Julius Sasnauskas’ apartment

This is the building where Julius Sasnauskas lived with his family, which instilled patriotic values in him from very young age. Julius joined dissident activities at about 16-17 years old.

In 1979, Julius, together with 44 other people from Baltic states signed the “Baltic Appeal,” which was addressed to the Secretary-General of the United Nations and high-ranking officers of Soviet Union, East and West Germany, demanding public disclosure of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact’s secret protocols and restoration of independence of the Baltic States. The appeal was published in foreign press and even became the basis of the European Parliament’s resolution in 1983 in support of its demands. “This was, perhaps, the most important piece of work we did,” Julius says.

The Baltic Appeal, printed in Issue No.3 of "Vytis", 1979. From the collection of the Genocide Victims' Museum.

Then, in the late 1979, both his and Antanas Terleckas’ apartments were searched again and they were arrested. Julius was sentenced to 1,5 years in prison and 5 years of exile in Siberia.

Next stop: Vilnius University Faculty of Philology, Universiteto g. 5, Vilnius 01122

He met Petkus as well as Antanas Terleckas and started helping out with underground press. He was given a typewriter and would type out articles on human and civil rights abuses, which he gathered in his notebooks after talking to various people. He always wrote “thoughts” or “diary” on the covers of the notebooks so they would not draw suspicion. He found the most ridiculous places to type out these articles! Surely, you know how loud typewriters were - one could never use them at home, as neighbors could easily hear them and report you.

Once, his friend invited him to use their family apartment not far from here, but when he arrived, nobody would answer the door. So, Julius snuck into the basement of his friends’ apartment building, put up a few boxes for himself and spent the entire night typing everything out. He recalls how careless he was, but admits that he didn‘t think much about consequences – the press was of the highest priority.

He says that it was clear when he was being followed – he‘d see these mysterious stalkers. That would make him calm. As his colleague Antanas Terleckas used to say – it‘s when the stalkers disappear that you know a storm is coming.

„You could also feel safe on Mondays, as agents are back after the weekend completely hungover – you‘d know they wouldn‘t plan anything in that condition, they‘d only start on Tuesday,“ Julius laughingly remembers. Ever since 1977, he and his home was under constant surveillance and KGB conducted searches there repeatedly.

He came back in 1986, just in time to attend the rally at Adomas Mickevičius’ monument. After independence, Julius graduated from the seminary and became a priest. Currently, he is the rector of the Bernardine Church and works at catholic radio “Mažoji studija.“