Simas Kudirka

Simas Kudirka (born April 9, 1930 in Griškabūdis , Rajongemeinde Šakiai ) is a former Lithuanian seaman who fled the Soviet Union .

Life

In 1952, Kudirka graduated from the Klaipėda Seafaring School in the Lithuanian port city. From 1956 to 1970 he worked as a radar mechanic in the Klaipėda fishing fleet . On November 23, 1970, during the summit of the Fisheries Organization of the USA and the USSR in the territorial waters of the USA, he moved from the ship "Soviet Lithuania" of the Klaipėda refrigerated ship fleet of the Soviet Union to the US coast guard ship "Vigilant" and applied for political asylum . The US Coast Guard officials allowed the Soviets to board the American ship and arrest the asylum seeker. They beat the Lithuanian on the deck of the US ship and took him away from there. Kudirka was heralded as a traitor and sentenced to a decade in prison. When this story hit the US media, there were huge protests across the country. The largest US daily newspapers, US press, television and radio stations in the US and in particular the “ Voice of America ” protest demonstrations condemned the actions of the US and Soviet officials. The Americans asked for help for a man who simply wanted to escape the regime. After four years, Kudirka's fate was dealt with on an international level. The US President Gerald Ford negotiated with representatives of the Soviet Union. Finally, in 1974, Kudirka was released from Soviet prison. He was granted US citizenship and went to America with his family.

In 2000 Simas Kudirka returned to Lithuania. He lives in Pilviškiai near Vilkaviškis , in the Marijampolė district .

With L. Eiche he wrote a book For those still at sea (1978). Algimantas Kezys made a documentary ( Simas Kudirka In Chicago , 1974) and the American director David Lowell Rich (1920-2001) made the TV film ( The Defection of Simas Kudirka , 1978), in which Alan Wolf Arkin (* 1934) the sailor Simas Kudirka played.

Honor

• 2008: Order of the Vytis Cross

Individual evidence

1. ↑ [1] ( Lietuvos rytas )
2. ↑ Simas Kudirka. Visuotinė lietuvių enciklopedija , T. XI (Kremacija-Lenzo taisyklė). - Vilnius: Mokslo ir enciklopedijų Leidybos institutas, 2007. 191 psl.