Press release, 13 January 2015
On 13 of January 2015, the Seimas held a solemn commemoration of the Day of the Defenders of Freedom and the 2014 Freedom Prize awarding ceremony. The solemn commemoration featured speeches by Loreta Graužinienė, Speaker of the Seimas; Laima Liucija Andrikienė, Vytautas Petras Plečkaitis and Petras Vaitiekūnas, Signatories to the Act of Independence; and Rimantas Norvila, Bishop of Vilkaviškis.
The Speaker of the Seimas started the commemoration by stressing that the Day of the Defenders of Freedom is as important to the history of the country as the 16th of February and the 11th of March. “Fates of ordinary people lie behind these important dates. Fates that changed Lithuania and each and every one of us. If it were not for the night of the 13th of January, we would not be the way we are today. That was the night that mobilised and united us all with a common painful but powerful experience of Freedom that pierced through our whole being,” the Speaker of the Seimas says.
Mrs Graužinienė is convinced that in the pages of the Lithuanian history, the night of the 13th of January is one of the darkest, however, one of the most majestic ones at the same time. “That was the night when we all went to sing freedom. Even until the last breath, if needed. This is why even today, almost a quarter of a century later, we are still so moved and inspired by the determination and conviction of the defenders of freedom who were on duty that night that their place was namely here and that a free Lithuania lies in each and every one of us,” the Speaker of the Seimas says. “[...] I believe that the 13th of January has left an indelible imprint of freedom in the hearts of each and every one of us.”
Petras Vaitiekūnas, Signatory to the Act of Independence, says that the 13th of January reminds him that the struggle for freedom takes place everyday and that blood is the price to pay for freedom, one that can be paid maybe more than once, maybe not for the first and the last time. He believes that Ukraine has risen to fight for its freedom, free choice and the right to be part of Europe. “Today, we repay our loan, one which was taken out 24 years ago. [...] let me stress that not a single Russian is our enemy so long as he did not cross our border, the borders of the EU Member States or NATO’s borders, so long as the Russian did not cross the borders of our friends with a gun in his arms. But what we do consider to be our enemy is Putin’s policy, because it is destroying the world order by force, i.e. military force, and subverting international law […]. That is why this policy is hostile to the values of any civilisation,” Mr Vaitiekūnas says.
The Signatory to the Act of Independence says he believes that in future, however unlikely this may sound, he sees Russia as part of the European and Western civilisation. “I can see that the time is coming when from this rostrum we will hear an official apology of Russia for the Soviet occupation of Lithuania. I have no doubt about it,” the ambassador states.
As Laima Liucija Andrikienė, Signatory to the Act of Independence, notes in her speech, the 13th of January, 1991, is the day of our historic victory, i.e. Lithuania’s victory over a well-armed aggressor – the USSR – who had a goal of destroying a free Lithuania which had just risen for a new life.
Ms Andrikienė points out that in these times of the great confusion of minds, or in other words, in times of information or propaganda war, when we are all witnessing attempts to rewrite the history of Lithuania and highlight things in a way which is more convenient to some, our own memories and experiences gain a special value. “There is no more iron curtain; Lithuania is a part of a free and democratic Europe. However, our experience, our memory and our common sense tells us that our fight is not yet over and that our job has not yet been finished,” Ms Andrikienė says. She believes that today we lack true leadership the most, i.e. when politics is not carried out through a battle of words, trying to appear the cooler one in an argument with somebody else. We need true leadership, a living example, when in key moments the leaders gather round themselves large society groups and with their own living example express a position and a sense of community.
Vytautas Petras Plečkaitis, Signatory to the Act of Independence, underlines that by expressing our gratitude to the fallen heroes and by remembering them, we have to focus on the living and pay more attention to ordinary people. “Let’s not forget that it was namely thanks to those ordinary and humble Lithuanian citizens that the freedom of Lithuania was built and defended. It is mostly thanks to them that we can build the welfare of the state today. Let’s not forget that namely ordinary people from the cities, towns and villages, most of whom were young, were fighting the partisan war in forests in the name of freedom. They were the ones who were issuing proclamations, disseminating secret anticommunist press, publishing the Chronicle of the Catholic Church to spread the ideas of freedom, and joining into underground organisations and groups, such as the Freedom League and other. They were being expelled from universities for the freedom of thought; they were persecuted, crushed, and imprisoned for their resistance to communist dictatorship. They organised the establishment of the Lithuanian reform movement Sąjūdis. They were defending freedom and making sacrifices in 1991, so that today we would be free,” Mr Plečkaitis says.
Rimantas Norvila, Bishop of Vilkaviškis, believes that the solidarity experienced on the 13th of January 1991 encourages us to grow up for a responsible and creative dialogue. “Let us try to see where he [the Lord] is guiding us to. Let us build the country on the foundations of a solid rock and unshaken values, so that it could withstand all challenges and would not be weakened by somebody’s interests, ideological winds or any other heavy storms,” Rev Norvila highlights.
At the end of the solemn commemoration, Adam Michnik, a Polish public figure, a dissident, one of the leaders of the Solidarity movement, a journalist, an essayist, a political publicist and the Editor-in-Chief of the Polish daily Gazeta Wyborcza, was awarded the 2014 Freedom Prize.
The participants of the Seimas event included Dalia Grybauskaitė, President of the Republic of Lithuania; Algirdas Butkevičius, Prime Minister; former heads of state; relatives of the victims who died for the freedom and independence of Lithuania; witnesses of the events fatal for the state of Lithuania; victims of the Soviet aggression; freedom fighters; defenders of the state of Lithuania; signatories to the Act of Independence; Members of the Seimas; foreign ambassadors residing in Lithuania; and other distinguished guests.
Photos of the Seimas Office (author Olga Posaškova)
Every year the Lithuanian Parliament marks the Day of the Defenders of Freedom together with the families and relatives of the victims who died for the freedom and independence of Lithuania on the night fatal for our state; witnesses and victims of the events; and the families and relatives of those who died when defending the independence on Lithuania’s borders and at the buildings of the Seimas, the TV Tower and the Lithuanian Radio and Television.
Rimas Rudaitis, Public Relations Unit, Communications Department, Office of the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania, tel. +370 5 239 6132, e-mail: [email protected]
