Viktoras Petkus’ Apartment

This beautiful old town building you’re standing in front of may seem ordinary, but it was, in fact, an object of constant surveillance of the KGB. For good reason. You see, Viktoras Petkus lived here. He was a constant nightmare to the Soviet regime – a persistent dissident ever since he was a teen. At 19, he was first arrested for activism and dissemination of illegal press and spent 6 years in a labor camp in Komi.

In 1977, KGB conducted a search of his apartment here and found many issues of underground press, a number of Helsinki Group documents as well as two typewriters. Thus, Petkus was arrested for the third time – three years in jail, 7 years in strict-regime labor camp and 5 years in exile. He was released slightly earlier, in 1988, due to the pressure on USSR from the West to free political prisoners. And, as you can expect, he returned to activism as soon as he was back.

Members of Lithuanian Helsinki Group with Andrei Sakharov and other local dissidents in Vilnius, 1975.

He was an active writer and editor after independence was reinstated, and passed away in 2012. It’s too bad we cannot hear his epic stories directly from him, but worry not, we will meet other living legends!

For example, let‘s see what‘s directly behind us. Find a building right in front of Petkus‘ apartment building – the one that has the number “15” on it. Then, click “continue.”

Next stop: Dominikonų 15, Vilnius

He attempted to gain higher education upon his return, but the Soviet authorities kept posing obstacles. In 1957, he was arrested again for possession and dissemination of anti-Soviet and nationalistic literature. This meant 8 more years at faraway labor camps.

When he came back to Lithuania in 1965, this building in front of you became his home and a safe shelter for the free-thinkers of Lithuania – poets, priests, liberal intelligentsia and creative youth groups all found their place here.

In 1976, encouraged by the prominent Russian dissident and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Andrei Sakharov, he co-founded the Lithuanian Helsinki Group, which reported human rights abuses in Lithuania and emphasized the right of peoples to self-determination, reminding the world of the illegal occupation of Lithuania.