Vilius Brazenas: Lithuanian-American Freedom Fighter Extraordinaire

[FrankRep]

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Vilius Brazenas, RIP October 3, at the age of 97



Lithuanian-American author and John Birch Society speaker Vilius Brazenas passed away after a lifetime dedicated to supporting freedom and opposing and exposing Communist tyranny. By William F. Jasper


Vilius Brazenas: Lithuanian-American Freedom Fighter Extraordinaire (http://www.thenewamerican.com/index.php/world-mainmenu-26/europe-mainmenu-35/4823-vilius-brazenas-lithuanian-american-freedom-fighter-extraordinaire)


William F. Jasper | The New American (http://www.thenewamerican.com/)
08 October 2010


Few other human beings were eye witnesses to, and participants in, events of the 20th Century as was Vilius Brazenas. A survivor of wars, revolution, plague, famine, foreign military occupations and forced deportations, he became a tireless champion of freedom and unyielding foe of totalitarianism in all its forms. Mr. Brazenas passed away at the age of 97, in a hospital in Vilnius, Lithuania, on October 3rd following complications from a recent fall.

Although best known in his native Lithuania, where his books, essays, and newspaper columns were widely read, and where he was a frequent speaker at major political and education events, Mr. Brazenas also had many admirers throughout the world who came to know him through his speaking engagements sponsored by The John Birch Society (http://www.jbs.org/) and his writing and interviews in The New American (http://www.thenewamerican.com/) magazine.

Vilius Brazenas was one of the last remaining living beings actually to have seen Vladimir Lenin and other Bolshevik leaders in the flesh. In 1922, as a 9-year-old, Vilius and his fellow schoolmates were forced to march in the May Day celebration in Moscow's Red Square, passing before the dais where Lenin and the other Communist Party leaders were seated. Brazenas was born in 1913, to Lithuanian parents who were then living in Riga, Latvia, where his father had found work in a rubber factory. The Baltic States — Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia — were then under the control of czarist Russia. In 1915, with World War I raging, Russia moved many factories from the Baltics to Russia, and the Brazenas family, along with many others, went with the factories. When the Bolsheviks came to power in 1917, they were trapped in the civil war and turmoil that ensued. Brazenas contracted cholera in an epidemic that swept Russia and Ukraine. Vilius recovered from the disease but it took the lives of his father and two brothers. In 1922 he returned to Lithuania with his mother and sister. In June 1940 the Soviet Red Army invaded and occupied Lithuania, as Stalin and Hitler divided Europe according to the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. The following year Hitler turned on Stalin, leading to the Nazi occupation of Lithuania. With the retreat of German forces, the Soviets reestablished Communist control in 1944.

Fleeing the Communist occupation of his own country, Brazenas fled to the British-occupied zone of Germany in 1944, with his wife and young daughter, and then emigrated to the United States in 1949. He served for many years as chairman of the Lithuanian Freedom Forum in Florida and was also a vice president of the Supreme Committee for the Liberation of Lithuania, which was formed underground during the Nazi occupation and later became the primary organization in exile fighting for a Lithuania free from Soviet occupation. In 1960 he discovered The John Birch Society (founded in 1958) and immediately became a member. Over the next three decades he would become one of the Society's most active representatives, addressing audiences at hundreds of events sponsored by the American Opinion Speakers Bureau, as well as hundreds of radio and television appearances.

A keen political observer and a prolific writer, Brazenas was the author of six books and numerous essays and newspaper columns. Among his books, all of which were published in Lithuanian, are: Conspiracy Against Humanity (1975); The New World Order (2000); Under Twelve Flags: Between Tyranny and Freedom (2005); and Reminiscences for My Fellow Fighters (2009). When Vilius and his wife Eda made their first return trip to Lithuania, in 1994, they were surprised and pleased to learn that so many people there knew about his writings and also knew about The John Birch Society. They knew about the JBS because they had heard and read the Kremlin's attacks on the Society. As Brazenas put it: they had gotten the word "from the horse's mouth." They knew about his writings because some of his works, including his first political book, Conspiracy Against Humanity, had managed to find their way into Lithuania, despite the strict censorship and repression under the Soviet occupation.

Untiring Champion of Freedom

In the year 2000, his beloved wife, Eda, passed away. Lithuanian journalist and friend of the Brazenases, Dr. Ona Voveriene, wrote of Eda that she was: "his wife, the mother of his child, his most faithful friend, his lifelong partner and his greatest supporter in all that he did. He brought her remains home, to Lithuania, and, having buried her amongst the pines of a cemetery on one of the legendary hills of Vilnius, he committed himself to returning to Lithuania and continuing his life's work — the battle against Communism."

