From Vladas Lapienis's letter:
"Whether as a prisoner or as an exile, I will be content, for I am fulfilling the will of God . . ..
"Leafing through Lithuanian periodicals I found the following: 'Volunteers now go to Siberia, the best representatives of our youth, carrying roadmaps from the Communist Youth League. They are determined to see the beauties of nature and to reveal the riches of this land to the people. And in other days Siberia was a place of exile evoking terror' (Tiesa [Truth], April 5,1980). After reading this, the question naturally arises: 'Is Siberia a pleasure resort for exiles today?' "
* * *
Justas Gimbutas, sentenced last February 26 in Klaipėda to a year in jail "for violating passport regulations," is presently being held in the infirmary of the Vilnius prison (OC 12/11). He was brought here from the Kapsukas Concentration Camp. His health is poor. During solitary confinement at the concentration camp, his left arm and leg became paralyzed. He has developed bedsores.
Nevertheless his sufferings in the Gulag have not broken Gimbutas. He remains as firm as ever and continues his struggle even in these inhuman conditions. In a letter he wrote:
"What is left for me? To suffer, to suffer as long as my tortured heart beats. There is no other road, nor can there be. Inside I am calm. They wish to force me to my knees from their positions of power . . ..It wasn't without reason that they told me in Klaipėda, 'If you do not agree to accept the [Soviet] passport, we will use force.' I have finally received the blows of that force. But I am happy with my life, my plight, the fact that God has placed such a burden on me, and I will bear my cross in life as long as my heart beats in my breast. At one time I swore an oath before God and my nation to travel my own path to the end."
Jonas Gimbutas has been walking this thorny path for thirty-three years!
***
Algirdas Statkevičius, a physician confined in the Special Psychiatric Hospital-Prison in Chernyakhovsk, asks us to concern ourselves with his fate.
He is presently confined in a ward with four recidivist-murderers. He has no right to defend himself because all of his rights have been taken away. If they find any writing materials or even a clean sheet of paper in his possession, a special punishment cell and "treatment" with aminazine await him.
***
Following their trial, [Miss] Ona Vitkauskaitė and [Miss] Genovaitė Navickaitė were immediately taken to the camp for female criminals in Panevėžys.
Both prisoners are working in the sewing room. The camp administration has issued orders that in the letters they write and in those they receive the name of God may not be mentioned.
Ona Vitkauskaitė's address:
ind. 235300 Panevėžys
OC 12/5 "D"
Genovaitė Navickaitė's address:
ind. 235300 Panevėžys
OC 12/5 "K"
