(Excerpts from documents of the LSSR Supreme Court) Presiding Judge — S. Raziūnas, People's councillors — V. Buro-kevičienė and B. Kilius, Secretary — O. Jablonskaitė, Prosecutor — J. Bakučionis.
The accused: 1. Vladas Lapienis, son of Antanas, born June 6, 1906, charged under part one of art. 68 of the LSSR Criminal Code; 2. Ona Pranskūnaitė, daughter of Jonas, born January 2, 1935, charged under art. 199-1 of the LSSR Criminal Code.
The court has determined:
During 1972-1976, 25 issues of the Chronicle of the Catholic Church in Lithuania (Chronicle) were illegally published in the Lithuanian SSR, duplicated and distributed. These Chronicles contained material of a biased or clearly slanderous nature, presenting a distorted view of USSR domestic policy toward the Catholic Church in Lithuania and attempting to prove so-called violations of freedom of conscience and the persecution of believers, thereby disposing readers against the Soviet government.
Collections of the Chronicle were relayed to anti-Soviet bourgeois emigrant centers abroad, which use the slanderous material in their disruptive activity against the USSR, by reprinting and commenting on it in the U.S. — published Darbininkas (Worker), Draugas (Friend) and other reactionary newspapers and broadcasting over anti-Soviet radio programs (Vatican and others).
The Criminal Activity of Vladas Lapienis
For the purpose of undermining the Soviet government by spreading slanderous fabrications smearing the Soviet state and social order, during the years 1974 to 1976, Vladas Lapienis wrote republican and Soviet government and party organs statements of like context which he made public by having them printed in issues No. 9, 11, 15 and 23 of the illegal Chronicle. Later, this material was reprinted in reactionary newspapers published abroad.
In the spring of 1976, Lapienis provided (Mrs.) A. Ruzgienė with a typewriter and gave her the first part of Solzhenitsyn's Gulag Archipelago to copy. She made six copies on this typewriter. She gave one copy to Niurkąs (pastor of Utena) and five to Lapienis who distributed them.
On October 19, 1976, Lapienis took issue No. 24 of the Chronicle to K. J. Matulionis as well as twelve unbound typewritten copies of that same issue which, in preparation to distributing them, he proofread with Matulionis and corrected typographical errors. They did not have time to distribute them, for they were arrested on the spot.
For the purpose of agitation and propaganda, Lapienis had the following anti-Soviet slanderous literature in his possession: the Chronicle of the Catholic Church in Lithuania (12 copies), Aušra (Dawn), issues of the Chronicle of Current Events (in Russian); copies of books and brochures published abroad: Gulag Archipelago, Simas,Cultural Repression in Lithuania, Problems of the Lithuanian Character, Separation and Reunion, Present-Day Social Economic Systems and their Perspectives", and also essays entitled "Reply to V. Trumpas", "Open Letter to Leonid Pliushch" and also an essay on a USSR Communist Party leader ["Michail Suslov—Second Muravvov Executioner" — Ed. Note].
Lapienis pleaded not guilty. He explained that he did not seek to weaken the Soviet government with slanderous fabrications. He claimed he raised religious questions in his statements for the purpose of defending the interests of the Church and believers, but did not submit them to the Chronicle of the Catholic Church in Lithuania and did not know who had submitted them to the
Chronicle's publishers.
It has been determined that V. Lapienis amassed anti-Soviet literature, collected material for the Chronicle of the Catholic Church in Lithuania, duplicated and distributed the Chronicle as well as other hostile literature. The goals of his activity are set down in the "Suggestions on How to Behave During Interrogations" found in his possession.
Criminal Activity of Ona Pranskūnaitė
Ona Pranskūnaitė systematically duplicated literature containing patently slanderous fabrications, demeaning the Soviet system.
Ona Pranskūnaitė pleaded guilty. She explained that in the spring of 1975 she made the acquaintance of a man from whom she received two typewriters and for whom she made five to six copies of issues No. 13, 14, 15, 17, 19 and 20 of the illegal Chronicle of the Catholic Church in Lithuania and about ten to twelve copies of issue No. 20. She also made copies for this man of the book Problems of The Lithuanian Character.
Large quantities of typewriter and carbon paper were also found in Pranskūnaitė's possession and in her apartment bathroom there was installed an electric copying machine which proves that the systematically made copies of illegal and anti-Soviet literature.
The following witnesses testified at the trial of V.(ladas) Lapienis, O.(na) Pranskūnaitė and J. Matulionis: K. Šinkūnas, N. Kunaitis, J. Raškauskas, S. Pečkevičius, A. Ruzgienė, E. Lapienienė, B. Aleksis and J. Suktas.