In June of that same year Vilius Brazenas was indeed very active in that battle, as a major participant in the International Congress for the Evaluation of the Crimes of Communism, which was held in Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania. Representatives of 25 nations from Europe, the Americas and Asia came to Vilnius to present documentation and eyewitness testimony on the horrendous record of Communism worldwide: murder, genocide, torture, religious persecution, imprisonment, forced labor, and indoctrination.

In 2003, in his 90th year, Vilius Brazenas returned to Vilnius to receive Lithuania's highest civilian honor. On May 18th, in a formal ceremony at the Presidential Palace, he was awarded the Order of the Vytis (Knight's) Cross. The presidential award was presented to him as an outstanding representative of the world Lithuanian community. Also acknowledged during the presentation was his role in resisting Nazi and Communist occupation of Lithuania, and "his lifelong work" on behalf of Lithuanian independence. He was nominated for the award by the Associations of Lithuanian Former Freedom Fighters, Former Political Prisoners, and Former Political Exiles, as well as Lithuania's Freedom League, the Genocide Museum and the Organizing Committee of the 2000 Anti-Communist Congress and Tribunal. He was also honored during the same time trip by Lithuania's major philatelic organization, which issued a commemorative stamp bearing his image, together with an inscription detailing some of his exploits.

In 2004, Brazenas moved back to Vilnius to live out the remainder of his days in as useful a manner as he possibly could. "God has given me strength and a long life for a reason," he told me, "and I believe he still has much work for me to do." And Vilius had no trouble finding that work. He was under constant pressure to speak to elementary schools, high schools, colleges, universities, civic and military organizations, scouting groups, and political events — and he gladly accepted. He felt especially drawn to young people and had an ability to connect with them. "Young people and kids would mob him for his autograph whenever he spoke," Brazenas's daughter, Lyvia Garsys, told me. I had witnessed this myself years earlier when Vilius and I had worked together as speakers at many of the John Birch Society's summer youth camps.

In addition to his constant speaking engagements, he continued to write for a number of Lithuanian periodicals, including Lietuvos Aidas (Lithuania's Echo) and Varpas, and frequently gave commentary and interviews for Lithuanian radio and television.

In June of 2007 I journeyed to Lithuania to attend with Vilius two historic conferences — in Vilnius and Kaunas — on the crimes of Communism, and specifically focused on the Soviet occupation of Lithuania and the deportations of the Baltic peoples.

During the Soviet occupation, more than 275,000 Lithuanians, including tens of thousands of women and children, were sent to concentration camps and/or deported to Russia, usually Siberia. Most did not survive the ordeal, but thousands did and returned to Lithuania — years, and in some cases, decades, later — to tell of their harrowing experiences.

A Hero Among Heroes

I was privileged to meet many of those survivors. Among the most memorable are:



* Monsignor Alfonsas Svarinskas, then 82, a Catholic priest who had survived three brutal Soviet prison sentences: 1946-1956, 1958-1964, and 1983-1988. Father Svarinskas, one of Lithuania's most famous and beloved patriots, is renowned for his courage and indomitable spirit. He not only provided the Mass and sacraments to his fellow prisoners, but also inspired them with his leadership and comforted them with his counsel.

* Margevičienė Vincė Vaidevutė, a member of Lithuania's parliament, who was born in 1949, on a train taking her family to Siberia. Her father, a recipient of the Vytis Cross, died in the Siberian camps. In 1960, she returned to Lithuania with her mother. She graduated from Vilnius State University and became a biochemist.

* Edvardas Burokas, a survivor of the Vorkuta coal mining camp and one of the most notorious prison camps of the Gulag. Situated north of the Arctic Circle, many of Vorkuta's inmates died from exposure to the cold, as well as starvation and exhaustion from working in the mines. Many of those who didn't succumb to the harsh elements died from the brutal treatment by the guards, or the criminals whom the guards encouraged to prey upon their fellow prisoners. Mr. Barokus took me on a personal tour of the former KGB headquarters in Vilnius, now a museum, and showed me the cells where he was tortured.

* Kentra Albinas was one of the legendary Brothers of the Forest, the guerilla fighters who heroically battled the Soviet occupation forces for the better part of a decade. Only 14 years old when he went to the forest as a partisan, he was hunted by the NKVD and endured incredible privations: hunger, freezing cold, sickness. Most of his Forest Brothers were killed by the Communists.


All of those mentioned above revered Vilius Brazenas and were especially grateful that through all the years of their ordeals he had faithfully championed their cause and the cause of a free and independent Lithuania. He had not allowed them to be forgotten. Vilius humbly discounted his own efforts in comparison to the sufferings endured by countrymen who were trapped under the Soviet iron heel. But they did not see it that way

"It meant so much to us to know that Brazenas and others like him were telling our story to the world," Forest Brother Kentra Albinas told me. "He is a true hero and his writings and activities in the West gave us great encouragement."

On October 6, Vilius Brazenas was buried beside his wife Eda, following a Requiem Mass celebrated by his dear friend and compatriot, Monsignor Alfonsas Svarinskas, at the Church of Saints Peter & Paul in Vilnius. A military honor guard led the procession and gave a three-gun salute at his graveside memorial, which was attended by more than 100 friends and dignitaries.

Like so many others, I was honored and blessed to have known this remarkable man and to have called him friend. He will be dearly missed, for there are far too few like him. However, he has left a bit of himself behind in each of us whom he has inspired by the example of an honorable life heroically lived and unfailing devotion to God, family, and country.


Related articles:

Frontline Freedom Fighter (http://www.thenewamerican.com/index.php/culture/biography/4824-vilius-brazenas-frontline-freedom-fighter) (An interview with Vilius Brazenas by William F. Jasper in the August 14, 2000 issue of The New American)

The "New European Soviet" (http://www.thenewamerican.com/index.php/world-mainmenu-26/europe-mainmenu-35/4826-the-qnew-european-sovietq) (An article by Vilius Brazenas published in the September 6, 2004 issue of The New American)


SOURCE:
http://www.thenewamerican.com/index.php/world-mainmenu-26/europe-mainmenu-35/4823-vilius-brazenas-lithuanian-american-freedom-fighter-extraordinaire

[FrankRep]

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Vilius Brazenas



Lithuanian-American Vilius Brazenas was interviewed by William F. Jasper for The New American concerning the findings of an international tribunal on the crimes of communism held in Vilnius. By William F. Jasper


Vilius Brazenas: Frontline Freedom Fighter (http://www.thenewamerican.com/index.php/culture/biography/4824-vilius-brazenas-frontline-freedom-fighter)


William F. Jasper | The New American (http://www.thenewamerican.com/)
August 14, 2000




Vilius Brazenas, a native Lithuanian, was on the frontlines of the freedom fight for the span of several generations and resisted both Nazi and Communist oppression of his homeland. This Interview of Brazenas by William F. Jasper originally appeared in The New American on August 14, 2000. It is being reprinted in tribute to his recent passing on October 3, at the age of 97.


Vilius Brazenas has been an eyewitness to and a participant in some of the most momentous struggles of the 20th century. Having lived through World War I, the Bolshevik Revolution, and the occupation and devastation of his native Lithuania by both Communist and Nazi aggressors, he has been a passionate champion of freedom for seven decades. Mr. Brazenas, who emigrated to the United States in 1949, studied engineering and is a journalist and author of three books published in Lithuanian. He served for many years as chairman of the Lithuanian Freedom Forum in Florida and was also a vice president of the Supreme Committee for the Liberation of Lithuania, which was formed underground during the Nazi occupation and later became the primary organization in exile fighting for a free Lithuania. He has appeared on hundreds of radio and television programs, and for many years was a speaker for the John Birch Society.

Q. You recently returned from a visit to Lithuania, where an important and historic event took place. Tell us about it.



A. I arrived in Lithuania on June 7th, just prior to the convening of the International Congress on the Evaluation of Crimes of Communism on June 12th-14th, in the Great Hall of Parliament in Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania. The Congress was organized by groups representing survivors of the Soviet Gulag, resistance organizations, and academics. It brought together delegates from 22 nations, including Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, the Czech Republic, Russia, Belarus, Bulgaria, Poland, Germany, Ukraine, Croatia, Romania, and the United States. This was an important event because, after more than a decade since the supposed collapse of Communism, there has still been no justice for the tens of millions of victims who perished under the bloody heel of Communism, and for the many tens of millions of victims who survived but have suffered terribly. As Dr. Ariel Cohen of the United States pointed out in his testimony, only two years after World War II, Nazism was officially denounced, the top Nazi leadership was tried, convicted, and then executed, and Nazis were tracked down all over the world. They still are being hunted more than half a century later. Meanwhile, throughout the former Soviet Union and the former Captive Nations of Central and Eastern Europe, the same bloody-handed Communist officials who oppressed and tortured millions of people are still holding political office, only now they have been transformed into "reformers" and "nationalists," or they have become the new elite business class, reaping huge profits with their Western corporate partners.

The International Congress on the Evaluation of Crimes of Communism voted to establish a Tribunal, composed of three justices, for now, but more could be added later. The Tribunal began hearing the testimony of witnesses and victims, and that is continuing now.

