years earlier. With her, Lithuania’s time of glory had come to an end…
Békés Hill in Vilnius
Remains of Bekes Hill at River Vilnia before it was washed away in the 1800s.
This was a hill next to the Hill of Three Crosses in Vilnius, named after Gáspár de Kornyath Bekes (1520 - 1580), a Hungarian noble who was buried on the hill which later became known as the Bekes Hill. His grave was marked by an octagonal tower, 20 meters (66 ft) high and 6 meters (20 ft) in diameter.
The river Vilnia, flowing at the foot of the hill, was eroding it until in 1838 five walls of the monument fell, and other walls went down in 1841. A small cemetery is thought to have been here in the 17-18th century, and at the beginning of the 20th century paths leading from the Botanical and Bernardine Gardens to the hill top were designed.
Bekes was treasurer for John II Sigismund Zápolya, King of Hungary (died 1571). Bekes gained considerable power and favor with the King. In his testament Zápolya, who did not have a legal heir, designated Bekes as Voivode of Transylvania. However, Hungarian nobles did not honour the will and elected Stephen Báthory as their voivode while Bekes was away on a diplomatic mission in the court of Maximilian II, Holy Roman Emperor. Supported by Maximilian, who rivaled Báthory for the throne of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, Bekes gathered his army and organized a rebellion against Báthory, but was defeated. Bekes lost all of his possessions and was forced to seek asylum with Maximilian in Vienna.
When Poland–Lithuania elected Henry of Valois as its monarch, Maximilian and Báthory ceased hostilities. Bekes unsuccessfully traveled to the Ottoman Empire seeking allies. His hopes were revived again when in 1574 Henry of Valois abdicated the Polish throne and Maximilian–Báthory rivalry resumed. Bekes, supported by Székelys, started another rebellion, but his forces were defeated in the Battle of Sinpaul in 1575. Supporters of Bekes were brutally suppressed and privileges for Székelys were suspended.
Maximilian died in 1576, and Bekes lost any hopes of reclaiming Transylvania. Instead he decided to reconcile with Báthory and became his loyal ally and close adviser despite differences in their religions. During the Danzig rebellion Bekes commanded Hungarian troops, sent to assist Báthory in establishing his control over the Commonwealth, and gained special recognition for his defense of Elbląg (Ebling). During the Livonian War against Ivan IV of Russia Bekes joined the expedition to re-conquer Polatsk (1579).
For his service Báthory assigned him Lanckorona (a village in Poland, near Kraków, today famous for its well preserved 19th century wooden houses) and other lands.
On his way to Hrodna, Poland in 1580, Bekes caught a cold, fell ill, and died later in Hrodna. His body was transported to Vilnius for burial, but none of the city's Christian cemeteries agreed to accept him because of his Arian faith. Therefore he was buried on a hill, which later became known as the Bekes Hill. His grave was marked by an octagonal tower, 20 meters (66 ft) in height and 6 meters (20 ft) in diameter. The hill and his grave were washed away by the Vilnia River in mid 19th century. The former hill territory is now within the Kalnai Park.
Royal stud of horses
in Birštonas
Hungarians started showing interest for the area of Birštonas already in the 16th century, even being rendered the rights of the district for 40 years. In these times a royal stud of Hungarian horses thrived here where River Nemunas makes its amazing loop
Panemunė Castle near Jurbarkas
Over the years 1604 - 1610 the Hungarian nobleman Janusz Eperjes
built the Panemunė Castle right here at the Nemunas River,
not far away from the town Jurbarkas.
Over the years 1604 - 1610 the Hungarian nobleman Janusz Eperjes built the Panemunė Castle on a hilltop at the Nemunas River, not far away from the town Jurbarkas (above today’s highway between Kaunas and Jurbarkas). The castle was probably built in connection with the river driving and transport of timber on the Nemunas River that started flourishing by the middle of the 16th century.
It is supposed that the name of the castle comes from the Panemunė manor, and that Petras Nonhartas, architect for the reconstruction of the Lower Vilnius Castle at that time, was the author of the castle project and the first construction supervisor. He was a friend of the Eperjes’ family.
