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A ghost from the past
“Secretly. Lithuanian SSR State Security Committee. Chapter 2. Agency report. Agent pseudonym” Grafikas “. Personal file No. 33932. Adopted by Major V. Virbickas. September 23, 1988”, – thus begins the report of the Soviet spy (written in Russian language), who together with the Lithuanian sailors on the yacht “Dailė” had sailed for a regatta in Sweden.
Agent Grafikas was a member of the crew of the Dail trip yacht and participated in a regatta off the coast of Sweden.
The ship’s crew was made up of members of the Lithuanian Artists Union, as the yacht was owned by this union.
It was at that time that revival had already begun. On the eve of 1988. On August 23, 2006, a rally was held in Vilnius, Vingis Park, with the participation of some 200,000 people. persons.
Landings: 1989 In May, three yachts in Klaipeda, on the Dangė embankment, are ready to sail on a historic voyage across the Atlantic. (Photo by Antanas Stanevičius)
And the next day “Dailė” together with KGB agent “Grafiku” left the Klaipeda port for Sweden.
As the spy will later write in his report, the purpose of the trip was to participate in sailing competitions.
Dailė arrived at Manstrand Harbor four days later, on August 28, at 9 p.m. in the morning.
Immediately disembarking, the crew members went to the local yacht club, where a border police officer who arrived a few hours later issued visas.
The officer was very surprised that the Swedish policeman turned so quickly and, wishing to succeed “without further questions”, he withdrew.
“We were headed by Lars Stenberg, the director of the yacht club. As only two of our team spoke English: Naglis Nasvytis and Algis (Algimantas – AD) Patashius, they contacted the representatives of the yacht club. Any problems were resolved through of them, “emphasized the agent.
Tribute: Solemn reception of the crews of the yachts “Lietuva”, “Audra” and “Dailė” in Chicago and reception of the yacht captains in the Mayor of Chicago. (Photo by Antanas Stanevičius)
Confused on dates?
The Chart then mentions that a “night was held in honor of the Soviet sailors” on the same day.
“The night was quite modest, they had dinner and two bottles of beer. There were no official languages, they (Swedes – AD) simply expressed their satisfaction that our yacht participated in this competition. We were the only foreign boat. A total of 20 yachts participated in competition, “he wrote. agent in the KGB report.
I have to say that in this case the agent was decent and didn’t litter, but he could.
The next day, the director of the sailing club L.Stenberg and his assistant visited the yacht “Dailė”. It was a courtesy visit.
“We ate them with a cup of coffee and a ‘Mill’. They stayed on the yacht for about an hour. The conversation was friendly, mainly about sports,” Grafikas wrote.
The following day a two-day regatta began. The Lithuanians took tenth place and returned to the yacht club, and finding out that the other yachts were not among the winners, they went home.
“There was a regatta dance in the evening. It was just for fun. During that time, our crew members were exceptionally disinterested. We left for Gothenburg the morning of the 29th,” wrote the agent.
The data provided by the agent here raises questions that for some reason his curator, KGB Commander V. Virbickas, did not ask.
Arrived: the yacht “Art”, which crossed the Atlantic Ocean, in New York in 1989. on June 24. (Photo by Birutė Cibulskienė)
Dailė arrived in Sweden on August 28. The next day (August 29) L. Stenberg visited the ship with his assistant.
The following day a two-day regatta began (August 30 and 31).
And on August 29. (so for some reason it is written in the report), although actually probably on September 1, the yacht went to Gothenburg already after the race.
The agent was very confused about the dates, somewhere “lost” two days, but the KGB commander did not notice. If he had noticed, he probably would have had doubts about whether the narrator had confused or silenced something yet.
It turned out that more than 30 years later, Grafikas lost something important in his report at the time, saving his comrades from major inconveniences. Soviet power structures still had great power.
7 days with Z. Kalvaitis
The crew of the yacht “Dailė” met in Gothenburg with the artist and writer of the Lithuanian diaspora Zigfridas Kalvaiitis, who, according to the agent, was in his 60s.
Z. Kalvaitis immediately reassured himself that he was not interested in his policy and was not ready to speak on these issues.
