Your Excellency President of the Republic of Lithuania, Valdas
Adamkus; dear Prime Minister, Gediminas Kirkilas; dear Minister of Foreign
Affairs of the Kingdom of Sweden, Carl Bilt; Members of the European and
Lithuanian Parliaments; Members of the Government; Signatories to the 11th
of March Act of Independence; Members of earlier Seimas and Governments;
Excellencies Ambassadors; dear volunteers, aggrieved on the historical days in
January; families of those who perished; dissidents of the Soviet period; dear
guests; ladies and gentlemen! Why do we meet annually? Here. On the same day.
In the same place... To revive our memories, historical and personal. To recall
the lessons learned, not learned, almost forgotten.
We tend to forget quickly
We tend to forget a lot... We have almost
forgotten what our life was before the 11th of March, what we sang,
what we used to queue for and to buy before the 11th of March. How
we prayed, what we thought, whom we prayed to, and whom we did not, what we
were thinking about.
We had Utopian dreams about living in the country, free from the soviet
empire only a quarter of a century ago. Our wish to join NATO and the EU seemed
unrealistic at the turn of the century, and the turn of the century came only a
short while ago. We are forgetting things
Maybe we shouldnt. Is this a good
sign? Maybe we realise that there is no other way but the one chosen in spring
1990 and confirmed in winter 1991.
Mindaugas did not really make a clay mould of Lithuania, neither did he
use blood to glue its fragments together. No, of course, he never did. Justinas
Marcinkevičius taught us to think so. Having been taught, we took the metaphors
for historical facts and then decided to mould Lithuania ourselves and glue it
with our blood on the 13th of January.
Justinas Marcinkevičius taught us through Mažvydas and Laimonas Noreika
to chant: LIE-TU-VA (Lithuania). It was a whisper at first, and then the
whisper grew louder. We chanted in whisper, then we chanted louder and louder.
We chanted during Mažvydas performances, and later we chanted during other
performances too.
But in reality things were different. These were neither opening nights
nor performances. These were rehearsals. The opening night was held here 16
years ago, on the 13th of January, when we chanted Lie-tu-va. Loudly
and with growing intensity. Very loudly, louder than the rattling of tanks
Thank you, the most prominent Lithuanian poet, for having prepared us for the
most important opening night in Lithuanias history.
Let us observe a minute of silence now in memory of those who shed
their blood in performing the historical mission
Loreta Asanavičiūtė, Virginijus
Druskis, Darius Gerbutavičius, Rolandas Jankauskas, Rimantas
Juknevičius, Alvydas Kanapinskas, Algimantas Petras Kavoliukas,
Vytautas Koncevičius, Vidas Maciulevičius, Titas Masiulis,
Alvydas Matulka, Apolinaras Juozas Povilaitis, Ignas
Šimulionis, Vytautas Vaitkus.
(A minute of silence).
Thank you. Thank you for respect to those who sacrificed themselves and
made certain that we win in the fierce war where unequal forces fought against
each other. Let us think about our victory. We won the victory because we were
united then. Unfortunately we lacked unity in later periods. Several days ago
we even started quarrelling about the 13th of January. We continue
to quarrel about our relations with Russia, about the grievances that the large
state inflicted on the small state. May I quote here.
Last week the Russian TV channel asked Elmar Guseinov, Editor-in-Chief
of the Russian paper Rossiyskaja gazeta, How do you see the request by
some Lithuanian political forces to claim compensation from Russia to the
Lithuanian victims of the 13th of January? Elmar Guseinovs reply
was as follows, When I was posted by the daily Isvestiya as a special
reporter in Paris, I lived in a beautiful bourgeois villa which had used to be
the Lithuanian Embassy before Lithuania had fallen prey to the Soviet Union.
Lithuanians residing in France staged pickets in front of the villa twice a
year, on certain days, for returning it to Lithuania. The pickets persisted
till the French Government admitted and corrected its mistake of giving the
building to the Soviet Union in 1940.
Lithuanian and Baltic persistence in general is admirable in this case.
Russia will have to take serious note of the request. What if an international
institution raises the question of compensation and decides, forbid God, that
Lithuanians are right? Its better to deal with the matter ourselves quickly.
Thats what a democratic Russia thinks. At least the part of Russia,
which is actually democratic.
Ladies and gentlemen, we want to have good relations with all
countries. I believe, however, we have no right to sacrifice the dignity of our
nation and our state for that wish of ours. We must never sacrifice our
dignity. Our memory, awaken by the 13th of January, makes us go for
this option.
I invite you to return to the night of the 13th of January
and to think about those who left and never returned, about the place of their
last sleep where we will take bouquets of blossoming flowers today meant to say
that They are among us forever.
We will never forget
you.