The Panemunė castle was not built as a defense fortress; it was just a typical feudal castle with defensive equipment typical for the 17th century. The original castle was built in Renaissance style, with some Late Gothic elements. It is today considered one of the most beautiful Renaissance Epoch buildings in Lithuania. The castle was surrounded by five ponds with four water mills and some farm buildings, remaining from the old manor. A wonderful castle park with five cascade pools and a hilly relief leaves also today’s visitors with an unforgettable impression.
By the middle of the 17th century Janusz Eperjes son Christopher reconstructed the castle, introducing several baroque elements. . At the end of the 18th century the castle was reconstructed in classical style, and some of the old buildings demolished.
In 1925 the Lithuanian government made the castle a national possession and in 1935 the Panemunė Castle and its surroundings were taken under responsibility of the Lithuanian Ministry of Culture. In 1961 it was included into the list of national culturally valuable monuments. In 1995 – 1997 the castle was partially reconstructed.
Nowadays Panemunė Castle has two remaining corpuses – the western wing that includes two towers – and a southern wing. Panemunė Castle belongs to the Vilnius Art Academy, responsible for restoration and maintenance, as well as fitting it to science, education and tourism purposes. During the summer season the Vilnius Art Academy arranges expositions of art here.
Visitors are also let to climb up the towers and watch the spectacular view of the Nemunas River and the landscapes around. The nearby park is a part of the whole structure of the castle. It is a perfect example of a landscaped park that strengthens the overall impression of the Panemunė Castle on its beautiful hilltop location.
Are you an AT&T residential broadband customer in the United States, grumbling over the inauguration of 150GB bandwidth cap for your pokey DSL connection? Or maybe you're a Canadian—bitter over the low ceiling caps imposed by Rogers Cable and other ISPs, not to mention the likely expansion of metered billing packages down the line?
If you've had the vague sense that the Internet in North America is moving back toward scarcity rather than forward to abundance, we've got a solution for you. Move to Lithuania. TEO LT, Lithuania's top telecommunications service, says that in two weeks the company will boost the speed of its ZEBRA Fiber-to-the-Home ISP service "premium" plan to up to 300Mbps for downloads.
The "basic" plan's speed will double—from 20 to 40Mbps; the "optimal" plan will go from 80 to 100Mbps.
According to the Fiber to the Home Council Europe, Lithuania is already the front runner when it comes to deployment of FTTH networks. It tops the European list at 22.6 percent household penetration. Next comes Sweden at 13.6 percent. In absolute numbers, Russia is number one at 4.18 million fiber households, followed by Sweden (600,000) and France (486,700).
TEO says its telecom network is accessible to about half of Lithuania: 570,000 households. Its next-generation services are available to most of the residents of that country's big cities: Vilnius, Klaipeda, and Kaunas. Over half of Panevėžys and Šiauliai residents can get them too.
Why are Lithuanians getting this FTTH windfall? Investment, it appears. TEO says it will plug more than LTL70 million (about US$30 million) into the fiber project by the end of this year, bringing the total investment to LTL325 million (about US$139 million) over four years.
Lithuania's neighbor Estonia, by the way, is ranked by Freedom House as among "the most wired and technologically advanced countries in the world." In 2009 more than 91 percent of its citizens filed their taxes online. Estonian identity cards facilitate widespread electronic voting for city and European Parliament elections.
"Restrictions on Internet content and communications are among the lightest in the world," Freedom House's latest report on the country notes.
Dénes Fejér |
Ruszkik, haza!
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Text: Aage Myhre
aage.myhre@VilNews.com
“The Szeged initiative could be seen as the first crack on a dam where water is about to pour through. Of course, you don’t immediately realise when you see a small stream of water; that what follows it is going to overwhelm you. The Communist leadership did not see right away what actually was about to happen, as they did not expect such a massive force appearing in just a few days.”
Dénes Fejér, who was 23 when the revolt started, stands here in the Aula that looks more or less the same as it did in 1956, demonstrating how things started evolving exactly here that October evening 55 years ago.