Q. Who were some of the witnesses?


A. From the United States, in addition to Dr. Cohen, previously mentioned, testimony was heard from Mr. Herbert Romerstein, a former staff member of the House Committee on Internal Security and the United States Information Agency, and a specialist on the Soviet KGB, as well as from Mr. Avo Piirisild and Ms. Tatiana Yankelevich. They heard also from Senator C.T. Dumitrescu of Romania, Professor Radim Harecki of the Belarus Academy of Sciences, Mr. Agim Musta of Albania, and Archbishop Sigitas Tamkevicius of Lithuania, to name just a few. Also, there was a witness whom some of your readers may remember: Monsignor Alfonsas Svarinskas, a Catholic priest who was released in 1988 after having heroically spent more than one third of his life in the prisons of the Soviet Union. He was interviewed by The New American in July 1989, during his tour of the United States.

Q. There have been no reports, to my knowledge, of this Congress and Tribunal in the U.S. media.


A. Yes, and that is unfortunate, but not surprising. Like millions of Lithuanians and other Europeans, I have lived under both Nazi and Communist oppression. The Nazis, remember, were national socialists, the National Socialist Workers Party; the Communists are international socialists. They are both driven by similar socialist, godless ideologies and have produced murderous, totalitarian regimes that committed innumerable crimes. The perpetrators of these crimes must be brought to justice. Western powers since World War II have carried out extensive efforts to prosecute Nazi criminals, going sometimes to extreme lengths and accepting bogus evidence provided by the Soviet KGB. But they have not shown any similar fervor toward prosecuting the Communist criminals.

Likewise, the Western media and Hollywood have relentlessly reminded us of the evils of Nazism; they have produced hundreds of films, television dramas, and documentaries on the Nazi atrocities, but almost none on the even greater crimes and atrocities of Communism. In fact, Hollywood and the Western media have, more frequently than not, covered up for, apologized for, romanticized, and glorified Communist tyrants. Everyone now knows that Hitler and the Nazis were evil, but only a very small percentage of Americans knows anything specific about the terrible crimes and genocide of Stalin, Mao, Ho Chi Minh, Fidel Castro, etc.

Q. Did the new president of Lithuania, Valdas Adamkus, attend the Congress?


A. No, and his absence was very conspicuous and telling. Mr. Adamkus, a former bigwig in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, went to Lithuania, and with the help of "liberal" Lithuanian groups in the U.S., and with the blessings of the U.S. Establishment, captured the Presidency. You might recall that right after Lithuania declared its independence, Mr. Vytautus Landsbergis, as chairman of the Parliament, became president. But he went to New York and spoke to the CFR [Council on Foreign Relations] and made it clear that he was for genuine independence for Lithuania, so that sealed his fate, in my opinion. In contrast, according to a news item in a Lithuanian-language U.S. newspaper, Mr. Adamkus had risen high within the EPA because he had been taken under wing by Elliott Richardson, a major CFR internationalist.

In September 1998, Daniel P. Fata, a research associate with the CFR, wrote an article for the Washington Times entitled "Hope in the Baltics," which has a very important bearing on all of this. Mr. Fata said that the main concern of Americans regarding the Baltics is the crimes against Jews during World War II. He noted that the Baltic presidents had agreed with the governments of France, Israel, and the U.S. to look at crimes from 1941 to the end of the Cold War. Now, the choice of this time period was very deliberately made to exclude the Communist atrocities that began with the Soviet occupation of 1940. On August 23, 1939 the two dictators of Europe, Hitler and Stalin, made a secret agreement, the Molotov-Ribbentrop accord, in which they divided up Eastern Europe. On June 15, 1940, the three free Baltic Republics were brutally occupied by the Soviet Army.

Q. The Soviets deported huge numbers of the Baltic peoples to the Soviet Union during that time, didn't they?


A. Lithuania, counting those who fled from the Soviets in 1944, lost one-third of its population, about 800,000 people. Most of them went to slave labor camps and never came back. They were worked to death, starved, and frozen to death. My wife's grandmother, for instance, who was in her '70s, was sent to be a lumberjack, doing heavy labor cutting and hauling wood in the snow. It was a death sentence, of course. While the native Baltic peoples were being systematically removed, Russians were being moved in to take their places. After World War II, the Baltics and Eastern and Central Europe were betrayed by the West and turned over to Stalin. During the late 1940s, the mass deportations started again, in response to the 10-year war of resistance fought by Lithuanian freedom fighters. Farmers were deported so that they could not aid the guerrillas. Many people were deported simply because their strong religious faith was seen as a threat to the Communist plan for the Baltics. Again, more Russians were brought in to replace the deportees. As a result, about 9 percent of Lithuania's population is Russian. Latvia and Estonia are far worse in that respect, being about 50 percent Russian. All during the Cold War and Soviet occupation, the Baltic states were a favorite retirement place for Red Army officers and members of the nomenklatura.