“He is very loyal to the USSR. He helped buy land for the construction of the USSR consulate. We spent 7 days in Gothenburg and all communicated with Z. Kalvaiitis. He spoke very well Lithuanian. At one point he expressed concern that part our crew would not run away. “Then he would have additional worries that he did not want at all. And when he heard our reassurance that he would not, he was very pleased and promised to organize our next arrival at a similar competition scheduled for May 1984, “the Calendar wrote in a report.
Story: Three Lithuanian yachts at the bottom of the Statue of Liberty in New York in 1989. (Photo by Teresė Meiluvienė)
The agent wrote the report in 1988 and, for some reason, indicated that future competitions would take place in 1984.
Again a mistake or deliberate confusion?
It was agreed with Z. Kalvaiitis that next year the sailors, who were also members of the Artists Union, will organize a small exhibition of Lithuanian creators in Sweden.
At the end of the report, “Grafikas” mentioned that the crew had visited museums and other places of interest, and also emphasized that they had not interacted with anyone else except Z. Kalvaitis.
And on September 11. sailed home. The “complete team” arrived in Klaipeda on September 14.
The agent lost the most important thing.
A. Patashius, mentioned in the Agent’s report, was then the captain of the Dailė yacht.
He sailed it from the beginning and even participated in the transport of “Dailė” from a shipyard in Szczecin, Poland.
He also participated in a regatta in Sweden in 1988. As A. Patashius himself claimed, he did not realize that there was an agent “Grafikas” among the crew members at the time, who had to report in detail to the KGB afterwards. From the trip.
Flag: The unrecognized Lithuanian tricolor was already flying in 1989 at the New York Yacht Club during the stay of three Lithuanian yachts. (Photo by Antanas Stanevičius)
A. Patashius stated that he had kept all yacht records, which contain lists of all crew members.
Among them, of course, it is possible to find “Graphics”, but A. Patashius did not want to, and that is why.
“I don’t know who that author is, because I don’t remember all the participants of that trip, back in the old days. But I have to say that in this case he was decent and not full of trash, but he could. He only mentioned Z. Kalvaitis. Later, in those days, we met him in Vilnius. ” Anonymous, during his stay in Sweden, he was silent because we paid tribute to the memory of Kristupas Plonaitis, a Lithuanian expat, a true resident of Klaipėda and a former explorer and explorer of the sea. She married a Swede and emigrated after the Germans occupied Klaipėda, “said A. Patšius.
According to A. Patatas, later K. Plonaitis settled near Gothenburg. At home, few local Lithuanians always gathered to celebrate February 16.
“While we were in Gothenburg, we met Ela Säter, the daughter of K. Plonaitis, led by her, visited the cemetery on the small island of Öckerö, poured a handful of sand from the Klaipėda coast on the grave and decorated the tombstone in Lithuanian tricolor. We also had more interesting meetings, we visited another Lithuanian expat Binderis (I don’t remember the name), a musician who fled to Sweden at the end of the war, “recalled A. Patashius and emphasized once again that the security agent then I really in no way said everything.
Where did “Art” go?
Already in the spring of next year, Dailei was destined for another mission, which breathed even more in the spirit of Lithuanian freedom.
1989 In May, the first Lithuanian sailors voyage across the Atlantic Ocean to America was organized, where three yachts sailed: Klaipėda “Lietuva” residents, Vilnius “Dailė” residents and Kaunas “Audra” residents.
Even then, they started from a Lithuanian tricolor that had not yet been legally legalized.
Journalist and photographer Antanas Stanevičius, who later flew to New York as a journalist with an alternative crew to navigate “Dailė” to Klaipėda, recalled how Klaipeda residents received knowledge at home every day. How do they manage to swim through that Atlanta?
“There was news about Lithuania and Storm, and Dailė had collapsed. Maybe he drowned? It was terrible silence. We didn’t know that Dailė simply didn’t have a radio. Then the Canadian Lithuanians bought the radio and the navigation gear from Dailei He was handed over by Valdas Adamkus, then, apparently without dreaming that he would soon become the president of independent Lithuania, “said A. Stanevičius.
A decade ago, a monumental kneeling was erected on the left promenade of the Dangė River Embankment, called the Mariners Pier, for these three yachts.