Hungarians gather around the head of the toppled Stalin Monument in Budapest 1956.
I ask Dénes Fejér to explain more about the 1956 revolt that started here in Szeged:
You were yourself present in that Aula meeting, and if I understand you correctly, this meeting became a fateful event (among several other developments in those days) which led inevitably to the outbreak of the revolution. It was the first meeting after World War II where questions were not pre-arranged slogans glorifying the regime, but where - because of the insistence of the audience - everyone was allowed to speak, and raise questions. What would you say were the most significant things happened at that assembly?
For two years after the end of the war in 1945, there was a plural political system in Hungary. Different political parties existed, and in the 1945 general elections the Independent Smallholder and Civil Party received absolute majority with 54% of the votes and the Communist Party only received 17%. Stalin realised that the people of Hungary did not want to embrace its system. The 1947 elections were already fraudulent and the Communist forces won. In 1948 the Social democratic Party was forcibly incorporated into the Communist party. The general wave of terror appeared only after this time. Forced nationalisation was started with businesses, commercial institutions, industrial entities and later, even private property like houses. A terror organisation was created within the Internal Ministry, called the AVO (State Security Authority) which later became an independent entity, having its own rules and methods.
This was the background where the MEFESZ was established, as the very first independent organisation in Communist Hungary. The programme and its demands were summarised in twenty points of the there are a few that are interesting. These included the request for open and free debates, the open trial of guilty Communist functionaries, the abolishment of death penalty in political cases, democratic elections, freedom of speech, and the that the 15th of March, the Commemoration Day of the 1848 Revolution should become an official national day. As you can see, these conditions and demands are natural in a free country but were unknown and unthinkable in a dictatorship. Although not part of the twenty points, another demand was phrased by the participant of the meeting. This was later a key phrase of the revolution: Russians, go home! The most fundamental demand was for the truth, that is to say that the leaders of the country should not lie and should not make the young people and the population lie. Telling the truth in Hungary at that time meant sever prison sentences.
To my knowledge, the assembly started as a rather innocent gathering where the students simply asked: “Why are the Soviet troops still stationed in our country?”, but ended with a the clear demand: “Ruszkik, haza!” - “Russians, go home!” From such a radical manifestation of the demands, you must have known that this was about to become dangerous?
The whole meeting started as a regular Communist youth organisation meeting. The Communist youth leaders gathered before it and reviewed the demands of the MEFESZ leaders, like András Lejtényi. When they learn the radical nature of these, they became frightened and left immediately for higher authority, the Communist party representatives at the university. Then the MEFESZ leaders went to meet the gathered students, read their demands, and the MEFESZ had the day!
“There was a general feeling of freedom among the participants. Fear disappeared. Saying the truth was a standard, normal thing during the event that caused happiness and joy among the audience.”
Didn‘t you realise that, according the Soviet system of those days, your collective name was "Shut up!" Did you not know that the Aula microphones were only for the Party collaborators and that nobody else were supposed to talk?
Nobody thought of ‘Shut up!’ at that time. After the first few words, there was a general feeling of freedom among the participants. Fear disappeared. Saying the truth was a standard, normal thing during the event that caused happiness and joy among the audience. The principle of ‘Shut up!’ had accumulated an amount of pressure in everyone that just erupted then. The age of ‘sober thoughts’ ended and the demand of freedom and truth became prevalent for the university youth.
You were yourself working as a journalist those days, and on the 23rd of October the newspaper “Delmagyarorszag” published your article called “Az igazsag keresesenek utjan”. What was the essence of this article and what reactions did you get?
This article, titled the ways of finding the truth, summarised what I have just explained above. It is very typical that we were not even sure whether the article would appear at all. The official, Communist newspaper Délmagyarország reported the event but left out the most important aspect which was the break of the dam, the shedding of the Communist oppression!
The period of hope to win over the mighty Soviet Union by peaceful measures, however, did not last long, and soon fights started spreading all over Hungary and the revolution began before your eyes. How will you describe this outcome of your efforts from the Aula assembly?
The main fighting happened in Budapest. This was the obvious and visible sign of the revolution. The fighting, the combat on the streets. The AVO, the armed troops and the Soviet soldiers were all surprised that ‘here they shoot back’. It was believed that a demonstration of force with tanks on the street would frighten people and prevent the escalation of the events, thus helping the consolidation of the Communist dictatorship. It didn’t happen like that.
Probably the Hungarian national character contributed to this as well. The courage to start again, to love one’s country, the national tradition of not giving in to slavery.
The revolutionaries of Budapest used bottles filled with petrol against tanks. They had no heavy weapons or anti-tank artillery. They fixed a burning piece of rag on the bottle and tossed it to the moving vehicle. The burning liquid turned the steel monsters into burning coffins. When the Soviet soldiers were abandoning their vehicles, they became easy preys to the weapons of the fighters.
There was an interrelation between the demands of the Szeged students, the fighting in Budapest and the revolutionary state nation-wise. The mental preparation rallied the fighters. The machine guns and the words were equally weapons of the revolution. Words changed things without bloodshed. From the smallest villages in Hungary to any institution or organisation, everyone of them had revolutionary councils. They replaced the very often incompetent previous leadership whose only added value to the system was their loyalty to the oppressing regime. The highest authority in the Communist state, the Central Committee and the Political Committee was simply dismissed. Instead of them reliable and trustworthy people were elected by the population or members of institutions or organisations. With open or secrets ballots. I was elected by a secret ballot to be on the workers’ council of the press in Szeged, and on the city’s revolutionary council.
I think this was the real result of the revolution. Replacing the old, Soviet puppets, the Communist leadership, and raising new, honest people into the power. This was created by the synergy of the students’ wishes and of the fighting in Budapest.
“For those who have never lived in oppression, in fear and in deprivation, for those who, on a daily basis, enjoy freedom and the rights of liberty, they probably don’t really know what freedom means for a prisoner.”
It has been said that something nearly supernatural stirred the hearts, minds and consciousness of the Hungarian people those days. Those shared feelings with friends and strangers must have been very special?
This special, disturbing experience is not difficult to describe for those who lived through it. The beautiful memories must be recalled from the past half-century. For those who have never lived in oppression, in fear and in deprivation, for those who, on a daily basis, enjoy freedom and the rights of liberty, they probably don’t really know what freedom means for a prisoner. I believe that it was this everlasting desire for freedom that prevailed back then. It was as if we were not even walking on the face of the Earth, as if floating in air. The communication changed among people, they were smiling to each other. They were nice, understanding towards each other. We even believed that the ‘guards’, our oppressors could change because they would realise that it is, in fact, better to live like this, free. It is probably also true that the experience of freedom created delusions.
By mid November 1956, it became evident that your revolution was lost. Not only the street fights, but also the lengthy demands of the students, which were fully supported by the whole society, were not going to be met. Instead, more and more of reprisals and arrests happened and an air of bitter disillusionment began to replace the heady days of the victorious revolution. How would you describe these days?
In the first days of November, it became obvious that the revolution had failed. Not in its results, not in its memories, not in its principles but in its survival. It was not our weakness but the overwhelming Soviet military power that defeated it. The twelve days a freedom turned into a totally different direction. In a few days we suddenly had to realise that those who had pretended to be with us till the 4th of November in 1956, turned into bloodthirsty puppets of the occupying forces and lost their human faces, becoming willing executioners.
The new puppet regime with Soviet arms behind it could only gradually strengthen its own position. They were expecting results, agreements, and waiting for their supporters t show once again. This started very slowly with the dismissed Communist leaders and members appearing again and again. Once they were feeling safe, the brutal punishment started.
We were hoping that they might have learnt their lesson, that we could not be treated the same way as we had been treated for nine years before the revolution. This was not the case, they continued everything in much the same way as it had been before. Everything came back, the deportation camps, the beatings, the prisons, the torture. Hungary again became a prison and we again humiliated prisoners.
It took some time before the Soviet rulers of your country were able to close the borders completely, and Austria was very willingly letting thousands of refugees cross into their country. You decided not to leave, why was that?