However, the CFR elite, which has a predominant influence in American political and media circles, has intentionally focused exclusively on the Nazi villains and ignored - and actually covered up - Communist villainy. You don't have to take my word for it; the CFR admits this in its own journal, Foreign Affairs. I'm referring specifically to an article entitled "The Fall and Rise of the Communists: Guess Who's Running Central Europe?" by Anne Applebaum in the November/December 1994 issue of Foreign Affairs. Ms. Applebaum noted that in 1993 and 1994 an amazing thing had happened throughout Central Europe: Former Communists - calling themselves Social Democrats, Nationalists, and reformers - were swept to power in parliamentary and presidential elections. Genuine nationalists and anti-Communists were defeated. Why was this? Ms. Applebaum explained:



Western, particularly American, diplomats in Central Europe went out of their way to encourage politicians they perceived as antinationalist and to discourage "decommunization" programs, which were often favored by politicians whom they perceived as nationalist. This was the case across the former Soviet bloc, even though decommunization projects, sometimes called "lustration," usually did little more than forbid former high-ranking communist party officials from holding office under the new regime.... Right-wing and conservative politicians in Central Europe failed to receive the official approval, invitations, and fellowships given their left and center-left counterparts.


"In Central Europe," Applebaum stated, "the greatest danger to democracy and stability does not - and never did - come from the new or old nationalist right. The danger comes from the old left, from the remnants of the communist parties, which remain better organized and better funded than any new right-wing party could ever be. Former communist parties hold political and economic monopolies that will take years to loosen; until they do, politics will not become 'normal' in any Western sense in Central Europe or elsewhere in the former Warsaw Pact." She further points out that a "Polish economist who traced the careers of several hundred top nomenklatura from 1988 to 1993 found that over half of them turned up as top executives in the private sector. Those numbers were even higher in Hungary and higher still in Russia."

This, of course, is not news to many of your readers, since The New York Times has chronicled these treacherous policies in detail over the past decade, but most Americans are not aware of this. Applebaum says that these policies were "a mistake." I don't believe they were a mistake, any more than the betrayal at Yalta was "a mistake" - they were, and are, policies of deliberate betrayal. But even if you were to grant Applebaum's "mistake" thesis back in 1994, how can you accept the same excuse for the continuation of those same policies by the CFR policy elite ever since?

Q. That would include people like billionaire George Soros.


A. Yes. Soros, a CFR member, has poured millions of dollars into the Soviet-bloc countries, always supporting the "former" Communists. The Washington Post, New York Times, and other CFR organs like to praise these efforts and invariably refer to the Soros-backed people as "reformers," but never point out their Communist backgrounds.

Q. One of the frequent ploys used to thwart and discredit efforts by those seeking justice for the crimes of Communism is to claim that they are anti-Semites or neo-Nazis.


A. That is an old Communist tactic; the Communists and their dupes and allies have always tried to keep the world's attention focused on the crimes of Hitler, so that they could continue their own criminal operations unhindered. And they have been very successful at it. I have always said that there are good and bad in every group and every race and nationality. There were Lithuanians who helped the Nazis, just as there were Lithuanians who helped the Communists. There were Lithuanian anti-Semites, just as there are racists and anti-Semites in many other European countries. However, they have always constituted a small minority, just as they do here in the United States. It is a terrible smear of the Lithuanian, Latvian, Polish, Czech, Hungarian, and other people - who suffered terribly under Hitler — to dismiss their concerns with Communism as "anti-Semitism." Many of these people risked their lives to assist Jews during the Nazi occupation. Lithuania is primarily a Catholic country, and the Communists tried very hard to destroy the people's religious faith, but they failed. There, as elsewhere, the Communists have been in the forefront of promoting anti-Semitism because they know it effectively neutralizes and discredits anti-Communist efforts, and diverts attention from Communist crimes and oppression.

But the Nazis weren't the only ones to persecute Jews; it should be remembered that Jews were also victims under the Soviet occupation. During 1940, the Soviets were deporting Jews from Lithuania too, and at a higher rate (for their percentage of the population) than those who were not Jewish.

Q. Isn't there a danger that the international Tribunal you are supporting could be exploited or hijacked to support things like the UN's proposed International Criminal Court (ICC) and other juridical monstrosities that present a real threat to national sovereignty?


A. That is possible, but not likely. For one thing, the UN internationalists have never been interested in prosecuting Communists. For another, the Tribunal, unlike the ICC and the UN's so-called tribunals in Yugoslavia and Rwanda, claims no judicial authority. It seeks to operate in the court of public opinion. It is an attempt to educate, to bring to the surface the facts, the witnesses, the truth, that have been buried. This will bring about understanding, which, in turn, can generate the will to see that justice is served, not through some UN apparatus, but through the laws and the legal systems of sovereign nations. Lithuania is perfectly competent to prosecute Communist criminals, as is Germany, Ukraine, Latvia, Poland, etc. — without the UN or the U.S. State Department.

Q. You spent part of your childhood in Russia during the Bolshevik Revolution. How did that come about?


A. I was born in Riga, Latvia, in 1913, at a time when the Baltic States — Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia — were under the control of Czarist Russia. My parents were Lithuanian, but my family had moved to Latvia, where my father had found employment in a rubber factory. In 1915, with World War I raging, Russia moved many factories from the Baltics to Russia, and my family, like many others, went with the factories. After the Bolsheviks came to power, in 1917, we tried to return to Lithuania, but that was a very difficult thing to do, because of the revolution, war, famine, and turmoil. My father died in 1919, and I, along with my mother and sister were trapped in Moscow. On May 1, 1922, at age nine, I and my school classmates were forced to march in the big Communist celebration in Red Square for V.I. Lenin. In June of 1922, my family finally returned to Lithuania.

Q. You have lived a long time and have seen and experienced incredible brutality and evil. Are you pessimistic or optimistic as you look at the efforts of the Tribunal underway in Lithuania and the other efforts with which you are involved?


A. As a Christian, my Faith does not allow me to be pessimistic; in the end, I know that God's justice and truth will prevail. And I know that He expects us to be faithful, and never to give up. In addition, I am optimistic because I see a level of understanding — particularly concerning the plans for the new world order, for world government, for "convergence" of East and West - that didn't exist a generation ago. People are awaking to this danger. It is true that there is still insufficient understanding and far too much confusion, but we now have the means to reach far more people with the truth than ever before - with books, magazines, articles, pamphlets, radio, video, the Internet. What you have done and are doing in this respect with The New American and the other educational efforts of The John Birch Society are wonderful examples of reasons to be optimistic. I've been in the freedom fight a fairly long time, but I'm not about to give up.


Related article:

The "New European Soviet" (http://www.thenewamerican.com/index.php/world-mainmenu-26/europe-mainmenu-35/4826-the-qnew-european-sovietq)
An article by Vilius Brazenas published in the September 6, 2004 issue of The New American


SOURCE:
http://www.thenewamerican.com/index.php/culture/biography/4824-vilius-brazenas-frontline-freedom-fighter

[FrankRep]

Another Interview - Jan 13, 2003:


Lifelong foe of tyranny: Vilius Brazenas has spent a lifetime battling on behalf of freedom. Through writing and speaking, he has opposed tyranny in America and in his native Lithuania. (http://www.thefreelibrary.com/_/print/PrintArticle.aspx?id=96501108)


John F. McManus | The New American (http://www.thenewamerican.com/)
Jan 13, 2003


In a few months, Vilius Brazenas will celebrate his 90th birthday. Throughout his many years, he has spent considerable energy working to achieve freedom for his native Lithuania and preserve it in the United States. Beginning in 1994, he began journeying to Lithuania with his beloved wife and helpmate, Eda, who passed away in 2000. His main goals are to help the people of Lithuania understand recent world developments, aid patriots in that nation in their fight for the soul of a country ravaged by 50 years of Communist rule, and contribute to the struggle to keep Lithuania independent.

THE NEW AMERICAN: Before we ask you about Lithuania today, tell us a bit about yourself You have lived through an amazing period of history


Vilius Brazenas: My parents were Lithuanians, but they were living in neighboring Latvia when I was born in 1913. My father had taken the family there to find work. When World War I began, Czarist Russia controlled the Baltic nations [Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia]. When German forces threatened the region, the Czarist government relocated entire factories to Russia. In 1915, my family went with the factory to Moscow.

When the Bolsheviks came to power in 1917, my parents tried to return to Lithuania but were trapped. Then my father died in 1919. By 1922, at age nine, all of the children in my first grade class were forced to march in a Communist May Day parade in front of Lenin himself. But later that year, my mother, my one surviving sister, and I were finally able to get back to Lithuania.

TNA: Were you in Lithuania all during World War II?


Brazenas: Almost all. We lived under the Communists for one year, then under the Nazis for three. But in 1944, as the Red Army was reinvading and in the face of tanks, I retreated toward the West and finally found my wife and daughter [who had preceded him]. In 1949, we were able to get to America. I had studied engineering and, once in this great country, I was able to make a decent living. With great joy, I became a citizen in 1955. But when I joined The John Birch Society in 1960, I felt I had become a much better American.

TNA: You have always spent a great amount of effort promoting freedom, opposing Communism, and trying to awaken fellow Americans. What exactly have you done over these years?


Brazenas: I have always been actively alerting people to the threat of totalitarianism--of both the Nazi variety and the Communist form of tyranny. Having lived under both, I can speak with authority about the horrors that are inevitably associated with total government. Eventually, I became the vice president for Communications of the Supreme Committee for the Liberation of Lithuania, a group formed by the underground resistance during the Nazi occupation. I wrote articles for various Lithuanian-language newspapers in the West, served as editor and reporter for an independent conservative newspaper in Florida, toured the nation speaking for The John Birch Society, and served as an instructor at many of the Society's summer camps for teenagers [now sponsored by Robert Welch University]. I have also appeared as a guest on hundreds of radio and television programs.

Then, I have written two books on geopolitics in the Lithuanian language that have been distributed throughout that country and elsewhere. One of these addresses the conspiracy above Communism and the other warns about the "new world order." And while in Lithuania during my most recent lengthy stays, I have written numerous articles for the local press, given many speeches, and attended political programs where I was able to inform the people. In everything I do, I convey the information I obtain from The John Birch Society.

TNA: What kind of reaction have you received?


Brazenas: Generally, the people like what I have to say because I deal in facts and have the documentation to back them up. But when my messages reach some of the politicians and government workers, their reactions remind me of the time when Russian Social Democrats became Bolshevik Communists. Now that the Bolsheviks aren't formally in power there, the wheel of history seems to be turning backwards because many of those who were Communists are now calling themselves Social Democrats. Many of them cannot be trusted and, not surprisingly, they don't like what I offer.

TNA: You say "many" but not "all." What do you mean?


Brazenas: I mean that some of the former Communists in Lithuania have truly become anti-Communists and are joining in the struggle to keep Lithuania independent. During the time that the Soviet Union occupied the country, some of these people worked in the government or joined the Communist Party simply because it was the only way they could get an education or a job. They were never true supporters of the tyrants and are happy the tyranny has collapsed. But many others among the Social Democrats of today--in Lithuania and elsewhere--should still be considered opportunistic Communists at heart.

TNA: Lithuania has just been invited to join NATO. Do the people understand the connection between NATO and the United Nations and that this is not really a good development?


Brazenas: The Lithuanian people are much more concerned about Russia coming back than they are about NATO's connections to the United Nations. You have to understand that, after only one year of Russian Communist occupation in 1940, many Lithuanians were almost relieved to have the Germans invade-as long as they pushed the Communists out. But the Communists came back in 1944 and occupied Lithuania for almost 50 years. Thus for Lithuanians today, the clear and present danger to their freedom and independence is the possibility that the Russians will return. This central fear overrides all other concerns including even globalism, which is seen as a distant problem. Moscow-loving Communists are opposed to Lithuanian membership in NATO and are working to sabotage efforts in that direction.

TNA: Are fears that the Russians will return realistic? If so, on what are they based?


Brazenas: Early in December 2002, Russian President Putin reinstated the use of the Red Star as the symbol of the Russian Army. A symbol expresses how a people feel about themselves. To Russians, the Red Army may be a source of pride, but to Lithuanians, Latvians, and Estonians the Red Army means only one thing--conquerors! Furthermore, the Russian Duma [parliament] has expressed a desire to reverse Russia's recognition of independence for the Baltic countries.

Then there is the Russian pressure on Lithuania regarding "transit rights" through Lithuania to Kaliningrad, the port city in what used to be known as East Prussia. Russia has negotiated with the European Union to have "visa-free access" for themselves through Lithuania to this port. This means that both Russia and the EU are ignoring Lithuanian sovereignty. And Russian generals in Kaliningrad, which is not only a port but also a huge military district, have repeatedly voiced threats about how easy it would be to roll through Lithuania in several hours if Lithuania refuses to grant them whatever they want. The people I meet with in Lithuania are also acutely aware of Vladimir Putin's background as a high official in the former KGB. They don't trust him to be a friend.

On the other hand, Lithuanian patriots greatly admire Brigadier General Jonas Kronkaitis, the chief of Lithuania's military, for the excellent job he has done developing a national defense system. A Lithuanian-American, he is a retired colonel from the U.S. Army Special Forces who has transformed the military into a Westernized force. Leftover Reds are trying to remove him from this post. Second only to Professor Vytautas Landsbergis, who led the nation toward regaining independence, he is the most admired man among Lithuanian patriots. These two, of course, are at the top of the former Communists' "most disliked" list.

TNA: What is the link between Lithuania and Kalinin grad?


Brazenas: The link is so strong that the area has actually been known to Lithuanians as "Lithuania Minor." This relationship developed as far back as the 13th century because the original Prussians were ethnic relatives of the Lithuanian people. Lithuanians in Prussia were instrumental in maintaining Lithuanian national identity and language during the 19th-century Czarist occupation of Lithuania when even the language was suppressed. Books and newspapers in the Lithuanian language were smuggled into Lithuania proper, at great risk, by daring patriots from Kaliningrad. The area was even known as Karaliauchius, the Lithuanian rendering of Koenigsberg, and the name by which the entire district was once known.

TNA: Are there many Lithuanians still in Kalinin grad?