An ambiguous smuggling issue
This is not all patriotic heroism of art.
A year later, the yacht Dailė smuggled radio communication equipment into the Seimas of independent Lithuania.
“Is smuggling incompatible with citizenship? What if the content of smuggling is civil and helps to gradually defend, preserve and restore statehood? After the restoration of Lithuanian independence by law on March 11, 1990, it was still not possible to bring some cargo from the border. It was a little freer to feel at the gates of the port (sea – AD), so in 1990 the yacht “Dailė” helped to bring to Lithuania the communication equipment by radio necessary for the protection of the Seimas, and in 1991, the first Lithuanian postal stamps printed in Leipzig., which had previously been detained by the Soviets in an attempt to bring them “, this entry was posted on the Facebook page of the Union of Lithuanian sailors two years ago, on April 5.
Later, the yacht “Dailė” did not enter the patriotic history of smuggling in Sweden itself, where the predecessors of this yacht’s crew participated in the regatta 20 years ago and where they unknowingly sailed with a KGB agent .
Thus, in 2018. On September 7, Swedish officials detained the Lithuanian yacht Dailė with contraband cigarettes.
Drawbacks per charge
Relatives of the ship’s crew only learned of the fact that the crew of the yacht “Dailė” got into trouble in Sweden.
Initially, the Swedish portal stv. Reported a huge load of smuggled cigarettes carried by three Lithuanians.
After that, the news spread on Lithuanian websites and in the press.
It was then that bad suspicions were confirmed as to why the crew had not responded since September 7.
“They left on September 1. I had no contact with my husband since September 7. We called the Lithuanian Embassy in Sweden, we said that no one had approached them so far, they had not heard anything. And everything I know is what I read in the press. ” – Then the wife of one of the crew members spoke.
Although the Swedish media did not announce the name of the ship, Klaipėda’s sailors quickly discovered that “Dailė” was detained.
Swedish Coast Guard officers inspected the suspected yacht the night of September 7 near the town of Oxeliosund.
An interest in the deceased sailors revealed that the three men in their 40s and 60s sailing on the yacht were carrying large quantities of cigarettes.
The yacht, which belonged to one of the suspects, was reportedly confiscated by the Swedes.
It was later revealed that there were 1.5 million on the yacht. cigarettes
The Customs Service calculated that if the Lithuanian trip had been successful, they would have avoided 3 million. Customs duties amounting to 290 thousand SEK (290 thousand EUR).
The yacht arrived in Oxeliosund directly from Lithuania. Lithuanians were accused of trying to commit a serious crime.
He no longer wants extreme adventures.
The yacht owner and captain have already redeemed their guilt and in September last year Dailė returned from Sweden.
The man claimed that he had never distanced himself from the crime and assumed male responsibility.
“I spent exactly a year there. I returned to Klaipeda on my yacht. I defended as much as I could. I finally admitted that I was guilty, but now I am free. I’m glad no one can pressure me or make me do something illegal. I’ve already come for it”. “Said the art captain, who spent a year in a Swedish prison for smuggling cigarettes.
According to the newspaper, the load of cigarettes did not belong to the captain, the yacht only transported them, as the same man said, he was forced to do so.
The Swedes released two crew members after three months, who received compensation. The ship was not removed.
“The officers did another check, probably looking for drug residue, but found nothing because there was nothing. I asked the crew members to keep the engine running and fix the toilet so it wouldn’t freeze. Okay, so there was no Cold winters. It didn’t freeze. By the way, it would have cost me as much as in Klaipeda, “said the captain of” Dailės. “
So every year before being in prison, the captain worked in prison and earned to pay for the yacht to stay in the port, as well as to buy phone cards and communicate with loved ones.
“They sent me Lithuanian newspapers, books. In the Swedish prison, in some cases, perhaps even better than with us at large. He simply could not leave the territory. If he were Swedish, he could have gone for a walk. He was not reliable, but they deported me. ” come whenever you want, but now a pandemic, it’s nothing risky.
Currently, the yacht “Dailė” is moored at the Smiltyne Yacht Club, and its repair is complete.
The captain assured that he would set sail soon and was confident that he would no longer need to experience extreme adventures.
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