Memory Office: V. Balsys
Vytautas Balsys-Uosis is telling a story about his - Lithuanian partisan - fight pathways.
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“While studying in Kaunas Technical Vocational Center, I‘ve joined Lithuanian Freedom Army. It was an underground organization, the only person I knew was the one who got me involved, and the one, whom I got involved. Underground printing was in our hands, while throughout the whole period, we had no idea, about our chiefs.”
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“When Russians occupied Lithuania for the second time, in 1944 they have announced mobilization of young men. My father told us, - "Kids, should you better die at your home, for the beliefs of your nation, rather than the occupant‘s in the far east."
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"I have barely managed to congratulate them; they took my fur coat off... And the shot! Machine guns started firing. Bullets were going directly through the walls of that house. Only one narrow exit. Lektoraitis was the first one to jump, got fusilladed and died. Morkūnas was the next one. It took me a while to grab an automatic rifle, I had no choice, like a panther – jumped over their bodies and had fallen behind the stump. The fight went on during the daytime. Russians didn‘t manage to take over the camp. The night-time came, and they‘ve left. Remaining partisans had retreated as well. I‘ve remained alive amongst sixteen dead ones, with a damaged leg and hip. Dusk came, I have withdrawn my grenade thinking - if anyone gets close, any non-Lithuanians, then I'll pull the safety lever, it‘s way much more fun to leave for a hereafter with a company. ”
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"14 men from the camp, we came to my homeland seeking to spend the night there. A new bunker by Pavilkija was ready for the camp. But in early morning on June 13, the farmstead was surrounded by istrebitels and soldiers, they had set the farmstead on fire, so 5 partisans got killed during the fight, including my brother Viktoras, who was 17 years old. “
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"They were waiting for me near the Botanical Garden, KGB was after me. While walking, I got a punch to my head and after being dragged, I woke up at some house lying on the floor. Through the leg, my hands were enchained, as my whole [body] was in the blood. One “kgbist“ sitting next to me. Oh, yes, one woman had been cleaning the blood, but that was it - I was busted by KGB. ”
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"It's a special regime internment. I was working in a coal mine. There were 5,000 political prisoners and a couple of hundreds of murderers, batalikai [former battalion soldiers] among them. Those batalikai were serving for the camp administration. They had been working in the kitchen, at the hairdresser‘s, laundries and so on. ”
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"They wouldn‘t register me after I came back, I couldn’t get a job. I was already getting ready to return to Kazakhstan. I told Petraitis that I am planning to go back to Kazakhstan. "Dear, what were you accused of?“, - he asked. I was in doubt, whether I should tell him - I was a partisan. "Ah, during the studies, I started singing against the Stalin and got jailed." "So, you should fill in the request, I am a part of Council in Naujalis, our children are classmates, I'll talk to them."
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Vytautas Balsys
Vytautas Balsys was born in 1923, in Kluoniškės village, Zapyškis, in a large family, where he grew up with three brothers. Together with his brother, both got summons to the army, while encouraged by their father, they have decided to disobey. Dug a bunker and had arranged a second hiding place in the barn between a double ceiling. Vytautas did quit being a partisan in 1948 January, later he got interrogated, imprisoned in Kaunas jail and deported to remote Norilsk coal mines, where he became a number Z-787. Later, because of a secret activity in Norilsk, he was deported to Kazakhstan for 10 years. From the exile, he came back to Kaunas only in 1966.
Date of the interview: 2018-08-07