February 16 – in writers’ diaries, notes, prayers

Juozas Baltušis diaries

Wednesday, February 16, 1972

Moscow. We continue the seminar. Speeches of places. Sometimes interesting. Some things can be applied in your activities in Lithuania. And generally boring. In the evening I visited Vidas Churginienė. He is in one of the Moscow hospitals. Seriously ill with kidneys. The woman is 32 years old and there is no hope of recovery. I found it quite amusing to see myself even clap with joy. Another woman lies in the same room. Five years have passed. She went out with her husband to eat mushrooms, she sat on the damp ground and that was enough. It’s scary. There are many women in the hospital, mostly young. All fun, and desperately sick. Today, by the way, is the day of the so-called announcement of independent Lithuania. The “Voice of America” ​​gives a lot of material, brutally attacks the Soviet system.

Wednesday, February 16, 1977

I was with a doctor in Bagdoniene. I researched everything. The heart is in order, but the spasms of the blood vessels in the head intensify. And an overwhelmed stomach: spoiled fried fish dishes. He prescribed Stugeron, some more pills. Maybe it will help you.

He was sitting dizzy with a meeting of the Committee for the Defense of Peace, otherwise he was waiting for the end. Today M. Meškauskienė is 70 years old. On that occasion, Monika and I went home to greet us, taking the tulips with us. It’s annoying being a woman who always looks at me from above, but you have to go. There were more people: Paleckiai, Marcinkevičiai, Savickai, Gedvilas, Bordonaitė, Kymantaitė, Niunka, Korsakai … We drank a little, we left. There’s not much where we get stuck with Monica. Frankly, we don’t have much in common between us anymore: conflicts and conflicts. And you will do nothing. The difference is too late. Where will the person you live with be placed? Marry another? Too late. And you still won’t be alone. That’s the kind of thing demons would grab. I never thought that in old age I would find myself in the situation of a person that no one needed and that I could not handle my own affairs in this way.

Sunday February 16, 1986

It is not very easy after the departure and the party yesterday, but nothing. I accidentally remembered that it is today, February 16, the day of the proclamation of the former Independent Lithuania. And I wondered how we celebrated this day in my youth, what celebrations were being prepared, the weakening of the bed, the dripping. People have already realized that Lithuania has not gained any independence, life is difficult, the crisis is pressing, farmers are getting into debt, many are running abroad in search of bread. In the cities, there is unemployment, in the spheres of government, corruption, bribery, looting of state property and, in the name of what the parties (Nationalists, Christian Democrats, Peasants) relate to each other. The Communist Party operated clandestinely. We did not feel its activity very strongly, we knew more about the audiences, but it was, worked, prepared for the future. So. And I would also wonder that, objectively speaking, the times are incomparably brighter today, especially in terms of the development of the national culture of our little nation. It has never had such favorable conditions for these matters as it does now. I often hear speeches of all kinds: we listen, the Russification of Lithuania is carried out, people are strangled, we live without law, we are closed, they do not release us abroad and other speeches. Of course, there are all kinds of difficulties, but when did Lithuanian books go through circles as they do now, when one in four people studied, when Lithuanian theaters worked so creatively, did cinema, art, develop, music and literature grow? There has been nothing like it since the time of Martynas Mažvydas. This is something to think about, appreciate this. And it takes more agreement at work, more ambitious and daring decisions. So this way! Much and much depends on ourselves.

Sigitas Geda “Green scrolls”

Thursday 16 February 2006

Still tau, silly!

I haven’t written down my dreams in a couple of years, I can hardly remember what I had dreamed of. If I remembered, I woke up casually … Two days ago (and before) nightmare dreams began to arrive.

In the latter, the following things happened: I walked through the fields, collecting rusty rails. I thought nobody needed anything! A couple of kids attacked me in the slums. He shouted: – Here ours, here ours! At first I spoke, then I saw that laughter was scarce. He attacked me. I barely defended myself with the iron.

