14 June 2011, press release
Your Excellency President of the Republic of Lithuania Dalia Grybauskaitė,
President Valdas Adamkus,
Dear relatives of the victims of freedom, deportees and defenders of freedom,
Signatories to the Act of 11 March,
Ladies and gentlemen, participants of the solemn commemoration,
Dear people of Lithuania,
The tricolours with black ribbons flying in the air all over Lithuania signify again 14 June and serve as a reminder of the most painful experiences and the saddest ordeals of our nation and state. This year, declared as the Year of Remembrance of Defence of Freedom and Great Losses, brings our memories back not only to the vast deportations of 1941, in the spirit of which the Day of Mourning and Hope was established, but also to the year 1991, the events of which most us have lived through ourselves. We remember once again and rediscover in our memory and hearts the 13 January 1991, the first killed Lithuanian official Gintaras Žagunis and our gunned down customs officers.
Let us remember and pay tribute to the victims that fell for the cause of Lithuanias freedom at all times: our soldiers, partisans and the innocent civilians; all those who passed away in exile and in forced emigration; let us pay tribute to all the physically and morally incapacitated by the soviet regime during the long decades of occupation; all those who defended Lithuania and its land with their flesh and soul 20 years ago. Such memories and commemorations are the way to counter those who despise the symbols of the Lithuanian national resistance to the oppressor, i.e., the movement of resistance, all the victims that perished for the cause of freedom and independence of the Lithuanian state.
Let us pay tribute to the memory of each of our national heroes by observing a minute of silence.
Thank you.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
The history of Lithuania demonstrates that our nation would upraise for freedom almost every 30 years, as soon as a new generation would mature during the years of oppression. The uprisings and resistance movement of the 20th century also prove that the Lithuanian nation is a historic nation that consistently protects and defends its right to statehood.
Unfortunately, in 1941, the citizens of Lithuania were subjected to a very harsh fate: little time did they have for maturing together with our independent state before the brutal trials began. In fact, in the summer of 1941, many residents of Lithuania still either remembered or had voluntarily participated in the fight for freedom aimed at the establishment and defence of the Act of 16 February. It is cruel and disappointing that deportations deprived Lithuania of the prominent people, including the most talented intellectuals and the hardest working farmers. Intellect, common sense and humanism were forced to fall silent and were substituted by beastly brutality, cruelty and criminal lawlessness.
Occupants changed one another; talented-minds were forcefully silenced and deported to the gulags in the East and in the West. In Lithuania, they were substituted by commissars, feldfebels, Jew-killers and NKVD men with no ideological or human values whatsoever who brutally followed the letter of the law and exterminated a small Lithuanian nation and all the nations residing in the state of Lithuania. Let me single out and highlight this historical aspect. The tragedy of Lithuania was not only the tragedy of Lithuanians: deportation and extermination concerned the people of all nationalities that had lived together: Russians, Poles and Jews. In the middle of June 1941, many Lithuanian citizens were deported and a week later the war between Nazis and Soviets broke out bringing another tragedy, the Holocaust.
On numerous occasions, during the years of national revival, Lithuania was compared to undergrowth growing in a field viciously devastated by storms and winds. Nonetheless, this national undergrowth grew nourished by the strongest of roots: spiritual, national, Christian and human. Thus in 1991, as Lithuanians defended the Parliament and television, mourned and buried their customs officers but never retreated or kneelt, they had already won the fight, the fight for historical justice, morals and humanity.
This year we will commemorate another anniversary that is crucially important to our state: the 20th anniversary of the international recognition of the restored Republic of Lithuania. It is true, that our global recognition, return to the international community and to the United Nations Organisation was beyond any doubt diplomatic, political and historical victory. But let me repeat: to me, the greatest historical victory is our nations ability to preserve its roots, preserve its spirit and preserve the true Lithuania in the hearts of millions.
Today I perceive it not merely as a fact of the past, but as an opportunity to continue sustaining our political, public, and spiritual freedom in any circumstances. The greatest losses of Lithuania will always be marked with sacred sacrifice, heroism and divine radiance.
Let me repeat the lines from Maironis poem, the angels of the skies are making a diamond wreath for those whose heads drooped (free interpretation of the poem).
The same applies to every life or fate sacrificed during the years of the great losses, every sacrifice for Lithuanias freedom, every person who sacrificed for truth and freedom and thus for the cause of Lithuania.
Irena Degutienė
Speaker of the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania
