Resisting the Soviets: Spreading Free Speech

Life under the Iron Curtain of the Soviet Union was closely and strictly controlled. There could be only one correct and acceptable word (and thought) – created by the mouthpieces of Soviet ideology and approved by the Soviet censorship and repressive apparatus. However, even during the greatest years of Soviet terror, when freer speech or even being near those who spoke in this way ended in repression, a freer thought, text or sound found its way. For example, in the form of underground publications. Here is the underground publication of Catholic content “Chronicle of the Lithuanian Catholic Church” published and distributed in Lithuania from 1972 to 1989. The chronicle was printed on a typewriter (about 20 copies), later distributed to trusted people and in various ways (typewriters, photocopiers or spirit rotaprints) reproduced and distributed by passing it from hand to hand. The publication published facts about Soviet anti-church policy. 14 people were arrested and convicted for its reproduction and distribution, but this did not stop the publication from continuing. Under the conditions of occupation, 81 issues of the chronicle were published.

Lithuanian radio programs also reached occupied Lithuania from behind the curtain. One of the first was Vatican Radio. The station's Lithuanian programs were broadcast in 1940–1941, and broadcasts resumed in 1946. The programs announced information prohibited by the USSR, read the "Chronicle of the Lithuanian Catholic Church", and the foreign Lithuanian press. The programs of the US radio station "Voice of America" began to be broadcast in Lithuanian in 1951. The programs informed about the Lithuanian resistance and human rights violations in the USSR, the political and cultural activities of Lithuanian emigrants, and encouraged the preservation of religious and national values. In 1951, Vatican Radio, "Voice of America" and BBC programs were broadcast on 102 waves in various languages, including 26 frequencies in Lithuanian. All this became a major challenge for the Soviet leadership and their structures. Attempts were made to use technical means to suppress or disrupt unwanted radio broadcasts. However, they were not entirely effective either. In addition to technical means, repression was also resorted to. Listening to relevant radio broadcasts was threatened with imprisonment, and those who fell into the clutches of Soviet security were often accused of listening to foreign radio broadcasts as one of their alleged crimes.

Initially, foreign radio transmission suppression devices were only in Vilnius and Kaunas. In other regions of Lithuania, these broadcasts could still be listened to for some time without technical interference. In the spring of 1951, there were 13 suppression devices in Vilnius, and 3 in Kaunas. These devices were not enough, especially during mass broadcasts. In 1951, the Soviet Lithuanian leadership demanded that the USSR institutions strengthen suppression devices in Vilnius and accelerate their construction in other parts of Lithuania. The local leadership was desperate to suppress these radio waves. By the end of the year, 20 radio transmitters had already been used for suppression in Vilnius, of which 18 belonged to the Ministry of Communications, 1 to the Civil Air Force, and 1 to the Ministry of the Fish Industry. It was possible to suppress 20 frequencies at a time. In Kaunas, 3 out of 8 (there were so many in total at that time) transmitters were also used for broadcasting local radio programs, so they could only be used to suppress broadcasts of foreign radio stations “when free from this work”. 11 transmitters from other cities of the USSR also helped to suppress broadcasts in Lithuania. However, due to the shortcomings of radio transmitters, 30 radio frequencies broadcasting programs in various languages of the USSR peoples (Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian, Latvian, Estonian) remained unsuppressed in Vilnius and Kaunas. At that time, 2,815 radio receivers were registered in Klaipėda, and 2,500 in the districts of the region, through which their owners could freely listen to “reactionary propaganda”.

In 1953, special facilities for suppressing radio broadcasts were already in operation in Vilnius, Kaunas, Klaipėda and Šiauliai. For example, in 1954, 15 transmitters were used for suppression at facility No. 60 in Šiauliai. The construction of the facility itself cost 150,000, and the technical equipment – another 247,000 rubles. The facility in Klaipėda cost a similar amount. These were large funds, but the Soviets did not spare even such in their desire to control people's minds. However, if in the largest Lithuanian cities the occupiers' unwanted radio broadcasts were already successfully blocked, it was much more difficult in rural areas.

Soviet efforts to suppress broadcasts oscillated, depending on the whims and needs of the Soviet leadership. Suppression could be interrupted during visits by Soviet leaders to the West and intensified again after events in Hungary (1956), Czechoslovakia (1968), and Poland (1980). However, suppression continued until 1989.

During the Soviet era, 5 radio jamming stations were built in Lithuania. In addition to the aforementioned ones in Vilnius, Kaunas, Klaipėda and Šiauliai (all built in 1949–1952), the last one was built near Panevėžys around 1985–1986. In Vilnius, the station was located at Algirdo St. 27, its control point at Vytauto St. 20; in Kaunas, at Vaižganto St. 11 and the point at the Central Post Office on Laisvės Avenue; in Klaipėda, the transmitters operated in the old Jewish cemetery, and in Panevėžys, in Pažagieniai.

In the 1980s, over 3,000 transmitters with a power of 600,000 kilowatts were used to jam broadcasts throughout the USSR. A huge network was created, but it was never possible to jam all broadcasts.