It became obvious that for those who had participated in the revolution, there was no place in Hungary any more. And many of them indeed left the country. Maybe some left because of fear, some because of adventure or new possibilities. Almost 200.000 people left the country. One of my best friend left who is currently living in New York while I was kept in a Soviet military prison in Eastern Hungary. Another friend of mine, who was briefly arrested with me, was inviting me to go to France.
It had never occurred to me that I could or would leave. Never, for a moment. I knew that I had account for all my activities eventually, and I was hoping that my life would be spared. During the revolution I did not fight, did not kill anyone. In my captivity Major Zokov, the Russian officer was interrogating me about all these things. Ha was trying to convince me that we were counter-revolutionaries while I was trying to convince him that we were revolutionaries. We couldn’t convince each other of course. I do not recall any fear gripping me, when, together with seven of my colleagues, I was transported in an ambulance, escorted by two armed armoured personnel carriers. I was wearing a white shirt and, when we were disembarked at the main square of Csongrád to be taken to the nearby hills, I remember thinking that anyone could easily recognise the white on a corpse, and might be able to inform my mother about my fate. I was not executed, but taken to Debrecen to the Soviet military airfield.
After I was released from prison, I did not want to leave. I couldn’t leave my country. I would not replace Hungary for any other place. I have seen a few peaceful spots in the world where life could be different than here. Once a Hungarian poet has said that for a Hungarian patriot ‘whether your faith may be blessed or cursed, here [ie. in Hungary] you must either live or die’. This is a moral command for me.
Some of your fellow students were executed and the Soviet jails were filling up during the next few months. You were among them arrested, hence it would be interesting to hear your personal story from the time after the revolution was so brutally crushed?
In the spring of 1957 I was arrested again, this time by the Hungarian political police. But before that an interesting episode happened in my life. When I was released from the Soviet prison, in February I returned to Szeged where I was approached by the newly organising Communist party, through two veteran leaders, Vince Bite and Károly Csíszár. I used to know Uncle Vince, since when I was ten to twelve, I used to be his helper in playing bowling at the beach. They told me to become member of the MSZMP [the newly formed Communist party] because I had been selected to be chief editor of the Délmagyarország newspaper. I had three days to consider their offer. I turned it down. Have you given it enough thoughts? Uncle Vince asked me. I have, I told him. Well, I hope you won’t regret it, he answered.
In two months time, I was arrested. I was interned. The whole thing became only a little bit clearer when I was released after one year. The temporary imprisonment that required no court verdict, could be prolonged indefinitely after every six months. When I was released, I was only allowed to do manual labour, only as a non-qualified worker, despite having a university degree with a certificate that allowed me to teach. My driving license was withdrawn, my reserve officer rank of the army was taken away, I did not get a passport, and could not travel abroad. As I recall, it did not really effect me because after finishing secondary school, I went to work on the Tisza bridge and learnt the craftsmanship of carpenters. This enabled me to work with my own two hands, and solved my financial problems.
What was difficult was the social exclusion. When my friends saw me on the streets, they went to the other side. Nobody dared speaking to me, or to be seen in the company of a convicted ‘counter revolutionary’. I was living with my mother and with my elder sister because I had lost my elder brother who had died in Russian captivity in the war.
During the sixties the terror had waned a little bit. I was allowed to teach in elementary school, although only subjects that were practical based, handcrafts. On regular basis a political officer appeared to check on me, and to try to make me work with them as an agent. I refused, and eventually got fed up with it all, and I returned to the construction industry. In the end I became a foreman, then a project manager. I was applying for eight years to the Szeged university law faculty but was always turned down. In the late 80s I was invited to be as chief editor of one of the first independent publishers. This was already the end of the Kádár-regime [János Kádár was the leader of Communist Hungary after 1956, till 1989. The period between 1956 and 1989 was often referred as the Kádár-regime.]
“It was only after many years that we learnt that the USA and the Great Britain informed the USSR that they would not oppose their intervention in Hungary.”