Gone are the days, I thought, none of that. Where are you! It all turned out to be true today. All the stories of my life, illnesses, misfortunes came to the surface. Attacked with rage. You probably won’t be able to recover. Everything that survives returns. Revenge multiplied by ten. That is the logic.

Valentinas Sventickas “More Guriniai”

Limpets

It is no coincidence that the Resolution on the restoration of the independence of Lithuania in 1918 The original was discovered by Professor Liudas Mažylis on February 16. Why do I say that? Because as a child, when I was little, I already collected leaves from trees. He dried them by placing them in books between sheets of paper, sticking a strip next to them, on which he wrote the name of the tree. That is why he has been looking for LAPO since he was a child. And rado.

Marcelijus Martinaitis “Everything will continue like this. Notes for the period 1988-2013 “

On February 16, even if he was persecuted again, he would still be mentioned in families, in the circle of acquaintances, even in exile, in prisons. It seems that she doesn’t need official events.

Marcelijus Martinaitis “Before and after the Sąjūdis”

1991 Yesterday AND TOMORROW

Fate, pushing the two dates of Lithuanian independence, which are very important to us, side by side, seems to have clarified their genetic connection. One of them, proven, confirmed by facts and actions, is already historical, its importance is universally understood, it is trusted as the main legal source of our statehood, the other, only one year old, which seemed accelerated, premature , Similary. at once February 16. It is already beginning to be an independent party, but not yet sacred. On March 11 and 12 of last year, to embrace joy, we did not think how much more it would require for our sacrifices and sacrifices, and those sacrifices already exist, and they do all their sacred works, irrevocable, legitimizing what is proclaimed. orally. Our hopes came true or not, a fateful step was taken in time or out of time, but on March 11 anyway. That day looks different today, its meaning has grown over the years, it has become a limit that it is no longer possible to cross backwards. This is primarily what we have achieved and understood over the years. After all, February 16 did not immediately turn into what became one year, ten, now. It could only remain a one-time bold challenge for a few signatories to the Law, if the most important facts were not done after that: the sacrifices were made, the will and wisdom were shown.

2008 100 STATUS WORDS

The February 16 Act is also open to the future of our state. By the way, it has always been this way, even in the bad years of the Bolshevik occupation: its validity was confirmed by the partisans, our emigrants, the underground press, the dissidents and finally the Sąjūdis, who became the voice of the whole nation. . and whose 20th anniversary we will celebrate this year. I will not be mistaken in saying that this Law accelerated events in 1988-1990, because then, it can be said that the nation itself pushed a group of the most active people of the Baltic Way in the Sąjūdis rallies to reaffirm the continuity and legitimacy of the document February 16.

Aidas Marčėnas “Sentences”

Justinas Marcinkevičius died

This morning, serene, calm and cold until today, February eighteenth, the former Jonas Basanavičius, as until the end, so once again compassion for you, madam dies.

***
And for you moderate deportees, it may be the theology of winter and the miracle of wine: today the folk poet becomes the poet of the nation, because we know the nation is worthy of the power it deserves, and we will know it. It is dignified, sung and sung, above average, above average Lithuanian self-respecting average.
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The Book and Death Fair begins.
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Justinas Marcinkevičius will be appreciated as a poet of programmatic and applied poetry. But the real value of his poetry is in the margins and trivialities of his great works. There, only there, life is difficult to fill.
***
“Justinas Marcinkevičius asked me: how much, how much is left until February 16?”, The creator of the myth Viktorija Daujotytė. Even if Justinas Marcinkevičius really asked him that. Even if they didn’t listen, there will still be witnesses.

Rehearsal the night of February 16. Toward oneself

For them: start with yourself when you fight the enemies of Lithuania. For You: When you start fighting Lithuanian enemies, it starts with yourself.
Me: when fighting fighters fighting Lithuanian enemies, it starts with yourself. For them, for you, for yourself: in your fight with me, it begins with yourself.

Hallelujah

The last time we spoke to my father on the phone was a week before his death. The father called to congratulate the sixteenth of February, but he said what he said during each Easter: “Hallelujah!”