#soviet lithuania

May 14th, 1972 a 19 year-old Romas Kalanta poured gasoline over himself and set himself on fire in Kaunas, Lithuania (Soviet Republic of Lithuania at the time).

He used to write poems, liked the Beatles (a banned band at the time of Soviet Union), according to his friends he was quite calm, a bit closed off, did not like injustice. He was part of the protests against the occupation of Lithuania by Soviet Russia and country's annexation to Soviet Union and its imposed rules at the time - such as the ban of rock music and long hair. He did not pass his history exam because he refused to use marxism leninism ideology in his answers, this has stopped him from finishing high school. Overall he was an average student.

At noon on Sunday, May 14, 1972, not far from the former Kaunas City Executive Committee building, R. Kalanta doused himself with gasoline from a three-liter jar and, shouting “Freedom for Lithuania!”, set himself on fire. According to official records, R. Kalanta died on May 15, 1972, at around 4 a.m. In his notebook, which fell into the hands of the KGB, there was an entry: “The system is solely to blame for my death.”

The idea of burning himself could have come from the secretly passed around news that another protestor - Jan Palach burned himself in Prague in 1969, also in protest against Soviet Union.

The soviet country administrators of the time rushed R. Kalanta's funeral in order to keep the event as private as possible, but this sparked outrage and more protests from the youth at the time. The main youth protest took two days - 18-19th May, 1972. In the protest there were not only Lithuanians, but also Latvians and Estonians. About 400 people were arrested for attending the protest. It is believed, that the rush of R. Kalanta's funeral, administration's accusations of mental illness , arrests for the protest sparked the liberal side protests in Lithuania against Soviet Union.

Sources and more information:

The food deficit in Soviet Lithuania.