The governments of the free world watched your Hungarian Revolution with deep admiration even if none of them seriously considered providing military support, nor condemnation strong enough to stop the brutal actions of the Soviet Union. How do you view the behaviours of the Western countries those days?
The Western world provided enormous help to those almost 200.000 Hungarians who left the country. Those who went not as adventurers were appreciated by their new countries. Among the refugees you can find people who still come back to Hungary and who in fact, have two countries now. They have no roots, and their children have departed from Hungary for good.
The Western influence that we had in the days of the revolution was deceiving. It was only after many years that we learnt that the USA and the Great Britain informed the USSR that they would not oppose their intervention in Hungary.
Radio Free Europe was continuously encouraging the fighters to carry on because they were promised foreign help. This has led me to conclude that if it succeeds, if we had national local government in Szeged, I would suggest to change the name of Roosevelt Square in Szeged (like it was changed from Stalin Square) as I cannot support a liar, a friend of Soviets, even if he had been once the President of the USA.
Roosevelt Square in Szeged. The inscription lauds Franklin for his stand against
Fascism. Dénes Fejér, however, wants to change the name of the square.
“I cannot support a liar, a friend of the Soviets, even if he had been once
President of the USA,” he tells me.
Lithuania's prime minister, Andrius Kubilius is on bicycle holiday in Belarus, while the tension between the neighbouring countries seemingly is growing.
LITHUANIA'S relationship with Belarus is one of the puzzles of European diplomacy. Seen one way, relations seem icy. Lithuania is a favoured port of call for the beleaguered Belarusian opposition. The autocratic regime in Minsk shelters Vladimir Uschopchik, whom Lithuania wants to put on trial for the killings and failed putsch of January 1991. A senior Lithuanian spook, Vytautas Pociūnas, posted to a diplomatic job in Grodno (Gardinas in Lithuanian) died in still-unexplained circumstances in 2006.
Yet below the surface things are different. Trade ties are good. The Lithuanian authorities quietly keep close working relations with their southern neighbour, and have blocked (or at least queried) some attempts by the EU and America to impose sanctions. Lithuania's prime minister, Andrius Kubilius, takes his holidays in Belarus, cycling round the sites of the old Grand Duchy of Lithuania, with the local KGB (as it is still called) in polite but puzzled pursuit. Some fear that Belarus is the Achilles heel of Lithuania's Euro-Atlantic orientation. Others think that Lithuania is the one country that can guide Belarus back into the European fold. Perhaps both views are right.
Read the article at:
http://www.economist.com/blogs/easternapproaches/2011/08/lithuania-and-belarus
Back cover of Laima Vince’s book
“Forest Brothers: The Account Of An Anti-Soviet Freedom Fighter - Juozas Lukša.”
I have travelled in several former Warsaw Pact countries. In Hungary I met a person who participated in their 1956 uproar. In Slovakia and the Czech Republic I talked to people about their ‘Prague Spring’ of 1968. The people I talked to were rightfully proud of the uproars their countries performed against the mighty USSR, but when I asked them about the revolts that took place here in Lithuania and the other two Baltic states during the period of 1944-53, they all lacked concrete answers and knowledge. “We simply didn’t know,” they told me...
And they are not alone. I believe very few in the entire world have ever heard about the guerrilla war that took place here in the very centre of Europe after World War II, even if the number of victims in fact can be compared to the Vietnam War (1960-75).
It has been estimated that the losses of the Lithuanian partisan war’ amounted to 70,000 Soviet soldiers and 22,000 Lithuanian ‘Forest Brothers’, making this war one of the longest and bloodiest guerrilla wars in the history of the world.
For comparison, the United States lost 58,000 soldiers in Vietnam.
The outcome of this uneven war became an extremely sad and gruesome chapter in Lithuania’s history. Some 132,000 individuals were captured and deported to the Arctic areas of Siberia, 70% of them children and women, and more than 50,000 of these fine people died under the extremely harsh conditions up north, never able to return to their homeland alive.
