Vytautas Petkevičius

Vytautas Petkevičius (born May 28, 1930 in Kaunas , † December 10, 2008 in Vilnius ) was a Lithuanian writer and politician. He became famous during the Soviet era as the author of numerous children's books and later also novels for adults. In addition, in his youth he was a leading representative of the communist youth organization of Lithuania ( Komjaunimas , cf. Komsomol ) and later active in the Communist Party of Lithuania (LKP). As a leading representative of the Sąjūdis renewal movement, he campaigned for the independence of Lithuania and was active in the Lithuanian parliament for several years after 1990 . With his recent publications, he became a very controversial figure in Lithuania. After several weeks in hospital, he died on December 10, 2008 of cancer.

Family and education

Vytautas Petkevičius was born into a working class family in Kaunas. After elementary school and high school in Kaunas, he began studying in Vilnius in 1950, which he broke off after a short time in favor of party work. From 1952 to 1954 he studied at the Komsomol University before enrolling at the Lomonosov University in Moscow in history. He finished his (distance) studies in 1960. Petkevičius was married to Raisa Petkevičienė, with whom he had three children.

Career in the Communist Party

At the age of 15 he joined the Komjaunimas (lit. in detail Visasąjunginė Lenino komunistinio jaunimo sąjunga , VLKJS ), the Lithuanian department of the Komsomol, and was involved in combat operations against Lithuanian anti-communist partisans . Subsequently he worked in various functions in the Komsomol and from 1951 also a member of the Lithuanian Communist Party (LKP). From 1952 he was in the Central Committee of the VLKJS and from 1956 to 1960 he served as the Second Secretary at the District Committee in Radviliškės . He then worked for ten years as a correspondent for the party newspaper Tiesa ( Truth ) in Šiauliai . He remained a member of the party until the LKP was converted into the LDDP .

writer

Petkevičius, who was a freelance writer from 1972, owed his fame in Lithuania primarily to his children's books. His publications Didysis medžiotojas Mikas Pupkus ( The Adventures of the Great Hunter Mikas Pupkus , 1973) and Kodėlčius (1974) became classics of children's literature of the Lithuanian SSR .

He made his debut in 1959 with the novella Priemiesčio žmonės ( People of the Suburbs ), his best known novels are Apie duoną, meilę ir šautuvą ( About bread, love and the gun , 1965) and Grupė draugų ( Circle of Friends , 1979). His books have been translated into Russian, but also into Latvian, Estonian, Polish, Czech and German ( The adventures of the great hunter Mikas Pupkus , Vyturys, 1989).

Struggle for independence from 1988 and politicians from 1990

With the break up of communist structures as a result of glasnost and the growing protest movement in Lithuania, Petkevičius developed into one of their most famous protagonists. At first he was in charge of the protest against the planned oil production in the Baltic Sea in front of the Curonian Spit and was one of the spokesmen for the Green Movement in Lithuania. In 1988 he was one of the founding members of the Sąjūdis renewal movement . As a representative of the LDDP , Petkevičius was a member of the first Seimas of independent Lithuania from 1992 to 1996 .

Quarrels at the end of life

In the years that followed, Vytautas Petkevičius became an increasingly harsh critic of the political establishment in Lithuania. In 2000 he joined the movement " Už teisingą Lietuvą " ( "For a Just Lithuania" ), a populist party hostile to the establishment.

His late work Durnių laivas - politinių veidų ir šaržų galerija ( Ship of Fools - A Gallery of Political Minds and Figures , 2003) was an account of leading figures in Lithuanian political society and their alleged irresponsibility. Because of Petkevičius' fame, the book caused a sensation. Because of the allegation of false statements of fact and the damage to his reputation, he had to answer in court. The lawsuit of his former colleague from Sąjūdis times, Vytautas Landsbergis , was not decided until his death. Undeterred, Petkevičius published the follow-up volume Durniškės in 2006 (pun from durnas = stupid and Turniškės = exclusive villa settlement on the northeastern edge of Vilnius). Until his death he was a member of " Už teisingą Lietuvą " and the left-wing populist party Frontas, founded in 2008 .

Web links

• Full-length Durnių laivas (Lithuanian)
• On the death of Petkevičius (Lithuanian)
• About Petkevičius (Lithuanian)
• Biography information (Lithuanian)

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1. ↑ Petkevičius' bibliography