Brazenas: Not many remain. The area today is virtually an immense military base created after a mass genocide of its former inhabitants, an "ethnic cleansing" on a massive scale. Lithuanians and others expected that the disintegration of the Soviet Union would lead to Kaliningrad becoming neutral territory. But the West permitted Russia to remain in control, allowing the Russians to maintain it as a huge military center and a bridge into the rest of Europe.

TNA: What attitude do Lithuanians have about America?


Brazenas: In general, they admire America although some are beginning to realize that Western diplomats are forcing globalism on the world. I tell the people that "globalization," the free exchange of people and goods from country to country, is a good thing. But I add that "globalism," the creation of a one-world government that will mean tyranny, is completely different and should be combated. It is certainly my hope that the fear of Russia will not lead Lithuanians to give up their hard-won independence to a world government. President Bush visited Lithuania recently. He was received with great joy, which demonstrated the friendship and trust the Lithuanians have for America. Because of the overriding concern for their own nation's security, they don't worry about the globalists who dominate the Bush administration.

TNA: Are other globalists attempting to influence the Lithuanian people?


Brazenas: Several months ago, a former German Finance Minister, who is a big shot in the German news media, came to Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania. He spoke at what appeared to be an "invitation-only" event at the German Embassy. But I was invited to "tag along" by the editor of one of the newspapers that regularly publishes my columns. His message stressed the need for global control of many human activities even while he insisted that this would not mean world government. I challenged him, and he admitted that he is a member of the Trilateral Commission.

TNA: How do Lithuanian political leaders and ordinary citizens react to your books and articles?


Brazenas: The president of Lithuania is a Lithuanian-American named Valdas Adamkus who is a former official of the U.S. Environmental Agency. Our paths crossed during my most recent stay in Lithuania [March-November 2002]. He acknowledged that I was "still hitting hard" in my articles, which apparently means he reads them in spite of my criticisms of him during his first election campaign. But, generally, the message I am spreading is hard for most to grasp, just as it is hard for many here in the United States to grasp it.

Nevertheless, I have been an honored guest at various convocations honoring former freedom fighters, former political prisoners, and other victims of Communism. I am delighted when these people treat me as one of their own. It is these Lithuanians who seem best able to understand what I am telling them. Many others who hear me speak or read my articles in any of the eight newspapers that publish them are becoming aware of both the external threat of world government and the internal threat posed by former Communists in the government. Regarding awareness of this internal threat, I am not alone. I have been working closely with many fine patriotic Lithuanian journalists and political activists.

TNA: What are your particular projects right now?


Brazenas: At present, I am helping to publicize the work of the Communist Crimes Research Support Foundation based in Vilnius [the capital]. Organized by Lithuanian survivors and victims of Communist terror, this group sponsored a conference in 2000 that heard the testimony of individuals from 15 different nations about the horrors inflicted on humanity by the Communists. They also conducted a tribunal focusing on Communist War Crimes, something that has not been undertaken elsewhere. They conducted hearings, took witness statements, and announced a judgment in September 2000. Their work is a valuable resource for all who believe that Communist crimes should never be swept under a rug.

TNA: Will you return to Lithuania?


Brazenas: Yes, I'm leaving again in January 2003. I have dual citizenship, and I have an apartment in Vilnius. My wife, my mother, and my grandparents are buried there. It's where I feel I can do the most good. Lithuania is at a crossroad, and I want to do what I can to help the people understand--and use--their freedom.

I am tremendously grateful to The John Birch Society for providing me with knowledge of what is really happening throughout the world. It is this kind of "ammunition" I can use to contribute to the development of a free society in my native land. I have made many friends for the Society and THE NEW AMERICAN in Lithuania. From my writings, they know of the JBS contribution in the fight against the Soviet slave empire. Decent people everywhere are searching for the truth, and, with God's help, I will be doing my part in bringing it to that corner of the world.


SOURCE:
http://www.thefreelibrary.com/_/print/PrintArticle.aspx?id=96501108

[Meatwasp]

Funny how we never heard about the atrocities of the Bolsheviks . Always the Nazis.
They were just as evil.

[FrankRep]

Funny how we never heard about the atrocities of the Bolsheviks . Always the Nazis.
They were just as evil.


Walter Duranty’s Lethal Lies (http://www.thenewamerican.com/index.php/history/european/541)


Using terror and famine, Josef Stalin murdered millions in the Ukraine. Walter Duranty, the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, and the New York Times covered up the massacre.


Ukrainian Genocide: NY Times Still Covering Up (http://www.thenewamerican.com/world-mainmenu-26/europe-mainmenu-35/540)

William F. Jasper | The New American (http://www.thenewamerican.com/)
24 November 2008


The Soviet Story - Mass Starvation of Ukrainians
YouTube - The Soviet Story - Mass Starvation of Ukrainians (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2KRa6uLDN0)