During the same period, another 200,000 people were thrown into prisons. Over 150,000 of them were sent to the Gulags, the USSR’s concentration camps. These mass deportations continued until the death of Josef Stalin in 1953, but many prisoners remained in the camps also during the time of Nikita Khrushchev.
In a book by Anatol Marchenko published in Germany in 1973, he tells about his experiences from Soviet prisons and concentration camps in the early 1960s. One of his stories is about three Lithuanian prisoners who tried to escape from the convoy in a forest. Two of them were quickly caught, then shot many times in the legs, then ordered to get up which they could not do, then kicked and trampled by guards, then bitten and torn up by police dogs and only then stabbed to death with bayonets. All this with witty remarks by the officer, of the kind; "Now, free Lithuania, crawl, you'll get your independence straight off!"
This is one of thousand stories you can read in many now available books about the Soviet horrors. From 1917 to 1991, politics in the USSR started and finished with the Communist Party; it was the only game in town.
What passed for elections were a contest between members of the same political party - no candidates other than communists were allowed to run. The people who ruled the country were dictators; some more brutal than others. The Communist Party owned everything - land, factories, housing, and farms. The masses went about their daily lives under the direction of the Party. They were told where to live, where to work, and where to travel. There was very little freedom of choice in anything. The ideal behind this system was that everyone lived and worked for the good of the community.
But, the power of the Soviet Union, under the domination of Russia, was built on sand not rock. Under communism, individuals learned to lie back and do nothing and the idea of everything being owned by the community instead of individuals meant that nobody felt responsible for upkeep and maintenance; or as it is expressed in a Spanish proverb: "The cow of many is well milked and badly fed."
But even if there existed both humor and good days for people during those years, the extreme sufferings the USSR meant for this part of Europe should never be forgotten, and the Lithuanian partisan war is certainly one of the most important stories to tell our posterities along with the stories about Czechoslovakia in 1968 and Hungary in 1956.
I suggest you to read the books of Laima Vince (Forest Brothers: The Account Of An Anti-Soviet Freedom Fighter -Juozas Lukša), Ruta Sepetys (Between shades of gray) and Antanas Sileika (Underground).
Have a look at their web pages:
LAIMA VINCE – http://www.laimavince.com/forestbrothers.html
RUTA SEPETYS – http://www.betweenshadesofgray.com/
ANTANAS SILEIKA – http://antanassileika.ca/
Aage Myhre,
Editor-in-Chief
A black man in Lithuania as "Chairman of Klaipeda International Business Club", I'm loving it!
Ref. our article about Mr. Lont: https://vilnews.com/?p=7623
Clifford Lont, Chairman of Klaipeda International Business Club, has moved the long way from Suriname in South America to a much colder climate here at the Lithuanian coast.
First of all I would like to say that I admire Clifford's courage and perseverance. Second, I have respect for the way he has managed to adapt himself not only to the (sometimes very) cold weather and the different lifestyle, but also to the very different culture. He conquered it all. A black man in Lithuania as "Chairman of Klaipeda International Business Club" , I'm loving it!
I see Clifford as one of many who are building bridges between nations. I wish him well.
U sisa
EML
Jekaterina Rojaka,
Chief economist, DnB NORD.
Lithuanian consumer prices declined by 0.2% m/m in July, down from -0.1% in June. The drop in prices was mainly in line with market expectations and DnB NORD's estimate (-0.1%). Admittedly, the annual rate eased down from 4.8% to 4.6% y/y.
The main cause of the decline in the month-on-month rate was an expected (seasonal) drop in the prices of food, and a pronounced drop in the prices of clothing and footwear.
However, latest producer prices figures in Lithuania issued last week proved that cost pressures are still rising, especially on energy and food products. On the other hand, forward-looking surveys of manufacturers’ pricing intentions suggest that output price inflation should rise only marginally. Moreover, falling oil prices are expected to fetch down prices further.
Assessment: We expect consumer prices to ease somewhat in nearest months, before accelerating in autumn after the heating season begins. However, higher base effect will reduce an increase in prices. Annual inflation is forecasted to reach 4% in the end of 2011, while it will heavily depend on energy price developments.
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